Travelling through space and time to save the world from rogue dinosaurs or Russian love machines, Jonathan Stevenson and Luke Balmer Kemp’s The Disconauts is a delightfully daft and frequently hilarious comic strip adventure that is packed full of puns, flares and funky moves!

Publisher: Jonathan Stevenson
Writer: Jonathan Stevenson
Artist: Luke Balmer Kemp
Price: Coming to Kickstarter on June 1st

The Disconauts is one of those concepts which only really works in comics, it’s so utterly ridiculous but also so gloriously fun. A group of misfit hero’s who all look like they have stepped off Funkadelic’s spaceship, travel around doing good, while being guided by a funky master who is like a hybrid of Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury meets Shaft, with a bit of Charlie from Charlie’s Angels and Ubacorn from the Go-Jetters thrown in for good measure.

After capturing a rogue dinosaur, the team are sent to Russia to save the queen from her new Russian lover, Rasputin. It’s essentially an excuse for a lot of ra-ra-rasputin disco jokes, and that kind of silly musical based humour is part the books running theme. (See also having the prince of Russia, as Prince!). One of the groups main running jokes sees them engage in pun related explanations of their missions and while it’s far from high brow it made us laugh every time.

The Disconauts has that kind of daft energy and humour that we love in classic British comics and reminded us a bit of the cartoons we grew up on like Bananaman or Superted, but with a disco edge. It has that gentle, all-ages humour that isn’t patronising or condescending and is just plain funny. Although this does means the characters are fairly 2 dimensional, (with only tech guy Whizz and cackling super villain Le Freak getting much depth) it doesn’t really matter as the fun and enjoyment is in the period details and the jokes.

Visually it’s a great too, with Balmer Kemp having a style which reminded us a bit of John Layman’s Chew but with a hint of classic British comic artists like Lew Stringer or David Leach thrown in for good measure as well. The detail and styling is spot on and the retro ads within the pages and muted colouring helps to give it a  retro vibe, but without it losing it’s contemporary finish.

The Disconauts is as funky as a George Clinton bass line and packed full of disco-tastic delights! This is a real smash hit of a comic and one that is packed full of catchy hooks and memorable moments. This is definitely not going to be a one hit wonder, but rather a book which will really make you get your groove on!