Review by Karl Verhoven

Samuel L. Jackson is a relative rarity among celebrities turning out their own graphic novels, in that it’s a matter of record that he’s also a comic reader. On Cold Space he collaborates with Eric Calderon, better known as a producer, the two having worked together on the animated series Afro Samurai. The presence of two movie business people, though, and the way they approach the script makes it read as if adapting a movie that’s not yet been made and intended as part of the package to raise the finance.

Mulberry is an outlaw with a price on his head, who’s managed to outwit everyone sent after him. Given the swagger Mulberry has, it’s no great stretch to imagine him Jackson portraying him on screen, and the dialogue plays to his movie personality. “Tommy2, right? Big. Strong. Slow. No combat training. No cardio. Let me guess… Did you eat Tommy1?” is a line you can imagine Jackson delivering on screen. Artist Jeremy Rock makes sure there’s separation, though, by not drawing Mulberry as Jackson.

While Mulberry is introduced flying between the stars, well before the end of the first chapter Cold Space has become a space western. Mulberry crash lands on a planet set up like an old Western town, but the technology a couple of centuries in advance of the way things look. Being a resourceful type, he makes the most of his opportunities.

Rock’s a decent artist when it comes to designs and making sure the story can be followed, but isn’t comfortable with movement. Even when in action his cast are posed, but he doesn’t shy away from detail, and the panels are filled.

There are more characters, but the entire set up is very similar to A Fistful of Dollars, with a stranger arriving in town and exploiting the the tensions already present to set one party against another. As such it’s largely predictable, and there’s never any great sense of Mulberry being in danger, therefore very little tension all the way to an ending designed to set up a sequel. Mulberry is given some snappy dialogue, but with a little more thought about the possibilities of comics Cold Space could have been good rather than average.