20 cool psychedelic comics to read after seeing Thor: Ragnarok

Kaptara (Cover image via Image Comics)

3. Kaptara

If the old-school callbacks of Bulletproof Coffin intrigued you, then you may want to consider Kaptara. Described as a “gay He-Man” story by co-creator Chip Zdarsky, Kaptara recalls some of the operatic arcs and sagas of Flash Gordon and other early science fiction offerings. It’s also completely ridiculous, to the delight of its readers (and, we suspect, its creators).

At first, it seems as if Kaptara is going to be a very standard sort of space adventure. Protagonist Keith Kanga is a self-centered spacefarer whose ship goes right through a spatial anomaly. He finds himself stranded on the bonkers world of Kaptara. It’s full of some of the best sci-fi beasts in comics, including at least one space moose and a few different beaver ladies. Keith, however, just wants to get home. His way back to Earth is littered with the stuff of hallucinations and dreams.

Kaptara certainly calls back to several preceding science fiction properties, from Star Trek, to Flash Gordon, to Conan the Barbarian. It does so in a way that is ultimately silly and original, without ever really feeling like a ripoff of its inspirations.

And Zdarsky really wasn’t kidding about the LGBTQ content in this series. In a tongue-in-cheek response, Zdarsky has also called Kaptara a “gay Saga, just to get more sales”. At any rate, Keith is clearly interested in same-sex romance. Moreover, this isn’t just a kiss ‘em and leave ‘em series. Kanga’s relationships and sense of self mature and grow more complicated as the series continues.