By the late 1950s, America had fully invested into the space race, and science fiction stories were dominating all sorts of media – comic books included, of course. Archie Comics got into the sci-fi game with a friendly little alien named Cosmo in their short-lived Cosmo the Merry Martian series.

The comic, created by Bob White, was designed to provide a family-friendly comic book for children who had an interest in the ongoing space race. The titular character was the first Martian to visit Earth; Cosmo was joined by his astronaut pal Orbi, his girlfriend Astra, and Professor Thimk on his adventures. The first issue saw them traveling to Earth, but ending up crash-landing on the moon instead, and discovering another alien race, the Oogs, in the process.

The bimonthly series ran from September 1958 to October 1959, and each of the six issues in the original run (including the final issue) ended on a cliffhanger.

The character was brought back decades later by Archie Comics in a new series, simply called Cosmo, in 2018. Cosmo and his pals got a slick, contemporary makeover (especially when compared to the bowling pin-shaped bodies they had in the 1950s) thanks to the new creative team, the new miniseries continued his adventures in our solar system. The success of the reboot has enabled Archie Comics to continue Cosmo’s adventures even farther, with a new miniseries titled Cosmo the Mighty Martian set to arrive in late 2019.