Kevin Church seems determined to create a webcomics empire. There's The Rack (with Benjamin Birdie) and its now-complete spinoff Lydia (with Max Riffner), the "on permanent hiatus" Waimea (with Mike Dake), the newly launched She Died In Terrebonne: A Sam Kimimura Mystery (with T.J. Kirsch), and, beginning next week, The Loneliest Astronauts (with Ming Doyle).

It's the last one that interests me most, in part because I like Doyle's art, but also because you don't see many dramas set in space that aren't of the "space opera" variety (complete with intergalactic battles, menacing aliens and the like). In comics, Planetes and Astronauts in Trouble are rare exceptions.

"Astronauts Dan and Steve are stuck in a distant alien solar system," states The Loneliest Astronauts website, "the last survivors of a mission that went horribly wrong and left the rest of their ten-strong crew dead. They’re light years from home on an airless moon, living on carefully-rationed supplies, and unable to contact Earth. The worst part of all this? They hate each other’s guts."

The comic debuts next Tuesday, and updates weekly.