The Complete Cosmicomics is a mixed bag of pleasures. Its initial idea is a simple, but ingenious one. The author takes one scientific "fact", and his main character, Qfwfq spins a yarn about his adventures regarding the mentioned fact. The tales of Qfwfq are very much akin to those of Baron von Münchhausen, they are very narcissistic and absurd. Some of the best describe, for example, how our hero experienced the moon detaching from the earth, being one of the last dinosaurs, and drawing the first markers into space to measure how large it is.

The tales are of varying lengths, from couple-page reads to almost novella-lengths. The longer ones seem to be better thought-out and usually more interesting than the smaller, which are in many cases very forgettable. The first half of the book is previously compiled in Cosmicomics, and the latter half is previously unpublished material. Both halves seem to get their share of good and mediocre stories.

If the number of stories was cut in half, this would be a remarkable milestone in absurd literature. With all of them in it, it is still a very pleasurable passtime and makes you chuckle numerous times. The Finnish translation was very good, and used the language inventively and colourfully. ( )

This collection includes the 12 original Cosmicomics, but adds to that the another 12 stories Calvino wrote later (between 1965 when the original was published and 1984). Those have been published in various compilations, but as far as I can tell, this collection contains all Cosmicomics. Unfortunately, it seems the collection hasn't been translated in English.

It's a pity. The original Cosmicomics are available in English, and those are a wonderful compilation of absurd science fiction stories. Calvino takes a scientific fact (some of those facts are actually false these days, but that doesn't matter) and weaves a story around it. The stories always feature the ubiquitous Qwfwq, who has apparently been around since the dawn of time (and actually, before that - it was apparently his doing that the time itself began), involved in various absurdities - like recalling his relationship with this girl when the colours first arrived, or telling about how they used to visit the moon when it was much closer than it is these days.

The 12 new stories continue describing the antics of Qwfwq, though one of the stories stands out as it has absolutely nothing to do with Qwfwq and it doesn't fit in the style of Cosmicomics - it's not a bad story, but just quite unlike the others. If you enjoyed the original Cosmicomics, there's no reason why you wouldn't enjoy these new stories.

In general the Cosmicomics stories are fun, insightful, hilarious, tedious - some are clearly better and very, very entertaining, some are less interesting. I suppose absurdity is a tough art, and if a story misses a step and doesn't really connect with the reader, there's little hope. Fortunately you can then just skip to the next story and that's likely better - there are several very good stories in the collection. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

(Review of Le tutte cosmicomiche at Mikko reads) ( )