Marino Neri's 'Cosmo': A Graphic Novel About a Troubled Teen's Stargazing Quest

Marino Neri (Modena, 1979) has released his third graphic novel, 'Cosmo' (Coconino Press, Bologna, 2016, 184 pages, €19, ISBN 9788876183010). The story follows Cosimo (called Cosmo by adults), a troubled adolescent who escapes from a socio-rehabilitation center on his fifteenth birthday to journey to the Atacama Desert, where stars appear brightest. Driven by a manic passion for astronomy and nature, Cosmo knows star names and galaxy movements by heart, often delivering intimate monologues about the universe's origin, butterfly flights, and whale migrations. The narrative is an on-the-road odyssey from the Italian countryside to the wider world, where Cosmo encounters hostile characters like Ezio and Brando (gun-wielding farmers who hate anything different) and Ofelia, a shy red-haired teenager afraid of being alone. Neri describes Cosmo's journey as 'the opposite of an initiation story—more like a messianic voyage on a tiny scale,' adding that 'Cosmo doesn't see other people or distinguishes them little from the landscape.' The book features a cinematic, sparse graphic style with tight, dry frames that invite readers to take Cosmo by the hand. Neri notes, 'For years, since childhood, comics have been a kind of personal cinema for me, to read and reread whenever and wherever I wanted. I love that images tell the story; like words, they can say a lot.'