Webcomics. You know ’em, you love ’em, you read ’em when you should be working on some menial spreadsheet in your cubicle. Most out there are worth browsing through a few of the strips, maybe getting a chuckle or two, and moving on without bothering to bookmark. However, there are a few out there worth bookmarking, following, bugging your friends to read, and cursing the gods that the creators don’t publish on a daily rather than a weekly basis. One of these is a new comic that has been slowly growing since the beginning of this year, Boxcar Astronaut.

Boxcar Astronaut is a weekly, four-panel black and white strip that follows the backyard adventures of Ben, a young sprout who is never without his trusty space helmet. Along for the fun is his trusty dog Diogee, his best friend Devin, and recent acquisition Robot, a real robot from outer space that has become stranded on Earth.

Co-creators Jeff Carter and Marc Lapierre (who is the force behind Madfrog Graphics) have bravely set out to fill a void that has been left in the funnies since 12/31/1995, with adventures geared toward a male audience that fondly remember outdoor missions in cardboard spaceships, roasting ants with magnifying glasses, and playing king of the mountain well into the night. But the strip can still be enjoyed by girlfriends and wives whose significant others refuse to stop doing these things.