In The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time — a new comic from writer John Layman and artist Karl Mostert — a character will do the one time travel thing we all think about all, going back in time to fix his past mistakes. As the name implies, however, things don’t work out well, not exactly.

One regular joe (who is also a time travel scientist of some sort, so maybe not that regular after all) going back to fix his own mistakes actually creates a butterfly effect that wreaks havoc in the very fibers of existence, thereby making him (that’s right!) The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time. It all sounds pretty funny, even more so with Layman (Chew, Eleanor & The Egret) writing it.

Full preview text and some teaser artwork for the first issue can be found below. The book, which is being published by AfterShock Comics, is set to debut on Feb. 5, 2020.

Check it out…

The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time #1 / $4.99/ 32 pages / Color / On sale 02.05.20
Writer: John Layman
Artist: Karl Mostert
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: John Layman
Cover: Karl Mostert w/ Dee Cunniffe
1:15 Incentive Cover: Larry Stroman

Sean Bennett is just your everyday, ordinary lab worker in a high-tech lab with a proto-type time machine. And, yeah, he’s got the same temptations any of us would have about going back in time, just a bit, to correct mistakes of the past and right old wrongs. So, when he meets a version of himself from the future who encourages him to do just that, Sean takes the temporal plunge. Only…can you guess what happens next? Did you read the book title? Yup. All of TIME is f#%&ed up now, and it’s up to Sean to cor-rect it-or else!

Presenting a time-twisted sci-fi action-comedy, a butterfly effect noir, by multiple Eisner-winning writer John Layman (Chew, ELEANOR & THE EGRET) and talented new-comer Karl Mostert. Order it today…before time runs out!

The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time started off as a funny, goofy idea that hit me when I was brainstorming time travel ideas. First off, the title made me laugh, which is always a good thing, and from there it expanded to an exercise to try to take the notion of butterfly effect to the crazy, most absurd situations possible. One small change to the space-time continuum, and a million crazy repercussions as a result.”

The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time is the story of Sean Bennett, a low-level lab worker who meets his future self in a bar, who convinces him to use the prototype laboratory time machine and go back a week —just a week— and make a few minor changes to order to improve his life. Only when he comes back, all time has been screwed up… dinosaurs walk the earth, samurais, Vikings, and they are all ruled under the tyrannical iron thumb of Emperor Abraham Lincoln IV. Poor Sean is tasked with setting right the space-time continuum, or face the wrath of the cyborg Future Police. To do this, Sean has to undo everything he did previously, but every action he takes seems to make things worse and worse.”

The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time is also a mystery. I’m calling it a ‘Butterfly Effect noir,’ because, even amid all the absurdity of fixing a crazy, f#%&ed-up space-time continuum, Sean Bennet also has to get to the bottom of things. If it wasn’t his time-traveling actions that screwed everything up, whose was it? Whodunit? And why?”

“Poor Karl Mostert! This book is his first mainstream gig, and he’s got the unfortunate job of having to draw all the crazy things I through at him, which is essentially everything in all of human history—and more! But I have to say, he’s stepped up in a huge way, drawing all the madness I’ve asked him for, and then upping the scale and scope every issue. I suspect when we finally meet face-to-face he’s going to punch me right in the face. I also suspect this book is but the first of many comic projects you’re going to hear from Karl, because he’s monstrously talented and super hard working.”

“The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time gives me a chance to return to AfterShock, following up the weird and beautiful adult fairy tale Eleanor & The Egret I did with Sam Kieth for AfterShock a couple years ago. It’s also a chance to work with my favorite editor in the comics biz, Mike Marts. Eleanor was a strange, beautiful book I’m proud to have on my bookshelf. Looking forward to having The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time next to it on the shelf!”

The Man Who Effed Up Time

The Man Who Effed Up Time