You have to love a good time travel story. Even though it's a concept that is used a lot, it can still be used for great stories when the execution is handled carefully. Image is about to unveil their latest new series, COMEBACK (on sale next week) by Ed Brisson and Michael Walsh.
Why should you check it out? We talked to Ed to get that answer. I've also read the first issue and it is pretty cool stuff.
Comic Vine: What's your quick 'sales pitch' on the series?
Ed Brisson: COMEBACK is about an illegal time travel operation, Reconnect, who will go back into the past and save your loved one from an untimely death...for a huge fee. Things go sideways for two of their agents when a rescue goes wrong and they find themselves on the run from both the FBI and their own organization.
It's a five issue mini-series being published by Shadowline/Image that hits shops on November 21st.
CV: Where did the idea come from?
EB: I was playing around with the idea of time travel and trying to find a way to blend it with a crime story. Typically, I like to have a rigid set of boundaries that my characters have to content with, so when coming up with the ideas and rules for time travel, I tried to limit everything and look at ways that it could still be exploited and who might use it. I liked the idea of having time travel limited to 67 days, because you're setting up this world where something completely fantastical exists, but is not as wild and crazy as everyone would hope it is. There's no one using it to go back in time and save Kennedy, kill Hitler or ride dinosaurs. There's not traveling far into the future and driving around in flying cars. It's so limited, that there aren't seemingly many practical uses for it. I really liked working around this and creating something that I thought would be interesting to me as a reader.
== TEASER ==
CV: Because time travel is involved, did you map out how time travel works in this world and any repercussions that may result from it?
EB: Absolutely. I've got an 8 page document mapping out how time travel works, how the organization, Reconnect, works and how government agencies such as the FBI are able to monitor and track timelines to ensure that no one is out there messing around with them. I spent a couple of months putting the document together and sorting out all of the rules before I even jumped in with the writing. I wanted to make sure that I knew as many variables about all this going in – time travel is tricky stuff!
CV: The action starts off right away in issue #1, will we be seeing more of an explanation as to how the company, Reconnect, came about developing their technology?
EB: We don't get too deeply into the how of it all. In the world we've built in COMEBACK, time travel is something that's just accepted as a possibility, but is also illegal. It's one of those things that the government has acknowledged and does monitor time travel. It's something that is real, but the implications of using the technology could be so disastrous, that no one is supposed to use it – not even the government.
CV: Is time travel a widely accepted principle here or just something that Reconnect has figured out and whispered about among their clients?
EB: Widely accepted, but it's not something that seen as being an option, due to the legality surrounding it. It's like now...nukes are real, but it's not like you or I could go out and buy one. But, also like now, I guess, those with money can generally find a way to access it.
But, it's not something that is used lightly when it IS used. Even organizations like Reconnect recognize the danger of changing the past. That's why they make every effort to ensure that their “past tampering” doesn't register. They recreate the scene of death from which they're saving people as closely as possible. They grease a few wheels and, theoretically, the FBI is none the wiser.
CV: So Reconnect is an "illegal time travel agency." Are there legal time travel agencies?
EB: Nope. Time travel of any form is illegal.
CV: Can they travel into both the past and future or just the past?
EB: Just 67 days into the past and then back to the point where they left from. While it's theoretically possible to travel into the future, there are so many unknown variables at play that it is incredibly dangerous to even attempt it. For example: If you wanted to travel just two days into the future and at the time that you wanted to travel to, the time machine is broken, you are screwed! The time machine needs to be operational to both send and receive travelers and there is no way to accurately know that it is in the future.
CV: This is planned as a five-issue miniseries, would there be a possibility for more?
EB: If the series is successful enough and readers want more, we'd love to do another volume. I've already roughly laid out plans for how I'd like to see it continue and I'm pretty excited about them. The premise and the characters...there's just so much story potential with them and I'd love to explore as much of that as possible.
CV: After working on this series and seeing the perils that result, would you ever consider using time travel to change the past?
EB: I want to say “No” and think that I wouldn't be tempted, but my constitution is not that strong. I'd completely take advantage of it, just so long as I could stay off the FBIs radar. Think of all the possibilities! All those great comeback lines you thought of after the fact? Go back and drop them. Do a little sports betting. Stop yourself from making those life altering bad decisions!
First I'd want them to fix all the bugs though. After reading the first issue, I'm sure that readers would agree.
Make sure you pick up COMEBACK on Novenber 21 at your local comic shop!
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