Time Before Time, Vol. 1

Far in the future, humankind has made the world so toxic that time travel to the past has become the refuge of the rich and the desperate. For a price, you can be smuggled back in time to an era where you can safely live out the rest of your days. If you can’t afford the price of passage, you can work off your debt as a smuggler risking radiation poisoning, running into rival gangs of time travelers, and having your time machine stolen by yourself from another moment in time. Shalvey (Bog Bodies) and McConville with Palmer (Write It in Blood) have certainly aimed for that level of storytelling although this first volume is slow to develop as it sets the stage for larger story arcs. Readers may find constant time jumping loses its impact as the story doesn’t really explore the different eras, only using them as backdrops to an extended chase scene.