Talking Time Travel With Shaun Manning
Shaun Manning writes novellas, marketing plans for the University of Michigan Press, theatrical productions, work for BBC Radio… and comics. Lots of comics. These include the new graphic novel, Interesting Drug, which was published by Archaia/Boom! Studios to excellent reviews including praise from Comic Book Resources and Broken Frontier.
Interesting Drug takes one of the classic science fiction/fantasy conceits and gives it a new spin. Andrew Smith, a brilliant but unambitious college dropout, meets Tristram Lang, a handsome and charming man who is self-confident to the point of cocksure. Tristram claims to be from ten years in the future, when Andrew has invented a way to make time travel possible, and he’s come back to make sure Andrew succeeds. To his own surprise, Andrew does develop Chro-Noz — a drug that rewires your consciousness to send you back through your timeline. His joy at this discovery is short-lived, for the world becomes addicted to Chro-Noz (and its nostalgia), outpacing contemporary drugs like cocaine or heroin. Andrew, now an unwilling criminal mastermind, discovers that Tristram knows more about time travel than he tells…
Shaun Manning very graciously spoke with me about the challenges of forging a unique addition to the canon of time travel literature.