A Graphic Novel by Damián & art by Alex Fuentes

Time Travel is my favorite type of science fiction storytelling, so when I realized this Story fell into that genre, I was excited. The synopsis of kids falling into a rift in time reminds me of stories such as Time Slip, something I reviewed on here many moons ago, and may need to revisit sometime. This isn’t quite as serious as that story, but I figured I’d give it a shot – thinking that this would be a kid’s story of some sort. boy, was I wrong! Yeah this can be read by kids with no issues, but it actually has the meat on the proverbial bone that non-children like when reading.

“A group of students is on a field trip to an ancient castle when a Storm erupts. As they are about to leave, four friends are cornered by the class bully, who tries to pull one of his usual pranks. Instead, they all get the scare of their lives when they fall down a tunnel that takes them into the future: a future where mankind has nearly disappeared from the face of the earth, and where nature has taken control. The friends will have to face up to this hostile new world—as well as their nemesis—if they’re to have any chance of making it back home…”

Aside from it’s relative brutality (monsters getting stabbed and the like), the tone of this Book reminded me of the sort of cartoons you would see on Cartoon Network like a decade ago – things like Adventure Time for example. I will say that one of the characters, Piero, is insanely unlikeable and I basically rooted for his death for most of the book. He does soften up a tad, but he needs an incredible change in attitude pretty fast or I’m not sure how far I will get. He’s your typical bully character with a rough upbringing that takes his insecurities out on others. He goes as far as attempted murder of a disabled girl just to get a rise from his uninterested friends. If the authors can make me like this guy by the end of the story, it will be a testament to their storytelling ability.

I wasn’t sure what to think of this book at first – the art style is to off-the-wall for what I’m used to, that it took me a bit to get into the story. Once I finally did, I really enjoyed it, and felt that the style worked really well for the tone and aesthetic of the book. The book is surprisingly dark for its appearance as a kid’s book, and rewards readers that hang in there with a fairly deep story involving crazy stuff like time-traveling Knights Templar or magical portals that warp folks into the far flung future.

While not my favorite book of the year, I enjoyed Lost in the Future – Part 1 The Storm, and would like to read more if I can. The story takes a bit to get going, and it has an odd art-style that many will nit likely be used to, but it rewards those that give it a chance. This volume is pretty much self-contained, but ends on a hell of a cliff-hanger, so it’s one of those that I definitely need to finish. You guys know I love my time travel books, so a novel take on it that avoids some of the obvious tropes from other media is always cool for me. Another solid offering from Europe Comics.

If you are interested in this book, and would like more information including purchase links, click HERE

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.