By Juan Gimenez (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 978-0-87416-012-3, Del Rey edition (2005):Â 978-0-34548-314-0
Juan Antonio Giménez López was born in Mendoza, Argentina in 1943 and after studying industrial design attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Hugely influenced by Hugo Pratt and Francisco Solano López, Gimenez broke into the comics field with stories for Argentine magazines Record and Colomba before beginning his long association with European comics in such publications as Spain’s Zona 84, Comix International and 1994, France’s Metal Hurlant and Italy’s Lanciostory, L’Eternauta  and Skorpio, before gaining global fame with his scintillant Metabarons series produced in collaboration with Alejandro Jodorowsky.
His preferred metier is adult tales of science fiction and/or combat and Gimenez is an accredited expert on all things avionic or to do with war in the air.
In 1985 Catalan Communications collected a selection of time-travel related short stories (many of which had appeared in the American magazine Heavy Metal) usually known as the Time Paradox Tales into one glorious baroque and stunningly beautiful fantasy anthology with dark, sardonic and sublimely lyrical overtones of classic 2000AD Future Shocks or Twisted Times “sting-in-the-tale†stories…
Following a expansive and lavishly illustrated critique from Carlos Gimenez (no relation) the elegantly lush procession of exotic, eccentric eight-page excitements begins with ‘DIY’ wherein a father and son meddle with the wrong home-computer program and dad ends up a terrified touchline visitor at some of the most dangerous moments of all time and space, after which ‘Tridisex’ details the horrific fate of a couple of salacious chronal researchers who land in the right place at the right time but at the wrong size…
‘Express’ sees a dedicated time-assassin dispatched into the past to unwittingly murder himself whilst ‘Entropy’ details a tragic timeslip which causes the greatest combat aircraft of two eras to experience the closest of encounters.
‘8½’ explores the secret advantage of the fastest gunslinger of the Wild West and recounts the fate of the time-tourist who rooted for him whilst a tragic synchronicity-loop and incomprehensible paradox at last explains the great leap forward of an ancient civilisation in ‘Chronology’…
‘Residue’ takes the exercise in futility that is war to its inescapable conclusion in a lustrous four-page paean to technological advantage, bringing this magnificent artistic treat to a close on the darkest of downbeats…
Gritty, witty and ever so pretty, A Matter of Time is pure speculative gold: old-fashioned, cutting edge fantasy fun and entertainment with a satirical edge and its tongue firmly in its cheek. Perfume for the eyes so breathe deeply and jump aboard.
© 1982-1985 Juan Gimenez. English translation © 1985 Catalan Communications. All rights reserved.