{"id":20031,"date":"2019-05-01T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T08:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=20031"},"modified":"2019-04-30T16:13:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T16:13:44","slug":"time-beavers-first-comics-graphic-novel-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2019\/05\/01\/time-beavers-first-comics-graphic-novel-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Time Beavers (First Comics Graphic Novel #2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Timothy Truman<\/strong>, with Mark<\/strong> Acres<\/strong>, John K.<\/strong> Snyder<\/strong>, Ken<\/strong> Bruzenak<\/strong> & Linda<\/strong> Lessmann <\/strong>(First Comics)
\nISBN: 978-0-9154-1901-2 (PB Album)<\/p>\n

Sometimes there’s a feeling in the air that leads to similar concepts \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spontaneously\u00e2\u20ac\u009d occurring in different places – Swamp Thing<\/strong> and Man-Thing<\/strong> always spring to mind – and sometimes it’s just a bunch of in-tune creators jumping rapidly onto a bandwagon. The Germans (and that includes me on my mother’s side) have a word for it, as they do for so many tricky concepts: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Zeitgeist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

Whatever the thinking, the phenomenon is real and probably the only bad thing I can even imply about this superb long-lost gem of a book from the ever-excellent Tim Truman, aided by co-creator, Mark Acres, co-designer John K. Snyder, letterer Ken Bruzenak and colourist Linda Lessmann.<\/p>\n

That the 1984 debut of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/strong> in some part inspired this superb fantasy I have no doubt, but since it was months ahead of the deluge of cheap knock-offs that followed I suspect that creative appreciation rather than greedy speculation fuelled the tale. Moreover, as the tone and content more closely resemble the Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen & Sal Buscema reimagining of throwaway character Rocket Racoon<\/strong> (who properly debuted in a form you’d recognise in The Incredible Hulk<\/strong> #271, May 1982 before Mike Mignola made him a seminal star in a quirky much-reprinted 4-issue miniseries), any charge of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cashing in\u00e2\u20ac\u009d becomes largely irrelevant.<\/p>\n

In a dark place beyond the universe the Great Dam of Time<\/em> regulates the chronological structure of each and every dimension, maintained and defended by high-tech Beavers against sinister extra-cosmic Rats called the Radere<\/em>. These scurrilous scalawags utilise vile magic and embrace Chaos in their wicked schemes…<\/p>\n

Eternally at war since time began, the Rats have suddenly gained a deadly advantage over the Timeguard<\/em> by removing three objects of power from the Dam itself, and fled to three separate eras on the key world known as Earth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now. as the Rat forces mass to finally destroy the critically-weakened dam, only grizzled Captain Slapper<\/em>, old Doc<\/em>, faithful Mac<\/em> and raw recruit Shiner<\/em> can be spared to follow the Radere to those locations and retrieve the objects before it’s too late\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Even though there are laughs aplenty, this deliciously dark fantasy far exceeds its broadly comedic roots, as the hairy heroes save young D’Artagnan <\/em>and the Queen of France in 17th<\/sup> Century Paris, foil Abraham Lincoln<\/em>‘s assassins at Gettysburg in 1863 and retrieve the Nagasaki Atom Bomb from Hitler<\/em>‘s bunker in the hours before his suicide in 1945.<\/p>\n

Despite cosmic catastrophe, sneaky plot-twists and insidious treachery, the Beavers naturally save the day (and years and centuries), but not without suffering tragedy and heartbreak\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Time Beavers<\/strong> is a grand old romp, with strong characterisation and sharp dialogue that elevate this gritty fantasy far beyond its \u00e2\u20ac\u0153funny-animal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d antecedents, practically into the realm of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Straight\u00e2\u20ac\u009d science fiction, and it’s all captivatingly illustrated with Truman’s trademark graphic intensity. Still readily available, it’s a book that all fans of comics, science fiction and especially science fiction comics should know.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1985 First Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Timothy Truman, with Mark Acres, John K. Snyder, Ken Bruzenak & Linda Lessmann (First Comics) ISBN: 978-0-9154-1901-2 (PB Album) Sometimes there’s a feeling in the air that leads to similar concepts \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spontaneously\u00e2\u20ac\u009d occurring in different places – Swamp Thing and Man-Thing always spring to mind – and sometimes it’s just a bunch of in-tune … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Time Beavers (First Comics Graphic Novel #2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[125,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-5d5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}