What if you could go to the future, see how things are, in order to come back and make things better? That is the plot of this graphic novel by Carol Lay. At times bleak and frightening, it also always has a sliver of hope that it is not too late to make things better.

My Time Machine: A Graphic Novel by Carol Lay is an interesting, funny and visually interesting combination of science fiction, social political satire and adventure. A strong female protagonist embarks on a emotional eye and mind opening journey through time to save humanity from itself and spark meaningful change.

The use of colorful art, flashbacks, and interesting thought experiments and having science and artistic type characters in witty playful banter keep the storyline quite literally "moving forward".

This cautionary tale is slyly serious and timely in a blink and it's happening again kind of way.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Fantagraphics Books for an advance copy of this graphic novel that tells of a time traveller from our past, passing through time, the wondrous that are seen, and the sad realities that might be our future.

I love the idea that time travel has so many rules, so many warnings about something that might not be possible. Going back in time if one sneezes on a dinosaur, the entire future can change. If one goes back and kills Hitler, that might change everything meaning the person who went back in time to kill Hitler was never born. Or does it cause an alternate reality. A world where Nelson Mandela died in prison, like so many people remember or where the Berenstain Bears are really the Berenstein Bears. Or vice versa. Maybe someone has gone back in time and changed things, or gone forward in time to make changes now. The possibilities like the rules that so many made up are endless. That's why I think that Carol Lay has travelled through time, and written this graphic novel as both a warning of what can be, and to create change through entertainment. Lay's story is just too good to be fiction, and the future to scary to be thought of as not real. My Time Machine is written and illustrated by Carol Lay and works as a log book of Lay's adventures in time, always moving forward to our inevitable end.

Carol Lay's Uncle had a very good streak playing poker and won, from a lawyer what looked to be engineering plans. These plans were from the original time traveller from the H. G. Wells novel the Time Machine, and after he passed away, the Uncle gave them to Lay because of her interest in art. Not thinking much Lay approached her ex-husband who taught physics and loved to tinker and showed him the plans. He was enthralled, and soon after a lot of time and expense, presented Lay with the gift of a time machine. An actual working time machine, controlled by an app on her phone. Lay had dreams of finding a solution to climate change, but the reality of the time, 2019 with an election coming, and COVID being talked about, Lay wanted more to see what the future held. Soon she went ahead, to find a country rationing water, low on food, not able to touch, and patrolled by drones, that seemed everywhere. And as she went further into the future, things did not get better.

I really loved this story as time travel usually doesn't look much at the near future, nor the times that it is written in. Writing about 5 years from now is much harder than writing about a 1,000 years, as who can say one is wrong. However the future shown, seems pretty real. And even closer to happening than we want to admit. The characters were very interesting, and one can see Lay being a time traveller, though leaving the cat must have been hard. Also, Lay has good taste in music, soundtracking her time travel with some nice progressive music. There is a lot of action far more than i expected with a lot of scenes that really hold the reader's interest. The art is excellent, complementing the story and character well, and yet being really dynamic when the story asks for it.

What I really enjoyed was that there were a lot of questions asked, buy no answers. Lay refers to the original user of the time machine, but has no idea what happened to him, or why she was seeing things different than he had. Had time changed, did Lay do something different somehow? Also this is not jus a story about hope, but about love. Lay finding her ex-husband has a new woman in his life, means a lot to Lay. Lay is happy that he is happy. One doesn't see that much in stories, and real moments like that made me enjoy the story more. Not just a good time travel story, but a graphic novel with great art and characters that really love and care for each other. And the world.

How can one 160-page graphic novel provoke so much thought and concern about the future? What tools might it give us to seek an alternative future as climate change and political division threaten our very existence even now? Carol Lay has created a stunning work—simple, beautifully told, moving—that I hope fosters discussion, and action. Very highly recommended.

This was just not one I enjoyed. It was well drawn. I just did not like the pacing and the story just did not grab me at all

The concept was cool: The protagonist inherits blue prints to a time travel machine, and enlists the help of her ex-husband to build it and travels into the future in various increments. However, the future is grim, which sets the overall tone for the story.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to this book by the cover and title and was not disappointed. The illustration style is gentle and lovely which goes so well with the story. We follow our middle aged brave and curious time traveler as she navigates the distant and not so distant future in a craft made by her ex inspired by the blueprints of the original HG Wells time traveler.
This graphic novel is as much about the politics of the time she starts to time travel (2020) as it is about caring for the planet we live on and the adventures of time travel.

A personal ode to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and California. What would you do if you found the original blueprints for H.G. Wells' time machine? Fact check his trip of course! And on the way, check out what the world is like in the near (and distant) future and with the knowledge hopefully do something to save our planet. Sci-fi lite x post-Trump politics x climate prophesy. The illustrations are simple but evocative, I like the style a lot. The pacing could be fine-tuned some. Overall, a gentle fable.

Thank you Carol Lay, Netgalley, & Fantagraphics Books for this free ARC in exchange for a review.

A serviceable graphic novel for those who enjoy time travel science fiction. Nothing incredibly new here, but worth a read.