Three characters stuck in the past are given access to the future in the former Observer/Faber prize winner’s mordant and misanthropic sci-fi graphic novelPeople who enjoy science fiction love to imagine the future: time travel, spaceships, something wobbly with a green face. But what if those fans really had access to it – the future, I mean – courtesy of something very similar to the internet? This is the possibility Paul B Rainey floats in There’s No Time Like the Present, in which a crowd of misfits from Milton Keynes (once the future itself) are able, if not to visit Mars, then at least to watch episodes of Doctor Who that have not yet been screened.Mordant and misanthropic in almost equal measure, Rainey’s book has three central characters, each one somewhat stuck, unable fully to escape their childhood. Barry, an obnoxious lazybones, still lives at home with his parents; he makes his living selling bootleg recordings of TV shows he has lifted from the “ultranet”, which provid...
Paul B Rainey's graphic novel, "There's No Time Like the Present," follows three characters in Milton Keynes who gain access to the future via an "ultranet." Barry sells bootleg recordings of future TV shows, while Cliff and Kelly watch them, grappling with guilt and their mundane lives. The story blends quotidian details with sci-fi elements, like a figure from the future and Kelly's adventures with him. It explores themes of being stuck in the past and the impact of accessing the future on ordinary lives.
