Time to Travel, Time to Kill

Retroactive, or where I got my favorite gym shirt

The first thing you need to know about Retroactive, the creator owned graphic novel written and drawn by Ibrahim Moustafa is that the mid 90s Jean-Claud Van Damme classic, Time Cop, is rad.

Okay, that’s not the first thing you need to know about this book and this creator, no, the first thing you need to know about the time travel action thriller, written, drawn, and owned by Ibrahim Moustafa, an Egyptian American comics creator and action figure enthusiast is that if you buy the book from him in person, it comes with a free t-shirt that is pretty high quality, solidly comfortable, and meets all my needs for a reliable gym shirt.

Okay, okay, fine, knowing that I rep this comic while at the gym isn’t the first thing you need to know about about this book either.
No, what you need to know, past the fact Retroactive is an emotionally honest, physically visceral, exciting, and intense story about a member of a time travel enforcement agency getting caught up in…

Look, this is a time travel thriller, I’m not going to give away the plot, or the emotional journey at the core of the book, but I will say that Lee Harvey Oswald has to take the shot to preserve the timeline!

So, really, what you need yo know first and foremost, past the fact Ibrahim and I are of a similar age, like a ton of the same stuff, and are at minimum friendly acquaintances, so five pages in I saw the Time Cop of it all is that…

The comics industry sucks.

You need to, you absolutely need to start here, understanding the suck, to understand just how cool this book really is.
It is a book too, it has cover flaps and everything! It is a tactile experience and a physically satisfying object to hold and read, and you should click the link below to see some of the interior art, and get the purchase link… t-shirt not included.

So the first thing you need to know about Retroactive, is that the comics industry is dominated by Marvel and DC, and you probably already knew that, but you likely don’t understand the second, and third order effects of what that means.
It means, in America, comics look a certain way, are produced a certain way, and have to physically exist in a certain way to be presented on shelves, to be sold to customers, and to make money.
It also means that, largely, to really make any money on comics you have to at some point in time work for them, The Big Two, both to get a solid paycheck, and to get exposure to build a fanbase.

Now, yes, that’s “not as true” as it used to be, and that’s been slowly but surely “not as true” in fits and starts over the last 30 years, but if someone says comic books to you, you think Marvel and DC, because they are American institutions.

They are American institutions in every sense of the word, including institutional prejudices. So, you might understand why the very talented, Eisner award (oscars for Comics) nominated Ibrahim Moustafa might not have the easiest time getting the same looks as other people in the industry.

Retroactive is an independently produced comic book about time travel and preserving continuity, which means it is fundamentally in conversation with institutions and institutional power.
It is a comic book in a form that, while established, is not conventional, traditional, or safe from a commercial perspective.
It is art, and that means, as is the case with all art, it is in part the story of itself and how it came into being.

Also, it’s just really good.
It’s like, what if Time Cop wasn’t just rad in its ridiculous 90s action movie camp and charm, what if Time Cop was actually, you know… good, smart, and had heart.

I bet you didn’t think we’d be going back to Time Cop did you?

You can see more interior art and get the order link HERE