AfterShock Comics have announced “The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time,” a new comic by writer John Layman and artist Karl Mostert. A sci-fi, time-travel comedy that looks to explore the grim and comedic outcomes of the Butterfly effect, the comic (which starts in February), follows young scientist Sean Bennett, who works as a lab-tech in a study on the world’s first time machine. When a future version of himself appears and encourages Sean to go back in time and mess with all the things you’re not supposed to mess with, Sean realizes that the course of history lies in his hands.

Layman explains it better, saying “‘The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time’ is the story of Sean Bennett, a low-level lab worker who meets his future self in a bar, who convinces him to use the prototype laboratory time machine and go back a week — just a week — and make a few minor changes to order to improve his life. Only when he comes back, all time has been screwed up… dinosaurs walk the earth, samurais, Vikings, and they are all ruled under the tyrannical iron thumb of Emperor Abraham Lincoln IV. Poor Sean is tasked with setting right the space-time continuum, or face the wrath of the cyborg Future Police. To do this, Sean has to undo everything he did previously, but every action he takes seems to make things worse and worse.”

He added that “‘The Man Who F#%ed Up Time’ is also a mystery. I’m calling it a ‘Butterfly Effect noir,’ because, even amid all the absurdity of fixing a crazy, f#%&ed-up space-time continuum, Sean Bennet also has to get to the bottom of things. If it wasn’t his time-traveling actions that screwed everything up, whose was it? Whodunit? And why?”

According to Layman, the book is artist Karl Mostert’s first mainstream gig. “He’s got the unfortunate job of having to draw all the crazy things I throw at him, which is essentially everything in all of human history — and more! But I have to say, he’s stepped up in a huge way, drawing all the madness I’ve asked him for, and then upping the scale and scope every issue. I suspect when we finally meet face-to-face he’s going to punch me right in the face. I also suspect this book is but the first of many comic projects you’re going to hear from Karl, because he’s monstrously talented and super hard working.”

“The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time” #1 releases on February 5, 2020 with a cover by Karl Mostert and Dee Cunniffe, and a variant by Larry Stroman. You can check out early artwork at The Hollywood Reporter.