Regret. Remorse. The chance at a do-over. One of the reasons that time travel tales are so compelling is that they tap into that all-too-human question of “What if?” We’ve all asked ourselves at one time or another how life would have been different if we’d chosen differently, if we’d gone left instead of right.
That’s the idea that Dan Silveira taps into with his graphic novel A Shift Through Time, now funding on Kickstarter. In A Shift Through Time, the protagonist Pedro is grappling with the loss of his mother, but gets a glimmer of hope in the form of recently acquired time travel abilities. Can he prevent his mother’s death? What are the consequences? These are the questions that Silveira will delve into.
I spoke with Mr. Silveira recently about the idea behind A Shift Through Time, the inspiration for the comic, the Kickstarter itself, and using stories to talk about how we move through and cope with grief.
FreakSugar: For folks reading this, what can you tell us about the conceit of A Shift Through Time?
Dan Silveira: A Shift Through Time is a Sci-Fi Drama that explores the question of how we move on after losing someone we love, packaged within a fun and poignant time-travelling adventure where the main character Pedro has as much control over his abilities as he does with his own life.
FS: What are some of the inspirations that have moved you while crafting this story?
DS: I aim to tell human-centric stories that people can connect to and even potentially use to reflect on their own lives. The loss of a loved one is something the majority of us have had to experience at some point in time and so I wanted to explore that process here. So elements of my own experiences with that type of loss or experiences I’ve seen people close to me go through are what helped inspire the story.
From A SHIFT THROUGH TIME
FS: This comic seems to very much be about moving on from grief. What made you want to focus on that for this story?
DS: I find the journey of grief to be interesting as it is unique to each person who moves through it. So I wanted to explore what the experience meant for a main character who had to live through the particular circumstances that he found himself in after his mother was tragically murdered when he was a child.
FS: You mention on the campaign page that you wrote the first page of this three years ago.
DS: Creating a comic of this size can be a long journey from the first sentence on a page to its completion. Knowing that I wanted this to be a one-shot graphic novel, I wanted to make sure that we took our time with it to get it right. This also allowed me to explore some things along the way and really test the limits of the story that can be told in 120 pages.
FS: How gratifying is it to be at the finish line?
DS: It feels great! Nothing feels better than completing any creative project you take on, especially knowing that people will soon have a physical copy in their hands that they can read and place on their bookshelves for years to come. I am also very excited to move on to some of the other great comic projects that I have been cooking up in the background.
FS: What are some of your favorite time travel stories?
DS: My favourite time travel movies are Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys, and Groundhog Day.
From A SHIFT THROUGH TIME
FS: On to the Kickstarter itself, what can you tell us about the campaign?
DS: The Kickstarter runs until April 14th. We hit our goal in the first 11 hours of going live but we are aiming to meet some of the stretch goals that we unlocked. Every person who backs this project not only helps move this comic to the finish line but also helps support the future of my comics.
FS: What are you reading right now?
DS: I am currently reading Orwell by Pierre Christin and Sébastien Verdier.
FS: Do you have any other projects you’d like to discuss?
DS: I recommend any who likes comics to check out my Instagram account @inkblotcomics where I work on and release a series of short story comics for free in collaboration with a wide range of talented artists.
FS: If you had one final shift for the book, what would it be?
DS: There was a chapter I wanted to do where Pedro is shifted into the future and is trapped there for a while and in that future he is able to see the consequences to all his current actions but we just simply didn’t have time for it.
The Kickstarter for A Shift Through Time has already nearly doubled its initial funding goal with two days still left in the campaign. If you love time travel tales and emotionally compelling stories, you should definitely give this a look!