After having been dead for over 40 years, mid-20th century sci-fi author Benjamin Carp awakens one day in a seedy motel room in 2025. How did he get there? Who has brought him back from the dead after all these years? How have they done it, and, more importantly, why? Benjamin doesn’t know, but he’s determined to find out—and until he does, he’s going to make it everybody else’s problem.

You see, in addition to being a cult sci-fi author (Don’t let him hear you call it “cult,” though—also don’t let him hear you call it “sci-fi.”), Benjamin Carp is also an insufferable, self-important jackass with an ego the size of Wyoming. This is the sort of person who refers to himself, repeatedly, as a “Man of Consequence.” Deep, reverberating, cosmic Consequence. His life has it, and yours does not. His needs aren’t just the most important thing. They’re the only important thing. In Benjamin’s mind, everyone else is either someone who’s there to help him, the main character, on his journey, or one of the people who created that journey, specifically for him.

However, with the help of a young man named Marcus, who recognizes the author as someone his dad used to read, hopefully, they can get to the bottom of whatever’s happening and which of Benjamin’s many novels it came from. Is he a robot? A clone? The Savior of the Universe? The possibilities are endless.

The story is all over the place. Benjamin being a mid-level science fiction writer of the 20th century provides us the opportunity to explore all sorts of pulp sci-fi tropes of that era. We also frequently switch from one to another practically on a dime, simply by Benjamin announcing, “I’ve decided we’re in a different story now.” It’s rarely clear how he decides this, but all of a sudden, we’ve abandoned one trope and are following another.

The fact that Benjamin Carp is a jackass is pretty much the whole point of the story. We see from the very beginning that he’s not all bad. He does have moments of caring throughout, which ultimately build into a character arc. The journey is a slow one, though. In the meantime, listening again and again to the main character talking about how important he is, referring to himself (or one of his characters, who are all clearly self-inserts) as a “Man of Consequence,” can be a bit grating.

Don’t get me wrong: The comic is well-written and entertaining. The journey through Benjamin’s life explores a lot of interesting concepts, from how sci-fi reflects the society it was written in, to the relationship of authors to their characters and to their work, and more. Not to mention the explorations of his various sci-fi stories and how they play out in real life.

While it can be grating at times and frustrating at others, most of that is by design. In general, this is an entertaining story and worth the journey. If you’re a fan of mid-20th century pulp sci-fi, you’ll want to check this out.

Creative Team: Ben H. Winters (writer), Leomacs (artist), Luca Bertelè (colorist), Becca Carey (letterer)
Publisher: Oni Press
Click here to purchase.