Time Shifters

Luke, still mourning his brother’s accidental death while protecting him from bullies, has a run-in with a mummy, a skeleton in a space suit, and a vampiric Napoleon Bonaparte in the woods near his home. Before Luke becomes their next victim, a band of “time-travelling, dimension-hopping fugitives” swoops in and brings him to a parallel dimension that resembles the Wild West, except that it’s populated by humanoid insects. Luke’s motley crew consists of a young ghost, Artemis; a robot version of Abraham Lincoln; crotchety inventor Doc; and a beaked tyrannosaur named Zinc—they’re just as oddball a group as the villains pursuing them. Grine (Chickenhare) hooks readers quickly and powerfully with the death of Luke’s brother before transitioning into the kooky hijinks that follow; the villains, in particular, are hilariously hapless in the tradition of Pokémon’s Team Rocket or Skeletor’s henchmen in He-Man. The clean backgrounds, dynamic perspectives panels, and bold linework emphasize action and physical comedy, but the story’s thoughtful consideration of grief and destiny nicely counterbalances its wilder twists and turns. Ages 8–12. (May)