A Time to Fight (Sainted Love #1)

Orlando (Scarlet Witch) teams up with Italian cartoonist Giopota for a giddy mashup of sci-fi adventure and queer romance. The story opens in 1907 on heroes Malcolm, who has just invented a time machine he calls the “Chrono Corridor,” and his lover John, a hunky professional boxer. When a homophobic detective attempts to arrest them for “public safety” violations (“You smell like sex, and not a woman in sight”), they flee in the time machine, landing in Hollywood circa 1954—only to find they’re being pursued, across time, by an organization called The Pilgrims that has been persecuting gay people throughout history (”You grow like weeds in every age, but weeds can be plucked,” one member taunts, before John punches him in the face). When the pair journey back to the year 307, they befriend fabled Roman lovers Sergius and Bacchus for more adventures and erotic exploits. While Orlando earnestly addresses the victimization of gay people throughout the ages, he also offers up plenty of fight scenes and several tasteful and semi-explicit sexual encounters, ably depicted in bouncy art by Giopota. This is slick comics storytelling and lots of fun. (Aug.)