We Can Fix It! A Time Travel Memoir

Title: We Can Fix It! A Time Travel Memoir

Series: Original Graphic Novel

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

Publication Date: May 2013

Creative Team: 

            Writer/Artist: Jess Fink

Genre: Sci-Fi, Memoir

I’m a sucker for a time travel story.  If time travel was steak, I would be on my 32^nd heart attack (one for every year of life).  I saw the words “Time Travel Memoir” and without further consideration, I bought it.  See?  Sucker.  Luckily, my 7 bucks at Comixology were not spent in vain.  After reading this highly entertaining time travel memoir, I figured I would study up on what else Ms. Fink has been up too.  As far as I could tell, We Can Fix It! is Jess’ only non erotic comics work.  Having said that, the comic is still sexually charged but in a soft ‘R’ college movie sort of way.  So if that is not your cup of tea, you have been warned.  All in all, I think We Can Fix It! is a very unapologetic self aware work.  Jess Fink knows who she is. 

Don't worry your secrets are my secrets are your secrets....right?

The premise of the comic is pretty simple.  Jess Fink has a time machine.  I think we all like to kid ourselves that if we could travel through time we would endeavor to better the world somehow.  Some people think they would kill Adolf Hitler, others would save a loved one from peril, and still others would correct a long regretted mistake.  However, Jess’ goal is probably a bit more realistic. She’s going to visit her past and make out with it!  Sort of like a personal greatest sexual escapades world tour.  That could have been the whole plot but Jess soon discovers that reliving (and occasionally joining in) with her sexist moments is not as pleasant as it sounds.

Guitar sounds are the harbinger of all sexy things.

We Can Fix It! deals with the erroneous nature of memory in a playful way.  Jess, like all of us, remembers the events of her life differently depending on her mood.  At first, she remembers the moments of her sexual awakening as intense and wonderful but quickly realizes that they were awkward and a bit embarrassing. (I doubt there is an adult alive who can’t relate to that).  Finding her journey unexpectedly depressing, she decides to rethink her trip.  She starts to visit moments she remembers going poorly hoping to be pleasantly surprised.  Finding that they aren’t any better she decides that…She Can Fix It! (that’s almost the title).  Before long she’s zipping back and forth across her life trying to smooth out the rough patches.  We’re shown everything from Jess taking ‘sexy’ (awkward) pictures for a boy to an especially bratty encounter with her hard working single mother.  Eventually after having little luck with the smaller moments she tries to fix the big ones.  It’s heart breaking watching an especially dark moment involving her estranged father.  While hoping from the ridiculous to the tragic nothing feels out of place.  Jess easily manages to maintain a uniformity of tone.  By the end Jess has learned what we all eventually have to come to terms with: all our experiences, even the horrible ones, make us who we are.  It’s more important to look to the future than to dwell on the past.

This generally light-hearted story does momentarily get dark.

At first glance, We Can Fix It! feels like it was torn from the pages of someone’s high school notebook.  The art work looks like it was entirely produced with a standard lead pencil.  I’m not sure if that’s truly the case or if she achieved that look by some other process.  When an artist has a more simplistic style I always wonder if that’s the best they can manage or a stylistic choice.  With Ms. Fink, I assume it’s the later.  She seems to have a good grasp of anatomy and has fun caricaturizing it.  Her style is entertaining and doodle-esque which fits well with the time period of her life that’s being covered.  It helps to maintain a light playful tone.  The art, like the story, doesn't take itself too seriously.

Past Jess trying to make sense of drunk night watching Bio-dome.

All in all, We Can Fix It! was a fun ride.  I realized that I’m close to the same age as Jess so I easily related to some of the quirks of being a kid in the 90s.  Sure, there were spots that were awkward, juvenile, and weird but that’s a lot of what life is when you’re growing up.  I’ll be keeping an eye out for what Jess Fink does next.

Paradox free time travel.  That's Allstate's stand.

Grade: B+