Publisher New Baby Productions announces that a graphic novel adaptation of H.G. Wells’ short story, “The Chronic Argonauts,” is currently in production. Originally written by a 22-year old Wells, and published by the Royal College of Science in 1888, the story is considered to be the first well-developed use of a “time machine” in science fiction. It predates Wells’ more famous time traveling novel, The Time Machine, by seven years.

“The Chronic Argonauts” begins with the arrival of the mysterious Dr. Moses Nebogipfel to a small Welsh town. The apprehensions of the simple rural folk eventually cause them to storm the inventor’s workshop in an effort to avenge perceived witchery. Nebogipfel escapes with one other person, the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook, in what is later revealed to be a time machine.

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