Times Like This
She doesn't waste time – She recycles it.
Times Like This is a webcomic created by Thomas Overbeck. It is, as the author puts it succinctly, a webcomic "about time travel, and all the fun and interesting stuff involved with it. It's also about lampooning historical figures and speculating humorously on current celebrities."
In short – it's a "Comedy of Eras."
The main character is Cassie Wells (whose name is doubly appropriate, all things considered), a young female genius who discovers the ability to travel through time. She works at a high-tech lab in the Dallas area specializing in Nanotechnology.
She has two friends helping her with her travels: Matt Gahan, an electronics expert whom Cassie befriended when he worked at the travel agency next door; and her best friend from school, Bethany Gibson.
She lives in the greater Dallas area along with Bethany, her pet dinosaur Mascus, and her MIRA-7 robot, named Nicki Darling. (Yes, exactly what you're thinking - Matt came up with the last name, and she wasn't too thrilled about it.)
Her travels are "monitored" by the Federal government - but not how you'd expect. Agent Keith Scott has been assigned by the FBI to keep tabs on her - and help her keep her secret.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- A Little Something We Call Rock and Roll:
- Adventures in The Bible: Cassie witnesses firsthand the birth of Jesus, while Matt has some fun with the dead, decapitated Goliath.
- Affectionate Parody: Examples include the cast discussing what could've happened in Star Wars or Gilligan's Island; the cast re-enacting the opening to a TV show; or various commercials redone with historical figures.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: The time machine itself.
- Art Evolution: Compare and contrast a crude, unevenly drawn strip from 2007... and a more refined work in 2012. (And at times, the author may pull a George Lucas and retool an earlier strip if he thinks the end product really sucked in hindsight.)
- Art Shift: Thanks to guest artist Halo Seraphim, Cassie looks quite artistically different once she arrives in Japan.
- Ascended Extra: Philip Webber started out as a casual acquaintance on a Second Life-ish virtual world. After an in-person meet-up and various arguments, breakups and near-death experiences, he's become Cassie's steady boyfriend... and as a result showed up on the cast page by the end of 2011.
- Author Avatar: The creator showing up at a comic convention or a renaissance festival.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Nicki. She's not a sexbot, you see.
- Big Damn Heroes: Cassie's not thrilled about this trope from the start.
- Brain Bleach: What Bethany's wanting after Cassie describes herself getting intimate with Uncle Miltie. (Which leads to a Big Shut Up.)
- Butterfly of Doom: What happens if Cassie tells someone about the time machine, and they can't keep the secret? This.
- Call Back: There've been a few "repeated scenes" in the comic; one of them happening to be Cassie's first day at TerCon.
- Clothes Make The Pooper-Man: ANED-enhanced underwear in 2071.
- Cosplay: Or at least that's what people THINK all those costumes in her garage are.
- David Versus Goliath: The actual original showdown. And Matt's a witness.
- Drag Queen: Matt as the original "Sweet Transvestite".
- Elaborate Underground Resort: Paratopia!
- Entendre Failure: Matt, in the Old West, tells a saloon belle she could "pull a train". Guess what she does.
- Explain Explain Oh Crap: Cassie's father breaks up a fight between her and her mother. ...and brings up his wife's cancer sooner than intended.
- Ethical Slut: Cassie. And she states her case here.
- Feghoot: Cassie tells a tale of her old classmate Eli, which turns into a Shout Out to Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis.
- Fish Out of Temporal Water: Cassie tends to subvert this, mostly because of her large cosplay collection.
- Maggie Harper, an Irish girl from the middle ages saved by Cassie.
- Joan Arquette, aka Joan of Arc. Yes, really.
- Free Love Future: Nicki's seen the future... and after the human incubator is invented, there's another sexual revolution.
- Genre Savvy: Cassie knows pretty much from the day she began time traveling that she needed to keep it a secret. Agent Scott just helped things along.
- Gilligan Cut: Subverted in the Christmas Tree search of 2009 (which is also a subtle example of Who Writes This Crap?!).
- Giving Radio to The Romans: Ever wonder how Robin Hood managed to shoot arrows with such great accuracy?
- Green Rock: Literally.
- The Gump: (or what the author likes to call "Gumpification") Sometimes Cassie or Matt accidentally do this, with the result ending up as inspiration for a pop song, the wording of a document, or a fad.
- Historical in Joke: The overriding theme of the comic.
- Hot Scientist: Cassie, of course. Not to mention she's a former Teen Genius who graduated high school two years early, and got her Master's Degree in Physics only five years later.
- It Will Never Catch On: Examples include Cassie suggesting "Twilight" elements to the author of "Dracula", telling Devo in 1980 they'll one day do kiddie-show music or giving a network show idea to a past executive of the same network.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Many a time to Cassie, especially after it forced her to break up with both Chad and Allen.
- Leaning On the Fourth Wall: "Oh please... It's not even worthy of a half-assed COMIC STRIP!"
- Little People Are Surreal: Agent Scott.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Cassie can attest to this, especially with her relationships with exes Chad and Allen. She subverts it in other ways, of course.
- Master of Disguise: Agent Scott.
- Men in Black: Agent Scott again. Complete with neuralyzer.
- Mistaken for Masturbating: It's not "pocket rocket" action, Cassie's just wetting her panties in the car! ...wait, what?
- Nerds Are Sexy: Come on; a hot babe like her with a pink camisole under a lab coat, talking about having sex on a conference table?
- Potty Failure: Subverted in the "Cassandra's Secret" storyline. In the future, everyone will poop their pants... but their nanotech-enhanced underwear will instantly vaporize the excrement.
- Punctuated for Emphasis: Two! Instances!
- Reality Is Unrealistic: When she describes the future to people in the present... or past. (See also Retroactive Precognition.)
- Robot Buddy: The ever-versatile Nicki.
- Running Gag: Cassie the Sooner vs. Rodney the Longhorn.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Subverted in the story arc with Jake Holland and Vietnam, but played straight with the rescue of Joan of Arc using a realistic human-looking movie prop. Also with the rescue of her boyfriend Philip.
- Shout Out: Cassie uses the passcode "Rufus" for her fembot, Nicki. She also uses the names of other famous time travelers, like Doc (Emmett) Brown, Jules Verne, and, of course, HG Wells.
- Sorry to Interrupt: Cassie's home, so she goes back in time to get an extra few hours of sleep. ...and catches Matt & Bethany in bed.
- Speechbubbles Interruption: A couple of examples:
- Take Your Time: The whole story arc surrounding the purchase of her house is an example of this.
- Technology Marches On: Strips set in the future are full of things like holographic interfaces, holographic clothing, Net-Paper and battery tape.
- Temporal Paradox: Somewhat subverted. Cassie isn't afraid to "meet" herself in the past... with all the squick that comes along with that.
- Time Travel: Of course.
- Time Travel for Fun And Profit: Of course, of course. It is how Cassie funds many of her travels... and you know how bad inflation could get in the future.
- Time Travel Tense Trouble: "...has will have been visited..."
- Unobtainium: AKA Sesquicentium, the "rock" that drives the time machine.
- We Will Have Perfect Health in The Future: Thanks to Ready Remedy vending machines, dispensing medicine that completely cures over 25,000 ailments.
- What the Hell Hero: Bethany's initial reaction to Cassie trapping Agent Scott in the 16th century.