In most (if not all) stories of time travel, there is a golden rule: DON’T CHANGE THE PAST. However, if you get permission from the co-op of your local Guild of Independent Lady Temporalists (or G.I.L.T.) then you might get a pass. Created by Eisner-nominated writer Alisa Kwitney and artist Mauricet, Kwitney told Women Write About Comics that the themes and elements of this story were inspired by some of her favorite time-traveling stories and a desire to see stories of women beyond their forties.
IGN described G.I.L.T. as a mix between The Golden Girls, Sex and the City, and the Twilight Zone. Reading the first issue so far, I definitely get this vibe, for better and for worse. However, something that strengthens it is its working-class politics, the resemblance of the forced proximity trope (a romance trope that, while used differently, gives it charm), and the Yiddish from Hildy that works so well within the story that even not knowing half the phrases, I understand exactly what she means.
G.I.L.T. follows two very different women whose lives become entangled when they both slip through a portal in time to the day they first met in 1973. Trista is the Bill Murray of home health care aides, a cynical screw-up who doesn’t care for anything but her Fleuvog shoes and her paycheck. She meets her match in Hildy, a sarcastic second-wave feminist living on a steady diet of cigarettes and regret.
When Hildy seizes her last chance to return to a fateful day in 1973, she accidentally takes Trista along for the ride. But as the old saying goes, there are no accidents in time travel. And Hildy and Trista don’t remember each other, but they met each other forty years earlier–on Hildy’s wedding day. Now they’ve got to come to terms with the past before they accidentally dismantle the future.
Exclusive: G.I.L.T. Issue 1 Preview
Earlier this month, the first volume of G.I.L.T. was released from Ahoy Comics. In addition to all the issues so far, the book contains never before seen art from Mauricet. Ahoy Comics reached out to The Mary Sue and offered an exclusive preview of the story by giving TMS readers the entire first issue of the story. Most of it is the same parts of the story as the summaries online, to keep spoilers at bay, but the way it’s told and illustrated is well worth the read and fully gives the vibe of who these two women are—well, as far as we know.
Read the rest of G.I.L.T. Issue #1 here.
If you liked what you saw and, like me have more questions about how Hildy and Trista are connected, volume one is available for purchase.
(featured images: Ahoy Comics)
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