I’ve mentioned the illustrated web-based time travel serial Trickshot a couple of times previously during its work in progress days, but now that it has reached completion I decided another full-blown post was in order.
What’s the best way to tell a time travel story out of order? To tell it in order. That’s the easiest way to sum up the brilliance of Trickshot.
Most time travel tales follow the time traveler:
Marty is in 1985 –> 1955 –> 1985 –> 2015 –> Etc.
Trickshot presents a chronology from the viewpoint of a normal observer living year to year. Time travelers pop in and out from time to time, which really makes you think about the perception of time and the natural order of things.
Doc is in 1885 –> Marty is in 1885 –> ’55 Doc meets ’85 Marty –> Etc.
Of course, we’re not talking about Marty & Doc when it comes to Trickshot. We’re talking about Jacob, Markos, Ricco, Richard & Saul plus a whole bunch of other folks. But saying much more than that would give too much away. Let’s just say that it’s epic, it’s fun, and it’s the only web serial to ever hold my attention — which is quite a feat considering the hundred episodes comprising Trickshot ran over the course of 945 days.
Not enough? Here’s a little more with some minor spoilers: The story spans 165,000+ years from biblical times to the year 3096, but where it starts depends on your frame of reference. The plot has four main arcs that interconnect in a unique sort of tesseract revolving around determined time traveler Jacob Barnes, the Chronodynamics Guild, time travel inventor Richard Garrison, and time travel inventor Saul. (Yes, references to 3 different creators and 165,000 years are not typos.)
Each section works well as a stand-alone, while uniting together to solve a larger mystery involving a mysterious historic event in the Earth’s history known only as “Jericho.” The story also contains nods to a number of other time travel classics, much like Timely Persuasion.
Intrigued? An eBook version is allegedly on the way. In the meantime you can check out Trickshot at thetrickshot.com.
UPDATE: I’ve come back to this blog post from the year 2026 to let someone in the comments know the Trickshot website is long gone, but the author (not me) passed on this PDF version for posterity.
Hey this is totally weird but I’m kind of an amateur internet archeologist, looking for old lost media for things like the Internet Archive. My dad was talking about the series Trickshot from 2011 and your blog (and like 2 pages on the Wayback Machine) was the only remnant I could find. Anyway, do you happen to still know the author? I was kind of hoping I could find them and they might have a backup. If not no worries and thanks anyway. 🙂
“Totally weird” is fine around these parts. I only met the author because of Trickshot and hadn’t emailed with him since 2011, but I passed on your message and he almost immediately replied letting me know the website version is long gone but he did have a PDF. (He also said “Glad to know someone out there remembers Trickshot.”)
I went back in time and added it at the end of this post 🙂
PS: Shameless plug as long as you’re here, if you and/or your Dad dug Trickshot you might also like my books Timely Persuasion & Local Boy Done Gone, Read in any order related time travel stories, the latter of which was just released as an audiobook last week.
Thanks for stopping by; keep on keepin’ on and stay weird!