Squalor

"Squalor" is a 4 issues comic-book limited series created by Stefan Petrucha (writer), Tom Sutton (penciller and Art), Paul Mounts (Inker), Jim Massara (Lettering), Alex Wald (art director), Rick Obadia (publisher), Bob Garcia (senior editor), and Larry Doyle (editor)

Squalor was Stefan Petrucha's Comic Debut. Though he had already published novels, short stories, and plays. He was working as a Technical Writer at the time Squalor was produced.

Squalor Number 1 was published in December of 1989 and the 4 part series was released monthly until March of 1990 by the publishing company First Comics.

Covers are paintings by Jeffrey K. Potter, who also created covers for magazines including Analog, Twighlight Zone, and Asimov's.

Plot Summary

The main character named Squalor is a former theoretical physicist who specialized in non-linear time. He came up with a theory that there was a single state outside of time where cause and effect rules do not apply, he called this A-time, and was soon enough carted away to the mental institution. By the time we meet him he has been released from the institution, is now able to visit A-time, and uncovers a plot by other beings outside of space and time - which sounds like more insanity to the people he knows in regular time until they realize that he knows things he should not know

that waitress is about to spill ketchup on herself, she'll think it looks like a butterfly - Squalor

He also figures out how to bring other people into A-time with him, among other powers he gains from being able to look into other people's past and futures from outside of time.