Volume 2: Greek Gods & Legends
Nominated for the 2019 DiNKy Award for Best Anthology/Collection.
Some reviews for Once Upon a Time Machine vol. 2:
In this quirky and skillfully executed anthology…emotionally charged, character-driven stories join epic tales of combat and perilous journeys to create a volume in which the whole gamut of human experience — desire and power, ingenuity and honor, excessive individualism and wish fulfillment — finds expression.
[…]
The ease with which this volume translates the classical legends of Greek gods and heroes into new generic spaces, and the creative mastery that makes each story challenging and new, are genuinely exciting.
Transcends the limits of Greek myths.
With innovative stories and art…it’s a great addition to middle school graphic collections.
Buy it! I grew up enamored with Greek Mythology and Once Upon a Time Machine Vol. 2 has reminded me of that. It’s refreshing to see the classic myths in a new setting while losing none of their original gravitas.
Hopefully, there will be another volume too? Pretty please.
This was everything for my Greek Mythology loving heart…a great fresh take on each of the tales…I recommend this to anyone who loves great comics and/or Greek Mythology.
Volume 1
Nominated for the 2013 Harvey and Stumptown Comic Arts Awards for Best Anthology.
Here’s what people said about Once Upon a Time Machine vol. 1:
It’s a volume that adults and children will greatly enjoy, with clever, insightful, and witty tales abounding on every page…Highly recommended.
Once Upon A Time Machine is [a] wonderful addition to any library and truly has some imaginative reinterpretations of classic stories and fairy tales, enough so that it stands out from the crowd.
In the end, Once Upon a Time Machine succeeds in its effort to provide updated versions of classic tales, keeping their classical charm and morals while simultaneously imbuing them with new life and new meanings for the new millennium in which we find ourselves.
I honestly and truly tried to find something to say I didn’t like about the book, but I couldn’t do it…No matter your tastes, there’s something for you in this. I cannot recommend this highly enough and give it a 5/5 because that is as high as it goes.
Philadelphia City Paper (cover story)
Time Machine examines knotty, dark issues — death, loss, alienation — but, as with the original stories, there are lessons to be learned. With its wealth of humor, playfulness and gorgeous illustration, it’s completely kid-safe, but grandma will surely get a kick out of it, too.
Anthologies can be somewhat hit or miss, but Once Upon a Time Machine is consistently great throughout. With so many different creators, the artwork and writing style is constantly in flux, and I found myself excited to get past each new title page and see what type of story lay in wait for me next.
In each case the writers succeeded in pushing themselves far beyond the confines of the story and managed to create something entirely unexpected.
Absolutely a must read for anyone who loves both scifi and fables. 5/5
It’s a giant book stuffed to bursting with great stories told with truly unique characters, based on classic fables. Every piece presented here is a quality piece of work and will provide hours of whimsical, light hearted reading.
I found the perfect thing to spread my wonderful love of faerie tales and folktales far and wide…They are by far some of the most original faerie tale re-tellings I’d read… 5/5
Like some of the best fables, there are some melancholy endings here and there, but overall it’s a pretty lighthearted collection, with a few darker, more sinister tales that remind me of the kind of stories I enjoyed when I was a kid.
This is a gorgeous, GORGEOUS presentation. Clocking in at over 400 pages, this book is the type of thing I absolutely adore; beautifully crafted genre stories that take full advantage of the medium of comics.
Overall: A really great collection-everyone a winner and something to please all tastes!
Spectacularly well done…400+ pages of AMAZING illustrations and FANTASTIC fable twists. It took a creative bunch of people to come up with such different perspectives on such old fables.
While all of the stories and illustrations are a brilliant success, the one that stands out the most in my mind as being true to its origins is A.L.I.C.E. It is every bit as nonsensical to me as the original must have been to Victorians!
Brilliant stories like these and many more are found throughout this amazing book.
Something fairy tale, graphic novel, and sci-fi lovers will embrace and love. I love how thick this graphic novel is and how many stories it contains…Overall, a fantastic graphic novel with lots of talent involved in the creation of these stories.
I found this to be a most fascinating read…Even if your young ones have no interest in fairy tales, I think this book will grab their interest anyway.
Overall I think the authors and artists did a great job…and the portraits between the stories…LOVED them! 5/5
Once Upon a Time Machine is awesome…Frankly, I loved it.
A re-imaging of the age-old classics – this is one book you don’t want to miss out on – Go Buy it folks! 5/5
Each one of the over 25 different tales is a wonderful little reading experience all on its own. I firmly believe that this collection of stories will help to solidify Dark Horse Comic’s reputation as one of the most important producers of comics literature today.
AMAZING…Absolutely loved this collection.
For those who love graphic novels and comics generally, this is like a Las Vegas buffet with so many choices you wish you had remembered to pack your ziplock baggies.
The artwork is superb in each story and I found myself wondering what other works some of the artist have done.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I don’t even know where to start with the rest of this volume. EPIC would be a good place to start, I guess…Highly Recommended!
There’s something really wonderful about not having the slightest idea what’s coming next.
A strong theme emerges in the aggregate—namely, how humanity interacts with technology, how we give it life, and what it does to our lives.
So what exactly makes this book so good? Everything!
You can read more reviews, and leave your own, on Goodreads.
Here’s some other press the book’s received:
Huffington Post: “Once Upon a Time…”
Diamond Bookshelf: “Futuristic Fairy Tales: A Look Into Once Upon A Time Machine”
Philadelphia Inquirer: “Get some great minds together and wait for the ideas to flow”
iFanboy: “The Power of Anthology”
ReaWrite: “Interview: Andrew Carl and Chris Stevens of Once Upon A Time Machine”
Comic Booked: “Locust Moon & Dark Horse Comics Release ‘Once Upon A Time Machine'”
Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex: “Holiday Gift Guide 2012”
Comic News Insider: “Episode 440 – More NYCC…”
University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House: “Charles Bernheimer Symposium: Locust Moon Press on Comics”
About.com: “Book Publishing: Behind the Illustrated Book Trailer”
Once Upon a Time Machine 
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