West Australian Isekai: Portal-Fantasy Reflections of Perth in Campbell Whyte's Home Time

Home Time (2017 & 2020) is a graphic novel created by West Australian comics-maker Campbell Whyte. The story follows the adventures of a group of Perth primary schoolers who find themselves transported to a fantastical other realm. Applying the taxonomy of the fantasy genre established by Farah Mendlesohn (2008), Home Time can be classified as residing in the Portal-Quest Fantasy category. The comic is a literary descendent of classics such as C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956). It is a contemporary of the booming isekai (other world) sub-genre in Japanese manga, light-novels, and anime. One of the features that makes Home Time unique is its connection to the land it is set and created in. The comic’s other world draws on West Australian flora and fauna, rather than the Medieval European landscapes dominant in other portal-fantasies. The Peaches, the main fantasy race encountered are reminiscent of May Gibbs’ gumnut fairies Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. The landscape is not only inspired by Perth, but demolished landmarks from the city’s past find their way seeping into the other world. These buildings are the remnants of a Lost Perth, just as lost people find their way through the portal as well. Home Time fits more readily into Mendlesohn’s Irregulars categorisation rather than strictly the Portal-Quest Fantasy. The story subverts the heroic expectations of the genre and presents a vision of Perth where the city and its people seep into a fantastical undergrowth.