The Transformers have been an almost constant presence in the comic-book industry since Marvel Comics started producing a book based on the cartoon based on the toys back in 1984, roaring back to prominence this decade as part of a millennial boom in ’80s nostalgia. And yet, despite the massive amount of
Transformers comics to see print over the last quarter century, Jeffrey Brown’s new graphic novel The Incredible Change-Bots (Top Shelf Productions) is still remarkably original.
In fact, I believe it’s the first comic (or work of any fictive medium, actually) to respond to the Transformers as a cultural phenomenon in any way other than an officially licensed adaptation weaving some adventure story or other about toy robots that can turn into toy vehicles.
Brown, best known for crudely drawn but emotionally affecting black-and-white comics about his own pathetic love life, introduces us to the Awesomebots and the Fantasticons, two warring races of robots who can transf—er, “incredible-change” into vehicles. When the Fantasticon leader Shootertron defeats Awesomebot leader Big Rig in a rigged election for the presidency of their home planet, having hacked the electronic voting machines, the ’bots shift their battlefield to Earth.
What follows is an odd half-parody of the Transformers, with the peculiar tropes of the after-school cartoon being faithfully reenacted, but in a way that is endearingly childlike. From the Incredible Change-Bots’ unimaginative names (a racecar named Racey, a microwave named Microwave) to the sound effects that sound like they came straight from a little kid’s mouth (“Byew! Byew!” go the guns) to the way the characters act like kids playing Transformers while fighting (calling time out, complaining they didn’t have time to set up or that a piece got stuck), Brown’s book is steeped in the evocation of fond childhood memories.
But it’s not the kind of cynical “Hey, adult males aged 25-32, you liked this crap when you were in grade school, you’ll like it now that it’s more violent and you have more disposable income!” nostalgia that continues to drive toy-makers Hasbro’s Transformers machine. Rather, Brown helps readers relive the joy they felt playing with their toys and watching their cartoons as 8-year-olds.
Obviously, it’s not for everyone. If you didn’t play Transformers with your friends at recess, or watch repeats of the cartoons every weekday, I can’t imagine this book will make any sense at all. But there are apparently enough of us who share those specific qualifications that now Hollywood is making live-action movies with massive budgets that cater to our very specific childhood memories, so Brown’s remarkable book ought to do just fine.
And as goofy and lame as some of the Change-Bots are—like the golf cart named Balls or the bicycle named Wheeeee—they’re still a thousand times cooler than the freaking Gobots.