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Review: Change #1

Covers and creators are the way into something unknown.

Image seems to have a plethora of excellent new series every quarter and with them come some eye-catching covers. The combination of the two make it hard to leave on the shelves. Add in my recent fondness for writer Ales Kot, and I decided to go back and check out Change #1.

Ales Kot’s writing style is opaque. I remember having a general notion of the story in Wild Children but still being unsure of where things where headed, what the message was, and why. Change opens in a familiar obscurity. Lines are blurred both in reality as well as with time. It becomes apparent by the time the reader finds the title page that this book is not to be ingested passively. 

In the book, we meet a few named and a few unnamed characters. We meet W-2, rapper and movie producer. We meet Sonia, a screenwriter searching for work, Werner, who appears to be the agent, or some sort of business person. We are also introduced to several other characters that have little explanation, and no names. Some are cosmic, some seem cultish, and one appears to be outside of the story entirely, possibly even the narrator, the one writing what we are reading. Between the way in which the book’s event are written as well as the interesting choices in art and panel work, the actual story here is incredibly hazy. 

It is a hard book to recommend after one issue. There are a lot of high concept elements at play here. Add in the very well done art work, publishing company’s recent track record, and the fact that this is a one-of-four mini series and it is equally as difficult to walk away from.