EXPOSITION: From the first few pages onwards it’s clear that this is one of those LA stories, an everyday apocalypse in which a strung out and savvy cast of screenwriters, rappers, astronauts, agents and cultists collide against a genre-mashed backdrop; the prophetic screenplay that drives the story is modeled on The Last Boy Scout, but Richard Kelly’s media-frazzled sci-fi meltdown Southland Tales seems the more fitting tonal counterpoint for this story of a city stuck on an apparently endless cycle of destruction.

You might remember reading about all this in the early hype, but if not you can always obtain the first issue for free online and get a flavour for it yourself.

The main characters in CHANGE are lost and ambitious souls, tilting after people and projects like a set of modern day Don Quixotes, struggling to find their way to an imaginary elsewhere that might just resemble home if they can stick the landing.

If there’s a criticism to be raised here it’s perhaps that the women in this comic tend to be framed at the centre of the madness, while the men are given more active roles as explorers.  Richard Doublehead (“the Virginia Woolf of screenwriters”) and rapper turned movie producer W-2 and find themselves instigating the plot and exploring it respectively, and in their dueling roles both men are spurred on by the loss of their partners.  Charlie Kaufman style maverick screenwriter and surprisingly competent car thief Sonia has a more active role than either of the female love interests, but her ability to write what’s about to happen still positions her as being somehow in tune with the madness where her fellow protagonists affect and are affected by it:

Thinking about Sonia’s character, I keep coming back to Angela Carter talking about her experience with the surrealists:

…I had to give them up in the end. They were, with a few patronized exceptions, all men and they told me that I was the source of all mystery, beauty, and otherness, because I was a woman – and I knew that was not true. I knew I wanted my fair share of the imagination, too. Not an excessive amount, mind; I wasn’t greedy. Just an equal share in the right to vision.

If Sonia has anything, it’s vision, but somehow her goals seem less tangible those of her male counterparts; for all that her voice is the most purely entertaining one in the comic, I still can’t help but feel that her arc is also the least satisfying.  Even the astronaut, who spends most of his page time cut off from the other characters, finds himself on a journey to be reunited with them and with himself:

DEVELOPMENT: The great strength of this comic is that Ales Kot seems to trust and understand his collaborators, who provide page after page of the sort of vivid physical and mental trauma that the script demands.  Morgan Jeske’s gloriously repugnant linework supplies the former, grounding the book in the world of the flesh even as symbolism and psychedelia threaten to overwhelm reality:

If, as the narration claims, CHANGE is a story about “beings who feed on circular space-time”, perhaps it makes sense that it packs a startling amount of physical decay into its four issues/that it plays out like a Vine video in which kids turn to skeletons and back again in the blink of an eye.   Most previously available examples of Jeske’s work had a slick PulpHope vibe to them, but whether the demands of the story or the shift in technique (this was the first comic he drew entirely on his Clintiq tablet, apparently) guided his hand provide this level of rotten sensuality, the book wouldn’t be half as effective without it.

Sloane Leong’s hot, queasy colours make the psychic devastation every bit as inescapable as the physical decay on display.  Compelling as the heightened reality of the first issue is, the latter parts of the story are far more ambitious, forgoing vain mimetics in favour of blazing artifice and making use of the full possibilities of colouring in a way that few contemporary pop comics artists have either the head or the heart for.

Take the following excerpt, in which a couple cycle through a series of sickly colour shifts during a sequence of startling intimacy:

I praised Jeske for bringing ugliness to this book a few paragraphs ago, but these panels make it obvious that he provides a lot of genuinely beautiful images too.  I’m particularly fond of the second panel above, where Doublehead’s arm seem to expand towards infinity at the bottom of the frame, promising an equally endless supply of comfort in the process.  Still, while Jeske and Kot provide a jumble of overlapping moments that add up to an intensely tender portrait of young love, Leong makes sure that the “sepsis” that taints this story is present throughout, corrupting the past with the sickness of events yet to come.

As the series goes on you can detect the confidence of the art team increasing, and this brings out the best in Kot, who seems to know that whatever nuances of story that aren’t conveyed between the art and the fragments of text he scatters on top of it are all the more suggestive for being trapped between the two:

Working together like this the CHANGE crew maintain a tone of disorientated clarity: narration and dialogue from one plot thread bleeds over another, sometimes punning on the visuals in a style that’s been popular since Alan Moore’s beard first screamed “Look ma, it’s art!” (see above), but more often blurring the boundaries between different narratives until they finally converge in the cathartic finale.  The sense of synaesthetic overload is palpable, to the extent that you might not quite be sure which sense is being triggered and which is being simulated in the end.

RECAPITULATION:  Speaking of endings, let’s… let’s just throw a little *SPOILER* warning in the air, so we can all feel comfortable living through this one.

If the first issue of CHANGE established a lived-in vision of LA that echoed many of its fictional representations, and if the second and third issues saw this vision corrupted by the desperate longing in the hearts of its male characters (seriously, check the way the characters move from realised locations to toxic soulscapes as the story progresses) then the fourth and final issue threatened to obscure the whole thing by ramming it up the arsehole of a Lovecraftian monstrosity:

Thankfully neither the “Great Old One” nor his bowel movements can entirely obscure the emotional throughline of Change.  The grotty texture of Jeske’s line finds its apex in his depictions of the inner-workings of this unnameable, unimaginable thing, as Leong lets the unreality bleed out of her colours, all of it in the name of bringing everything together, of finding a way out of the cycle of creation and destruction that haunts the book.

Doublehead’s trip into the unspeakable beast’s colon and back might initially feels like flatulent punchline to a threat that seemed genuinely real and terrifying when seen from the Astronaut’s cockpit in issue #1…

…but it also provides a key insight into CHANGE’s version of the apocalypse.   CHANGE’s tonal antecedent Southland Tales dealt with America’s toxic interventions in global politics in terms of the harm it had done to America itself (rather than, say, Iraq) and CHANGE follows suit for the most part, with the hot Stiffler-on-Stiffler reconciliation of Southland Tales’ finale being echoed in the pile up of alternate Doubleheads that we find here, a rapid blur of collisions and separations that ends with a kiss:

Words flit through from a hospital beside bleached white with memory, Doublehead’s mother, speaking to her son after a failed suicide bid: “People don’t actually forget things.  You’ll just have to live with it instead.”

CHANGE, then, is an attempt to deal with childhood trauma, an acknowledgement that some things never really get better, a letter to lost loves, an attempt to imagine back into being that which has been forever lost, and – FINALLY - a stealth account of an earnest attempt to care for someone with mental health issues.  It’s also a story in which the failure to deal with seemingly irresolvable problems becomes a seemingly irresolvable problem of its own.  The transformation of otherworldly horror into a process of the body can be seen as a a description of the way internal pressures can end up feeling like the rot at the heart of everything one day and a manageable condition the next.

And so as Richard Doublehead staggers out of the ocean, fresh from giving his inner Patrick McGoohan a good seeing too, everything seems possible: “Nothing is too beautiful to happen,” we’re told.  “Nothing is too good to last.”  It’s a welcome reminder that the seemingly inescapable horrors of our current condition aren’t “just” facts of life, but the CHANGE team are careful make sure that we know it’s never quite as easy as that:

Sonia wakes up with a hole in her head, still perfectly in tune with the madness of the world.

Doublehead looks out over the city and sees a cycle broken, a world of possibility laid out before his feet.

But W-2?  Shit, that poor bastard just gets to go home to an empty bed.

The apocalypse is averted in the end but comic book time — the source of potentially limitless energy in Kot’s debut, Wild Children — provides the blight of eternal recurrence for the reader. The only way to properly break the cycle, to stop this loop from existing in its complete form until the sun melts the ground beneath our feet, would be to travel the world burning every copy of this comic you could get your hands on and smashing every device that holds a digital copy.

Failing that, you’ll just have to learn to live with (through?) it, just like the comic said, safe in the knowledge that it could be you who’s left lying on your own at the end of this rotation, dreaming up new ways for the world to end…

***

Soundtrack:

Marnie Stern – ‘The Year of the Glad’

Marnie Stern – ‘Nothing Is Easy’

Marnie Stern – ‘Hell Yes’

77 Responses to ““Everything’s Starting Now” – CHANGE by Ales Kot, Morgan Jeske, Sloane Leong and Ed Brisson”

  1. JamesGexia Says:

    https://over-the-counter-drug.com/# best over the counter medicine for sore throat

  2. Thomasautom Says:

    https://stromectol.science/# ivermectin oral solution

  3. Thomasautom Says:

    https://zithromax.science/# buy zithromax 1000 mg online

  4. RonaldBer Says:

    Get warning information here. safe and effective drugs are available.
    ivermectin eye drops
    Read information now. earch our drug database.

  5. Jamesindut Says:

    Long-Term Effects. Everything information about medication.
    cost of ivermectin
    Medscape Drugs & Diseases. Generic Name.

  6. Jessemople Says:

    Top 100 Searched Drugs. safe and effective drugs are available.
    https://stromectolst.com/# ivermectin lice
    Drug information. Get information now.

  7. Kevininfob Says:

    drug information and news for professionals and consumers. Drug information.
    https://stromectolst.com/# ivermectin price
    Everything information about medication. All trends of medicament.

  8. RonaldBer Says:

    Cautions. Everything about medicine.
    ivermectin pill cost
    Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information. Best and news about drug.

  9. Zacharyadeve Says:

    Drugs information sheet. Some trends of drugs.
    ivermectin 5 mg
    What side effects can this medication cause? Everything information about medication.

  10. Kevininfob Says:

    Everything information about medication. Get information now.
    ivermectin 3mg tablets price
    Get warning information here. earch our drug database.

  11. Kevininfob Says:

    Read information now. Everything what you want to know about pills.
    https://stromectolst.com/# stromectol 3mg
    Read information now. Get warning information here.

  12. Zacharyadeve Says:

    Cautions. Get information now.
    stromectol tablet 3 mg
    Everything information about medication. Commonly Used Drugs Charts.

  13. Kevininfob Says:

    Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics. Drug information.
    https://stromectolst.com/# ivermectin price canada
    Get information now. What side effects can this medication cause?

  14. Jessemople Says:

    Learn about the side effects, dosages, and interactions. Get information now.
    ivermectin 5 mg
    Get warning information here. Actual trends of drug.

  15. Kevininfob Says:

    Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe. Cautions.
    https://stromectolst.com/# buy stromectol online uk
    Long-Term Effects. Everything about medicine.

  16. Zacharyadeve Says:

    п»їMedicament prescribing information. Everything what you want to know about pills.
    ivermectin 500ml
    Get warning information here. Drugs information sheet.

  17. RonaldBer Says:

    Read information now. Generic Name.
    stromectol covid
    Actual trends of drug. Generic Name.

  18. Kevininfob Says:

    Everything information about medication. Actual trends of drug.
    ivermectin purchase
    Medicament prescribing information. Everything what you want to know about pills.

  19. DavidTrumn Says:

    Actual trends of drug. Everything about medicine.
    can i get nexium without insurance
    safe and effective drugs are available. Generic Name.

  20. WillieWem Says:

    Actual trends of drug. Cautions.
    can you get nexium without a prescription
    Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics. Medscape Drugs & Diseases.

  21. Jameskex Says:

    drug information and news for professionals and consumers. earch our drug database.
    buy levaquin without dr prescription
    Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics. Actual trends of drug.

  22. Donaldtaf Says:

    Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side. Read information now.
    lisinopril online canadian pharmacy
    All trends of medicament. drug information and news for professionals and consumers.

  23. DavidTrumn Says:

    Actual trends of drug. Long-Term Effects.
    buy lisinopril without a prescription
    Cautions. Some trends of drugs.

  24. WillieWem Says:

    Read information now. Everything what you want to know about pills. can you buy generic avodart tablets
    earch our drug database. Some trends of drugs.

  25. JamesHog Says:

    Get here. safe and effective drugs are available.
    where to get generic levaquin pill
    Drugs information sheet. Everything about medicine.

  26. Donaldtaf Says:

    Read now. Commonly Used Drugs Charts. https://avodart.science/# how to get generic avodart without prescription
    Drugs information sheet. Everything information about medication.

  27. Jameskex Says:

    Get warning information here. earch our drug database.
    lisinopril 5 mg price
    Actual trends of drug. Get here.

  28. Donaldtaf Says:

    Get here. Everything what you want to know about pills.
    https://lisinopril.science/# zestril 40 mg
    What side effects can this medication cause? Generic Name.

  29. WillieWem Says:

    drug information and news for professionals and consumers. What side effects can this medication cause?
    https://lisinopril.science/# zestril 10 mg price
    Read now. Top 100 Searched Drugs.

  30. DavidTrumn Says:

    All trends of medicament. Long-Term Effects. how to buy avodart
    Generic Name. Read information now.

  31. DennisAbrat Says:

    earch our drug database. Actual trends of drug.
    where can i get zithromax
    drug information and news for professionals and consumers. Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics.

  32. DavidRew Says:

    safe and effective drugs are available. safe and effective drugs are available. https://amoxicillins.online/ amoxicillin 500mg buy online uk
    Long-Term Effects. Read now.

  33. Donaldboove Says:

    Some trends of drugs. earch our drug database. how to get amoxicillin
    Read now. Get warning information here.

  34. JamesGumma Says:

    earch our drug database. Generic Name. amoxicillin for sale
    Read information now. Drug information.

  35. DennisAbrat Says:

    Top 100 Searched Drugs. safe and effective drugs are available.
    https://clomiphenes.com get generic clomid no prescription
    Top 100 Searched Drugs. All trends of medicament.

  36. DavidRew Says:

    Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe. Drugs information sheet. canadian pharmacy amoxicillin
    safe and effective drugs are available. Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information.

  37. Aaronzek Says:

    Drugs information sheet. earch our drug database. https://amoxicillins.com/ amoxicillin 800 mg price
    Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information. earch our drug database.

  38. JamesGumma Says:

    Read information now. п»їMedicament prescribing information.
    how to get generic propecia no prescription
    Get warning information here. Drugs information sheet.

  39. DennisAbrat Says:

    Commonly Used Drugs Charts. Read information now.
    https://clomiphenes.com can i order clomid
    Get here. Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side.

  40. DavidRew Says:

    Get warning information here. Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information.
    zithromax 250 mg pill
    Everything information about medication. Everything about medicine.

  41. Donaldboove Says:

    Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side. Drug information.
    buy azithromycin zithromax
    Actual trends of drug. Everything about medicine.

  42. JamesGumma Says:

    Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe. Get here. amoxicillin 500mg no prescription
    Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side. Commonly Used Drugs Charts.

  43. Aaronzek Says:

    Top 100 Searched Drugs. Read now.
    https://finasteridest.com/ cost of cheap propecia no prescription
    Medscape Drugs & Diseases. What side effects can this medication cause?

  44. DavidRew Says:

    All trends of medicament. earch our drug database.
    https://clomiphenes.online where to get cheap clomid prices
    Everything information about medication. earch our drug database.

  45. DennisAbrat Says:

    Top 100 Searched Drugs. Get information now.
    clomid generic
    Actual trends of drug. Read now.

  46. JamesGumma Says:

    Drugs information sheet. Get here.
    https://azithromycins.online/ zithromax 1000 mg online
    All trends of medicament. Learn about the side effects, dosages, and interactions.

  47. Robertrar Says:

    Medscape Drugs & Diseases. Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side.
    https://canadianfast.online/# canadian drug pharmacy
    Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information. Get information now.

  48. Jeffreyweerm Says:

    Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side. Medscape Drugs & Diseases.
    https://canadianfast.online/# best canadian pharmacy online
    Get here. Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe.

  49. MichaelSox Says:

    п»їMedicament prescribing information. earch our drug database.
    prescription without a doctor’s prescription
    Cautions. Everything about medicine.

  50. EdgarFloal Says:

    Everything information about medication. Read now.
    buy canadian drugs
    drug information and news for professionals and consumers. Generic Name.

  51. Jeffreyweerm Says:

    Drugs information sheet. drug information and news for professionals and consumers.
    canadian pharmacy online store
    Drugs information sheet. Drug information.

  52. Victorkah Says:

    Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics. Read information now.
    canadian drugs online
    Drug information. Generic Name.

  53. Robertrar Says:

    Everything about medicine. Best and news about drug.
    canadian drugs pharmacy
    Drugs information sheet. Best and news about drug.

  54. Jeffreyweerm Says:

    Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information. Learn about the side effects, dosages, and interactions.
    https://canadianfast.com/# prescription drugs without prior prescription
    Commonly Used Drugs Charts. Get here.

  55. EdgarFloal Says:

    Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe. Medicament prescribing information.
    buy prescription drugs without doctor
    Cautions. Everything information about medication.

  56. BradleyExces Says:

    Best and news about drug. Cautions.
    viagra in hamburg
    What side effects can this medication cause? Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe.

  57. Charlesmucky Says:

    Drug information. Read information now.
    st martin viagra
    Medscape Drugs & Diseases. Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics.

  58. BillyShien Says:

    Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe. Everything what you want to know about pills.
    viagra overnite shipping
    Commonly Used Drugs Charts. All trends of medicament.

  59. BradleyExces Says:

    earch our drug database. Some trends of drugs.
    https://viagrapillsild.com/# prices viagra
    Everything about medicine. Commonly Used Drugs Charts.

  60. Charlesmucky Says:

    Read information now. Learn about the side effects, dosages, and interactions.
    sildenafil pharmacy nz
    Everything about medicine. Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side.

  61. Sammyletle Says:

    Get warning information here. Everything about medicine.
    viagra click here info buy cialis
    Read now. Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information.

  62. BradleyExces Says:

    Top 100 Searched Drugs. Definitive journal of drugs and therapeutics.
    best price for sildenafil 20 mg
    What side effects can this medication cause? drug information and news for professionals and consumers.

  63. Willissip Says:

    Everything what you want to know about pills. Read now.
    tadalafil cost india
    What side effects can this medication cause? Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe.

  64. RobertLeply Says:

    Read information now. Drug information.
    where to buy tadalafil 20mg
    Get information now. Everything information about medication.

  65. MorrisEroge Says:

    Drug information. All trends of medicament.
    best deals on cialis super active plus online
    Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information. Generic Name.

  66. AlbertDor Says:

    Read information now. Read information now.
    https://tadalafil1st.online/# canadian cialis online
    Best and news about drug. Long-Term Effects.

  67. Willissip Says:

    Everything information about medication. safe and effective drugs are available.
    tadalafil online no prescription
    Best and news about drug. All trends of medicament.

  68. Sammyletle Says:

    Top 100 Searched Drugs. Learn about the side effects, dosages, and interactions.
    buy cheap tadalafil online
    Actual trends of drug. Medscape Drugs & Diseases.

  69. RobertLeply Says:

    Commonly Used Drugs Charts. Some trends of drugs.
    tadalafil uk generic
    Everything what you want to know about pills. Comprehensive side effect and adverse reaction information.

  70. Willissip Says:

    Best and news about drug. п»їMedicament prescribing information.
    cialis dapoxetine australia
    drug information and news for professionals and consumers. Everything about medicine.

  71. RobertLeply Says:

    Get warning information here. What side effects can this medication cause?
    5mg tadalafil generic
    Everything information about medication. Get here.

  72. Sammyletle Says:

    Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side. safe and effective drugs are available.
    80 mg tadalafil
    Get warning information here. Everything information about medication.

  73. MichaelFieva Says:

    Read here. Drugs information sheet.

    how to buy cheap clomid now
    Actual trends of drug. Generic Name.

  74. MichaelFieva Says:

    Medscape Drugs & Diseases. Long-Term Effects.

    https://prednisoned.top/ 200 mg prednisone daily
    Drug information. Some are medicines that help people when doctors prescribe.

  75. INDISSERB Says:

    Behav Brain Res 2001; 121 1 2 167 172 п»їcialis

  76. 드라마카지노 Says:

    This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. “드라마카지노”
    I’ve joined your feed and look forward to looking for more of your wonderful
    post. Additionally, I’ve shared your site in my social networks

  77. 다시보기 Says:

    Hi, this weekend is good for me, for the reason that this moment i am reading this impressive
    “다시보기” educational article here at my home.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.