Kai-Ming Cha caused quite a stir when she named Jeffrey Brown’s The Incredible Change-Bots one of the ten best manga of 2007, with bloggers questioning her decision to list it alongside more obvious choices such as Suppli, MW, and Tekkon Kinkreet. Regardless of whether Change-Bots qualifies as “manga,” her list spurred me to finally pick up a copy and read it—something I’d been meaning to do for months. And while I wouldn’t include it on any of my “best of 2007” lists, I did find it entertaining.
As the title suggests, The Incredible Change-Bots is an affectionate parody of The Transformers in all its incarnations: Saturday morning cartoon, plastic action figure, Hollywood blockbuster. On the distant planet of Electronocybercircuitron, two groups of sentient machines compete for control of the planet’s dwindling energy resources: the peaceful Awesomebots and the war-like Fantasticons. (As in the original Transformers series, both the Awesomebots and the Fantasticons can assume the form of vehicles and household appliances from big rigs and cement trucks to microwave ovens and calculators.) Electronocybercircuitron descends into civil war, forcing both groups of robots to flee the devastation. After fighting erupts on their escape vessel, the Awesomebots and Fantasticons crash land on Earth, where two groups go their separate ways to regroup for another battle.
Brown devotes most of his energy to sending up popcorn movie clichés, from hero catch-phrases (“Time to take out the trash!”) to speeches aimed at boosting the esteem of the least impressive Awesomebot. Sometimes the jokes feel stale or obvious, as is suggested by this exchange between Balls, a Change-Bot who transforms into a golf cart, and Jimmy, a human teenager who befriends him:
Jimmy: “I bet your friends will be really happy to see you, Balls.”
Balls: “I don’t know about that. I’m so small, they think I’m not very useful.”
Jimmy: “But what if there was, like, a tiny tunnel or something, and they needed you to race through it?”
Balls: “Gosh, Jimmy Junior, I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
Most of the cinema conventions that Brown mocks have been parodied ad nauseam in movies like Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Spaceballs, thus diluting their comedic impact. But just as the Naked Gun coasted through dopey moments on the strength of Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan delivery, Change-Bots squeaks by on the strength of Brown’s artwork and lettering, which has the same slightly crude, child-like quality I associate with Roz Chast’s New Yorker cartoons.
The Incredible Change-Bots is funnier when it takes aim at more topical targets. In the opening pages of the book, for example, there’s a sly poke at American politics as Brown explains what prompted the conflict back on the Change-Bots’ homeworld: the democratic “machinery” comes to a screeching halt when the Fantasticons rig an election. Brown also wrings laughs out of our current energy crisis, poking fun at tree-huggers and environmental pillagers alike. The Awesomebots, for example, embrace renewal resources, building “solar-turbine power converters” in the Amazon rainforest, while the Fantasticons buy nuclear reactors from the US military.
Considering how quickly you’ll finish this pocket-sized book, its $15.00 price tag seems a little steep, though the high quality paper stock and French flaps guarantee that The Incredible Change-Bots will make a more lasting addition to your library than most trade paperbacks. The Incredible Change-Bots is best appreciated as quick, portable way to get your political satire fix while The Daily Show is on hiatus. And if you can’t get enough of Brown’s goofy jokes, don’t worry: in true action-movie fashion, he leaves the door open for a sequel.
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