Change by Ales Kot

Change by Ales Kot is my favorite comic mini series of the last couple of years, for a variety of reasons. It may not be for everybody, but if you are even mildly interested in a different take on the comic book medium, Kot is your man.

He's got lots going on right now, and his new series, Zero, has been very well received. It's definitely worth checking out. He's also got quite a bit of high profile work coming this year at Marvel, so congrats are due to him. In my opinion, he deserves it. But I want to talk about Change in this post.

As I said, Change is my favorite mini of the last few years for a couple of reasons. The first is that, unlike a lot of other series, you can reread it. I would almost say that rereading is required for a book like this. There are so many layers to the story and the art is so...difficult at times that I don't think a single read through would really do it justice. The opening words to the comics are as follows:

"Her face was beautiful like drone video footage from Afghanistan. Eyes stuxnet worms, self replicating within his soul. The skin of her cheeks made him think of home."

Wow...just...wow. Maybe some folks think there's no meaning in that style of writing, but even if there's no direct meaning, it certainly sets the tone. That's something that I struggle with in my own writing. I've noticed that Kot's more recent writing is more accessible, and seems to be aimed at a wider audience. As I said, I do enjoy his new stuff very much, but part of wishes for the challenge of this series.

The art by Morgan Jeske, as well as the colors by Sloane Long and letters by Ed Brisson, are fantastic, unique, non-nonsensical at times, and all around beautiful. I mean, just look at this, and it's not even the most bonkers that you'll see in the comic:

Ultimately, what I love most about this mini, and the reason that I've reread it at least a couple of times, is the story. On the surface, it's about a screenwriter, a rapper, and an astronaut. I won't go into any more specifics, but it's a big story, it's a personal story, it's a story about coming back from failure. Ales Kot really takes comic story telling and gets everything out of it that he can, and I love that. I sincerely hope you check it out if you have a chance.