I love time travel stories. Or at least, I do in theory, but most of them are so bad, it's hard to love the genre unconditionally. That's why it's a relief when something like The Changers comes along and does time travel in an intelligent, thought-provoking and entertaining way. Time travel seems to be making something of a resurgence, at least in the indy comics field, and it's being done with less of an eye on killer robots or post-apocalypse and more of an exploration of the potential of time travel. First there was Content, which explores time travel from a very personal point-of-view, and now there's Changers, which suggests that a seemingly utopian future might still want to make some changes in their past.
Daniels's story is at its heart a story of sociological science-fiction, but it will definitely appeal to just about everyone. The dialogue and interaction between time travellers Geaza and Bisso and their neighbors reminds me of a slice-of-life book in its sense of reality and ability to dissect the mundane, and because these time travellers have a mission that isn't much more complicated than "live here for a long time" they get to spend most of their time doing what other folks in the 21st century do. The result is a story that is full of human drama and interaction rather than an examination of societal problems and solutions.
While The Changers has plenty of character interaction on a relatively normal level, it definitely hits on its high concept as well. Daniels skims over the details of time travel and destiny, the crunchy paradox bits that can trip up a time travel story, and instead focuses on exploring the culture that Gaeza and Bisso come from and hope to change. The "essays" by Gaeza and Bisso exploring the notions of modern-day racism, reaction to death and general cultural identity from an academic, evolved point of view are highlights of the book for me. Not only are they intelligent thoughts on modern societal ills or mores, but they contain some interesting and often quite entertaining extrapolation about where these elements of culture could wind up in a far future.
The format of The Changers is as unusual as the approach it takes to the subject matter. The grey pages, with identifying tags on each page indicating the name of the graphic novel as well as the page number, makes for a slick design, and helps to make Daniels art stand out more effectively. The photo-negative approach taken to indicate the color of Geaza and Bisso's skin takes a little getting used to, and Daniels's work definitely falls into the "stylized" camp, but his packed panel designs and detailed backgrounds quickly won me over.
The Changers is the kind of thing that would be the favorite graphic novel I picked up at a con like Small Press Expo or APE, and it points the way to a big future for creator Ezra Claytan Daniels.
