Posted in: Comics | Tagged: jeffrey brown

Changing Jeffrey Brown's Change-Bots Into Something More Comfortable

By Christopher Irving

In the short span of the year, I became a trading card publisher.

The Madman Comin' Atcha 3D trading cards I did with Michael Allred and Christian LeBlanc fell into being trading cards. I wanted to Kickstart something Madman that would be fun, retro, fun to produce, and not take up too much space.

And then it took hold. I wrote about it on Medium.com just this week, so I'll spare you the blow-by-blow. I'm actually here to talk about my current campaign: Jeffrey Brown's Incredible Change-Bots.

For those of you who haven't read Change-Bots (though I'm sure ALL of you have, right? If not, get on it now. They're great!), it's Jeffrey's riff on the 1980s transforming robots craze that rocked American kids. I was one of those Transformers Generation One fans back in 1983, and Jeffrey (another old school fan) nailed every single trope–from fighting in the desert to hapless teenage human sidekicks.

I wanted a chance to work with Jeffrey on a campaign and Change-Bots seemed perfect for the trading card treatment. They're not only fun (as is all of his stuff), but the multitude of characters made it a natural for a set. Having the support of Top Shelf's Chris Staros, as well, has been gold on this.

In honor of Jeffrey's marker-colored art, each card uses hand-drawn elements, from borders to text boxes. The matte stock they're set to be printed on will make them feel more like a piece of artboard than a trading card. Like the Topps cards of the 1980s, each one is given a play on words or pun. I'd have to say my favorite is "Balls on Fire," featuring Jeffrey's golf cart Change-Bot.

To top it off, my old friend Christian LeBlanc is stepping in to give a REVEALO of each Change-Bots vehicle mode, courtesy of an "infra-red" finder. Old school Transformers fans know what I'm talking about…

The video, produced with Double Take, started with a simple concept: What if a Change-Bot fell in love? Popper, the popcorn bag Fantasticon, was a natural choice with my local (Richmond, Virginia) movie palace, the Byrd Theater. From there, Shawn Hambright of Double Take had the idea of a preview toting the card set, and we were off. I was able to get permission to shoot in the historic Byrd through the manager, Todd Schall-Vess, while Shawn and Joey Tran of Double Take got a few of their friends from improv on board to play extras.

Since my past four sets have been traditional card sets (printed on 16 point cardstock), I decided to give Jeffrey's Change-Bots one an upgrade to a thicker, 24 point stock, and also to produce a level that gave a limited Change-Bot art object. Jason Lefton of local laser-etching house BIG SECRET is a huge Jeffrey Brown fan, a cool guy, and a pro at creating high-end art objects out of anything. What he came back with were giant "cards" etched out of African Sapele hardwood and shiny acrylic. And, of course, there are signed sets of the cards up for grabs.

I even added a retailer level to give the best indy stores a chance to stock these alongside the graphic novels and their copies of Vader and Son.

The hope is that funding will end, production will be done on my end in time for the Kickstarter funds to show up, and that we can have the cards ready by August. Funding has been way slower than anticipated: Newsarama's coverage gave us a bit of a bump, followed by a nice rush from Comic Book Resources' Robot 6. A comics pro or two's tweets also contributed to a little boost. But still, two weeks into the campaign, we're sadly underfunded: I'm confident that once more of Jeffrey's fans learn about this, it'll fund in a rush.

This is where you can come in. I'm anxious for people to learn about this set, since it's going to be a blast when it's all done. Please share this, and let me know at drawnword@gmail.com. I'd be happy to pop some of my other trading cards in the mail for you.

Christopher Irving is a comic book historian, teacher, and trading card publisher. He is writer of a handful of books on comics history, and one half of the Graphic NYC project from a few years back. His comic book creative services work can be seen at The Drawn Word.

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