I’ve been receiving a little bit of flak after posting the story Transference right after hacking at the comic Applegeeks for doing a Freaky Friday-style transference storyline. To be honest, the complaints have merit. I’m deriding a comic for doing a body-swap storyline and then posting a story along the same vein and praising it. This goes to show me that skimping on sleep while coming up with Secant ideas isn’t really a good thing. However, it did start me thinking on the whole concept of Transference comics. (See, I warned you that I had a new addition for the non-existent Tangents lexicon!)

The Transference genre actually encompasses multiple subgenres. There’s the classic body-swap story, the alternative reality story, the body-transformation story, and the reincarnation transference story. In addition, some of these subgenres have their own sub-subgenres, such as fantasy transference and time travel stories existing in the AR genre, and zombie and horror-transformation stories existing in the BT genre.

Naturally, the first story that comes to mind with body-swap stories is the Disney movie Freaky Friday. In and of itself, Freaky Friday wasn’t all that bad. Unfortunately, the potential for profits led to too many sequels, each one a virtual clone of the previous one, right down to the damn wacky hijinks. And that really is my problem with body-swap transference stories. The damn hijinks.

If I woke up one day in my kid’s body and my kid was in my body, we’d sit down, talk, call in sick for school and work, and try to find out just what the heck was going on and what gypsy matriarch we accidentally angered. I’d not have my inexperienced kid go to work and try to handle my job without training… and I sure as hell wouldn’t be going to school in my kid’s place, especially as I don’t know my kid’s friends or secrets or what the kid is learning in school. And after talking it over with my kid, I’d think he or she would agree.

Oh, I can hear the cries now. “But without the wacky hijinks, where’s the fun of the story?” That’s just it. It’s not fun and games. It’s scary. It’s waking up in a body that isn’t your own, in a life that isn’t your own. Bad enough if you wake up in a family member’s body and them in yours. Imagine now that you wake up and you’re in the body of the cute girl you were crushing on… but never had the courage to approach? And suddenly you have no idea of her siblings names (or even if she has siblings), who her friends are, (and depending on the age of the people involved) what classes she’s taking… and who’s in your body. Is it her? Is she freaking out too? What if it’s someone else? And how do you approach them? What do you do?

When’s the last time you saw a Transference body-swap story handle the horror of the situation? It’s played for comedic purposes, but there’s nothing really funny about it. But these stories aren’t played for the horror of the unknown… but rather of the “humor” of humiliation (because if you cut your own finger, it’s a tragedy… but if your buddy falls down an open manhole and breaks a leg, it’s a hoot).

Still, there are plenty of body-swap possibilities that haven’t been done to death. Merely approaching the story from a different viewpoint, working on the fear and uncertainty… suddenly a tired old horse is given new life. Avoiding laughs and treating it seriously also helps revive a story that threatens to succumb to a coma of idiocy and sophomoric antics.

The next member of the Transference genre is the alternative reality story. Yesterday’s link to the fanfics Transference and The Glimpse are examples of AR stories. Looking at mainstream media, Total Recall is an excellent example of an alternative reality story (in the end, we’re not sure if it’s real or not), as is the latter part of It’s a Wonderful Life. And of course we can’t forget the classic Star Trek mirror universe stories. The primary means of differentiating these stories as transference stories as compared to traditional science fiction lies with characters hopping between timelines or alternative realities.

One of the central themes I’ve found in the AR Transference story lies in the “choice not taken.” This is true whether you look at a story set in a parallel universe (such as the Mirror Universe of Star Trek fame) or time travel stories in which the future isn’t set in stone. Often the very point of the Transference is to show the protagonist what would have happened if they’d done things differently… often by choosing family instead of career, or doing what’s right instead of what’s easy.

Tangentially related to the Body-Swap Transference story is the Reincarnation Transference story. Surprisingly enough, Disney wasn’t behind the first Reincarnation Transference movie that comes to mind (it does feel like the type of movie they’d come up with, however), Oh Heavenly Dog, with Chevy Chase inhabiting the body of a dog (played by Benji) to try and identify who murdered his human self. Stories of reincarnation have existed since biblical times and often can be displayed from a variety of viewpoints, from the spiritual to the horrific.

Indeed, these stories can be played up for both comedic and horrific elements as shown in Hocus Pocus, in which a child’s soul is trapped in a cat’s body… until the witches are destroyed. The scene of the young girl telling the cat that she will watch over him… as will her children… and their children… hints at the horror behind forced immortality in a body not your own.

Another staple of movies lies with the body-transformation story in which the person’s very body begins to change in some way. This can be played for humor with stories such as Big (or for that matter the entire Transformation comic theme). It also can be played for the horrific, with such classics as The Fly or the Howling series of werewolf movies. (Indeed, the entire supernatural horror of werewolves, vampires, and zombies often utilizes the horror of changing into a creature of the id, and with the power to enforce those destructive urges.)

Finally there’s the Teleportation Transference story, in which one or more people are transported into an entirely new life. The Chronicles of Narnia are an excellent example of this in a fantasy setting, with rather mundane children ending up kings and queens and adventurers who help shape the new world they find themselves in. These stories allow for an exploration not only of the world the protagonists find themselves in, but also learning just what the protagonists are made of.

There’s also a benefit in utilizing the Transference method of character selection: it allows for “realistic” use of the Information Dump writing strategy. As these characters have little to no knowledge of the world they’re now in, exposition helps explain things to both protagonists and audience. It’s how this exposition is used that can make or break a fantasy Transference story.

Interestingly, the Teleportation Transference story hasn’t been done to death. Part of this lies in the lack of profitability from it. The special effects alone make the fantasy genre problematic to mass-produce, and these costs are even greater for science fiction stories. There’s also less audience potential. Disney can toss out yet another Freaky Friday clone and lure in the unsuspecting brainless masses to waste their money under the flag of “family entertainment” and “comedy.” Fantasy is less easy to sell.

Transference stories have slowly made their way into the world of webcomics as well. Comics such as Alpha-Shade and Cheshire Crossing involve teleportation transfers of characters, and a subsequent shift in the story being told. Clan of the Cats is perhaps a superb example of a person’s struggle against a family curse and the probable madness that awaits her at the end of her life… a struggle that will result in either her suicide or her becoming a psychotic monster unless she finds a cure. And of course there’s the huge number of sexual-Transformation comics out there.

There’s a huge array of potential for Transference comics. Even the clichéd “body-soul transfer” theme of the “Freaky Friday” subgenre can easily be given new life by investigating aspects of it that are not touched upon. For instance: how does a person’s neurochemistry affect personality? Would a decent and caring man who finds himself transferred into the body of a serial killer still feel empathy? Or would he slowly find himself thinking of others as mere objects? And would the serial killer suddenly find himself feeling remorse for these crimes? (Indeed, you could very well have an entire comic centered on the story of a former serial killer who is tracking down his former body… to stop it and its current soul, from killing once again and perhaps from damning the soul of the man who now inhabits it.)

The sheer scope of potential transference stories makes it even more disappointing when a cartoonist succumbs to the temptation of using old clichés in their storytelling. Merely telling a story from a different thematic base, using the horror of the unknown or looking at the biochemical aspects of personality on an existent and alien personality, can make these stories interesting and new. By taking a step beyond that and moving into territory little-traveled, and you can end up with a Transference story that becomes truly unique in the eyes of most readers.

And with the huge number of webcomics out there, a little uniqueness is a good thing.