The Long Con, Volume 1

The Long Con is what I'd call a high concept series, based on the premise that a bomb went off in the southwestern United States, killing everyone in a 50 mile radius and giving rise to some horrific mutations. Five years later, a desperate newspaper reporter is sent into the forbidden zone to explore and report on the site of the Long Con, the hugest popular culture event of the year (a thinly disguised San Diego Comic-Con). What he finds is astounding, the convention center was somehow shielded from the destruction and fallout, and in the interim a small society of survivors has evolved that lives on processed foods and occasional cannibalism.

Of course, the survivors being comics fans, sci-fi geeks, and random featured celebrities, their society ends up consisting of factions based on fandom and the level of their access badges. This set-up makes for a satirical look at those folks, as they conduct purity tests to assess who is and is not an outsider and just behave in the most extreme sorts of manners. They still engage in cosplay, though the stakes have become much higher over time. I enjoyed this book well enough, and I had been looking forward to reading it for a while, but in the end I was left a little cold by the whole thing. It has lots of geek culture references to satisfy those in the know, and I appreciated them (or at least the ones I got), and it comes from a place of love for fandom, but I feel that almost all the characters are too one-dimensional for me to care about. What could have been an interesting premise just went to typical sorts of humor and jokes about rabid fanboys and fangirls.

 

My favorite part of the book was the artwork, which is fun, energetic, and full of vibrant details. And it really pulls off the trick of depicting parallel narratives from the past, present, and fictional TV versions of Skylarks (a Star Trek pastiche). Overall however, the book left me feeling that maybe I am not its target audience, so others' mileages may vary. Perhaps book 2 will have a better payoff, when the whole story culminates.

This volume collects the first 5 issues of the 10 issue limited series. It was written by Dylan Meconis and Ben Coleman, drawn by EA Denich, and colored by M. Victoria Robado. Meconis is a member of the creative collective called Helioscope, and an Eisner, Reuben, and Kim Yale-nominated cartoonist. She has worked on lots of comics in the past including the series Family Man, the graphic novel Wire Mothers, and the forthcoming Queen of the Sea. Coleman writes for the Portland Mercury and does not seem to have any other comics credits. Denich has also drawn the graphic novel Yes Roya. Robado has lots of illustration credits and also works on the webcomic #Blessed. The creators speak about their work on this series in this interview.

The reviews I have read of this book have largely been positive. Charles Hartford described it as "fast paced, lots of fun." Christopher Scott concluded his review, "This first volume is a send-up of the chaos that is a convention and uses it for an interesting twist, loving fandom for what it is and never crossing the line from respect into meanness." Lonnie Webb wrote, "Dench’s art is full of cameos and beautifully drawn with great characterization. More-so than a parody might have deserved. Tops on that. Colors by Victoria Robado are nice and completely fit the bill."

The Long Con, Volume 1 was published by Oni Press, and they have more info about it here. Currently the series is up to issue 8.