Con & On

by Paul Cornell

A gripping comedy-drama that follows a fictional cast of fans and professionals down through the decades, as they attend the annual gathering of America’s biggest comic book convention. " Trust Paul Cornell to find the humanity and weirdness in the comics industry and the rise of organized comics fandom ” —Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky

Con & On is the story of five different years in the life of the Vista Al Mar Comics Festival—one year per issue, spanning three decades—from the points of view of a diverse bunch of desperate people whose lives revolve around this greatest show on Earth. Meet close friends Eddie and Deja, aspiring young comics talents whose ambitions threaten to tear them apart; Anthony, Don & Finn, brilliant, boozy and bombastic British creators; and all of the crusty veteran editors, forgotten TV stars, and enthusiastic fans who make the convention experience something to revisit year after year.

Collects issues 1 through 5.

128 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

Paul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.

via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Hardly the first comics history with changed names we've seen recently, though less bitter than Moore or Chaykin's takes because, well, it's not hard to be less bitter than those. Certainly there are still recognisable if renamed figures here with unpleasant allegations levelled against them, but also a few who seem like genuinely decent souls (hmm, I wonder who science fiction and horror writer 'Ray Autumn' might be?), and in between plenty who are just amusingly dickish rather than actual shits, like hot new British creator Finn McCool, whose entire dialogue consists of variations on 'Fookin''. The commentary track is a clever device for adding context, but runs into the usual mockumentary problem: it feels like a cheat to have that on scenes which clearly wouldn't have been filmed, and then still claim certain characters couldn't be identified. Similarly, Cornell not being as venomously disaffected with the field as his predecessors does mean we get a bit of a sappy and obvious moral - the white boy who was briefly the big new thing in superheroes shouldn't have been so quick to drop his multi-minority friend who preferred drawing funny animals! Though I suppose you could argue that any sense of triumphalism is inevitably shaded bittersweet by time; her victory, and geek culture's more generally, only come at a masked and mostly deserted 2020s event in a downbeat closing issue.

[Sharon]

Four stars might be a little generous, but I'm a big fan of both Ahoy and cons so they were speaking my language. It takes a little while to get rolling, but stick with it; watching these characters grow over the years of the con gets very interesting. There are quire a few thinly-veiled digs at certain comic companies and creators. Liked the art, too. Enjoyable especially if you're a long-time con goer.

[Mike Jorgensen]

This is really really good. Not a feel-good book like the artwork might indicate. In fact, it's quite heavy when it comes to the systemic issues within the comic (and pop culture at large) industries. It is well-handled and centers on a couple of characters which makes it easy to follow through a complex timeline in a big world.

[Chris]

A whole 5 issue series cribbed from Twitter arguments, with a lack of wit and very little to say otherwise.

Paul Cornell, you used to be so much better than this.