Longshot Comics: The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers

Longshot Comics #1

by Shane Simmons

“One of my favourite comics of all time.”
-Rich Johnston, Bleeding Cool

“No discussion of art and writing in comics would be complete without mention of the sublime Longshot Comics...which uses insanely minimal art to tell a funny, affecting and epic story. It’s astonishingly effective comics storytelling. Powerful stuff.”
-Kurt Busiek, Kurt Busiek Resists

The legendary epic-minimalistic graphic novel is back in print for its 25th anniversary! Told in an unprecedented format of 3840 panels in a single comic book, The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers tells the tale of a Welsh coal-mining family through the highs and lows of the British Empire, the Victorian era, and both World Wars.

With every character depicted as a distant dot, the bare-bones artwork lends itself to subtle visual humour, and opens the story up to a world of rich character development and savagely witty dialogue.

Featured in international museum exhibits, discussed in academic texts, and presented in lectures about sequential storytelling and character design, Longshot Comics has remained a cult favourite through a quarter century of multiple formats, editions, and translations.

Read what critics and celebrated comic-industry writers and artists have had to say about this unique narrative experience over the course of its storied history:

“It’s brilliant, it’s hilarious, and it’s mind-blowing. There’s nothing else like this in comics. These books are pure genius.”
-Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading

“Longshot Comics! It’s great! This should be in every library and comic collection on Earth!”
-Matt Feazell, Cynicalman

“The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers is the funniest thing I have read in a while. Hilarious and well-written with great dialogue.”
-Roberta Gregory, Naughty Bits

“Everyone should have a copy of this once-in-a-lifetime magnum opus.”
-Dave Sim, Cerebus

“Shane Simmons must get an award. You hear me?! Someone give this man a medal! Longshot is incredible! A monumental achievement.”
-Mark Frischman, Factsheet 5

“Think it’s impossible to become attached to a dot? Think again. Shane Simmons has created a beautiful comic/novella that takes you on a journey of a lifetime in 3840 panels.”
-Secret City’s Instant Teller, Hour

“The storyline and script are, by turns, funny, historically accurate, and moving. Although the main character, Gethers, is not an extraordinary man by any means, his life story touches upon many important markers of the waning days of the British Empire. A well-written and hysterically funny story. Highly recommended.”
-Randy Reynaldo, WGC Notes

Genres: Comics

50 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Shane Simmons is an award-winning screenwriter and graphic novelist whose work has appeared in international film festivals, museums and lectures about design and structure. His art has been discussed in multiple books and academic journals about sequential storytelling, and his short stories have been printed in critically praised anthologies of history, crime and horror. He was born in Lachine, a suburb of Montreal best known for being massacred in 1689 and having a joke name.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Probably the most minimalist comic I've ever read, in that all of the characters are literally dots. Also the densest; I'm not sure even Tom Scioli would dare attempt page after page of a 40-panel grid. In a sense it's a classic example of 'my five-year-old could do that' art, but as is so often the case, while your five-year-old might well have the rudimentary technical ability required to draw this, they'd never have the lettering flair, the knack with the placement of the dots or the slight variations in their size. And they certainly wouldn't be able to write it, a pitch-black satire of colonialism, capitalism, religious obscurantism and all the other things which made the 19th and 20th centuries such an utter delight. Roland is the only one of 12 brothers not to perish in a mining accident, but after stints in accountancy and the army, he's still so short of other options that he ends up down the mine too, breeding a fresh generation to be fed into the wheels of capital and war. He is also, as people often are, a short-sighted idiot convinced of his own wisdom, a terrible hypocrite, and just not terribly nice. If it were all illustrated in any detail, it might come across a bit clunky in places, not least when the Great War generals are chortling about getting men pointlessly killed. But, and I really can't emphasise this enough, because I managed to forget it between first registering an interest and actually reading the thing: the characters are literally all dots, which is such an excellent way of bringing home the idiocy of distinguishing between them as though race or rank or creed were things which exist beyond the power we let them have. Hilarious, horrible, ridiculous, the sort of work that'd be incredibly easy to imitate except that any imitation could only ever feel like a rip-off.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dots have never been funnier. The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers is one of the cheekiest graphic novels I've picked up to date. It doesn't matter if you think its style is craftily minimalist or just plain lazy, it remains an ideal story to spark a discussion about distance and perspective.

The plot covers a broad swath of history, marking the decline of the British Empire. Roland, our titular hero, is birthed on page 1, loses both parents in quick succession, gets married, struggles through two misjudged careers, survives the Boer War, the Great War and World War 2, and is then committed to the earth on page 96. As such, it could be argued that a sad, silly life story of this scope benefits from a few artistic shortcuts.

What baffles me is how easy it was to stare at multiple dots in one of the forty tiny panels per page and still spot Roland. In a book filled with Python-esque humour, he gets all of the best lines. For an unlearned chap, Roland comes dangerously close to epiphany on multiple occasions.

Simmons' social and historical satire is cutting and, though he does use some disagreeably outdated terms, they fit the context and are soon exposed as absurdly incorrect. Gethers, his family and associates are all trapped in a set period of time, like microscopic specimens held between glass slides. Their behaviour is fascinating to watch but they themselves are largely unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into speckled pages, but I really appreciated this amusing send-up of British History. If you enjoy pacey dialogue and don't mind using a magnifying glass to read it, I recommend The Long and Unlearned Life of Roland Gethers to you.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un capolavoro. Non ci si lasci ingannare dai puntini del campo lungo: non è semplice riuscire a produrre un fumetto così, senza appoggiarsi al contesto grafico e limitando gli scambi dei dialoghi a battute microscopiche. Ma Shane SImmons riesce a ficcarci di tutto: si ride, ci si appassiona e ci si arriva a commuovere. Una meraviglia.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

No, no, no, no. Don’t believe the hype. This is a ridiculous, empty little gimmick, not a “great graphic novel,” or “minimalist work of genius” or anything like that. It does have some real humor. But it’s crude, assuredly not for children, and a bit on the boring side. It is, in essence, one long stereotype told in a form that must have taken all of an evening to create. If you picked it up at a gas station, stapled together, for $.99, you got something that will make you laugh once or twice while mildly demeaning your mortal soul. If you buy it as a “graphic novel” for $10, you’ve been had. One, two stars tops.

[MykÆ G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a zine brought to life, but invested with 25 years of comic book shop whispers. The pages are less powerful than the covers which fully commit to its dot-based art style. It's the total abstraction of all content from turn of the Century European books. What's left is dots. And monty-python esque humor. I wish this inside-90s-joke was a bit funnier, but I'm glad to be on the inside of it.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conversations reminded me of Monty Python. Absurd, funny, but in the end a bit depressing.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. And funny.
That's all.