'The Long Con' by Dylan Meconis and Ben Coleman with art by EA Denich is a graphic novel about the apocalypse, and a convention that is still running. The world may have ended, but not for the folks in the Los Spinoza Convention Center. They still wander the halls and food courts of pop culture. Enter Victor Lai, a reporter who breaks in and finds his friend Dez Delaney. They travel the halls of geekdom gone long. It's an ok premise. I think I would have liked more apocalypse and less con. There is a lot of nerd humor, although the properties that are mocked are hidden to avoid scrutiny by studio lawyers. The art was not my style and felt a bit loose. I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Oni Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Firstly I would like Netgalley and the Onipress for the chance of reading this Comic!
As always, Onipress has a amazing Comic, with great plot and truly amazing art!
It was something I couldn't let go until I fully finished, and then spend the week remembering scenes.

I love when we have flashbacks like this, telling the past of the characters, instead of starting off from there to the where it's really starting the plot.

I had a lot of fun with this. Some kind of cataclysmic event happened around the world's biggest pop culture convention 5 years ago and the con just never ended. I loved how the different pop culture fans eventually peel off into various tribes. Everything inside the con has kind of devolved into Mad Max levels while the humor has a definite Galaxy Quest type vibe. I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading the rest of the story.

Jump into nerd culture with the Long Con.

The Long Con is the longest pop culture convention ever. It appears the Convention caused the apocalypse five years previously. Since he survived the Convention’s destruction, reporter Victor is given the assignment to find out what happened.

Slipping back and forth between the post-apocalyptic present and the pre-apocalyptic past, the plot is interesting and includes many details about conventions. I wish that the characterizations were more fleshed out. However, the humor makes up for it. The Long Con is recommended to those who have either been to conventions or wished they had. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I found the pacing to be a little too quick, the scenes skipping through time to a point where I was getting confused and having to reread previous panels. I loved the artwork but the writing was disappointing.

It's not often that dystopian tales are also funny. It helps that this one is framed around a comic con, so you have the extremes of nerd culture contributing to a strange survival situation. I'm interested to see where this plot is headed. There are implications that there is, in fact, no apocalyptic event, just a huge campaign of misinformation.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. I really enjoyed it. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

The premise of this story is really great. Five years ago the world ended. The Long Con has been going strong ever since. Victor the reporter was there when it happened, but managed to get out. Now five years later he's back. We don't know exactly what happened five years ago. Everything you could think happening in a dystopian future is happening. We go back and forth in time and see what's going on in the lives of these characters.
It's a funny story. Illustrations are good and I liked the colors. I believe the story will continue and I'll be in the lookout for the next installment.
Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for a copy of this book.

I had serious flashbacks to my days at SDCC while reading this! Which is especially fun, since half the story is told via flashbacks. Anyone who has attended any sort of "nerdy" convention is going to love reading this and so I know I can suggest it to my teens no problem.

So cute. Wonderful art. I am enjoying graphic novels more and more and this was fun! Thanks for the opportunity to read it.

[3.5 stars] This was a bit weird if I'm being honest. But I felt like it was sort of a commentary on gate-keeping in fandoms, while also being a fun and quirky romp through an apocalypse story. It ended very abruptly though. I'd like to read more, which I guess says something about the story. Hopefully the series keeps going.

I liked this book quite a bit for diving deep into multiple fan cultures of comics and movies and TV. There is also quite a nice focus on race and gender in fans and these media industries.

I realise that this is volume one and the story will continue, however, the ending of this volume seemed to come out of nowhere. I did enjoy the story and setting though, it's pretty weird and yet somewhat familiar if you're into comics/sci fi conventions. I'll definitely be in line for volume 2.

Oh my goodness, I absolutely ADORED this book. While reading I constantly kept bothering my boyfriend to read bits I found extra hilarious and/or relevant to our congoing experience. The worldbuilding was top notch, and the illustrations were a hoot - I loved matching the past bits to their post-apocalyptic state in the present panels! I dragged out reading this as long as I could just to make it last and will definitely be seeking out future issues on my own. Highly, highly recommended!

I received a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley.

The Long Con is a really cool mix of cons, action, friendship, drama and comedy. It didn't get me at first 'cause the change of perspective was kind of confusing for the first couple of pages, but once you get settled into the story it's really fun and entertaining.

Review to be posted at the end of January on all sources mentioned in my profile.

I received this graphic novel from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just couldn't resist. Cons? Apocalypse? A reporter who survived but lost his friend? And a trip back to that very same con, which is pretty hard to do, to find out what is going on and if anything is still there? Um, sign me up!

I loved how the book started off at fences of where the destruction to place and then switches to the guy who survived the event 5 years ago. He is quickly finding out that, surprise surprise people are still alive at the con this day. How the f they survived? No clue, but I was sure interested in finding out how and what, yeah, the wall around the building has saved them from certain poop hitting, but how do you feed so many people for 5 years? I liked that we saw the con as it was + also met our MC's best friend (as I would call her that given how close they seemed to be).

I loved the reunion between the two friends. I knew it was going to happen, hello cover? Spoiler? :P

Interesting. So the people inside don't know that the outside is still around. Mm, a group of people told people that the world is now full of fast-walking zombies. Yeah, I can imagine you wouldn't want to step outside in that. I would stay inside. Then again, wasn't there anyone who questioned it all? Or I don't know, maybe looked out of a window? Or something else? I can't imagine that in 5 years no one truly questioned it.

I am not too sure how I feel about the back and forth between the now and before the events. On the one hand, yay backstory, yay more information about the con, and yay we are building up to the event that is going to happen soon. But also eh, because it really pulled me out of the now events.
It also didn't help that we saw parts of shows. While it was fun to see those, I was at first confused at what? Why are we in space? Even later when I knew I could expect it I was just utterly confused by it all.

I loved seeing the con, in the now and the before. The before was all colourful and fun, and I loved seeing all the merchandise, the cosplay, the lines for anything and everything, and the now is all apocalypse and doom, yet the people are still cosplaying (though taking it way to serious). Really, where did they get all those fancy things? Guns, I believe cons do have rules about bringing real weapons, so where did they come from? I am guessing the higher ups, or those with guns, do know what is going on outside. We will see.

Loren was... unique. And very weird. But I did love her hair. When I go grey I will definitely go for that hair style + colour (and yes, also her pink/purple from the before events). I would love to dye my hair now, but it would involve pretty much murdering it, and I don't want that. :P

Um, did my copy just cut-off at the end? Or was that the end of this volume? Our MC enters the resistance's office/building, and he says: "What the fu--" and that is where it ends. *is confused and mildly disappointed*

So I guess to find out more we need to read on? Sure, I can do that. I am still very curious about what happened 5 years ago, why everyone is still acting like the con is ongoing, and why no one (or at least most) don't know about what is going on outside. Also I do love the art!

Unfortunately, I wasn't enjoying this graphic novel very much. I DNF'ed it for now, but I may return to it later on. I thought the writing was fine, and the characters I got to meet were just okay.

This is maybe more of a 3.5 rounded up but it was pretty fun and I'm definitely interested in seeing what happens next. I feel like it might be sort of a niche title in that you probably need to be pretty into fandom and have been to some kind of convention before to really relate to the whole thing, but I think it's a really great take on the classic post-apocalyptic genre using nerd culture as a structure and also a pretty good commentary on gate-keeping in fandom. The art was good too and I liked all the different designs, definitely planning on reading the next volume.

There's quite a decent amount of genre fun to be had here. Our lowly journalist hero, stuck as he is in the outside world post-apocalypse, is sent back to that particular ground zero, which just happened to be a comicon he'd initially tried to cover for an article. Meanwhile, for the last five years, those in the comicon arena have mutated into flesh-eaters, played out their worst tie-in issues in the cosplay halls, separated into indie vs glossy pulp factions (amongst many), and argued the toss over the smallest minutiae of their beloved franchises. The likes of our hero couldn't get a grip on the con back then and still can't now, and the attendees don't know what the real world is like. Yes, the story could have been a lot more coherent, linear and common sense, but in a world when so many meta titles are just arch, this is knowing in a good way, and sends up comicon life quite well. I would say niche audiences will like this, but that never happens, does it? - niche audiences love every single pixel to death.

[3.5 stars] This was a bit weird if I'm being honest. But I felt like it was sort of a commentary on gate-keeping in fandoms, while also being a fun and quirky romp through an apocalypse story. It ended very abruptly though. I'd like to read more, which I guess says something about the story. Hopefully the series keeps going.