Review - The Con Artist by Fred Van Lente

The Con Artist
Fred Van Lente (Illustrated by Tom Fowler)
Quirk, 10 July 2018
PB, 287pp

Source: Advance copy from publisher (thank you Jamie!)

I enjoyed Van Lente's previous book, Ten Dead Comedians, a reworking of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None so I was pleased to see this coming out. Set among the crammed exhibition halls and frenzied parties of San Diego Comic Con and featuring ten illustrations by Tom Fowler, this book follows the unravelling of Mike Mason's life over four days - and features some sharp asides about the comics business and fandom in general.

Mike is an intriguing if (initially) less than likeable central character. Conventions are his life. Since his marriage collapsed and he dropped out of illustrating comics himself, he's lived a wandering life, travelling from con to con (he confesses at one point that, as there are some times of year no cons take place, he does sometimes have to resort to his parents' home... to his care). Mike makes his living undertaking commissions from fans - there are some pretty, um, interesting poses that they will pay to have superheroes drawn in - but not, we gradually learn, actually illustrating any comics.

When Mike runs into an old enemy, Danny Lieber, the man for whom Mike's wife left him, but also "the most hated man in the industry" (though we meet others who might equally deserve the title) he can't resist taking a swing at him. But things turn sour when Danny is murdered - with Mike now the No 1 Suspect, his life is plagued by two wise-talking cops. Can he track down the true killer, work out what's going on and finish those commissions?

Featuring many well known - and some lesser known - Comic Con attractions, from a five hour long awards dinner to geek burlesque, this book gives a rather different insight into events from that which you may be used to, whether or not you're a Comic Con attendee. In particular Mike's speech about bad treatment of comics creators hits, I think, very close to home. But we also get the brash and the over the top, from cosplay to live action roleplay to hotels and convention centres festooned with storeys-high depictions of characters.

Despite the trapping this is, though, at bottom a murder mystery - and a rather effective one at that. The clues are there to be seen (some of them literally, in Fowler's drawings - look at them closely) but I must admit, I didn't spot the killer until late on and even then, I had to wait for the denouement to understand everything.

Whether as a celebration of geek life or a murder mystery, this is an excellent read and I hope that Van Lente returns to the form soon.

Review - Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Image from http://www.quirkbooks.com

Geekerella
Ashley Poston
Quirk Books, 4 April 2017
PB, 319pp, e-book

I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

Geekerella is, as the title suggests, something of a hymn to geekdom and the fan community, in the form of a retelling of Cinderella.

Elle Wittimer is an orphan, living with her stepmother (the 'stepmonster' as she describes her) and stepsisters, who, of course, treat her badly.

Spending the summer working in a vegan snack van, The Magic Pumpkin, and caring for Frank, the sad dachshund next door who's neglected by his banker owner, Elle lives for the classic SF show Starfield, which as you'll recall is up there alongside Star Trek and BSG in the canon. (I'm joking. Piston made Starfield up. But as she describes the adventures of Prince Carmindor and Princess Amara, complete with episode rundowns, analysis and criticism, you'll believe it's real. It should be real. Somebody, make this show!)

There's excitement in the fan community as a new Starfield film is to be made, but trepidation that it'll not respect the source material - turnbing into horror that Carmindor is to be played by Darien Freeman, teen heartthrob of TV series Sea Cove who can't be a true geek, even if he does have incredible abs...

Reeling from this news, and crushed by her awful stepfamily, Elle finds escape in texting with a random stranger as a result of which she forms plan to run away, attend the annual  ExcelsiCon and enter the cosplay contest. But she can't sew a costume, she's under constant scrutiny and she has no way to get to Atlanta. What is she to do?

At the same time, Darien struggles to prove himself as a "real" actor on the set of the new film. he, too, has a bullying figure in his life - in his case his father/ manager - and secrets that make it awkward for him to be playing this new role.

Told through chapters focussing on Elle or Darien, this is a smart, funny and tender story, giving a good sense of the warmth and solidarity of fan culture - I'm thinking of one particular scene that almost had me in tears, you'll know it when you reach it - as well as its darker moments (with Elle accused at one point of being a 'fake geek girl'). It's also a moving portrayal of a very lonely girl and of how she sustains herself through some dark times. The picture  of stepmother Catherine isn't wholly negative either - she emerges as quite a rounded character, not a boo! hiss! villain - and the book also has quite a bit to say about celebrity culture.

I have to be honest and say you'll probably get most out of this if you know at least a bit about fandom, but I don't think you have to actually be a cosplaying con-goer or writer of fic to follow Posten's story. It is, at its heart, a very universal, very tender and very human story to which anyone should be able to relate.

Strongly recommended - so:

Look to the stars.

Aim.

Ignite!