If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you love comics. But even if you’re a true die-hard fan, you may still be able to recognize that comics can sometimes be a little hokey. It’s often overly dedicated readers obsessing about pretend characters, and that fandom has more than once proven to be especially toxic. But if you love something, you can also poke a little fun at it. That’s just what writer Paul Cornell (Saucer Country) and artist Marika Cresta (Captain Carter) have opted to do with their brand-new miniseries.
Con & On is a five-part affair best described as a “fantastic and funny satire of the comic book industry and its biggest conventions.” Framed around the fictional Vista Al Mar Comics Festival, we explore “five different years in the life of the festival” (which includes various perspectives, including aspiring young creators Eddie and Deja and “crusty veteran editors.”) The end result lambasts the nerdish pageantry of comics while dissecting the “desperate people whose lives revolve around this greatest show on Earth.” And yet Con & On is just as much a love letter to comics itself, exploring these personalities and compulsive behaviors in a way that shows the pure heart of any true comics fan and/or creator.
Issue #1 of Con & On is out this week (July 12) via AHOY Comics. In the lead up, Cornell was kind enough to answer a few of our own somewhat obsessive questions. That includes the appeal of satire, lampooning the things you love, and his own tips and hints as we continue with comics convention season.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
AIPT: What makes comics or the industry at-large so very ripe for satire?
Paul Cornell: It’s the Wild West, a creative space where just about anything is allowed to, and regularly does, happen, for both good and ill.
AIPT: Is there a balancing act that comes with satire? By that I mean, in trying to dissect something with commitment and still celebrate it somehow?
PC: Well, we’re taking aim at the industry here, and to some extent at the values of creators like myself, rather than at the fandom. But indeed, this title is about love for comics, and for enormous comics events, and what keeps us coming back to them. “This con is life!” as one of our characters declares toward the end, and across the decades we’re covering, several of our stories come to positive, even Romantic, conclusions.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
AIPT: Are Americans good at parsing satire? Should we get better about it?
PC: I think you’re great at it. You’re a little kinder to each other in general than Brits are, but you’re also responsible for some of the best satire in the world.
AIPT: Does a book like this simply lambast comics/the industry, or is it trying to “fix” the underlying problems? Can that even be done?
PC: I think by pointing at them we help to fix them. I mean, not that some of the problems aren’t bloody obvious. Our commentary track, where a pop historian of the future comments on the main action, is a particularly specific satirical voice, I think.
AIPT: Is this story somehow more relevant now with the ongoing conversations of AI and the rise of labor unions-groups a la the Cartoonists Cooperative?
PC: Well, in general, if not in particular, and I applaud those efforts.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
AIPT: How much of this is you working out your own problems with the comics industry? Or do you try to avoid making it so personable somehow?
PC: I think I’m partially one of the targets of my own work here, in that one of our leads is a creator who doesn’t make the most of his opportunities at one point, rather like I did. Dealing with failure, and coming to a place of being reconciled to it, is I think an area that aren’t doesn’t venture into enough. Stories don’t have to always be about winners, and should be comforts to those who haven’t succeeded in a particular area. Though it must be said, one of our characters also does something egregious in failing to help a friend, and I hope I haven’t been guilty of that.
AIPT: Someone praised this as being in the vein of Robert Altman films. Does that style and pacing feel accurate? What other titles/properties helped shape this story?
PC: I think that’s a very good point of reference. We take a big cast over several decades in a tragicomic style with heart.
AIPT: I think Marika Cresta’s art is really dynamic here. What are the challenges of depicting a world that mostly takes place in giant convention centers?
PC: Well, Marika’s great at using reference to give us a feeling of what it’s like to, for instance, sit in a long line waiting for a big panel, or be in a park with cosplayers and the homeless.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
AIPT: Do you worry at all about satirizing an industry you’re a part of? Were you concerned about offending others or even some colleagues?
PC: Not really, because I’m not taking aim at any real individuals, but instead at types. Also, there’s compassion for just about everyone here. It’s an act of love and fellow feeling, not an act of revenge.
AIPT: Do you have a favorite character? How do you make someone feel truly compelling and personable in a satirical tale?
PC: I really love Val Molson, the average fan, who likes to see panels with a specific actor on them, but is under no illusions about the state of his career. It becomes clear, I think, that she’s the voice of reason in the book. Also, a couple of our cast are on a proper hero’s journey, but I don’t want to give away who gets to do that.
AIPT: What’s the aim of pushing this story out over the span of several decades? Have cons gotten better, worse, or some combination across this span?
PC: A bit of all of the above. Leaping ahead several years with each issue I hope starkly illuminates how much certain things have changed and how much certain things have stayed exactly the damn same.
AIPT: Any advice for surviving or making the most out of a comic con?
PC: Know in advance what you’re there for, and plan plan plan. You’re not going to randomly run into your friends and/or industry contacts who can help your career, so arrange to meet them in advance.
AIPT: Why should any non-comics pro individual pick up issue #1?
PC: For a fun ride, with heart and truth along the way, and an insight into the medium we love.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
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