THE CON ARTIST is a fun book. Fred Van Lente gives the comic book industry in general and San Diego Comic-Con in particular a big wet kiss on the cheek, well aware of the warts that lie in wait.

That’s a lot to digest in a short paragraph, so let me back up for just a moment as a courtesy to the uninitiated. Van Lente has written comics that you have read if you are a fan of the medium and have heard of if you aren’t --- The Amazing Spider-Man, Deadpool vs. The Punisher and G.I. Joe, among others. He also authored one of my favorite titles, MARVEL ZOMBIES, which should be glass-cased in every library in the country. Maybe the world. Van Lente is an industry insider because he is a part of the industry. THE CON ARTIST, his second novel (after TEN DEAD COMEDIANS), takes place over a very long four days at San Diego Comic-Con.

"THE CON ARTIST is a fun book. Fred Van Lente gives the comic book industry in general and San Diego Comic-Con in particular a big wet kiss on the cheek, well aware of the warts that lie in wait."

Comic-Con, as it is popularly known, is somewhere between an experience and an endurance contest. What began as a celebration of comic books and a place to buy, sell and trade them has morphed into a popular culture pop-up city that attracts hundreds of thousands of people. I have a friend who has been to every single one since the inaugural event in 1970, which was attended by a few hundred. He insists every year that he won’t go back, but he always does. Van Lente captures the spirit, form and substance of Comic-Con while using it as a backdrop for a murder mystery. Actually, maybe it’s the other way around, given that the whodunit portion of the book plays second fiddle to the swirling events of Comic-Con and Van Lente’s harpooning of the industry’s main players and powers. As a bonus, his descriptions are augmented by the sketchings of comic artist Tom Fowler, who has illustrated and inked any number of books for most of the major companies and currently works on Doom Patrol.

THE CON ARTIST is told through the voice of Mike Mason, a semi-legendary comic creator and artist who ekes out a living by attending comic conventions and providing the faithful with original art on demand and for a fee. He is officially at Comic-Con to accept an award on behalf of his mentor, Ben K, and unofficially to possibly hook up with his ex-wife. When Mike arrives in San Diego, he learns that Ben has died suddenly. The unsettling news sets him in a spiral, which causes him to pick a fight in front of God and everybody with a major, and much-hated, industry figure named Danny Lieber. It was Danny who helped put the “ex-” in front of Mike’s wife. Accordingly, when Danny is found dead the next morning, all eyes, including those of the investigating detectives, are on Mike. He has an alibi --- the driver of a pedicab who took him to an iconic San Diego landscape after his confrontation with Danny --- but he can’t find her.

Meanwhile, the Con goes on, with Mike dodging the police (with no success) and a couple of bikers (with success), and attempting to contact his ex-wife (with some success). When another murder occurs, though, Mike is truly on the run. Hiding among hundreds of thousands of people in various degrees of costume should be easy unless you’re Mike Mason. He basically has a few days to determine who is doing what to whom. Maybe he can pull it off if he stays alive that long.

The 2018 San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 19th to 22nd, and the perfect timing of the publication of THE CON ARTIST gives attendees, fanboys and industry people who are in-the-know a week or so to read it --- or, better yet, buy a copy at the Con and have it autographed by the author and illustrator, who no doubt will be there. While the novel may not hold much interest for those who were never comic book fans, those who whiled away their youth reading four-color panels will find plenty to love here.