Broken Frontier

If there’s one word in the comic language which brings equal amounts joy and terror, it has to be "convention". Conventions always start out fun – there’s a huge guest list, a huge merchandise list, plenty of newsworthy revelations and an even bigger opportunity to market oneself directly to the comic book industry.

But once someone passes through the gates and experiences cons for anywhere between an hour and a day, the fun starts to wear off. You’re soon trapped in a place packed wall-to-wall with crowds of comic book fans. Once you’ve seen everything there is to see, the tedium starts to set in and only one thing matters after that: escape.

CONvicts follows two friends, David and Andy, in the same situation but with a twist – their passes to the comic con are one way, and don’t grant them access to the outside world again. This means they are, for all intents and purposes, prisoners of paradise. The story follows the two as they first try to escape their situation, and failing that, ultimately adjust to their con-centered existence.

There’s definitely always something strangely interesting going on in the background of CONvicts, which is why I find it so amusing. From a time space relationship that just doesn’t work in the con to a several hour long train-ride to another wing of the convention, there's the framework of a larger, more sinister picture ever present. David and Andy are refreshing, though occasionally one-note, characters. We’ve seen combinations similar to the dry-humored Andy and insanely eccentric David before but, somehow, creators Zach Clairville, Sam Bartzdorff, and Natalie Tafilaw imbue fresh humor and perspective into their character time and time again.

This webcomic hasn’t updated since November, but with a little over a hundred and thirty strips completed, the results still bear reading no matter what. If anything, CONvicts is an excellent survival guide primer as the con season draws closer and closer . . .