The Con Artists

by Luke Healy

A quintessentially millennial tale about friendship and the quest for self-actualization

This is going to be Frank’s year. He’s going to do it find love, become a famous comedian, and responsibly parent his plants. But then, Giorgio gets hit by a bus.

Self-assured and utterly entitled, Giorgio has always seemed like “Frank, but better.” Moving in with and caring for his estranged childhood friend quickly starts to chip away at Frank’s sense of self, as well as Giogio’s carefully curated online persona. Is Giorgio’s penchant for overindulgence truly aspirational? Or is it ultimately a red flag? The further Frank is pulled into Giorgio’s orbit, the quicker his existential dread blooms. Expectation and reality soon collide in a singular tale about trust and confidence.

Luke Healy’s playful, hilarious third graphic novel uses crisp lines and physical comedy to portray an uneasy friendship between two young men on the cusp of adulting. Snippets from Frank’s middling stand-up routines are punctuated by the subtle farce of Healy’s mise-en-scène and the lively, at times scathingly pointed, banter of old friends. The Con Artists is a stylish character study that asks the question of who fools who once everyone is off-camera.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Fiction, Queer, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

128 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 2022

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dull and dreary tale about a gay man getting pulled into the trauma and drama of his childhood friend, another gay man. It's a metafiction muddle of fiction and autobiography, friendship and love, anxiety and paranoia, trust and deception. It wants to be twisty, but its just a typical take on the stick in the mud being yanked out and waved about by a person with mysterious motives, dubious schemes, and/or mental health issues.

I just could not care why the dweeb kept hanging around with the asshole or what they'd get up to next.

[Mabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This read like a stand up comedy show, which was a cool way to read a book. It was funny, and handled the topic of mental health with both humour and care. I enjoyed it!

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting concept and the simple art style was nice, but it just didn’t quite do it for me. I think this was a really great portrayal of mental illness, and hard or toxic relationships, but that’s about it. It was slow and I felt like it could have been condensed, or done better. I felt like the story was incomplete, and the end was odd and abrupt. Not a lot of questions we’re actually answered. I didn’t hate it, it was just sort of so-so.

*a copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very millennial story. I really bought into the idea of helping out a habitual liar and getting in over your head.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Con Artists seems to be trying to tell a story that makes the reader question what is real and what is imagined (a story about stories!), but instead becomes a muddled, intermittently amusing mess.

Anxious comedian Frank drops everything to help old friend Giorgio after he's hit by a bus. Giorgio is a jerk who makes bad decisions and seems to be full of half-cocked money-making schemes, but Frank sticks by him. The majority of the book focuses on Frank's increasingly scattered feelings about Giorgio. If Giorgio is lying to Frank, is Frank lying to himself???

The book passes mostly pleasantly, with well-defined characters and occasional funny scenarios (the comic bits did pull a chuckle from me). But I never found myself much caring about what happened to anyone - and I particularly didn't care for the higher concepts Luke Healy seemed determined to introduce.

[Shona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the art style, just not quite sure what the story was attempting to convey over all (friends suck?? anxiety sucks??? everything sucks???)

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty brutal Goodreads average here for what I deem well done comics, sort of minimal, with barely tolerable main characters who are essentially conning each other in different ways. Healy opens this with a section declaring this as TOTALLY FICTION, NOTHING to do with ME and then interrupts the story half way to take a break and reassert that this is TOTALLY fiction, so that is funny.

The story is about Frank, who is trying (and failing) to make it as a stand-up comedian, a friend of Giorgio, who early on gets hit by a bus and needs support. As time goes on it is clear that Giorgio is a serial liar, using everyone including Frank. Frank's bad comedy is so bad it is interesting, but hey, that can be funny, too, right? And it is insightful about his life, too. Frank is also in therapy, gay, and really does care for (also gay) Giorgio.

I think most readers will not care for any of the characters, but as I always say, I don't read to fall in love with fictional characters as my best friends. Frank is messed-up to stay friends with Giorgio, but hey, he is vulnerable. He's human. I like the end, with the moustache, and with a kind of abstract deconstruction of a stage. . . very thought-provoking. Healy is a very fine cartoonist here.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a much quieter, introspective story than a lot of Healy’s previous work, but it definitely has emotional layers that encourage further reflection after reading. In many ways, that’s the story The Con Artists seeks to tell, is the truth what we feel in the moment or how we objectively (or not) consider it afterwards?

[Chrystopher’s Archive · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not entirely sure what to think about this one. It’s definitely an interesting exploration of fraught interpersonal relationships complicated by anxiety. I found the art style slightly simplistic and a little hard to connect with, but I liked the glimpses we got to see into Frank’s mind, the pressure to turn all his experience into content in order to process it, and the hanging of his self-worth on the external approval of strangers. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the ending…it was a little open ended for me and I also wasn’t sure I agreed with what was being said about anxiety disorders and therapy.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great graphic novel about two childhood friends living close to the dole and barely surviving. The narrator is a stand up comedian who barely makes money and his friend is an artist. Often drinking alcohol, his friend has an accident and the narrator chooses to care for him. An amusing dramady of a book. Both are single and gay.

[Caitlyn Barker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think this book was for me. I had hoped to enjoy it, but the story felt very flat to me. I’m glad it was a fast read.

Despite that, the art was great and the anxiety rep felt real.

[King]

Love the character development and pacing

[Olivia Cranston · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down
I liked how the stand up punctuated the story . Truly sometimes you see your friend for who they really are and it’s SHOCKING

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ein Mann nimmt sich eines Freunds an, der wohl gerade eine schlechte Zeit hat... aber vermutlich auch viel lügt oder zumindest verschweigt. Toxisch und manipulativ, und nicht faszinierend genug.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very good graphic fiction, expertly told, with humor and insight.

[Madeline S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man comes to the aid of his childhood friend and holds up a mirror to the facade of his life. A frank depiction of being anxiously alive with deeply human threads and occasional 4th wall breaks.

Format: print
Discovery: library

[Connor G · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - This felt very short and not quite so sweet. Still, I enjoyed the humor and it's refreshing to read a graphic novel about gay guys. I wasn't really sure what he was trying to say though with this one. What's the message? What's the moral? What are we to learn from the missteps of a pathological liar such as Giorgio? What can we see in ourselves that can be seen in Frank?

I'm not really sure where the answers to these questions lie. I think the art style and the humor here and there colored this very well though. I would definitely tune in to Luke Healy's next release.

[Tom Mooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bleak and tender but occasionally funny. Love the stripped back art style.

[Kaitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central question that animates ‘The Con Artists’ is: what does it mean to watch someone struggle?

Friends Frank and Giorgio are both single, young and gay. But that’s about where their similarities end. Frank is an anxious fledgling standup comedian who can’t keep his house plants alive. Giorgio splurges £36 on hand soap and uses an app to control the bathroom lights in his freakishly large home.

As Frank tries to care for Giorgio, who is injured in a drinking related accident, the cracks form in their platonic relationship, which shatters in a quiet yet spectacular fashion. The book observes how much resentment builds between them, in their differing attitudes to purpose, privilege and self-presentation.

The Con Artists’ art style is clean and legible, and the writing has many standout jokes and profound lines that linger on the mind. That being said, it also feels like a high wire act bound by an almost overwhelming restraint, with so many emotions bubbling below the surface, without much of a climax or release for the reader. But perhaps that is more accurate to a certain experience of life, where one is saying one thing and feeling so, so much of another thing.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it, but I did want a little more happening on a visual and emotionally expressive level.

[Christie W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Co-dependency, mental health, deception, manipulation, reality vs Instagram reality, etc. All of these topics are touched upon but none are fleshed out. We get a brief introduction of how Frankie & Giorgio know each other. Quasi spoiler alert......... We get a brief, basic understanding that Frankie has had mental health issues or maybe not really?! That part was a little confusing because a lot of this graphic novel is Frankie talking about his mental illness. It seeemed to say if you take one test/survey and you score "low" then it is immediately decided that you do not have nor ever had any mental illness and inexplicably after being told your results, you feel perfectly fine and apologize for wasting the therapists time! Maddening and such a dis-service to anyone with mental health issues. I had more questions at the end than I did starting out. Also, I felt I really didn't know much more about Frankie & Giorgio than when I first started reading it. I only gave it three stars instead of two because I did like Frankie and hopeful that the author puts out a sequel that is a lot more in depth. This one felt as shallow as an Instagram post.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Con Artists is a slice-of-life comic centered on the friendship between two gay men. Primarily centered around Frank, a struggling stand-up comedian, he is dragged into the various drama his friend Giorgio regularly finds himself in. Healy's prose style evokes some wry humor and wistfulness which sells the slice-of-life aspect well, but it soon becomes apparent that both friends are concealing a lot from each other. Giorgio in particular is a habitual liar, with Frank being on the receiving end of a lot of his fibs. Healy is really digging it at something complex here with the framing of their friendship, but I can't say for sure it all connects by the end. Swaths of the narrative are rather dour or even bland, which isn't helped by Healy's choice to use very minimalistic artwork for the storytelling.

As a portrait into challenging or even toxic relationships, The Con Artists is an ambitious project. But the simplistic art style combined with the at times lackluster narrative drags this down a fair bit, making for a rather dry read.

[Sandeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all tell ourselves stories so that we can survive. From little white lies to truths we are scared to say out loud because then it has the possibility of becoming real.

Luke Healy's The Con artists tries to tackle this facade we all create through the eyes of Frank, a wannabe stand up comedian ( a thinly veiled version of the author perhaps?). Luke has goals - perform stand up comedy, go to therapy and keep his house plants alive. His plans are upended when his childhood friend meets with an accident.

Told in episodic narratives, from arrested adolescence and the stories we tell, to the need for boundaries, and the lack thereof; infused with a deadpan sensibility that is very much in line with the social media obsessed world we live in.

Unfortunately this graphic novel failed to connect with me and the narrative seemed too staccato and disjointed to make any lasting impact. A decent read nonetheless.

[Chad Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

The Con Artists is a graphic novel exploring themes relating to mental illness, strained relationships, and artists using stories from their lives as part of their art.

Frank and Giorgio are friends. Giorgio gets hit by a bus. Frank takes on a caretaker role. Stuff happens.

There. That's the plot out of the way. The meat of the graphic novel revolves around Frank's anxiety and Girogio's low-level sociopathy. The interplay between the characters reveals their personality issues and paints a portrait of a very dysfunctional relationship.

I enjoyed this. I will freely admit that it gets an extra half-star for having gay characters. The story is slight, but the characters are interesting. I enjoyed the spare art style a lot. This isn't a comic for the ages, but it is certainly an interesting read.

[April Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny, bittersweet story about Frank, a stand-up comedian with anxiety, who gets caught up in taking care of an estranged friend, Giorgio, while he recovers after being hit by a bus. On the surface, Giorgio seems to have a perfect life, at least that's what his social media shows. But the longer Frank is around Giorgio, the more cracks in the facade start to show - excessive spending, excessive drinking, obvious lies - which eventually leads Frank to discover some fairly serious criminal behavior going on. A lot of the story made me feel uncomfortable, which isn't a bad thing in a story about a toxic relationship and dealing with mental health issues. The spare art style suited the story well, and while this wasn't as hilarious as I was expecting, it was a good character study with some pretty funny moments.

#TheConArtists #NetGalley

[Aries Aster · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books you read. And then, there are books you experience.

I bring this up, because this is 100% a book you experience. It reads easily, like a friend telling you a story or a comedian bearing his soul (or, the parts they're willing to show). Luke Healy expertly uses little words and minimal imagery to give you a story that is wholly human. Everyone here feels like a real person, because they probably are.

It's unclear if this whole thing is a tall tale or something the author went through himself. But by using our main character (Frank), he crafts a tale of failure in young adulthood and why growing apart from someone isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes, friends of your youth need to stay in the past, no matter how much you miss them.

All in all, this book is phenomenal and left me with a sense of sorrow once it was done.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

This was a miss for me. I kept waiting for something to happen.
I don’t mind subtlety and I love nuance but also I need substance for it to work and I missed the substance of this.

What did Frank (I struggled to remember his name because he was such a sad, forgettable character) gain? Not money, not friendship, maybe a fashionable bag, a black eye, maybe perspective and maybe some material for his stand up.

The best part of the book for me is the female side characters and for that Healy is getting the side eye from me. And yay you had two female characters briefly talk to each other, twice.

Frank wasn’t sympathetic he was pitiable, like I wanted to heave a large sigh or a small slap at him and tell him ‘you know better, grow a spine and set some boundaries and there’s a difference between enabling and helping.’

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's something very real about The Con Artists that makes it feel nuanced while also being a bit unsatisfyng in places. That's not a criticism, as a contemporary novel I think that's a real point in its favor. Healy's depiction of toxic and manipulative relationships and how those relationships end is familiar and as we know relationships even mostly onesided ones often don't end in a way we find satisfying.

When it comes to the portrayl of mental illness you can tell it's something the author has experience with, though I didn't love the somewhat dissmissive epilogue.

The simple art style really helps to ground what could easily otherwise become a pretty heavy story. It was a nice read but nice is about as far as I'd go.

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story of friendship, or rather, nostalgia for a bygone friendship, a fantasy, you might even say. The heartbreak of realizing that you've been had by someone you love, someone you thought you knew. The disappointment in yourself. The con here goes both ways, one rather obvious to whomever is not the main character, and one much subtler, revealed awkwardly in one panel. Luke Healy's declaration in the beginning and the interruption later are thought-provoking and funny. The stand up bits are also funny, and at times poignant in the context of the rest of the story. The art with simple lines and subdued color supports the tone and mood well. Overall, a great novel. Recommended for those who like package deliveries, drunken nights and friendly parents of childhood friends.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel explores the complicated bond of friendship between Frank, a struggling artist, and Giorgio, a manipulative individual. After reconnecting, Giorgio drags Frank into a series of events that seem absurd. Frank reluctantly follows Giorgio into this chaotic world, hoping to uncover some meaning. However, he gradually realises that his friend is abusing him. The novel alternates between Frank’s internal struggles and the absurd situations Giorgio puts him in, showing how toxic relationships affect personal integrity and loyalty. The drawings are minimalist, but they are enough to convey the mood of the story. It’s frustrating, sad, and full of a witty sense of humour.

https://redheadwithabrain.ch/index.ph...

[Michelle Tuite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading 2022
Book 158: The Con Artists by Luke Healy

Another graphic novel and last one for October. Not sure how I stumbled across this book, but put it in my library cart for some reason.

Synopsis: Love, friendship, fraud and the stories we tell...
Frank only wanted three things this year- to perform stand-up comedy, go to therapy, and to keep his house plants alive. Then Giorgio got hit by a bus.

Review: The book was okay, more meh for me. The relationship between the two main characters is weird at best. The whole book was weird. Not much to say, rating 2⭐️.