I've been super excited for The Big Con Job. the promotional material has kept popping up on my radar. Finally issue one is out and ready to read. I've never been to a comic book convention (*sob I've seen enough movies and TV shows at them) but I love heist movies. So the premise alone had me sold. As with all first issues there is a lot of back story and info-dumping to get through, so that the reader can understand the setting and characters. Jimmy Palmiotti and Matt Brady do a good job of making the conversations feel natural (except for one conversation between an old man and his much younger wife).

Only the beginning is set in a convention, the rest happens outside where we meet the rest of the gang who will be involved in the heist. A good heist story should be one step ahead of you and that means good misdirection. This book has really good misdirection, I'm not going to spoil it but something happens in the middle of the book I wasn't expecting.

The artwork is fantastic. To be fair I had a feeling the art was going to be great from the promo's. I only have one quibble and that is two of the female characters look very similar (yeah people can look similar but for ease of recognition you could change something).

There's a lot of text to get through as the characters have a lot to discuss. This is too be expected from a heist story, a lot of talking and set up and then the finale should be full of action. Though this issue we get to meet the characters who will be involved in the heist and why they would want to. The issue ends with the gang coming together.

If you like conventions and heist movies, you can't miss this.

Score: 4/5

The Big Con Job #1 Writer: Jimmy Palmiotti and Matt Brady Artist: Dominike “Domo” Stanton Colorist: Paul Little Publisher: BOOM! Studios Price: $$3.99 Release Date: 3/4/15 Format: Mini-Series; Digital