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Rob Salkowitz

Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture: What the World’s Wildest Trade Show Can Tell Us About the Future of Entertainment Hardcover – Illustrated, June 15, 2012

by Rob Salkowitz (Author)

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Action! Excitement! Transmedia! Step inside Comic-Con to discover the cultural trends that will shape our world

“I’ve been in comics so long I sometimes think I invented ’em! But I just read Rob Salkowitz’s terrific new book and, y’know what? Even I learned new stuff! If you’re a comic book nut like me, miss it at your own risk!”
―Stan Lee, Legendary Comic Creator and Publisher

“Salkowitz tells it pretty much like it is: the good, the bad, and the ugly of the commercialization of one of America’s greatest art forms, as well as the indefatigable artistry of its creators. He is at once informative, insightful, sobering, and inspiring.”
―Douglas Rushkoff, pop culture analyst and author of Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age

“If you care at all about comics, this is an essential read (and if you don’t, Salkowitz just might win you over). But it’s also grab-worthy for anyone interested in the fascinating, conflicted, unfolding future of digital publishing and transmedia entertainment.”
―Booklist (Starred Review)

“What began more than four decades ago as an intimate gathering of comic book creators, fans and legends has become a packed entertainment event. Although it doesn’t have the same ring to it, Comic-Con could more appropriately be called the Transmedia Pop Culture Con where buzz for a year’s worth of projects is created, prolonged or squelched. Yet, despite the awareness that the con is a giant marketplace where producers sell directly to customers, there has been shockingly little analysis of the business of the event before Rob Salkowitz’s new book, “Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture.”
―CNN Geekout

“The true gift in Rob’s book is how very hard it becomes for you to decide, whether you’re a business reader reading a pop culture book, or a comics fan reading a business book.”
―PopMatters

“The book explores the business aspects of the show and how it is a microcosm of the growing transmedia aspects of both comic books and their connection to things such as film, TV, and video games. All the while, acting as a travelogue by a long-time fan of comics and Comic-Con.”
―Technorati

“Salkowitz’s first hand observation makes us feel like we are walking the convention floor with him. In some chapters you sense his thrill as he meets a few of his fan favorites. Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture should be a great book for comic book fans, moviegoers, pop culture followers, and marketing gurus.”
―Trashwire

Welcome to Comic-Con: where the future of pop culture comes to life

Every summer, more than 130,000 comic fans, gamers, cosplay enthusiasts, and nerds of all stripes descend on San Diego to mingle with the top entertainment celebrities and creative industry professionals in an unprecedented celebration of popular culture in all its forms.

From humble beginnings, Comic-Con has mutated into an electrifying, exhausting galaxy of movies, TV, video games, art, fashion, toys, merchandise, and buzz. It’s where the future of entertainment unspools in real time, and everyone wants to be there.

In Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, author Rob Salkowitz, a recognized expert in digital media and the global digital generation (and unabashed comics enthusiast), explores how the humble art form of comics ended up at the center of the 21st-century media universe. From Comic-Con’s massive exhibit hall and panels to its exclusive parties and business suites, Salkowitz peels back the layers to show how comics culture is influencing communications, entertainment, digital technology, marketing, education, and storytelling.

What can the world’s most approachable and adaptable art form tell us about the importance of individual talent and personal engagement in the era of the new global audience, the iPad, and the quarter-billion-dollar summer blockbuster? Here are some of the issues Salkowitz explores:

How do you succeed in the transmedia maelstrom? Comics have hopscotched across the media landscape for decades. What can we learn from their successes and failures as we careen toward a converged digital future?
Have comics cracked the digital code? Everyone is scrambling to deal with the business disruptions of digital distribution. Does the recent success of comics on tablets demonstrate a new model for other industries, or do dangers lie ahead?
What’s next for “peak geek”? Will the ascendant nerd culture of the early 2010s keep its new audience engaged or burn out from overexposure?

Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture combines the insights business leaders need with the details fans crave about the future ofthe world’s most dynamic industry. Even if you can’t be in San Diego in July, this book brings the excitement into focus . . . no costumes required!

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

McGraw-Hill Education
Publication date

June 15, 2012
Dimensions

6.3 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
ISBN-10

9780071797023
ISBN-13

978-0071797023
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Booklist, June 1, Starred Review:

Approaching his subject as both a business futurist and a longtime comics fan, Salkowitz takes a prismatic view of the comics world from its squirming heart: the bustling, hype-overloaded juggernaut of the San Diego Comic-Con. He ties anecdotal accounts of the craziness that unfolds at the Con over five days in July with ruminations on the current state of the medium. Though he considers and speaks eloquently to the place of literary graphic novels, quirky webcomics, and the sequential-art format as a whole, his crosshairs sit right atop those of Comic-Con: mainstream (superhero) comics and their (for now, anyway) cozy relationship with Hollywood. Here, if you can pay enough attention through the onslaught of noise, unapologetically vocal fans meet rock-star creators; the crumbling direct market meets fledgling digital distribution channels; approachable story lines meet decades of convoluted continuity; reverence for history meets a dire need for change; and, perhaps most important, quaint, low-margin publishing strategies meet blockbuster Hollywood marketing blitzes. It's all about as easy to pinpoint as an electron cloud, but Salkowitz considers the view from every angle and in a final chapter models four possible scenarios for comics in the next decade. If you care at all about comics, this is an essential read (and if you don't, Salkowitz just might win you over). But it's also grab-worthy for anyone interested in the fascinating, conflicted, unfolding future of digital publishing and transmedia entertainment. -- Ian Chipman "BOOKLIST"

From the Publisher

Rob Salkowitz is cofounder and Principal Consultant for the Seattle-based communications firm MediaPlant, LLC. He is the author of Young World Rising and Generation Blend and teaches in the Digital Media program at the University of Washington.

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Product details

ASIN : 0071797025
Publisher : McGraw-Hill Education; 1st edition (June 15, 2012)
Language : English
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780071797023
ISBN-13 : 978-0071797023
Item Weight : 1.29 pounds
Dimensions : 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches

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Customer Reviews:
52 ratings

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David Allan

Indispensable, and still timely, guidebook to the entertainment business

Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

Rob Salkowitz’s excursion through popular entertainment through the lens of Comic-Con is one of the best books on the entertainment business I’ve encountered. I read it in 2019, yet in the seven years since its publication in 2012, Salkowitz’s observations have grown even more prescient. Unlike insiderish tell-alls that are heavy on name-dropping and light on useful advice, Salkowitz combines the viewpoints of the fan, the analyst, and the creator to deliver practical strategic guidance. If, like me, you face the challenge of running new entertainment ventures in today’s fast-evolving, winners-take-most world, then you must read this book! (It’s shaping up to be my most-gifted book of 2020).

Helpful

Len Noel

Probably one of the best books ever written about the future of entertainment...

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

Probably one of the best books ever written about the future of entertainment, this book encompasses all the ingredients that make up human life, what it always was, what it has become and how it is evolving.
As a long-time attendee of the San Diego ComiCon and many other Cons up until a decade ago, I was there before movie-makers really noticed what was going on and I'm enthralled to read how Hollywood has not only noticed but became a major participant. As New Media (digital) slowly supplants Old Media and connects more and more on the planet, everything is bound to change and Rob Salkowitz explores these changes and the ramifications of what they suggest.
Life is learning and everything we learn is useful to our time on this planet. The lessons that Comic-Con and all the other comic-related conventions teach us is that our lives (like comic books and comic art) are sequential. We never stop learning, growing and changing.
Sequential art simply tells stories in an entertaining pictorial format and it can be viewed over a period of time to teach and entertain the viewers. This has great bearing and teaches many lessons when we realize that all movies with sequels and television serial shows have over the years developed into franchises and this has become a billion dollar business. Everything is related and once you are hooked on an idea, a thread or a character, you can watch more and more to learn and be entertained. This is greatly over-simplifying the book's message but this book is about what motivates us and how we live, think and act.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Baowerful

Essential reading for anyone who wants insightful perspectives on the past, present, and future of the comic book industry

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2012

Verified Purchase

I am an independent comics publisher, and I read Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture from beginning to end in a single sitting. I simply could not put it down!

Rob Salkowitz uses his experience at San Diego Comic Con as an entry point into talking about the historical context of the comics industry, how it has come to struggle as it missed the digital boat for a decade as fans started downloading comics illegally, and the players and possibilities for comics creators and publishers today.

What's even more intriguing is that he has provided an international perspective to highlight emerging markets, audiences, and technologies.

Salkowitz provides an invaluable insider-outsider perspective; he comes to his writing as a lover of comics, and uses his knowledge as a business analyst, futurist, and internationalist to talk about a comics industry that might sometimes be so mired in its own habits to see alternative possibilities.

I highly recommend this important book to all comics creators, publishers, retailers, students, fans, or anyone who's interested in the evolution of an industry. It has certainly sparked my thinking and imagination!

8 people found this helpful

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Donald Hazeltine

As The Man says, miss it at your own risk

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2012

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Anyone who is professionally connected to the comics world - as a creator, publisher, would-be publisher, dealer, or involved in any enterprise that might someday cross paths with the industry - should read this book before taking too many steps further. It will likely be the best guide they will ever have for understanding the present realities and the numerous possible futures of the business.

As Stan Lee says, miss this book at your own risk. And as one of his characters might add, "Truer words wuz never spoke!"

(And personally: Having grown up reading comics during the Silver Age, my heroes were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. As the Beatles were to music in that same era, these men were to comics. I am grateful to Rob Salkowitz for his deference to these creators.)

Helpful

Dom

Outstanding book about the Comics Biz!

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

I was compelled to write a review about this book because reading it has profoundly opened up my mind and changed the way I think about the future of comics. As someone who has worked in comics for many years, I found Rob's insights to be invaluable. It's both an exciting and daunting time in the comics industry with all the technological advances and popularity comics have garnered in just the last 5 years. Having Rob's book as a guide has been enlightening.

Rob has put together this book in such a way that it's almost as if he has taken an X-ray of the current comic industry landscape and pinpointed all the strengths and weaknesses. Having this type of knowledge is crucial for anyone working in any area of comics today. It's like having a GPS for navigating the world of comics. I'd also like to add that as a comic fan, this book did not disappoint. It's a fun and entertaining read that was hard to put down. I highly recommend this book, it's an eye opener and an enjoyable read all the way through!

Helpful

wendy

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

this is kind of a diary recording what happened during Comic Con.

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Jadd Shickler

excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

Extremely insightful and thorough analysis of the current state of the comic industry - an absolute must-read for anyone who is a comic book lover but is also interested in the business of comics and wonders where things stand today.

One person found this helpful

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buckymcsatan

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2012

Verified Purchase

A must read for anyone in the business of comics! Full of practical industry anecdotes and advice, although anything but dry. Very entertaining.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

DERRICK L CHO

Great read and peek into the Business of Pop Culture

Reviewed in Canada on June 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Interspersed with insider peeks and peppered throughout with business observations, anyone who is in the business of pop culture or just interested in it, should pick this book up.

Eleanor

'Peak geek'

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2013

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Comic-Con sounds like my idea of hell: tickets and hotel rooms which sell out in minutes, 130,000 people crammed into a convention centre, and hours of queueing. The fact of 21st-century Comic-Con, however, fascinates me: the combination of big business with big money and a relatively small number of specialist highly vocal fans. Rob Salkowitz, a futurologist, has been attending Comic-Con since the nineties, and this book is his account of the 2011 convention and what it can tell us for the future of comic culture.

Salkowitz structures his book by describing his five days at Comic-Con, allowing his experiences to prompt reflections on various aspects of the industry. Although "Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture" is from a business publisher, Salkowitz has written it for readers interested in comic culture generally as well as for business people. As the former kind of reader, I found this an interesting and readable book which although technical in places never descended into impenetrability or the silliness of some popular business books. As well as being hugely knowledgable in the field of future forecasting, Salkowitz is also a lifelong comics fan and his enthusiasm shines through without preventing clear-eyed analysis. Salkowitz's love of comics influences his prose, and readers may either find his more extended metaphors charming or irritating: "Bloggers, creators, publishers, and independent fans have beaten the horse to death, then performed a voodoo ritual to exhume the carcass and started beating the zombie horse."

Having read this book, I know I will be more aware of the undercurrents behind the latest superhero film, digital comics, fan art and fan fiction, literary graphic novels, collectables, and the whole sprawling beast that is geek-tinged pop culture. For a different perspective on Comic-Con 2011, Salkowitz recommends Comic-Con Strikes Again! (Kindle Single) , a short entertaining article which covers a lot of the same ground.

2 people found this helpful

R. F. Stevens

An insider's view on the Comics publishing industry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2013

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

If, like me, you have an interest in comics and in what is going on behind the scenes, would like to know more about the industry players and get a genuine flavour of the madness of Comic-Con, then read this book. But for most of the rest of us it will be no more than a passing glance at another somewhat unreal and perhaps irrelevant world.

Rob Salkowitz is a business analyst who is also a dedicated and active enthusiast in the comics genre, and he gives us his view on the state of play in the Comics/Graphic Novels/Fantasy/SF/Film Spinoffs industry. His discussions are loosely hung on a framework based on his visit to the Comic-Con 2011 in San Diego.

It makes depressing reading for any putative Comics author/artist when Salkowitz points out that the market has very small and uneconomic monthly publishing runs aimed at the individuals buying the classic style comics, and these are locked into a cartel sewn up by the two main publishers DC and Marvel though a shrinking set of specialist book stores. However, he also discusses the rise of the On-line Self Publishing, the collection of back issues into hard-back "Collectors" anthologies sold through mass-market book-stores and other new ways to extract our cash, which raises the hopes of the aspirant again.

And then there is Hollywood casting its financial shadow over everything. For example in 2009 Disney bought Marvel (and its IP) for $4billion. Apparently the comics sales to the (mainly male) core buyers actually represent a tiny percentage of the real business turnover, but without this essential kernel of original plots, characters, ideas, artwork, the rest falls apart.

He covers most of the arguments pro and con, outlines various strategies, discusses what might be possible in the future. But he is doing this 2011/2012 and we are approaching 2014. There is a useful set of back-annotated references and links tucked away at the end of the book, but alas not referred to in the body text which would have made them more accessible.

I found it quite light reading because the analysis is leavened by his entertaining experiences and the many fascinating and celebrated characters he meets during the 2011 convention. However, this blending of interesting reality and hard-nosed business analysis also makes the book somewhat woolly, and neither one thing nor the other. Hence only 3*.

One person found this helpful

BS on parade

A fascinating insight into a very odd industry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2012

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I don't read comic books. The last one I read was Watchmen which I believe was about three and a half years ago. I am interested in comic book culture though, as exemplified by film director Kevin Smith . So when I was offered a book that explores the business of the industry in an accessible way I jumped at it.

I'm glad I did as I thought it was a very absorbing read. It's technically a business book but it really doesn't read like one until the last chapter. It's really a 250 page memoir of attending San Diego Comic-Con 2011, along with additional memories of previous conventions. The business stuff is threaded in there but it's either so subtle or so intrinsically interesting that I just read it as straight up entertainment.

The business side of the book only really surfaces in the last chapter. It's not as much fun as the previous pages as it deals with mapping out various potential futures. It's still very light and readable.

The book deals with the move into digital downloads for tablets, expanding audiences, the mainstream acceptance of geek culture, the inclusion of women and children, the role physical shops have in the comic book world, the rights of creators vs the control of the big companies over intellectual properties, the role Hollywood plays etc. There is a lot in here.

I learned a lot about comics from this book. The most basic thing being that everything is the reverse with comics. For example: mainstream means the reverse. Mainstream in the world of comics actually refers to niche superhero titles with a limited audience, while the weird, arty, avant-garde non-superhero titles actually have more commercial potential as they can reach outside the core comic book audience.

He's a funny writer. I laughed out loud a few times. His descriptions of beating a horse to death and of companies trying not to burn their bridges too soon are brilliant.

If there is a flaw in the book, it is that it will date fast. The industry has only just started to restructure itself so in a few years a lot of what the book covers will be old news. There is an upside to this though, as it means that it will be a snapshot of a very specific moment in time. It should have some value on that level if you re-read it many years later.

If you like comic books or have only a passing interest in pop culture in any form then this is a fascinating read. I highly recommend it. You don't need to read or even care about comics to be entertained by it.

NOTE 6/12/12: I now remember reading the Scott Pilgrim Vs The World comic books two years ago.

NOTE 31/8/16: I re-read the book. It held up pretty well. It’s dated, but that’s to be expected. It was mostly interesting, although I’d now mark it 3 out of 5. I skipped only the last chapter as that’s just business. I doubt I’d ever read it a third time.

One person found this helpful

JMB1779

"It's hard to teach an old nostalgist new tricks"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2013

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I've never been to a Comic Con and the only comics (or is it graphic novels?) I have read in recent times are Terry Moore's brilliant "Strangers in Paradise" and Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home". But I grew up with a grandfather who subscribed to weekly Donald Duck magazines and when he had read it, it would go to my oldest cousin and then trickle down the line and find it's final resting place at our home where it was much treasured and re-read by my sister and I.

The selling point of this book was this line: "A new book about how comics found themselves at the center of the pop culture universe and what it means for the future of entertainment" and it does indeed cover the relationship with Hollywood and the big companies as well as offer some insightful advise on the future of comics and popular culture from a business point of view; distribution, digitalisation, transmedia integration etc. The way he does it is by interweaving the facts with his visit to the craziness of the arts and entertainment festival Comic-Con in San Diego which offers an interesting blend of geek culture and Hollywood - not unlike the world of comics as it turns out.

I found myself particularly interested in the parts about the power of fandom "Fandom is both the rudder that helps all pop culture media steer towards the future and the anchor that keeps them bound to the past. Resolving the competing agendas of fans can be a bit like negotiating a trade agreement between warring countries." as I used to be an avid reader of lesbian interest fanfic on the internet, and it was interesting how when we didn't get what we wanted from our favourite shows, we "shipped" the characters to fit our world, but always in a way that kept the characters authentic with how they would act and speak - even copying whole exchanges from the shows into the text. Many of the best (and some not so good ones...) of these fanfic stories have since made it to book form and are widely sold on Amazon (both as ebooks and in hard copy) and in book stores all over the world. Not unlike how comic books have been turned into movies/TV and the other way round.

Another thing that interested me was the diversity of people that the comic book market caters to and the sheer amount of choice there now is on the market. The continuity aspect of the series which once was a rather focal point of comics and which has since influenced other sequential art e.g. TV series and movies is no longer essential to some part of the comics market and therefore you might have less loyal (and vocal!) fans but it might open to new readers.

A very interesting book both from a business perspective and from an avid reader that likes geeking over serialised novels and shows and therefore understands the appeal of events such as Comic-Con and who hopes that the genre develops in a way that is more Expanding Multiverse than Infinite Crisis. Whether the comics community finds it as fresh and useful, I'm not sure.

One person found this helpful

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