Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture

What the World's Wildest Trade Show Can Tell Us About the Future of Entertainment

By: Rob Salkowitz

Narrated by: Colby Elliott

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 an 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.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2012 Rob Salkowitz (P)2016 Last Word Audio, LLC

Critic reviews

"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)

"Narrator Colby Elliott delivers a cool and calm voice that fits perfectly with Salkowitz's prose." (AudioFile)

Informative but Kinda Braggadocios

The performance often sounded robotic, which could cause me to zone out. There is some interesting information, but there is a lot of fluff that seems to be in just to toot their own horn.

mixed bag

Despite the very clinical first chapter, the book goes down easily. It is an even balance between analysis (none of which will surprise the casual fan) and the authors own experience going to the San Diego Comic Con (also nothing that will surprise anyone who's gone to a large Comic Con, San Diego or not). What I found most interesting was the end analysis of the future, even though the physical book version would be vastly superior in lieu of charts missing from the digital form. All and all not a bad read.