MAINSTREAM & UNDERGROUND: COMICS CULTURE AND BIG BUSINESS COLLIDE IN A FRENZIED MASH-UP THAT FORTELLS THE FUTURES OF GLOBAL EMPIRES

Comic-Con is the Galactic Center of the Entertainment Zeitgeist, from Popular Tastes to Business Dynamics

“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, Creator of Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America, The Avengers, and many more

This July, 150,000+ attendees are expected to flood into San Diego’s Comic-Con 2012.  Pop culture and mass culture converge here, the modern and the mythical, man and marvel.  Events on the convention floor will dominate national headlines, generating unparalleled fan buzz in the worlds of film, games, graphic novels, and celebrity. 

The story of “The Con’s” evolution from meek to monster mirrors the legendary transformations of comics’ most beloved superheroes.  In 1970, nerdy guys assembled to trade issues and meet the illustrators; over the decades Comic-Con has evolved into a lumbering beast with formidable powers, with tentacles reaching into all forms of media.

COMIC-CON AND THE BUSINESS OF POP CULTURE: What the World’s Wildest Trade Show Can Tell Us about the Future of Entertainment (McGraw-Hill Professional; HC, $27.00; June, 2012), by business writer Rob Salkowitz offers a rare glimpse inside this pop culture-lover’s convergence of geekdom and big business.  “The Con” is a swirling vortex of brands, empires, movie stars, and the undead - clever, crazily, competing for the attentions and spending power of an electrified fan base that meets at a crossroads of genres and interests.

It’s also become a window into the dramatically challenged comics empire.  While the onset of digital publishing threatens its very existence, marketers across a wide swath of industries continue to page through the comics backlist for source material.   The comics culture, grounded in nostalgia and continuity, is undergoing rapid changes driven by external forces that may render it completely unrecognizable in a short time.

COMIC-CON AND THE BUSINESS OF POP CULTURE offers a fascinating, funny, poignant, fast-clipped look at the future of entertainment – and the beloved comic book – in a swiftly innovating environment moving “faster than a speeding bullet.”

About the Author:

Rob Salkowitz is cofounder and Principal Consultant for the Seattle-based communications firm MediaPlant LLC.  He is the author of two books, Young World Rising and Generation Blend.  He teaches in the Digital Media program at The University of Washington, Seattle.  He speaks regularly on the convergence of digital media, technology, entrepreneurship, innovation, and social change.  He attended his first comic book conference in 1975, at the age of 8.