Comics Culture

Millions now flock to see superhero-themed Hollywood blockbusters, and more than 100,000 crowd in yearly at San Diego Comic-Con, where fantastic storytelling, whether rooted in comics or not, is valorized along with huge doses of Hollywood cash and hype. What does it all mean?

Comics obsessive and media consultant Rob Salkowitz draws on his experiences at the 2011 Comic-Con to muse on the future of the comic business and the entertainment industry in the digital age in Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture (McGraw-Hill).

Comics fans lament that the coolness and media cash now associated with their medium of choice don't help sell actual comics. Larded with bromides about how content companies will need to think globally and figure out a workable digital distribution system, Salkowitz's exploration of "peak geek" has no answers for the comics industry, beyond the not-to-be-forgotten lesson that value arises from the individual work of creative storytellers, not corporations' power over intellectual property. —Brian Doherty