Since 1970, when a small group of comic book lovers organized the first show, Comic-Con International has been the place to check out the latest comics creations and connect with legions of fans. Comic-Con documents this cultural phenomenon. Lavishly illustrated pages feature rarely seen photos and images from the Comic-Con archives. Quotes, anecdotes, and profiles of luminaries make for a veritable who's who of the entertainment world.

The Comic-Con phenomenon—and what it means for your business The annual trade show Comic-Con International isn’t just fun and games. According to award-winning business author and futurist Rob Salkowitz it’s a “massive focus group and marketing megaphone” for Hollywood—and in Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, he examines the business of popular culture through the lens of Comic-Con. Salkowitz offers an entertaining and substantive look at the show, providing a close look at the comic-book and videogame industries’ expanding influence on marketing, merchandising, and the entertainment industry. Rob Salkowitz is founder and Principle Consultant for the communications firm MediaPlant, LLC.

Only at Comic-Con examines the relationship between exclusivity and the proliferation of media industry promotion at the San Diego Comic-Con, from the convention's founding in 1970 to its current status as a destination for hundreds of thousands of pop culture fans and a hub of Hollywood hype and buzz.

Professional burglars, Flea & Elmore, discover a snuff film that may spell their doom.

THE 1964 NEW YORK COMICON: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S FIRST COMIC CONVENTION tells the greatest story never told: the story of the first comic con ever held. This event was never reported by any radio channel, tv station, magazine, or newspaper. Bits and pieces of the story can be found in old fanzines, but, until now, the majority of this story has only existed in the memories of the original 56 attendees of the show. Now, at last - for the first time - the full story of the world's first comic book convention is finally told. The story of the 1964 New York Comicon is the story of Bernie Bubnis, Ron Fradkin, Art Tripp, and Ethan Roberts. Four boys who, like an early 1960s Kirby kid gang of boy commandoes, took Comic Fandom by storm by writing and publishing their own fanzines, pillaging used-book stores and flea markets for back-issue comics, visiting the offices of Marvel, DC, and Gold Key Comics, and meeting with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, Julius Schwartz, Bill Harris, Flo Steinberg, Curt Swan, Mike Sekowsky, Don Heck, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella. Tired of hearing about other fans' failed attempts to stage a convention for years, these four boys took it upon themselves to make a convention happen. They pooled their resources and used their contacts with the comic professionals they knew to get them to attend and donate door prizes that included stacks of original art pages. They even convinced Spider-man artist Steve Ditko to attend the con - and to this day it is the only con Steve Ditko has ever attended. (Find out why.) This book tells the stories of the first comic collectors ever and how they traveled from all over the country and converged on New York City on that hot summer day in July 1964 to attend this historic event. All the earliest-known comic dealers attended that day, including Howard Rogofsky, Bill Thailing, Claude Held, Phil Seuling, Doug Berman, Don Foote, Marc Nadel, Malcolm Willits, and Tom Wilson. 34 pages of their original price lists from 1964 are reprinted to show what comics were for sale that day and what they were selling for. This book presents a complete blow-by-blow account of the convention - in the attendees' own words. It includes over 300 photographs and 45 pages of biographical information about this amazing group of 56 original attendees that includes a fifteen-year-old future GAME OF THRONES writer George R. R. Martin, the world-famous radio host Paul Gambaccini, and a young Len Wein, co-creator of Wolverine and Swamp Thing -- to name just a few of the comic book fans and who attended the con. Research for this book includes dozens of interviews with original attendees and all four organizers as well as information mined from complete runs of old 1960s comic book fanzines, such as The Rocket's Blast, Alter-Ego, The Comicollector, The Comic Reader, Jeddak, Comic Art, Masquerader, Hero, Yancy Street Journal - and more. Featured in this book are complete and unedited early 1960s interviews with Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Julius Schwartz, Mike Sekowsky, Joe Giella, and Gold Key editor Bill Harris. Also included is long-lost art by Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, and Curt Swan. In addition, this book contains the only published art ever drawn by George R.R. Martin along with the first three writings he ever published, and they are each reprinted in their entirety. A digitally-restored copy of the complete 1964 New York Comicon program booklet is reprinted in its entirety as well for the first time since 1964. Also reprinted in their entirety are Progress Report #1 (8 pages) and Progress Report #2 (2 pages) and all ads for the convention. The story of early comic book fans' struggle to organize their first comic convention is a tale of epic proportions - one that is long overdue to be told - for it is Comic Fandom's greatest story. And now, for the first time, comic fans everywhere can read about the convention that started it all: the 1964 New York Comicon.

Offers undergraduate students with an understanding of the comics medium and its communication potential. This book deals with comic books and graphic novels. It focuses on comic books because in their longer form they have the potential for complexity of expression.

A New York Times Best Seller A full-color, lushly illustrated graphic novel that recounts the many-layered past and present of beer through dynamic pairings of pictures and meticulously researched insight into the history of the world's favorite brew. The History of Beer Comes to Life! We drink it. We love it. But how much do we really know about beer? Starting from around 7000 BC, beer has emerged as a major element driving humankind’s development, a role it has continued to play through today’s craft brewing explosion. With The Comic Book Story of Beer, the first-ever nonfiction graphic novel focused on this most favored beverage, you can follow along from the very beginning, as authors Jonathan Hennessey and Mike Smith team up with illustrator Aaron McConnell to present the key figures, events, and, yes, beers that shaped and frequently made history. No boring, old historical text here, McConnell’s versatile art style—moving from period-accurate renderings to cartoony diagrams to historical caricatures and back—finds an equal and effective partner in the pithy, informative text of Hennessey and Smith presented in captions and word balloons on each page. The end result is a filling mixture of words and pictures sure to please the beer aficionado and comics geek alike.