Downtown Reception 2o20 G N I R U T A E F Rob Salkowitz OPC ’85
AUTHOR, CONSULTANT, EDUCATOR AND ENTREPRENEUR Rob Salkowitz OPC ’85, keynote speaker at the 2020 Downtown Reception, schooled an appreciative audience on the profound impact of comic books and comic book fans on popular culture, a development he said made the world safer for “alpha nerds” like him. Salkowitz drew laughs from the crowd when he described his eighthgrade self, a studious introvert who liked to hang out on the second floor of Gummere Library playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends, or in Randy Granger’s art room, talking endlessly about comic books and superheroes. “Who knew that the stuff that earned us wedgies as eighth graders would someday create hundreds of millions of dollars of economic value,” Salkowitz said. “I thought it was more likely that we would all develop superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider! But here we are. It’s a marvelous universe, and we just live in it.” An entrepreneur, author, professor and dynamic speaker, Salkowitz described how comics and comic book fans “went from being a niche on the edges of public consciousness to the engine of the entertainment economy in movies, television, video games, even a global generation of people who wear superhero insignias on their clothing.”
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It was, he said, all about storytelling. “For millennia, people have told themselves stories about heroes and villains and imaginary roles. These stories speak to something within us, and they remind us of things that are true, or at least should be true. “Eighty years ago a bunch of first-generation immigrants who had no opportunities elsewhere in publishing turned to the lowly, and kind of trashy, new format of comic books to retell these stories in the graphic language of visual words and pictures that proved to be unbelievably compelling, uniquely simple and direct. The supermen and wonder women that these folks created solved problems that these creators could not solve for themselves. They stood up to the bullies, the oppressors, the fascists. They spoke out for fairness and equality and social justice. “Especially in a time when justice can feel absent in the real world, is it any wonder that millions of people all over the world are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to see these stories retold on giant screens, or that they show up in their multitudes to celebrate the stories and their creators. The worlds that comics create may be imaginary— but the potential that they show us in ourselves is real. “Now, is the story of how comic book culture ate popular culture for breakfast the most important thing going on right now? Maybe not, but it’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.” PC
