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This essay considers the interplay between exclusivity and access growing out of Comic-Con's history, its pivot online during the pandemic, and the organization's plans for the future.

Abstract
Focusing on the lines for the San Diego Comic-Con's largest promotional space, Hall H, this article draws on participant observation and mediated discourses in order to locate the place of fans at an event that has long been shaped and influenced by the promotional presence of the media industries. At Comic-Con, waiting in line suggests a divide between inside and outside, both in the literal sense of gaining entry and as a signifier of the exclusivity of the event and its attendees. But the line itself is a liminal space, neither inside nor outside. This article argues that the Hall H line at Comic-Con operates as hierarchized space in which fans follow rules and self-regulate in order to maintain their position. But the act of waiting in line also constitutes a form of labour, producing a heightened aura of exclusivity, increased publicity and surplus value around Hollywood promotion at Comic-Con. While a quotidian activity like waiting in line might be viewed much in the same way as media consumption – something one does with their 'free' time – this article argues that the prominence and proliferation of lines at Comic-Con make the work of being a consumer significantly more visible.

Point of Sale offers the first significant attempt to center media retail as a vital component in the study of popular culture. It brings together fifteen essays by top media scholars with their fingers on the pulse of both the changes that foreground retail in a digital age and the history that has made retail a fundamental part of the culture industries. The book reveals why retail matters as a site of transactional significance to industries as well as a crucial locus of meaning and interactional participation for consumers. In addition to examining how industries connect books, DVDs, video games, lifestyle products, toys, and more to consumers, it also interrogates the changes in media circulation driven by the collision of digital platforms with existing retail institutions. By grappling with the contexts in which we buy media, Point of Sale uncovers the underlying tensions that define the contemporary culture industries