For many, including myself, artists, no matter the craft, always looked to the industry to try and find out what the mainstream culture thought. Readers, like myself, were always in awe of what the New York Times Best Seller List cultivated as what mainstream readers wanted. It also added Manga and Comics best sellers, as that even told the industry what the mainstream wanted. Sometimes the “Industry Standard” helped create more for the audience, but the disconnect between the mainstream now represents a large cultural influence. Americans don’t just read American writers anymore, but does the larger cultural influence of other countries represent the American way? But Twitter/X itself does prove, as of 2024, a new cultural battleground for art and artists.[1]
Twitter user, Master of the TDS, presented a picture of the latest Disney comic, where the black female lead, is yelling, calling for her troops to “get baack”, and it’s not only abysmal, but raises a new question. Why does this black female character, with her mouth wide open, resemble a new “industry standard?” It doesn’t, on a personal level. The digital colors almost paint her in a caricature racist pose that poses no real artistic representation for new artistic achievement. Personally, being inspired by dog shit is not for the regular everyday artist. It’s why the enemy of creativity is cultural group think, pretending that dog shit is the corporate way, then most great artists shouldn’t even try to please the corpo mouse, Disney’s, own particular brand of cultural ideology, burning everything it loves to the ground. And the enemy of group think, in its own way, is artists gaining more creative freedom by crowd funding their own projects. As this isn’t new, the outcome is that artists need to buck the industry standard. But will that always make you lots of money if you go against the industry standard?
No. Because American creators have their own personal way of thinking. We don’t look at one individual writer as one single defining genre of American life. Cormac McCarthy, Herman Mellville, Don Delillo, Paul Auster, David Mamet, Richard Matheson, Clive Barker, Phillip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Shirley Jackson, Poppy Z. Brite, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, are and still represent a personal standard for what American literature, no matter the genre is. What makes the industry standard so fluid is that American writers just don’t have to read American writers. But for the visual medium, art must be absolutely perfect. Not just in writing, but in visual style.
Artists, no matter the indie genre, as I am part of the culture long before the war began, gave me the chance to be my own man without the “industry standard” affected my writing. It’s not easy to be employable to cultural Marxists, as my individual thought, usually drives most mainstream Gen Z readers insane. But I’m certainly not alone as most others, and my readers, usually feel the same way I do.
[1] If that changes as of this publication, if Twitter/X changes hand, let this article be a living record.
Louis Bruno is the author of more than 21 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive, and The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His newest books, The City of Sand: Book 3: America the Free, is out now.
That panel looks like the type of illustration you'd see in a Watchtower magazine.