Is your book not selling? Make it about Batman. Having a hard time getting people to go and see your band? Make every song about Scooby-Doo. Need extra cash for painting supplies? Paint something where you have Mario and Luigi driving KITT, from Knight Rider, off a cliff as an homage to Thelma and Louise. The more popular references you have the better your art becomes! Art often reflects the society in which it was created and what better reflects our society than an endless mash-up of popular culture? Nothing.
The best way to make it as an artist is to combine two popular characters into one thoughtless and lazy abomination that the public will go wild over. As we are now a nation of perpetual children, you can literally convince other adults that your nerd core rap about DuckTales is high art worth paying for. Art that appeals to the artist or offers some sort of introspection is a financial non-starter, but inject some nostalgia and you’ve got yourself a sale. If you’re asking yourself why, it’s because every lonely thirty-two year old with a soul-crushing job will shell out twenty bucks for something that reminds them of a time when they still had an imagination.
