The Four Color Media Monitor

The Fremont News Messenger, which is owned by the Gannett news syndicate, published a puff piece about an artist who's into the horror genre, as though we hadn't heard all that before:

Brian Level, a 2000 Clyde High School graduate who got in trouble drawing unflattering cartoons of his teachers is now making a living with his art work.

"I had nothing against my teachers, I just wanted to entertain my friends," Level said. He has had his own tattoo studio Iluminaut, in Ludlow, Kentucky since 2003, often using his original drawings when a client explains what he or she wants.

In addition to being a tattoo artist, he is a writer and horror cartoonist — drawing covers and illustrations for comic books published by Marvel Comics, DC Comics and others. Some of his work has been in Star Wars, Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers, Flash, Lucifer, Deadpool and more. He said he got into comic book illustrating through the "back door."

In 2010 an Internet friend, associated with the TV show "Walking Dead," saw his drawings and thought they were of professional quality, which led to his first assignment as a "ghost" inker for a comic book project. That led to other things, attending comic book conventions and Comic-Con to display his artwork.

...in 2020 he began carving out time to draw his own creations. His genre is horror and he has co-created and published two graphic novels, "Silk Hills", co-written with Ryan Terrier with art by Kate Sherron, available in hardcover or digital and "Chained to the Grave," co-written with Andy Eschenbach with art by Sherron. He is working on a third. [...]

Wow, so he's into the horror genre theme, as noted before, and even hung out with folks involved with other horror-themed items like Walking Dead. What's so special about this, that the comedy genre doesn't have, and has practically been marginalized for over the past decade by contrast? That he's a tattoo artist is decidedly also appalling, because such ideas can harm the skin and cause infections. It's honestly a disgrace how they've become such a "thing" over past decades, stemming from punk subculture in modern times. There may not be an actual connection between horror and tattoos, but I do find both unappealing, and the former has certainly become overabundant of recent.

Good luck to Mr. Level on his projects. But it's regrettable how these modern artists continue to obsess over something as unhelpful as the horror genre. We could honestly do with far less of it. Certainly if what's being turned out today has nothing to make the reader think, and nothing intelligable to offer.

Labels: dc comics, indie publishers, marvel comics, msm propaganda, violence