We had good comics-- the industry was destroyed when comics became "collectables" & there was a massive run on speculation for comics which ultimately coincided with the industry's abandonment of comics as anything other than "collectable merchandise" -- this is in the 90s, roughly-- & it put an end to what was called "The Modern Age of Comics" which had things like Swamp Thing, Sandman, Judge Dredd, Hellboy, etc. Those are all great works-- but the readership for comics, as they became "collectables" & not readily available reading material found at gas stations, pharmacies, etc-- diminished rapidly. Nobody reads American comics anymore. The reason why Japan can afford to create such great works of manga, is that manga are available everywhere in Japan, & people purchase them while waiting for buses, trains, etc. The readership is higher than most American magazines. The major players in comic books became primarily invested in Hollywood blockbusters just in time for comics to die as a medium in America. This is what I mean when I say that individuals cannot rejuvenate a culture-- but culture is the consequence of infrastructure & ultimately the State. We have "airport novels" for a reason-- that's where people actually read-- & even that has diminished in favor of the "in flight offerings"-- coincidentally, the only place I watch Marvel movies, on an airplane.

It's funny because in Japan they fucking love Western comics -- the Mangaka only extended the ambitions of Western comics at the same time that Western comics disappeared as a medium. The Japanese saw Disney movies in the 20th century & were like "Holy Fucking Shit, we need to make those" -- & they have lapped Disney since. We don't even appreciate our own culture. Disney hides its greatest works in its own vault. We don't appreciate what feats of art we created. We make trash now.

Needless to say, it's not even worth comparing the state of Japanese video games to Western video games, etc. Japan's culture industry blows America's out of the water when it comes to quality. Japan arguably has more soft power than America, culturally, for this reason as well. The world has only become more "Japan" -- as Kojeve predicted-- as America's influence wains, Korea & Japan have inherited the culture industry. Most Korean films are better than most American films now. I think about this movie all the time. It affected me more than any American movie I've seen in a long time.

The only vital American art forms that can't really be beat anywhere else is Stand Up Comedy, which isn't really an art form anymore, but more like the last cultural venue in which people can freely express themselves, & even then...