Comic Writer Lucas Lowman Predicts a New Media Reset in 2026, Drawing Parallels to Hollywood’s Late-1970s Reckoning

BROOKLYN, NY, UNITED STATES, February 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Comic writer Lucas Lowman is calling 2026 a turning point for modern entertainment, arguing that what many interpret as cultural decline across film, television, games and comics is better understood as a familiar industry cycle: contraction, correction and creative reset.

In a new essay, Lowman draws a parallel between today’s tightening media economy and Hollywood’s late-1970s reckoning, when bloated budgets and “safe” projects lost audiences and momentum.

In that period, he writes, studios were ultimately forced to back projects with clearer identity and sharper intent—an adjustment that produced a new era of distinct voices and more durable storytelling.

“Periods of cultural anxiety often masquerade as periods of decline,” Lowman writes. “These moments are not endings. They are resets.”

Lowman argues that the last decade of media has been shaped by a boom-era logic—cheap capital, volume-based output and franchise scaffolding—while the current pullback is exposing a core issue: unclear work is expensive work.

In his view, tighter budgets do not eliminate bold storytelling; they eliminate projects that cannot explain what they are.

“Tight money doesn’t kill bold work. It kills mediocrity,” Lowman writes. Lowman’s thesis centers on clarity: when money gets tighter, projects with a strong point of view, a defined audience and a clear identity become the safest bet —because they require less explanation, less committee-driven indecision and less scaffolding to justify their existence.

He argues that, historically, creative industries stabilize when they rediscover the value of legible authorship and contained storytelling, rather than attempting to sustain growth through endless expansion.

“What often gets remembered as a single ‘moment’ is usually a process stretched across a decade,” Lowman writes, noting that the creative opportunity tends to emerge when old assumptions stop working and new patterns replace them.

Lowman is a Brooklyn-based comic writer and media storyteller focused on genre-forward work, including action, horror, sci-fi and fantasy.

Christine Haas
Christine Haas Media
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