Benjamin, excellent points made.

Popular appeal and great content can go together. They must. Otherwise valuable ideas just get overlooked. Shakespeare, Dickens, "The Magic Flute" of Mozart's and the Beatles managed to do it. But there are many examples where valuable material took excruciating decades to be recognized and enjoyed -- all of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings and Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha" come to mind. Makes me wonder how much fantastic stuff was just plain lost forever.

I've spent years in design and have produced work that has been clever, sophisticated and given splendid reviews. But that didn't necessarily translate into sales. Other work of mine that I considered just OK sold really well. Chance (as opposed to luck) and timing were all important.

Stayed a little from your subject perhaps. Many thanks.