Chapter 748 That Year Eighteen
The word "manhua" first appeared in the "Jingqiansheng Collection" by Chao Yidao, a painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. "There are many river dredging in the Yellow River, and some are called "manhua", who often use their mouths to draw water to catch fish."
The original meaning is the name of a water bird, which got its name because it fishes in a free and easy manner, like painting on the water.
Later, the word "cartoon" had the meaning of a verb. In Jin Nong's "Jin Dongxin's Miscellaneous Paintings Notes" in the Qing Dynasty, it was mentioned "several cartoon branches". The cartoon here means to draw casually.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Renjing Pictorial began to publish satirical paintings, funny paintings, and fashionable paintings. Then, starting from the publication of Feng Zikai's "Zikai Cartoons" in the Literary Weekly, the word cartoon replaced the above names and became the meaning we are familiar with today.
The first high tide of the development of Chinese comics was around the Xinhai Revolution, when comics with anti-feudal and anti-invasion themes emerged. Then, after the September 18th Incident in 1931, the country actively launched the creation of comics with anti-Japanese themes.
Then, when New China was founded, the development of domestic comics reached its peak, and the subject matter also changed from current political suffering to cultural entertainment and political propaganda. The comics were mostly expressed in the form of comic strips.
The comic strips of that era were both ideological and artistic, and full of "Chinese style".
It should be said that from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 1980s, China's comics industry experienced a glorious period.
Unfortunately, as the pace of reform and opening up deepens, more and more foreign information is coming into the country.
In 1980, Nihong Animation's "Astro Boy" was introduced to China, which was the first time Nihong Animation entered the Chinese market. In May 1981, under the influence of the introduction of animation, the "Astro Boy" comic strip was re-formatted and entered China in the form of a comic strip.
In 1987, the Nihong comic "Doraemon" was published in China in its original form. It was the first comic to be introduced to my country in the true sense. The Nihong-style film and television structure storyboards were more competitive than comic strips, and Nihong comics quickly gained a foothold in the comic field in my country.
It seemed as if overnight, a flood of mud-blasting comics came across the sea.
Various comic booklets published by Hainan Photography and Art, Spring and Autumn, Ningxia People's, Dunhuang Literature and Art and other publishing houses quickly captured the students' extracurricular reading market.
Faced with the aggressive Nihong comics, the comic strips that accompanied countless people in their growth were completely defeated.
After all, compared with the diverse styles, interesting plots and mature market system of Nihongo comics, comic strips have almost no advantages.
What's more, the first batch of comics that landed in China were all "Doraemon", "Dragon Ball", "Saint Seiya", "City Hunter", "Urusei Yatsura" and "Captain Tsubasa", which were the best products selected after the long waves in the comic market.
Just like the 10 "blockbuster" films introduced by China Film, such works will naturally form a dimensionality reduction attack when placed in the Chinese market.
With the rise of Japanese storyboard comics in China, the decline of comic strips also began.
Several years have passed since the mid-1980s, and the domestic comics industry has experienced a process from glory to decline.
And it was during this dark moment, in the summer of 1993, at the Zhongguancun Book Market in Yenching, that a comic magazine quietly became popular among booksellers.
This is a comic publication imitating Shueisha's "Weekly Shonen Jump", named "Hua Shu Dai Oh", or "Hua Wang" for short.
On August 20, 1993, "Huashu Dawang" was launched. As the first comic magazine in my country to fully adopt the Japanese storyboard presentation method, "Huashu Dawang" has been enthusiastically sought after by countless comic readers in China since its launch.
The first issue was printed in 20,000 copies, which were quickly sold out, so it was urgently reprinted again and again.
After that, the sales of each issue continued to increase as reprints were made. In just a few months, the sales of Hua Wang reached 200,000 copies per issue, and letters from readers from all over the country poured in like snowflakes.
In the past two years, prices have skyrocketed, and book prices have also soared. In today's Chinese book market, if many books and magazines are priced slightly higher, a monthly sales volume of 10,000 copies can break even, and more than 50,000 copies are considered a best-seller, and more than 100,000 copies can make booksellers and publishers earn a lot of money.
At the peak of his career, The Painting King once achieved sales of 600,000 copies per issue, making him the undisputed king of the domestic comics industry.
The publishing organization of Hua Wang is Ningxia People's Publishing House, but in fact, the founder of this comic is a retired old man from the Yanjing postal system.
"Hello, Teacher Wang, hello!" Lin Weimin shook Wang Yongsheng's hand enthusiastically.
Wang Yongsheng was a little surprised and even more flattered.
A person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree. Lin Weimin has been famous for so many years. His reputation in China is known to everyone, including women and children. He has conquered countless readers with his works time and time again, and has won glory for the country time and time again. Now he is only one step away from being enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Yongsheng invited Lin Weimin and Li Xin to sit down and poured them a cup of hot tea.
Li Xin said, "Teacher Wang, Teacher Lin came this time to ask you about "The King of Painting Books."
Li Xin went straight to the point and Wang Yongsheng's eyes lit up. Ever since he received Li Xin's call, his heart had been beating wildly with excitement.
Wang Yongsheng's face flushed with excitement. "Ask whatever you want. I'll tell you everything I know."
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Teacher Wang, please don't get excited. We just want to know what happened before and after the publication of "The King of Painting Books" was suspended."
After hearing his words, Wang Yongsheng's excitement calmed down. Memories kept emerging in his mind, and a bitter smile gradually appeared on his face.
Wang Yongsheng sighed and told the story behind the cessation of publication of "The King of Painting Books".
"The King of Painting Books" was first published on August 20, 1993, and is published every two weeks. Since its inception, its sales have been rising like a rocket, and each issue has reached a new height.
In the early days of its publication, Wang Yongsheng set a main theme for the magazine: to learn from foreigners in order to strengthen ourselves.
Before the establishment of Hua Wang, the domestic comics market had been devastated by the impact of Ni Hong Comics. In order to gain a foothold in the market competition, the first few issues of Hua Shu Da Wang published many classic comics of Ni Hong. The proportion of Ni Hong comics was basically 50-50 with domestic comics.
Looking through the earliest issues of "Painting Book King", it is also obvious that, whether in terms of artistic level or the excitement of the plot, the Chinese comics published at that time were indeed worlds apart from the Nihong comics serialized at the same time.
Many Chinese cartoonists at that time had just made the transition from comic strips and were trying new things. Some cartoonists had never even seen dot paper, so it was normal to have such a gap.
However, Wang Yongsheng's decision was correct.
Chinese cartoonists didn't let him and his readers wait too long.
On January 20, 1994, in the 10th issue of "The King of Picture Books", a Chinese cartoon titled "Xiaoshan Diary" made its debut, which dazzled countless readers.
Although it bears traces of imitating the popular cartoonist Akira Toriyama, "Koyama Diary" also has its own unique innovations. The characters are exaggerated yet cute, the stories are humorous, and the imagination is wild.
More importantly, readers can no longer see any trace of the comic book style in "Xiaoshan Diary", which made it stand out among the original domestic comic works at that time.
With the publication of "Xiaoshan Diary", Wang Yongsheng became more convinced that the path he was taking was correct.
Just then, he saw in the newspaper that Guowen Publishing House was soliciting articles for the Youth Rag Tiger Series, and this news gave Wang Yongsheng inspiration.
He made a decision that was of far-reaching significance to "The King of Painting Books" - to hold the 94 King of Painting Cup ultra-short story submission event with prizes.
As soon as the call for submissions for "Picture Book King" was released, the enthusiasm of domestic comics enthusiasts was immediately aroused, and submissions flooded in from all over the country to the editorial department of "Picture Book King".
In the several issues following the call for submissions, "The King of Painting Books" published about fifty short comic works.
Hu Qianrong, who is still in her second year of high school, published "New Year's Gift", Yao Feila's debut work "Happy Christmas Eve", and Hu Rong, Nie Jun, Free Bird, Zhao Jia, Ah Heng...
The strategy that Wang Yongsheng formulated for "The King of Painting Books" is bearing fruitful results.
It was not until the 17th issue of "The King of Painting Books" that a work that changed the history of Chinese comics appeared in the publication.
"Xiao Yan, I really didn't expect this. I never expected that heroes have always emerged from youth!"
Wang Yongsheng's face became excited again.
The Xiao Yan he mentioned is Yan Kaifu, the author of the comic book "Xue Coconut".
He was eighteen years old when he painted "Snow Coconut".
The emergence of "Xue Ye" ushered in the heyday of "The King of Painting Books".
At that moment, the bright future of Chinese comics seemed within reach.
"I still can't forget that day. The first anniversary of the publication of "The King of Painting Books" is coming soon. In order to celebrate the first anniversary, the publishing house and I specially organized a symposium in Yanjing and took great pains to invite several leaders.
Everyone has given full recognition and encouragement to our magazine. Ningxia is even preparing to nominate "The King of Painting Books" as the best provincial journal.
But no one expected..."
Wang Yongsheng's tone became depressed when he said this. "Less than a week after that meeting, at a meeting about children's magazines, a leader suddenly took out our "Picture Book King" and pointed angrily at a color illustration on it and said: Can such a picture be shown to children? He was referring to an illustration published in the first issue of "Picture Book King". It was an illustration from "The Detective Han Yuliang" by the popular cartoonist Hojo Tsukasa..."
Lin Weimin had specially collected all the publications of "The King of Picture Books" before, and immediately retrieved the illustration in his mind.
The protagonist Han Yuliang, dressed in a white suit, is sitting on the sofa, with a gorgeous woman in a swimsuit sitting in his arms.
"If you have read this story and know who the protagonist Han Yuliang is and what the people in the picture are doing, probably no one would associate it with SQ. Unfortunately, there was no investigation, no representation, no necessary administrative procedures, and even no clear meaning of the painting. They just made a judgment and executed him without trial."
There was a hint of resentment and unwillingness in Wang Yongsheng's tone.
At this time, Lin Weimin spoke up, "Teacher Wang, I don't think so."
Wang Yongsheng was immersed in the emotions of the past. When he heard his words, he frowned and looked at Lin Weimin calmly.
"There is a strict rating system for comics in China. Hojo Tsukasa's "The Detective Han Yuliang" is an adult comic in China. After all, the audience of "Painting Book King" is mainly young readers. There is no rating system in China when introducing this work. It is our responsibility as the publisher to circumvent the content appropriately."
"The King of Painting Books" is a magazine founded by Wang Yongsheng. He has devoted countless efforts to this magazine from scratch, from obscurity to fame. The suspension of the magazine has always been an unsolvable knot in his heart.
Lin Weimin may not have meant to blame Wang Yongsheng, but the calmer his tone was, the more harsh it sounded to Wang Yongsheng's ears.
Because every word in this speech was telling Wang Yongsheng that the cessation of publication of "The King of Painting Books" had a lot to do with him as the founder.
Wang Yongsheng was extremely angry!
I tried the new illustration function, but I don’t know how effective it is. Everyone is welcome to leave a message to discuss.
(End of this chapter)
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