Chapter 143 0143, Is Comics a Dead End?

There is an old saying that goes "If you have a thousand dollars, you want ten thousand dollars", which means that if you have a thousand dollars, you still want ten thousand dollars.

Yunfeng is like this now.

Since earning six or seven million a month is not enough, then set a small goal and earn six or seven million a month first.

Money is indeed very important whether on Earth or on the Blue Star. It is also a guarantee of survival, and the amount of wealth can actually prove a person's strength.

But then again, even if Yunfeng is at full power, with novels, songs, and comics, it is difficult to achieve the small goal of earning six or seven million a month at present.

Difficulty is a challenge.

Today, the weather in the Magic City is as stuffy as an airtight jar. There is no wind, and the thick air seems to be condensed, making people breathless.

In the afternoon, Yunfeng came to the Youxianqi Magazine. As soon as he entered the door, he saw a receptionist at the front desk.

Seeing someone coming, the young lady asked with a smile: "Hello, sir, welcome to Youxianqi Magazine. Is there anything I can help you with?"

The fact that Yunfeng became a shareholder of Youxianqi Magazine has not been officially announced yet, and other employees except Zheng Rong did not know about it.

Yunfeng replied: "I'm looking for your editor-in-chief Zheng."

After saying that, he added: "I have an appointment with him."

The young lady checked the appointment list, but no one had made an appointment to meet with the editor-in-chief in the afternoon, so she asked: "Sir, what is your last name?"

Yunfeng replied: "My name is Yunfeng."

"Please wait." The young lady picked up the internal phone and was about to call the editor-in-chief.

At this time, Dong Jie just came out of the magazine and saw Yunfeng standing at the front desk. She immediately asked: "Master, are you here to see Brother Zheng? Why don't you go in?"

Yunfeng smiled at her, but did not answer her question. Instead, he asked: "Is Brother Zheng here?"

"Yes." Dong Jie nodded and said: "I just came out of Brother Zheng's office."

Yunfeng nodded slightly and went inside.

The young lady hurriedly asked Dong Jie: "Sister Dong, I heard you call him 'God'. Is he the legendary 'cross-border king' or 'Morning Clouds and Evening Rain'?"

Dong Jie smiled and said: "Remove the word 'ma'."

The young lady was surprised and said: "He is really young..."

"Of course not." Dong Jie said admiringly: "I heard from Brother Zheng that he is only a freshman."

While the two were talking, Yunfeng had already arrived at Zheng Rong's office.

"Didn't you say you would come at five?"

"Oh, I just thought of something, so I came earlier to discuss it with you."

...

Zheng Rong made Yunfeng a cup of coffee, put it in front of him, and asked, "What's the matter?"

Yunfeng didn't answer but asked, "What positions are we hiring for in our comic studio now?"

Zheng Rong replied, "One artist, responsible for the design of comic covers and promotional posters; one post-production, responsible for typesetting, packaging, promotion, and publishing."

Yunfeng was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and said, "Just two people?"

Zheng Rong nodded and explained, "Since Fengyun Comics is all completed by you alone, other positions are not needed for the time being, because there is nothing to do if you hire them."

This...

seems to be correct.

After a brief thought, Yunfeng said, "Let's recruit screenwriters, main writers, line drawing assistants, and coloring assistants."

Zheng Rong asked, "Do you want our comic studio to start a new comic?"

Yunfeng nodded and said, "Yes, that's what I mean."

Zheng Rong said, "Recruiting people is not difficult, but creating a best-selling comic is difficult. There are dozens of large-scale comic studios in China, and hundreds of comic studios with small teams of three or five people. Not many can really make money, and most of them are just doing it out of love."

Yunfeng understood what he meant by this very clearly, which was that "making comics is a dead end."

Of course there are exceptions, but they are very few.

The main reason is that the style of painting tends to be cute and cartoon-like, and the quality is not high. Moreover, they are basically short comics, and most of them are less than 100p per whole.

This is also one of the reasons why the long comics of MD Company in the United States can grab more than 70% of the domestic market share.

Zheng Rong also chose to publish the comics after reading the manuscript of Fengyun Comics given by Yunfeng. If Yunfeng had just spoken out without the manuscript of Fengyun Comics, the result would be different.

However, Yunfeng smiled and said, "Can't my novels be adapted into comics?"

Zheng Rong's eyes lit up. This is different. Yinmei Studio, a subsidiary of Penguin Comics, became the first comic studio in China by adapting Nan Yuan Limeng's novel "The Great Confucian Hero" and Guan Hu's novels "New Theory of Conferred Gods" and "New Theory of White Snake".

The popularity of Yunfeng's novels is unmatched in China, so it is definitely possible to use them for comic adaptation.

However...

This also depends on the ability of the screenwriter and the main writer.

In China, there are many failed comic adaptations of popular novels.

After some thought, Zheng Rong asked, "Do you have the copyright of the comics of your novels?"

He knew that the copyright of serialized novels on Panda Chinese Network belonged to the website. Unless there was a novel with more than one million words and it was determined to be more than one million, and the author became a signed author of a great god, the website would return the copyright.

He also knew that although the average subscription of Yunfeng's novels broke the record, it did not exceed one million.

Yunfeng shook his head and replied: "The copyrights of my novels are still in Panda Chinese Network, but..."

After a pause, he smiled and said: "The copyright can be bought."

That's true.

But, the copyright of comics is not cheap.

Zheng Rong fell into deep thought.

The comic studio can't always help Yunfeng, and Xianqi Comics can't always rely on collecting other people's comics to serialize, so it is inevitable to take the path of original comics.

Whether to become bigger and stronger or to be content with the status quo, you need to make a decision.

Who doesn't have an ideal?

Zheng Rong established the monthly novel magazine not just for a living. At that time, he had great ambitions and wanted to make it a first-class magazine in China and even the world.

Although he almost went bankrupt and closed down, his ideals have never been abandoned.

At this moment, Zheng Rong ignited his fighting spirit and said loudly: "Done!"

Yunfeng was shocked, but there was no need to think about this for so long, so he said: "I will get the copyright of the comics of my novels in one or two months."

Zheng Rong nodded. It would be more convenient for Yunfeng to talk about the copyright.

After talking about some related matters, he stood up and said: "I will take you to your office and introduce you to the employees."

Yunfeng said: "Do I have an office?"

Zheng Rong said: "Of course."

The office is spacious enough, and there are many things in it, even more than Zheng Rong's office. Drawing boards, brushes, paints, etc. are all available, not to mention computers and tablets.

Yunfeng is quite satisfied.

It's almost time to get off work.

Zheng Rong summoned the employees to the conference room.

When everyone arrived, they found that the magazine had grown again, with more than a dozen employees.

Among them, only Guo Chuan and Dong Jie were familiar.

Yunfeng suddenly became nervous. This was the first time he was a boss, although only half a boss.

At this time, Zheng Rong said with a smile: "Let everyone come here, there is an important thing to announce."

All the employees were looking at the young man next to Zheng Rong, and they all guessed that this important thing should be related to this young man.

Guo Chuan and Dong Jie, who knew Yunfeng's identity, thought: Brother Zheng would not sign someone to the magazine?

Zheng Rong continued: "Now, let me introduce you solemnly. This is the 'great god' you talk about all day long."

When these words came out, all the employees were shocked.

The idol they had been thinking about was now in front of them!

They were all fans of the novel "Crossover King" and the comics "Morning Clouds and Muyu".

Although it was the same person.

But...

It was precisely because it was the same person that they liked him even more.

Next, Zheng Rong's next sentence made them even more excited: "At the same time, he is also another boss of our Fairy Magazine."

Not only did they meet their idol, but they could also work together.

Suddenly, there was thunderous applause in the conference room.

Yunfeng smiled and introduced himself: "Hello everyone, my name is Yunfeng, Yun for white clouds, Feng for mountain peaks."

When this name came out, everyone present was breathless at this moment.

Yunfeng?

No way...

They all thought of one person.

For those who like to listen to songs, the spectacular scene of nine songs impacting this year's new song popularity list is still vivid in their minds.

And the person who created this spectacular scene is called Yunfeng.

After a long time.

The courageous Dong Jie asked: "Master...Excuse me, are you...the Yunfeng who sang "Confession Balloon"...?"

Yunfeng did not deny it, nodded slightly, and said: "It's me."

All the employees were stunned and looked at each other: "..."

This information impacted their brains.

Wait.

It's a bit confusing.

Let's sort it out first.

The singing Yunfeng is actually the cross-border king who writes novels and Chaoyun Muyu who draws comics?

Jung Rong smiled happily.

He liked this picture very much.

When I confirmed this information with Yunfeng, it was the same. I digested it for a long time.

I still remember that I was willing to take the sales commission because of Yunfeng's popular and high-quality novels. Later, I agreed to invest in the magazine because of the Fengyun comics.

It was because of this.

He didn't expect Yunfeng to have excellent singing, lyrics and composition talents.

"Pa pa pa..."

The employees came back to their senses and applauded enthusiastically and fiercely again.

At this moment, Yunfeng was simply a genius of the demon level in their eyes.

They all felt very honored to be in the same company with him.

————

Yunfeng's return home was postponed again because he had to participate in the recruitment of the comic studio.

With his approval, the selected painters would be more in line with his requirements.

There were many people applying for the job.

Zheng Rong was responsible for reading resumes and asking questions.

Yunfeng was looking at the interviewee's own comic works.

This is the most direct and effective way to judge whether a person has the talent for creating comics.

He had previously used the skill book [Skill Comics: Standing Out from the Crowd·Professional Level], which not only enabled him to possess top-notch drawing skills, but also enabled him to acquire a lot of professional knowledge. He was able to identify whether a person's drawing skills were high or low, how well they handled storyboards, their ability to understand the plot, and so on.

"The character's facial proportions are seriously out of proportion..."

"Too much emphasis on light and shadow..."

"The storyboards are a mess..."

"The text box won't even be placed..."

"The scene setting is too rough..."

…

Yunfeng frowned carefully. He was a little tired, not only physically but also mentally.

Many interviewees can't even distinguish the four major components of comics.

Among characters, stories, worldviews, and themes, characters are the most important, as they are the carrier of the author’s thoughts or themes, especially the protagonist. Sometimes, the protagonist is so powerful and vivid that other components can even be ignored.

"It seems that it is not that easy to run a comics studio well."

For a moment, Yunfeng wished he had the ability to clone himself.

If one person wasn't really too busy, he wouldn't even think about setting up a comic studio.

Drawing comics is no different than writing novels, because the speed limit is too great.

After all, there is a huge difference between words and pictures. Words can be typed out with just a few keystrokes, but pictures are different. Even copying requires a lot of patience and time.

Sometimes, when I draw very impatiently and cannot calm down, I want to finish it quickly, but the effect of the painting is not very good.

Until five o'clock in the afternoon, today's interview ended.

Zheng Rong entered Yunfeng's office with a stack of resumes and asked, "How are you doing here?"

Yunfeng sighed and said: "One of them barely passed the test."

"Is there only one?" Zheng Rong handed over the resume in his hand and said, "Take a look at these? Work experience, graduation school, and overall quality are all fine."

Yunfeng looked through the resumes, and there was no one among them that he thought he could barely sign. He probably did not perform well in the interview and was passed by Zheng Rong.

But it doesn't matter, he can fish it out.

Zheng Rong asked: "How?"

Yunfeng put his resume aside and said, "Are there any interviews?"

Zheng Rong replied: "Yes, the benefits we offer are so high and there are so many people submitting their resumes that it will take at least two days to complete the interviews."

Yunfeng nodded and said, "Then let's take a look."

Zheng Rong secretly said, this requirement is too high.

The few people selected are capable enough to enter major comic studios.

Not even one was noticed.

Is it possible that Yunfeng made the selection based on his own standards?

That……

I'm afraid not many people can qualify.

If there were more like Yunfeng, Guoman would have risen long ago.

However, as a boss, it is understandable that you are demanding.

The interview lasted for three days, and the result was not too bad.

We hired one comic editor, one screenwriter, five painters, and one studio assistant.

It finally looks like a comic studio.

And Yunfeng also assigned tasks to them.

Based on the short story "Murder in the Bandage Monster's Villa", a comic adaptation was made.