Chapter 343 Green Lantern (1/2)
"It's started, it's started!"
"The people in front should give way. I can't see the TV screen clearly..."
"So, what's on TV this time?"
"I heard it's a Superman cartoon."
"Cartoon, what is that?"
"It's a movie that makes comics come alive. Listening to the introduction on the radio, it seems that this is the first cartoon to be played on TV in the world..."
"Comics, you mean those serial works you saw in newspapers, how they made the pictures move!"
"Who knows, maybe it's some kind of technology. The speed of scientific development recently is so fast. I suspect that all this is the work of aliens. After all, who would have thought a year ago that something like this could be used in a box? Watch animation inside.”
"People in front of you, don't say anything. If you don't see it, the animation has already started. If you don't want to watch it, just leave..."
On the streets of New York, amidst the noise, a big "s" mark appeared on the TV screen in the shop window. Then, amid the roar of an airplane, an exclamation came from the TV.
"isthatabird? isthatapla's superman! (That's a bird? That's a plane? That's - Superman!)"
Along with this classic line that is familiar to New York citizens, the figure of Superman appeared across the screen on the TV screen. Although it was only a black and white image, the vast majority of people in front of the TV had already subconsciously figured it out. He looked like Superman wearing a red cape and a blue tight-fitting uniform with an S mark on his chest.
The animated adventure about Superman also begins with this episode.
…
【Faith(578300/1000000)】
The broadcast of the "Superman" TV animation set off a frenzy throughout New York.
Compared with the serialized comics, the Superman who appears in the animation is more in line with the image of a superhero in the hearts of the people because he is movable. Prior to this, although Colin also collaborated with Disney to introduce the screen image of Superman in the animated film "Superman and Mickey", the number of viewers who actually watched the short film in the cinema was still a minority, and many people did not necessarily have such a fortune. money to buy tickets.
However, animation solves this problem very well.
After all, it is free, and through Colin's promotion, as long as it is not too remote in New York, you can more or less see the presence of television.
An animation that can be watched without spending money is obviously very attractive to the people of this era.
At the same time, with the help of "Courier World", the impact of the follow-up "Superman" TV animation has been almost expanded to the extreme.
In terms of media promotion, "The Courier World", as the well-deserved No. 1 newspaper in New York, almost dominates the discourse of the entire city, and the effect of all this has naturally greatly improved Colin's [Faith] In terms of collection speed.
However, due to the progress limitations of animation technology in this era, even Disney could not achieve the smooth production speed as in later generations, especially when Walt himself devoted most of his energy to the feature-length film "Snow White" In the case of animation.
At present, the fastest animation creation speed that Disney can guarantee is the frequency of one episode per month. This does not include film transportation. If it is shorter, it will affect the quality of the finished product.
Although Colin himself doesn't care too much about this, after all, no matter how good Disney's animation is, its imaging effect will be greatly reduced when the animation is broadcast on TV.
However, Walt himself did not slack off in production because of this. Perhaps it was precisely because of his persistent requirements in animation that he established Disney’s future position in the animation industry. Although Walt in this era would never I think that in the future, Disney will go to completely different extremes than him in film production.
It directly destroyed the beautiful fairy tale world he created for Disney, and replaced it with a tireless nightmare for the world.
"Perhaps, I should try to set some rules for Disney, such as never adapting live-action fairy tales..."
Thinking of a scavenger princess with dreadlocks who was obsessed with her own princess dream and ruined the childhoods of people all over the world, Colin felt that he had to do something.
This is more important than saving the world, saving everyone's eyes.
He secretly noted this down and planned to tell Walt the next time he met. As the third shareholder of Disney after the two Disney brothers, Colin felt an inexplicable sense of mission in his heart.
Of course, Disney is still far from achieving the results it will achieve in the future. Even the animation of the first princess is still in the studio, and it is far from the time to consider these issues.
…
"According to readers' feedback, the sales of "Messenger Comics" have been maintaining a steady upward trend, with each issue having a circulation of more than one million. In addition to "Superman", "The Addams Family" serialized by Charles Addams is also due to its The unique style has attracted many readers, and the same is true for William Steiger's fairy tale comics, except..."
Pulitzer Building, top floor.
Jack Lebovitz reported to Colin the latest distribution of "The Courier Comics". The overall sales of comics are stable. "Superman", as a well-deserved traffic, has always been promoted by comic books. In addition, the cartoonists recruited before have gradually gained a foothold and attracted their own readers.
However, under such circumstances, some problems gradually emerged.
"The styles of William Steiger and Charles Adams are too conflicting, which leads to many readers of "The Courier Comics" often writing to ask for the cancellation of each other's comics after reading their comics."
In fact, the conflict between Adams and Steiger's readers has also become a headache for Jack.
The Gothic style and the fairy tale style make the readers of the two have almost nothing in common. You can't abandon a guy who likes graveyard skeletons and will show his love for Steiger's fairy tale world, and vice versa.
"In this case, then publish a special issue for them."
Having the experience of "Superman" independent publication, Colin quickly gave Jack a solution.
"It can not only divide the reader market, but also bring new income to the comic book publisher."
The method proposed by Colin is actually what Jack has thought of, but all this needs Colin's approval as the boss.
"I understand, I will arrange the special issue right away."
The so-called special issue is actually to reorganize the comics that were previously serialized in "Messenger Comics" and publish them as a separate publication. This is a piece of cake for Jack, after all, the previous "Superman" was handled in this way.
After explaining the problem of comic publications, Colin asked Jack about some things about the publisher. Naturally, he led the topic to the serialization of "Superman".
With the rapid development of the newspaper, Colin's business section has expanded several times more than before.
Therefore, the employees under him are no longer as vague as they were before. In addition to Old John who was assigned to San Francisco to expand the newspaper's territory, Little John is currently mainly responsible for the news work of "Messenger World", and Jack was assigned to comic-related matters.
"Whether it is Wonder Woman or Flash, they have gained widespread support among readers, and letters about serializing other superhero stories are being sent to the publisher one after another."
To be honest, Jack didn't really understand why Colin had not published or serialized other superheroes besides Superman. In his opinion, these comic characters are all very popular, and any one of them can become a superhero that is no less than Superman.
However, Colin never agreed to this, and instead used these distinctive superheroes as supporting characters in the "Superman" series.
If other comic publishers had done this, they would have forced cartoonists to create other superheroes long ago.
But Colin, in addition to being the creator of "Superman", is also the boss of the newspaper, his immediate superior.
So, even if Jack had a lot of misunderstandings in his heart, he could only suppress it in his heart, and only occasionally told Colin the readers' thoughts in a euphemistic way.
"Whether it's Batman, Wonder Woman or Flash, they will all have their own personal publications, but it will take some time, not now."
Colin was naturally clear about Jack's or readers' thoughts.
However, considering the collection of [Faith], he obviously had no intention of separating these superheroes. On the contrary, he planned to gather more superheroes in "Superman", thereby increasing Superman's popularity and speeding up the collection of [Faith].
"At present, I am planning to gather more superheroes and design a brand new team in the serialized stories of "Superman."
"A brand new team?"
Jack's expression was a little confused about the team Colin mentioned. He obviously hadn't understood the real meaning of Colin's words.
However, it didn't matter. Soon he understood everything in the latest issue of the newspaper serialization.
...
On the second day, in the serialization of "Messenger World", another new superhero appeared.
Green Lantern, Alan Scott.
In the original story setting, Green Lantern was originally a railway engineer. He encountered an accident during a train ride and the train derailed. At the critical moment, Alan grabbed a green train lantern in a panic. The magical power contained in the lantern saved him, and no one survived except him.
Since then, Alan has become a superhero who upholds justice and began his adventure as the Green Lantern.
In the comics, the background setting of the story of Green Lantern was far less grand than it was later. Even the ring in the hand of Green Lantern was a mysterious voice in the lantern that instructed Alan to take materials from the base of the lantern and make a ring.
Even the setting of the green lantern was a meteorite that landed in China, which was later carved into a palace lantern. Later, the lantern was transferred to the United States and fell into the hands of a mentally ill person, who changed the lantern into the shape of a train lantern.
Alan Scott exerted his power by shouting the slogan of the green lantern: "I will show the green flame three times, one time to kill, two times to turn around, and three times to show my magical powers!"
The origin setting of Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, was interesting but did not meet Colin's vision. Therefore, in the comics serialized in "The Courier World", he modified this setting to combine Alan's origin and The origin story of Hal Jordan, the second-generation Green Lantern.
The design was completed. Alan Scott encountered an accident during a train ride and was selected by the green light to become a superhero.
At the same time, the setting of the Green Lantern Corps was added to this story, making the background of Alan Scott's character more grand.
Although Colin did not elaborate on the story related to the Green Lantern Corps in the serialization of "Superman", and even the origin of Alan Scott was simply skipped in two chapters of the comic, but the Green Lantern The appearance of the character immediately gained the love of a large number of readers.
At the same time, letters from readers about the release of other superhero personal publications have flooded the mailboxes of newspapers and publishing houses.
Of course, Colin's arrangement for the emergence of the Green Lantern superhero not only enriches the world view of Superman's comics like the previous superheroes, but also develops the background of the story from the previous superheroes' solo fights to the team.
The Green Lantern played by Alan Scott appeared as a cosmic policeman. At the same time, he came to the earth in sector 2814 that he protected, and also brought news to Superman that there are super villains from other universes. Attacking Earth, Starro is a formidable opponent that cannot be defeated by Green Lantern's power alone, so he needs Superman's assistance.
Faced with Green Lantern's request, Superman agreed without hesitation. At the same time, he also summoned his superhero partners who had fought side by side to defend the earth together.
The name Justice League also appeared in comics for the first time, becoming the first superhero team to appear in comic history.
Regarding the name of the team, in fact, Colin was somewhat hesitant when he first selected it.
In addition to the Justice League, the Justice Society of America is also within the scope of his consideration. After all, according to the original history, the Justice Society is the first superhero team in the true sense. Although the original purpose of this association in the comics was just It's just a fellowship club where superheroes gather, drink tea, tell their own stories, and exchange stories about their heroes' lives.
However, considering the popularity, Colin finally chose the more familiar name of Justice League as the superhero team that first appeared in the comics.