Hong Kong Comic Master

Kodansha, Neon's largest and oldest publishing house, was founded in 1909 and was formerly known as the Great Neon Oratory Society Kodansha. ♦♦  ♦♦

In terms of publishing, Kodansha is indeed a veteran, but in the comics industry, his dominance is not as strong as it seems.

If the later Shueisha is the highest mountain, then Kodansha is the longest river!

Long before Neon's three major publishers took turns taking over, Neon's most famous comics magazines were "Adventure King" and "Manga Shonen" published by Akita Shoten. Then in 1955, "Manga Shonen" ceased publication for some reason, and "Adventure King" 》 ushered in his era of kings.

It was not until the rise of Kodansha and Shogakukan that Neon Comics entered the Triwizard Competition for the first time.

As rising stars, the reason why Kodansha and Shogakukan were able to defeat "Adventure King" relied on none other than a hot man - Osamu Tezuka.

[As I write this, I hope readers will remember our domain name Taiwan Novel Network→𝘁𝘄𝗸𝗮𝗻.𝗰𝗼𝗺]

At that time, Osamu Tezuka, who suddenly emerged, was just like Li Wannian today. He was supplying articles to two publications at the same time. Sometimes when he was too busy, he asked the editor to find new cartoonists as assistants.

Through the editors' insight and Tezuka Osamu's training, most of the new people who assisted Tezuka Osamu lived up to their trust and gradually grew into generals who could take charge of their own duties.

That's right, those students from Osamu Tezuka!

Relying on these comics masters, Kodansha and Shogakukan gradually began to prosper. ♦♦  ♦♦

At that time, in the overall neon environment, new comics were popular among neon schoolchildren with their strong impact and strong sense of rhythm, and gradually became a general trend. Kodansha and Shogakukan seized the opportunity and were actively transforming. New comics.

At the same time, "Adventure King" is still promoting the story of painting.

This is equivalent to a Chinese comic strip. Each picture is accompanied by a text description. The plot progress and character dialogue basically rely on a large amount of text outside the screen, rather than the multi-frame images on one page and bubble dialogue boxes like the new comics.

Over time, the stubborn and conservative "Adventure King" went downhill. By the 1960s, Kodansha and Shogakukan became the final winners.

After a short period of competition between the two giants, Shueisha suddenly emerged in the 1970s, and Neon's comics industry entered the era of the three major companies.

Li Wannian only knew a little bit about this history at first. When Tsunoda sent him back to the hotel yesterday, he explained it carefully to him on the way, and he finally understood it.

Who would have thought that a cartoonist could influence the life and death of several companies?

Huh? etc!

Suddenly I thought about it, isn't this what I did on Hong Kong Island?

It doesn’t seem that difficult!

With this idea in mind, Li Wannian walked into Kodan Club.

"Hello, are you... Mr. Long Live?"

As soon as Li Wannian walked in, a young man wearing glasses came to him.

"I am, you are the editor Kurihara Yoshinobu, right?"

"Hey, you are younger than I thought!"

"The same to you!"

The reason why Li Wannian said this was because he knew that the young man in front of him was the editor of Osamu Tezuka's work "The Three-Eyed Child" at Kodansha.

An editor who can serve as a great editor like Osamu Tezuka, even if he is not the editor-in-chief, must at least be an industry veteran, right? How could he be such a young man?

"Hahaha, I actually look young. In fact, I am already thirty years old!"

Hearing Li Wannian's words, Kurihara Yoshinobu laughed "haha". After all, being praised for his youth is indeed something to be happy about.

Kurihara Yoshinobu seemed to have a gentle attitude, much better than when he met Miyauchi Masaki yesterday, but I don't know if it was because of his own personality or because of Osamu Tezuka's face.

Kurihara Yoshinobu took Li Wannian to a small conference room. The place was not big, but it was well-equipped, and even coffee was prepared in advance.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting. Long live you, right?"

At this time, someone else walked in to greet Li Wannian.

"Hello, Mr. Terada?"

"Yes, it's me!"

The person who came was none other than Hiroshi Terada, the great disciple of Osamu Tezuka.

Although he no longer draws comics, he currently has his own column in Kodansha and is considered half of Kodansha's own staff.

"I have heard your name from the teacher a long time ago and admired your works. Today I finally met you!"

"You're welcome, I've admired you for a long time!"

Although the two parties had never met, they had a pleasant conversation with Osamu Tezuka around.

"Mr. Banzai, I have read the work you are going to submit to our Weekly Shonen Magazine. Frankly speaking, I already know your strength, and I have no doubt that it will be successful in the market. But the only problem is Yes, it will be difficult for this comic to pass the serialization meeting of the magazine!”

Unlike Shueisha’s investigative supremacy, Kodansha’s emphasis is on editorial supremacy!

That is to say, the editor can not only influence the birth of the comic, but also propose revision suggestions for the future direction of the comic and require the author to implement it!

In fact, among serialized comics, there are very few comics that can be completely determined by the author. The difference lies in either the editor or the market.

"What's the problem?"

"My personal suggestion is insignificant. The problem is, we heard that your comic is not very successful in Hong Kong Island itself, so the editor-in-chief believes that this comic may not be easy to succeed in Neon!"

Now Li Wannian understood what Kurihara Yoshinobu said. It turned out that the performance of "Dragon Ball" in Hong Kong Island was dragging down his reputation in Neon!

However, what pleased Li Wannian was that the other party was actually willing to go to Hong Kong Island to investigate for his own sake, and what he considered was the quality of the comics, not the household registration issue.

Then this is easy to handle. In terms of quality, Li Wannian has never been afraid of anyone!

"Then can you arrange for me to meet with your editor-in-chief?"

"Sorry, he doesn't want to see you. If you have anything, I can convey it to you!"

Kurihara Yoshinobu is a real person and did not deceive Li Wannian. If this were said to ordinary people, they would definitely say: "The editor-in-chief is not free recently."

Don't want to see yourself? This is going to be troublesome!

This attitude of the other party made Li Wannian unsure whether the other party was using perfunctory words because he was worried about Osamu Tezuka's face and could not directly reject him, or whether the other party really thought that there was something wrong with the work.

If you can't judge what the other person is thinking, you can't prescribe the right medicine. It seems that you still have to find a way to see the other person.

"It seems that this matter cannot be rushed. Mr. Long Live, don't be too anxious. I will also find a way!"

At this time, Terada took the initiative to comfort Li Wannian.

Kurihara Yoshinobu on the side saw Hiroshi Terada caring for Li Wannian so much, and he couldn't help but think: Could this person be Osamu Tezuka's illegitimate son?

Otherwise, why would everyone from teachers to students be so interested in Li Wannian?