The King of Crossover Entertainment.

Chapter 143 0143, Is there a dead end in comics?

Chapter 143 0143, Is there a dead end in comics?
There is an old saying that goes "If you have a thousand dollars, you still want ten thousand dollars." It means that if you have a thousand dollars, you still want ten thousand dollars.

This is Yunfeng’s situation now.

Since earning six or seven million a month is not enough, let's set a small goal and earn sixty or seventy million a month first.

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

But then again, even if Yunfeng worked at full capacity with novels, songs, and comics, the small goal of earning 60 to 70 million yuan a month would be difficult to achieve at the moment.

Difficulties bring challenges.

The weather in Shanghai today is as stuffy as an airtight jar. There is not a breath of wind and the thick air seems to have solidified, making it hard to breathe.

In the afternoon, Yunfeng came to 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 has become a shareholder of Youxianqi Magazine has not been officially announced, and except for Zheng Rong, other employees are unaware of it.

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

After 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 the editor-in-chief in the afternoon, so she asked, "Sir, what is your name?"

Yunfeng replied: "My name is Yunfeng."

"Please wait a moment." 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 office and saw Yun Feng 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 'the great god', is he the legendary 'cross-border king', 'Morning Clouds and Evening Rain'?"

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

The young lady was surprised: "He is really so 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'd be here at five?"

"Oh, I just thought of something. I'll come over early to discuss it with you."

……

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

Yunfeng did not answer but asked, "What positions are we recruiting for in our comic studio now?"

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

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

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

This……

That seems right.

After a brief thought, Yunfeng said, "Let's recruit the screenwriter, the chief writer, the line drawing assistant, and the coloring assistant."

Jung Yong asked, “Do you want our comic studio to start a new comic?”

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

Zheng Rong added: "It's not difficult to recruit people, but it's difficult to create a best-selling comic. There are dozens of large-scale comic studios in China, and hundreds of comic studios with small teams of three to five people. Not many of them can really make money, and most of them are just doing it out of love."

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

Of course there are exceptions, but they are rare.

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

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

Zheng Rong chose to publish the comics only after reading the manuscript of Fengyun Comics given by Yunfeng. If Yunfeng had just spoken at the time without the manuscript of Fengyun Comics, the result would have been different.

However, Yunfeng smiled and said, "Can't my novel be adapted into a comic book?"

Zheng Rong's eyes lit up. This was different. The Silver Charm Studio under Penguin Comics became the number one comic studio in China by adapting Nan Yuan Limeng's novel "The Great Scholar" and Guan Hu's novels "New Story of Conferred Gods" and "New Story of White Snake".

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

But...

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

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

After some thought, Zheng Rong asked, "Do you own the copyright of the comic book of your novel?"

He knew that the copyright of serialized novels on Panda Chinese Network belonged to the website. Unless a novel had more than one million words and was determined to have more than one million words, and the author became a contracted author of a great writer, the website would return the copyright.

He also knew that although the average subscriptions of Yunfeng's novels broke records, they did not exceed one million.

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

After a pause, he smiled and said, "Copyright can be purchased."

That's right.

However, comic copyrights are not cheap.

Jung Rong fell into deep thought.

It is impossible for a comics studio to only assist Yunfeng forever, and Xianqi Comics cannot always rely on collecting other people's comics for serialization, so it is inevitable to go the path of original comics.

You need to make a decision whether to grow bigger and stronger or to be content with the status quo.

Who doesn’t have some ideals?

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

Although we almost went bankrupt and closed down, we never gave up our ideals.

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

Yunfeng was startled, but he didn't need to think about this matter for so long, so he said, "I will get the comic copyrights of my novels in one or two months."

Zheng Rong nodded. Regarding the copyright issue, it would definitely be more convenient for Yunfeng to discuss it.

After chatting about some related matters, he stood up and said, "I'll show you your office and introduce you to the employees."

Yunfeng asked, "Do I still have an office?"

Jung Yong said, “Of course.”

The office is spacious enough and has everything in it, even more than what is in Zheng Rong's office. It has drawing boards, brushes, paints, etc., not to mention computers and tablets.

Yunfeng was quite satisfied.

It's almost time to get off work.

Jung Yong gathered the employees in the meeting room.

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

Among them, the only people I know are Guo Chuan and Dong Jie.

Yunfeng suddenly became nervous. This was his first time being a boss, albeit only half a boss.

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

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

Guo Chuan and Dong Jie, who knew Yunfeng's identity, thought: Could it be that Brother Zheng has signed him to the magazine?

Zheng Rong continued: "Now, let me introduce you to this person. This is the 'great god' that you all talk about all the time."

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

The idol you've always dreamed of is now right in front of you!
They are all fans of the novel "Crossover King" and the comics "Morning Clouds and Muyu". Although they are the same person.

but……

It is precisely because they are the same person that they like him even more.

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

Not only did I get to meet my idol, but I could also work with him.

Suddenly, there was thunderous applause in the conference room.

Yunfeng smiled and introduced himself: "Hello everyone, my name is Yunfeng, Yun means white cloud, Feng means mountain peak."

As soon as this name came out, everyone present held their breath.

Yunfeng?

No way……

They all thought of one person.

For those who love listening to music, the spectacular sight of nine songs hitting this year's new song popularity chart is still vivid in their minds.

The person who created this spectacular scene was called Yunfeng.

It's been a long time.

Dong Jie, who was quite brave, asked, "Master... may I ask if you are... 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.

and many more.

It's a bit messy.

Let’s sort it out carefully first.

The singing Yunfeng is actually the cross-border king of novel writing and Chao Yunmu Yu who draws comics?
Jung Yong smiled happily.

He liked this scene very much.

When I confirmed this information with Yunfeng, it took me a long time to digest it.

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

It is precisely because of this.

He never expected that Yunfeng also possessed excellent talents in singing, writing lyrics and composing music.

"Clap clap clap..."

The employees came to their senses and once again applauded enthusiastically and vigorously.

At this moment, Yunfeng was simply a monstrous genius in their eyes.

It is a great honor 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 comics studio.

With his supervision, the selected painters are more in line with his requirements.

There are many people applying for the job.

Zheng Rong is responsible for reviewing resumes, asking questions, etc.

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

This is the most direct and effective way to determine 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 facial proportions of the characters are seriously out of balance..."

"Paying too much attention to light and shadow..."

"The storyboard is a mess..."

"I can't even put a text box..."

"The scene setting is too crude..."

……

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

Many interviewees cannot even distinguish the primary and secondary elements of the four major components of comics.

Among characters, stories, worldviews, and themes, characters are the most important. They are the carriers of the author's thoughts or themes, especially the protagonist. Sometimes, the protagonist is portrayed so powerfully and vividly that other components can even be ignored.

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

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

If I wasn't really too busy to handle it all by myself, I wouldn't have thought of setting up a comics studio.

Drawing comics is not like writing novels, as the hand speed is too restricted.

After all, there is a world of difference between words and pictures. Words can be typed out with a few taps on the keyboard, but pictures are different. Even copying them requires a lot of patience and time.

Sometimes, I paint too impatiently, cannot concentrate, and want to finish quickly, which results in poor painting results.

Today's interview ended at five o'clock in the afternoon.

Zheng Rong walked into Yunfeng's office with a stack of resumes and asked, "How is your side?"

Yunfeng sighed and said, "One of them barely passed."

"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 OK."

Yunfeng looked through the resumes and did not see the person he thought was barely suitable for signing. He probably did not perform well in the interview and was rejected by Zheng Rong.

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

Zheng Rong asked, "How?"

Yunfeng put his resume aside and asked, "Are there any more people who want to be interviewed?"

Zheng Rong replied: "Yes, we offer such high benefits that many people have submitted resumes. It will take at least two days to finish the interviews."

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

Zheng Rong was secretly shocked. This request was too high.

The few people picked out have the ability to join a big comics studio.

No one was interested in it.

Could it be that Yunfeng is selecting based on himself as the standard?

that……

I'm afraid few people can qualify.

If there were more people like Yunfeng, Chinese animation would have risen long ago.

However, as a boss, it is understandable to have high demands.

After three days of interviews, the results were not too bad.

We recruited one comics editor, one screenwriter, five painters, and one studio assistant.

Finally, it looks like a comic studio.