In May 1981, the self-operated bookstore of Hong Kong's new venture publishing company quietly hung up the comic poster of "Breaking the Sky". Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the poster, a thin teenager holds up a flame in his palm, a beautiful girl beside him, and behind him is an old man with a vague image, and with the poster's slogan: "Thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi, don't bully the young and poor." ”

"The comic adaptation of the fantasy novel "Breaking the Sky", the original novel is Lin Qi, the boss of the new entrepreneurship department, Niu Lao and Ma Rongcheng, two genius cartoonists, Lin Qi has watched the comic adaptation that is enjoyable......!

Such posters are posted in many places in bookstores, and you can't ignore them. The bookstore under the New Venture Publishing House has been expanding continuously in the past year, and the location is selected from the prosperous area of the market, and the neighborhood is also an area with more young people and students, and it focuses on selling novels, comic books and magazines that young people like, so the business is usually very good, and the customers are repeat customers.

Readers who have read the novel version and some pure comic book fans can't help but be attracted by the simple lines but full of different attractive posters.

"Boss, how much is the new comic "Breaking the Sky"?"

"Ten bucks. ”

"It's too expensive, isn't it? Comic books don't usually cost seven or eight dollars?"

"If you look at the pages, it's not 34 pages, it's 70 pages. The content of one issue is worth two issues, do you say it's expensive or cheap?"

Of course, the clerk didn't explain, 68 pages of content, and the remaining two pages were advertisements. It is precisely because of the addition of two pages of advertisements that the New Venture Publishing House has the confidence to give readers profits. Because, the cost of this part of the concession has already been paid for by advertisers.

"Bought it. ”

"Thank you for your patronage. ”

The reason why Lin Qi told Niu Ma and the others that the comics of "Breaking the Sky" are guaranteed to be 3,000 copies per issue, which is also because the new venture publishing company has 6 self-operated bookstores, and each self-operated bookstore is responsible for selling 500 copies of its own new issue. Combined, that's 3,000 copies.

Self-run bookstores put their own books in the most conspicuous position in the entire bookstore, as long as the works are not too bad, the sales of 3,000 copies should be guaranteed.

Throughout the day, six self-operated bookstores reported their sales results one after another, and each bookstore sold more than 100 copies of the comic book version of "Breaking the Sky". The largest one sold 300 copies in one day.

Of course, each bookstore sells 500 copies guaranteed, which is also Lin Qi's very optimistic about this comic. Otherwise, the self-operated bookstore undertakes the guaranteed sale of 100 copies each, which is already very worthy of its own books.

In less than three days, the sales of the comic version of "Breaking the Sky" were not only 3,000 copies, but 5,600 copies. In addition, other bookstores have been sending out a steady stream of orders - according to estimates, there is hope for breaking through 20,000 copies!

The sales momentum of the comic version of Niu and Ma's new book "Breaking the Sky" is actually similar to his master's "Bruce Lee", which can't help but make the two young people excited and a little uneasy.

Of course, "Bruce Lee" is an evergreen, and it has been sold for ten years and hundreds of issues, with a cumulative sales volume of twenty or thirty million. Even if its sales volume now falls below 20,000 copies per issue, it is still the old-timer of the Hong Kong comic industry!

"It's worthy of the boss's original work, and the popularity of the comic adaptation is so strong. Zhang Dahai said excitedly, "Brother Shangguan, do you think it can rush to the level of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands?"

"This ......," Shangguan Xiaobao said hesitantly, "10,000 is not suspenseful, and 20,000 or 30,000 should be possible." As for whether the sales can reach 100,000 copies, it depends on luck. ”

Shangguan Xiaobao felt happy for the two apprentices, and it was inevitable that he was a little jealous.

Before, the apprentice of the Shangguan family was in a mess on the street, and he, the master, was heartbroken for the apprentices, and he did not hesitate to turn his face with his business partner.

But now that the apprentice's comics are coming from behind, it is inevitable that Shangguan Xiaobao will be slandered, if this comic is let him draw it, I am afraid that he will be able to get out of the downturn and revive the status of the first brother in the Hong Kong comics industry.

Zhang Dahai said with a smile: "Brother Shangguan, you are also old, and you have a status in the comics industry." "Bruce Lee" sells more or less, it doesn't matter at all. Now is the world of young people, the back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, we, as old-timers, just help the juniors pave the way, there is no need to hold their own brushes and compete with the juniors for fame and fortune. You are the shareholder of the Holy Flame Publishing House, as long as everyone in the publishing house is like a dragon, you are the leader!"

Shangguan Xiaobao was stunned for a moment, and after a while, he smiled calmly: "No wonder I have been mixed for so many years, and the more I mix, the worse it gets." Huang Yulang's kid is better than me in business. Over the years, his masterpiece "Dragon and Tiger Gate" has been named by him, but in fact, he has not written anymore. ”

""Bruce Lee" is an old work, if you think you still want to paint, continue. If you are tired, you can let the apprentice do it for you. Zhang Dahai persuaded.

Of course, Shangguan Xiaobao said that he would think about it, after all, he was also worried that once he stopped drawing, the influence of the comic books would also dissipate, and in the future, it was difficult to say whether he would be able to sit firmly in the position of general manager of the Holy Flame Publishing House.

……

After the acquisition of the Holy Flame Publishing House, Huang Yulang has been following the dynamics of his old rival Shangguan Xiaobao. In fact, in his eyes, only Shangguan Xiaobao can threaten his industry status in the whole of Hong Kong.

The two were at the beginning of each other's parting in the 70s, and "Bruce Lee" and "Dragon Tiger Gate" took turns to sit first.

Later, Huang Yulang let go of his hands and hired more assistants, and he only controlled the general direction, in fact, the comics were already half produced like an assembly line. Some people make up the setting, some write the plot, some draw the storyboard, some draw the face, some draw the muscles, some draw the background, and some color...... The entire comic creation is broken down into individual processes...... In this way, once a manga becomes popular, it can be struck by hot iron and operated into a stable gold mine.

With the maturity of its business model, Yulang Publishing Company has incubated more than a dozen serialized comics in one go, each with sales of tens of thousands to more than 100,000 yuan, and this book is a money-making weapon. Over the course of a year, Yulang was able to sell more than 50 million comics. Even if it costs seven yuan per book, the annual sales are 350 million Hong Kong dollars.

In this way, Huang Yulang thinks that he is stronger than Jin Yong, and Jin Yong's dismal business for decades has only made a bright report. But younger than Jin Yong, but less than thirty years old, he is already a big boss who earns tens of millions of dollars a year. In terms of income, he is already on an equal footing with Jin Yong.

And now the Holy Flame Publishing House, after launching a new comic book "Breaking the Sky", immediately attracted the attention of Yulang International Publishing Company.

"Boss, this is the new "Breaking the Firmament" from the Holy Fire Publishing House...... a comic assistant of Yulang International Company, gritting his teeth, "We came to ask for the adaptation rights, and the sky-high price of 1 million was not bought, so we knew that Lin Qi was eyeing the comic market." Moreover, Shangguan Xiaobao had previously released false news saying that he had an unpleasant quarrel with the shareholders of the Holy Flame Publishing House and wanted to leave the Holy Flame Publishing House and join our company! I'm afraid that this is a smoke bomb released by the old thief of Shangguan, specifically to paralyze us!"

1 million yuan to buy the right to adapt comics must be sky-high. Under the current market, Jin Yong's martial arts novel comic adaptation authorization does not exceed one million.

Of course, Huang Yulang asked Jin Yong to buy the license at the beginning, but he was treated with contempt. After all, Jin Yong is a cultural person, and he feels that Huang Yulang, a primary school student, is not worthy of adapting his works.

Of course, with the development of the Hong Kong comics market getting better and better, martial arts masters, including Jin Yong, have also successively authorized the copyright to major comic companies.

After Huang Yulang flipped through "Breaking the Firmament", he said sullenly: "I knew that we spent money to buy the Holy Flame Publishing House!" With Huang Yulang's eyesight, he naturally saw that the painting style of "Breaking the Firmament" was unique, which was different from most comics of this era.

Highly recognizable comics, as long as they become popular at the beginning, it is easy to continue to catch fire!

Of course, Huang Yulang is not a person who loses his fighting spirit casually, in the blink of an eye, he has drawn out more than a dozen capable teams to let everyone read the novel of "Breaking the Sky", and follow the trend to imitate the style of comics.

"We asked Ni Kuang to imitate the style of this work! Create a fantasy masterpiece, and then we adapted the comics based on Ni Kuang's works!" Huang Yulang only took one day to make a countermeasure - the price of 1,000 yuan per thousand words, at a new high price in the Hong Kong publishing industry, asked Ni Kuang for a manuscript!

And Ni Kuang readily agreed to the price of thousands of words and thousands of yuan, setting a new record for Hong Kong's manuscript fees. In less than three days, Ni Kuang threw out more than 70,000 words, which was so fast that Huang Yulang was surprised.

Although he is a little suspected of rushing the manuscript, Huang Yulang looks at his article, and he seems to be like him, vindictive, Xinghuo, and alien...... In short, a lively fantasy work.

This novel is probably about the Douqi Continent based on the Douqi power system. However, there are other special methods of Dou Qi cultivation, such as absorbing the sparks of the stars in the sky and integrating them into the Dou Qi, so as to have unique powers. And every vindictive strong person can only melt the spark of one star.

The protagonist Wesven, because he saved an alien girl, obtained the cosmic star map gifted by the girl, and as a result, he sublimated his fighting spirit into the power of the galaxy.

Wei Swen, who was very weak on the surface, was forced to a desperate situation by his opponent, and burst out with a constellation fighting spirit far beyond his realm!

Later, Lin Qi knew that Ni Kuang and Huang Yulang collaborated to make such a work, and he couldn't help but be embarrassed - Nima's, if it weren't for the different painting style, he really thought it was a copycat version of "Saint Seiya".

Of course, the later "Saint Seiya" is a little similar, but Saint Seiya is forced to be higher because it has added myths and legends.

Ni Kuang's temporary work is certainly creative, but because it is too thin, it is destined not to be as classic as "Saint Seiya".

Not to mention comparing it with "Saint Seiya", even compared with Huang Yulang's later works "Divine Soldier Xuanqi" and "Legend of the Son of Heaven", the background is too thin.