Chapter 38: Frustration
Dong Li is a reporter for an entertainment magazine in Guangzhou, and he often travels to Hong Kong to do interview tasks, but this time he went to Hong Kong not only to interview a certain actor who is involved in film and television, the music world, and is now red and purple, but also entrusted by his mentor Wang Yongsheng, to take a stack of thick sketches and visit the comic publishing house in Hong Kong to see which one is interested in these two comics.
For him, who has been an entertainer for more than ten years, the interview is just a trivial matter, although he is facing a king-level star, he will not be as nervous as those newcomers who have entered the industry. As for the second task, it is not too troublesome for him, although he does not know much about comics, but a friend of his in Hong Kong is a knowledgeable person, and carefully explained to him that the two largest comic publishing companies in Hong Kong are Huang Yulang's "Jade Dynasty" and Ma Rongcheng's "Tianxia".
Dong Li, who is an entertainer, knows very little about Huang Yulang and Ma Rongcheng as cartoonists, but it does not prevent him from understanding the two from the other side, and his understanding of Huang Yulang starts with Hong Kong artist Li Zi, it turns out that as early as 1988, Li Zi, who was only 16 years old, met the married comic king Huang Yulang under the introduction of a friend, and composed a year-old love with an age difference of 20 years. On Li Zi's 17th birthday, Huang even threw a luxurious birthday party for her, until Huang Yulang's business was frustrated and he proposed to Li Zi to break up. In 1991, with Huang Yulang imprisoned for fraud, the relationship finally officially ended. Two years later, Lai Zi admitted in an interview that she loved Huang Yulang deeply and liked his talent. After the two broke up, she felt like a bolt from the blue, and even she had suicidal thoughts at one point, and her emotions were on the verge of collapse.
As for his understanding of Ma Rongcheng, it is necessary to start from the case of chopping off the hand that shocked the whole Hong Kong, at the beginning of 1989, Ma Rongcheng and his assistant, who planned to fly alone from the Yulang organization, were attacked and injured his right hand, which became a sensational headline, and there are rumors that the behind-the-scenes commander of this hand-cutting case is the big brother in the Hong Kong comic world "Huang Yulang", although I don't know the authenticity of this news, but Ma Rongcheng and Huang Yulang's friendship was indeed at that time, after that, The two who were originally called the best partners in the Hong Kong comic world have never been in contact with each other, even if they have to attend an event for some reason, they will never appear on the scene at the same time, one must be the first and the last.
Dong Li remembered that he had written the news of these two people, but later with Huang Yulang's imprisonment, he didn't pay attention to it, and he didn't expect that it would be a few years before Huang Yulang, who had been released from prison, picked up the mountains and rivers again and founded the "Jade Dynasty"; After Ma Rongcheng was cut off his right hand, Dong Li also thought that this person's comic career was over, after all, for a cartoonist, the hand that was used to holding a brush was the source of his creation, but he didn't expect Ma Rongcheng to miraculously recover, not only continued to create the popular comic masterpiece "Fengyun" in Hong Kong, but also was closely organized by the "Tianxia" publishing house, becoming the only company in Hong Kong that can compete with the "Jade Dynasty", which is really interesting.
To be honest, at this time, Dong Li even had a special plan to write a special project with the theme of the grievances and feuds between Huang Yulang and Ma Rongcheng, but when he thought about the strictness of the censorship of mainland news organizations at that time, most of the news like this kind of news that was suspected of catching wind and shadows could not pass the review, so he had to dispel the idea.
Anyway, this time for "Full-time Hunter" and "Next Stop Superstar" to recommend the task was entrusted to him by Wang Yongsheng, Dong Li did not forget how much help Wang Yongsheng gave him as the editor-in-chief when he was a rookie editor, it can be said that without that editorial experience back then, he would not have become the ace reporter of the magazine he is currently in, with a high salary that ordinary people envy.
He has always regarded Wang Yongsheng as his mentor, so since he beat Wang Yongsheng and asked him, he has made up his mind to complete this task and not let Wang Yongsheng down. Dong Li also carefully looked at the two works he wanted to sell this time, even if he was not very interested in comics, after reading them, he felt that the quality of the two comics was very high, and the pictures were quite beautiful, if it wasn't for Wang Yongsheng having revealed it to him in advance, the author's age was only thirteen years old, he would never have imagined that these two comics would be from the hands of a cartoonist at such a young age. And the quality of the comics themselves also made Dong Li believe that he would not be able to recommend the two works this time.
After completing the interview task with the big star, Dong Li visited the Jade Dynasty Company under the recommendation of a friend, and under the guidance of the front desk lady, Dong Li came to the office where Huang Yulang was.
After seeing Dong Li, Huang Yulang warmly entertained: "It's Mr. Dong, please sit down!" ”
After Dong Li sat down with thanks, he said to Huang Yulang with a smile: "Hehe, I have long heard that Mr. Huang's Jade Dynasty is the largest and best comic publishing company in Hong Kong today. ”
"It's easy to say, it's easy to say, it's not my credit alone, it's the result of the efforts of all employees in the company, hehe...... By the way, I heard that Mr. Dong came to me this time to recommend two comics created by mainland cartoonists! In fact, I heard last year that the mainland is also developing comics, and the momentum is quite rapid, but it seems to have stopped recently. ”
Dong Li naturally knew that what the other party said was that some time ago, the government vigorously rectified the mainland comic book market, which led to the suspension of many comic book publications, and sighed: "Mr. Huang is right, the mainland comic industry has been in a bit of a recession recently, and many comic magazines have been forced to suspend publication due to policy reasons. This cartoonist is called Keng Tsai, and it can be said that he is currently the most popular local cartoonist in the mainland, but because the "Painting King" magazine serialized by his comics was discontinued, he needed to find a new platform. ”
"Hahaha...... Mr. Dong really praised him, but our Jade Dynasty has always attached importance to talents, as long as it is a truly talented cartoonist, no matter where he is, the door of our Jade Dynasty will always be open to him. I don't know if Mr. Dong brought any mainland cartoonists' works today, but I really want to see the works of mainland cartoonists. ”
Hearing Huang Yulang's words, Dong Li felt that the matter had been completed for eight points, so he hurriedly took out the sketches of "Full-time Hunter" and "Next Stop Superstar" and handed them to Huang Yulang.
Dong Li believes that with the quality of these two comics, there is no reason why the other party will not like it.
After Huang Yulang took the comics, he carefully took them in his hands and flipped through them, and after about ten minutes, he handed the sketch back to Dong Li, and said with a regretful face: "Mr. Dong, I'm really sorry, our company can't accept such comics." ”