Source: @Tencent Animation, Shilu World Wind Topic

Introduction

"If you don't have a dream, what's the difference between a person and a salted fish!" From ancient times to the present, there are countless quotes that encourage people to strive for their dreams, inspiring countless people to work hard to achieve their goals in life. For many comic fans, it is undoubtedly their dream to be a popular manga artist, draw mesmerizing comics, and become the object of worship by readers.

Especially in recent years, domestic comics have gradually entered the fast lane of development, regardless of the fact that there have already been comic journals and single books with sales of more than one million in the physical market, just talking about the online platform, from 2011, the author of "The Conspiracy of the Reaper" Bi Shuihan became the first online cartoonist with a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan, to this year, the author of "Corpse Brother" has an annual income of more than one million, and the cartoonists who have gained both fame and fortune have attracted more and more young people to join the comic world.

It's good to have a dream, but the existence of a dream is just a way to see the end, and whether you plan to step on the runway, or whether you persevere to the end with courage and determination is another matter. There is no shortcut to success, success is no accident, even those talented geniuses, a little slack, it is easy to miss success. In the Japanese inspirational comic "Dream Eater", it tells the story of two young partners who aim to become cartoonists and fight for their dreams. I gave up my studies for my dreams, I didn't have time to date my lover, and I worked tirelessly while I was sick and hospitalized...... In the comics, the two teenagers were able to realize their dreams and their blood and sweat were inseparable.

Some people may question that these are just stories created by the author in order to create a passionate and inspirational atmosphere, and they are not necessarily true, so let's see how generations of Japanese comic masters such as Osamu Tezuka, Akira Toriyama, and Eiichiro Oda have chased their dreams and succeeded!

Osamu Tezuka, who lives and works non-stop

Osamu Tezuka, a giant who holds up the starry sky of Japanese comics with his hands. As the world's recognized "God of Comics", he has created a large number of classic comics, such as "Astro Boy", "Three-Eyed Prodigy", "Firebird" and so on, among which the posthumous work "Firebird" is praised by industry insiders as the unshakable pinnacle of comic history with its heavy pen power and profound theme.

As a world-renowned manga master, how did Tezuka achieve success? Let's go back to 1935, when Tezuka was 7 years old.

Because his father was a movie enthusiast and loved to collect 8mm film, Kotezuka had access to a large number of American films, among which the anime "Popeye" was his favorite. After watching the film, Kotezuka was immediately attracted by the interesting plot of the anime, and began to be enthusiastic about copying the plot of the anime and creating comic books for the class to enjoy. The praise from his classmates boosted his confidence in his work, and when he was in the third grade, Kotezuka began to create the full-length manga "Naughty Ah Sheng", and after entering junior high school, he joined the art studio and spent a lot of time drawing.

At the age of 17, Tezuka was admitted to the medical department affiliated with Osaka University. According to the normal trajectory of his life, after finishing college, Tezuka will become a respected doctor, with an enviable salary and a leisurely life. However, Tezuka did not choose such a life path, but chose to become a manga artist, which is full of thorns, but extremely glorious.

At that time, Japan had just experienced World War II and was in the stage of being in ruins, and for the Japanese at that time, manga was just a tool for children to pass the time, just like toys such as kites and hoops, and they were not valued at all. Manga artists can be equated with not doing their jobs in the eyes of the public, so we can definitely imagine how much pressure Tezuka was under at that time.

In 1947, at the age of 19, Tezuka created the epoch-making manga "New Treasure Island", which was the first of its kind in terms of cinematic composition, montage, and onomatopoeia, which made it widely regarded as the starting point of modern Japanese manga. And the 400,000 sales of the work also made Tezuka firmly believe that manga is a kind of reading material that can be recognized by the public, and his choice is not wrong.

Osamu Tezuka, a giant who holds up the starry sky of Japanese comics with his hands

Tezuka, whose beliefs became more and more firm, began to concentrate more on manga creation, and successively released a large number of far-reaching works such as "Astro Boy", "Metropolis", and "Forest Emperor", which became an invincible myth in the Japanese manga world. But after becoming famous, Tezuka was not carried away by success, and did not live a life of drunken money, but intensified his self-pressing, he once wrote 13 comic serials at the same time, in order to catch up with the draft, he only slept less than 4 hours a day, even on the plane, train, and car on the way to travel, he had to continue to paint, and he did not dare to relax at all.

In 1989, 60-year-old Tezuka collapsed on the drawing table due to stomach cancer, and his last words were to his wife Etsuko: "I'm going to work next door, let me go to work." ”

Looking back at the life trajectory of this "god of manga", we will find that his success is completely forged by blood and sweat, and we can't expect every manga artist to have the professionalism of life and work like Tezuka, but when "you" as a manga artist complains about the unfairness of fate, or when you don't have time with me, you might as well ask yourself whether you have done your best at work, whether you can spend more time on storyboard composition every day, and put more effort into perfecting the story, which may help "you" Walk more smoothly on the path of creation.

Akira Toriyama, who rejects thousands of papers and persists

There is a comic that has been selected as the No.1 comic of the Japanese century, with a global sales of 360 million copies, and has the reputation of Japan's national comics; There is a manga that has created a new model of fighting manga, perfectly integrating the plot and fighting, including "One Piece", "Naruto", "Realm" and other masterpieces...... This work that can be called the pinnacle of Japanese manga is "Dragon Ball", and the person who created it is called Akira Toriyama.

There is an old Chinese saying that "three years old is young, seven years old is old", but just looking at Toriyama's performance in his early childhood next year, no one would have thought that this rural child, who was born in the countryside of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, would achieve such great achievements in the future.

When he was a child, Akira Toriyama was introverted and playful, and whenever he had time, he and his friends went to small ditches to catch frogs, play in mud, and catch sparrows. After the age of 10, he became interested in manga under the influence of works such as "Astro Boy" and "101 Dalmatians". After graduating from the design department of the prefectural technical high school, Akira Toriyama joined an advertising agency in Nagoya and became an incompetent newcomer to the workplace. The reason why he is said to be incompetent is because he is late almost every day, so that the salary is not as good as the girls who do chores in the office, so before feeling that the boss is about to fire his squid, Akira Toriyama decisively resigned and went home to be an old man.

After graduating from the design department of the prefectural technical high school, Akira Toriyama joined an advertising agency in Nagoya and became an incompetent newcomer to the workplace. The reason why he is said to be incompetent is because he is late almost every day, so that the salary is not as good as the girls who do chores in the office, so before feeling that the boss is about to fire his squid, Akira Toriyama decisively resigned and went home to be an old man.

However, Akira Toriyama is obviously not a qualified old man, in the face of his mother's daily nagging and the dilemma of being shy in his pocket, Akira Toriyama began to seriously think about his future path and decided to become a cartoonist.

"Dragon Ball" has sold 360 million copies worldwide, and has a reputation as Japan's national manga

At this time, manga in Japan has entered the "air age" and has become an indispensable part of the lives of teenagers, and the competition among manga artists is becoming more and more fierce, and it is not easy for inexperienced newcomers to stand out in magazines. Akira Toriyama also failed repeatedly in the early days of his manga career, but fortunately, there was an editor named Kazuhiko Toriyu who admired him and gave an evaluation that "although the drawing is not so good now, if you work hard, you will be successful in the future".

In order to make his debut in "Shonen JUMP" as soon as possible, he changed his lazy work attitude and painted day and night, and submitted nearly 1,000 original paintings to Kazuhiko Toriyu in two years, but they were all ruthlessly rejected. Akira Toriyama did not give up, continued to create, and was finally recognized by the editor. In 1978, his short manga "Island Roaming" was published in "Shonen Jump". Since then, the long-form manga "Aralei" and "Dragon Ball" have come out one after another, making Akira Toriyama the most influential master in the Japanese manga scene after Osamu Tezuka.

From a rural youth with a casual personality who loves to sleep to a comic king with fans all over the world, Akira Toriyama's counterattack in life and career benefits from his perseverance and tenacity in not seeing the Yellow River. Under the blow of repeated throws and retreats, Akira Toriyama did not think of giving up, but kept honing and improving his creative level until he succeeded at the end. Seeing this, is it necessary for you, as a cartoonist, to be discouraged by a temporary rejection? As long as you don't give up your dreams and firm beliefs, the experience of failure will one day be transformed into a success.

Oda and Kishimoto, who only sleep 3 hours a day

In the mid-90s of the last century, with the end of super popular comics such as "Dragon Ball", "Yuyu Hakusho" and "Slam Dunk", the sales of "Shonen Jump" plummeted, while the competitor "Shonen Magazine" increased its sales sharply because of popular manga such as "GTO", "Chugoku Ichiban" and "Kanedaichi", and officially surpassed "Shonen JUMP" in sales in 1997, which greatly shocked the Japanese comic industry.

Is "Shonen JUMP", the former overlord of the comic world, just like this** or a shameful back? Just when there were different opinions, "One Piece" ("One Piece") and "Naruto" landed on "Shonen JUMP" one after another, sounding the rallying cry for a counteroffensive. And the manga artists who created these two manga are Eiichiro Oda and Kishimoto Saishi, who are now the top two popular manga artists in Japan.

Oda has worked as an assistant for Shinobu Kaitani, Tokuhiro Masaya, and Nobuhiro Wazuki successively, accumulating experience.

Oda and Kishimoto were both born in the 70s, and when they were young, they were equally obsessed with Akira Toriyama's "Dragon Ball", and they aspired to become manga artists. At the age of 15, Oda tried to submit, and at the age of 17, his "WANTED" won the 44th Tezuka Award for "Shonen Jump", and was called a "rising star" by the editors as "containing future possibilities". In his sophomore year, Kishimoto contributed the manga "KARAKURI" to "Shonen Jump" and won the HOTSTEP Award, so it can be said that both Oda and Kishimoto took a strong first step on the road to manga.

However, after that, both of them encountered bottlenecks, first of all, Oda, whose works were pointed out by the editor-editor There are many disadvantages, in order to exercise his drawing skills and the ability to write stories, in nearly 2 years, Oda has worked as an assistant for three manga artists, Shinobu Kaitani, Tokuhiro Masaya, and Nobuhiro Kazuki, and only after accumulating enough experience did he officially debut in "Shonen JUMP", serializing the manga "One Piece"; And Kishimoto in the first 4 years after the award,,Also entered a quiet period,While continuing to hone his drawing skills and storytelling ability,,At the same time,He also continued to fight with the editor-editor,For example, he wanted to draw a manga with a magic theme.,But he was told by the editor-editor that there was already "Legend of the Sword Wind" and "Diablo" Zhuyu in front.,I want to draw a swordsman manga and "Rogue Kenshin" and "Infinite Dweller" are prominent first.,The most reluctantly back Kishimoto was forced to have no choice.,Decided to draw a ninja-themed manga.,That's why "Naruto" came out. Since the serialization, "One Piece" and "Naruto" have been extremely successful, and the cumulative sales of the two manga have already exceeded 100 million, and Oda and Kishimoto have earned tens of millions of dollars every year.

Kishimoto worked 19 hours a day in the two days leading up to the deadline and slept only three hours.

However, although the two are superstars in today's comic world, their attitude towards comics has not changed because of their success, and according to the words of the responsible editor, they work harder than rookie cartoonists.

Oda once revealed that he went to bed at 2 a.m. and got up at 5 a.m. every day, working all the time in between, and only taking one day off a week, so that his wife blamed him for having only manga and no family in his heart. Kishimoto also posted a week's schedule in the magazine, and he worked 19 hours a day and slept only 3 hours in the two days before the deadline.

If genius is equal to ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration; Then success requires ten years of hard work, perseverance and accumulation. For many people, Oda and Kishimoto's talents cannot be learned, but their selfless work attitude is worth emulating, so as a manga artist, "you" should not envy the success of others, it is better to plan your work and study time, and strive to be a "hard-working" genius.

Insist on self-painting only the theme of Isayama Sou

There was once a young manga artist who had the dream of "hoping that one time in my lifetime my manga will be at the top of the Oricon chart." "The reason why this is a dream is because "One Piece" has never stepped down from the top of the list since Oricon opened the manga sales chart, it is like the Hainan team of Kanagawa in "Slam Dunk", the challenger changed from Xiangyang to Lingnan and then to Xiangbei, it will always sit firmly on the throne of Kanagawa. But this year, there is a manga called "Attack on Titan", but it really works a miracle, with 8.34 million copies sold, "One Piece" (4.93 million copies) from the top of the Oricon sales list. And Isayama, the author of "Attack on Titan", is the young manga artist.

Born in 1986, Isayama is the only son (one sister and one sister) in his family, his parents are farmers, and the family grows plums and rice for a living. When he was a child, Isayama was very thin, and he couldn't do sports or study, and his biggest hobby was playing with dolls and toys, and he improvised stories for them. Isayama, who has the demeanor of Nobita, the protagonist of "Doraemon", was bullied and isolated by his classmates when he was a child, and it was precisely because he felt the inferiority of the weak when he was a teenager that he had the idea of creating "Attack on Titan".

When he was in high school, he became a manga artist, and at the age of 18, he left his hometown to take manga classes at a design school in Fukuoka. At the age of 20, he came to Tokyo alone and worked part-time while drawing manga, and it was in this year that he submitted his short manga "Attack on Titan" to "Shonen Jump". It's a pity that Tetsu Hattori, the editor in charge of the review at the time, thought that the dark concept of the work was not in line with the purpose of "friendship, hard work, and victory" of "Shonen Jump", so he told Isayama to change the style of the work before submitting it.

"Attack on Titan" was once rejected by "Shonen JUMP" because of the dark concept of the jungle.

But Isayama told himself that this dark theme of the jungle and the fragility of human nature was what he really wanted to create, so he flatly rejected Tetsu Hattori's suggestion and switched "Attack on Titan" to "Shonen Magazine", and won the award of 300,000 yen.

Isayama said that his biggest weakness was his weak drawing skills, so for the next three years, he worked part-time to earn living expenses while honing his drawing skills, hoping to reach the level of a serialized manga artist as soon as possible...... Finally, in 2009, after being recognized by the editor, his first feature-length manga "Attack on Titan" was officially serialized in "Shonen Magazine" and quickly became a hit. From winning the first place on the men's list of "This Manga is Awesome" in 2011, to animating the work in 2013, and then topping the Oricon list this year, "Attack on Titan" has the momentum to succeed "One Piece" as Japan's next "national manga".

Isayama, a thin boy who was ostracized and bullied by his classmates in his childhood, is now the brightest rising star in the Japanese comic world. As a manga artist who is not known for his drawing skills, his success is due to the breakthrough of the manga theme, the novelty of the plot and the delicate character portrayal, which has to be attributed to Isayama's self-persistence in creation. It's conceivable that if Attack on Titan had changed its style as suggested by the editors of "Shonen Jump", would it still be a bestseller on the topic it is today? "Draw only manga on your favorite themes" is not only Isayama's creative philosophy, but also the cornerstone of his success. As a cartoonist, do you have such persistence in creation, or do you follow the trend and draw what theme is popular?

Of course, all roads lead to Rome, and whether it is self-assertion or going with the flow, there is a possibility of success, but one thing is certain, a comic that even the author himself cannot impress, will not impress the reader.

Epilogue: Comics are works created by cartoonists who burn their lives

Because of my work, the author has come into contact with many domestic rookie cartoonists, most of whom have excellent drawing skills, but there are also common impetuousness. Many people have just created their first comic in a magazine or on the Internet, and they fantasize about being able to make a lot of money with it, so that when they encounter a slight setback, they will have doubts, feeling that there is no general environment for drawing comics in China, and they will not meet their talents, etc. The author does not completely deny the existence of some objective reasons, but diligence and perseverance are the most important guarantees of success, if you are reading this article "you" have the intention to become a cartoonist, then please don't waste time, sit on the drawing table and sweat to your heart's content, just like "Dream Eater" depicts, cartoons are the works created by cartoonists who burn their lives, come on!