Pan Ye, the editor-in-chief of the art editorial department, immediately greeted Jiang Shan as soon as he saw him: "Good morning, Comrade Xiao Jiang, what is the matter with you coming over?" ”

Jiang Shan raised the document bag in his hand and smiled like a sunshine: "Editor-in-Chief Pan, I'm here to deliver the manuscript." ”

"Huh?" Pan Ye thought he had misheard: "Delivery? What to submit? ”

The country was stunned: "The sketch of the villain's book, three dozen white bone spirits." ”

"Hey!"

Pan Ye immediately stood up and took the file bag.

At this time, Qin Tian, the leader of the sketching group, also remembered the white drawing master of the "Eighty-Seven Immortal Scrolls", and said in surprise: "How long has it been?" Are you done with it? ”

Jiang Shan nodded calmly: "There are 72 pictures in total, and all the paintings are finished." ”

72 drawings in half a month, at this time, Jiang Shan didn't know at all that his speed would drive the entire illustrator industry, crazy roll.

As he spoke, Editor-in-Chief Pan had already opened the file bag and began to review the manuscript page by page.

After reading each one, it will be handed over to Team Leader Qin, who will check the copy and review it again.

There is no doubt that each of Jiangshan's drawings fully meets the requirements of comic strips, whether it is composition or painting work.

"Great," although Editor-in-Chief Pan was surprised, he was more excited: "Comrade Xiao Jiang, go, follow me to the accounting office to get the manuscript fee." ”

Jiang Shan secretly clenched his fists and did not hide his joy: "Then I will trouble you." ”

After receiving the manuscript fee withdrawal form signed by the two editors, accompanied by the editor-in-chief Pan, he went all the way to the accounting room.

"Comrade Xiao Jiang,"

On the way, Editor-in-Chief Pan couldn't help but ask Jiang Shan for a manuscript: "Our editorial department is now with heavy tasks and few manpower, and the public's demand for villain books has greatly exceeded our estimates. ”

This is absolutely true, Jiang Shan knows it, and he knows that in the next four or five years, the circulation of villain books will be even more crazy.

In the words of the editor of the publishing house at the time, where this is printing books, it is simply printing money.

During this period, there were only three main distributors of villain books: the People's Fine Arts Publishing House in Yanjing, the People's Art Publishing House in Modu, and the Liaoning/Ning Fine Arts Publishing House.

The popularity of villain books has reached the point where everyone can find horrors, and the circulation base of each book is more than 100,000 copies.

Like "Railway Guerrilla" and "Journey to the West", the starting point is 1 million sets.

Various publishing houses have published a total of 17 editions of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in different painting styles, with more than 3 million copies.

"Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" is even better, with 7.5 million sets on the front page.

And that's just the front page releases, and the number of reprints is even greater.

An illustrator like Jiang Shan, who is not famous, can only settle the remuneration according to the number of sheets.

And the more famous painters can also get the number of prints, reprint the number of copies of the remuneration, although the number of prints of the remuneration is negligible, but it can't stand its strong quantity.

At this time, the old artists, how happy the standard of living is!

"Comrade Xiao Jiang, Comrade Xiao Jiang,"

The voice of Editor-in-Chief Pan pulled back the distant thoughts of the country.

Jiang Shan hurriedly smiled and said, "You continue, I'll listen." ”

Editor-in-chief Pan said directly: "Our editorial department has a very heavy publishing task now, and it would be great if you could take on a few more books." ”

"Yes," Jiang Shan couldn't ask for this, but what he was thinking about was not this: "Editor-in-Chief Pan, can you do me a favor?" ”

"Don't worry about the manuscript fee, you'll see me later."

Jiang Shan smiled gratefully: "It's all up to you to decide, but that's not what I'm talking about." ”

"Oh?" Pan Ye was puzzled: "Is there anything else I can help?" ”

"That's right," Jiang Shan smiled embarrassedly: "Don't you know that I have a habit of copying, and I now want to learn from other excellent painters, do you have any drawings that they don't use?" ”

Even if this matter makes Jiangshan lick his face, he is willing to do it.

"Sketches?"

Editor-in-Chief Pan immediately nodded: "What else should I be, I will receive the manuscript fee and let Bian Qin take you to the warehouse, the drafts of the past few years are all there, and the best you like will be taken away, and we will save us from cleaning up." ”

"Gotcha."

Jiang Shan's eyebrows suddenly fluttered, and he almost pinched Pan's shoulders and beat his back.

Looking at the rivers and mountains smiling with a row of white teeth, Editor-in-Chief Pan's mood also improved: "Don't be happy too early, don't be too gray for a while." ”

"Don't dislike it," Jiang Shan really squeezed Pan Ye's shoulder: "Just say that there is any other place, I can just clean it up for you." ”

The reason why Jiangshan chose the temporary job of an illustrator was for the generous remuneration, and more importantly, for the original sketches of those painters.

Around the 80s, many famous painting giants in China were the same as Jiangshan at this time, and cats painted villain books at home.

The original sketch of Zhao Yannian's "The True Story of Ah Q" was auctioned for 1.7825 million yuan, and the original draft of He Youzhi's "Little Erhei Marriage" comic book was auctioned for 2.07 million yuan.

Guan Shanyue's original sketch of "Shrimp Balls Passing a Mountain and a Long Water" was sold for 39.2 million yuan at Lanting Auction House in 2012.

The original manuscript of the comic book "Summoning Shutun and Murnana" created by the great painter Cheng Shifa was sold at auction for 11 million yuan.

Shen Yaoyi, director of the Comic Book Art Committee of the National Artists Association, created the comic strip "The Red Ribbon of the Earth", a total of 926 original manuscripts, which was sold at auction for 15.4 million yuan.

Ironically, many people don't know that many of these original comic book manuscripts, which were auctioned for millions or tens of millions in later generations, were sold as waste paper by publishing houses back then.

On the one hand, in the past, authors had a weak awareness of protecting manuscripts, and on the other hand, publishers rarely took the initiative to return manuscripts.

A large number of originals are piled up in the office or warehouse, and when there is not enough space to store them, they are disposed of as waste paper.

In 2003, a magazine company cleaned up 33 boxes of waste materials due to relocation, and an overseas collector bought them all at a price of 1,000 yuan.

Soon, the original manuscripts of these illustrations were resold for 3.5 million yuan intact.

This actually includes the manuscripts of Hao Guanzhong, Li Keran, Bingxin and others, the manuscript of Mo Yan's "Fly Incisors", and the manuscript of Yao Yunyin's "Li Zicheng".

What's even more incredible is that there are also couplets written by Xu Shichang, the president of the Beiyang/Ocean government, letters from Pu Jie and Pu/Yi, portraits of Xu Bei/Hong, albums by Dong Qichang, and manuscripts of works by Guo/Mo/Ruo and Wang Meng.

I don't know how the publishing house at that time expressed its tragic feelings when it learned about the aftermath.

In his previous life, Jiangshan didn't know how many ancestral tombs were smoking, so he gave himself a lifetime of crossing.

Fei worked so hard to come to 1978, what kind of entity did he do? What monkey ticket to buy?

You should just collect the scrap!

When he walked out of the accounting room again, Jiang Shan's pocket had an extra 70 yuan in addition to the 216 yuan manuscript fee for "Three Dozen White Bone Spirits".

Editor-in-chief Pan continued to make appointments with Jiang Shan for the work of two villain books: "Seven Captures of Meng Huo" and "The Battle of Red Cliffs".

These two villain books are 35 pages and 70 sketches, and just now, Jiangshan's manuscript fee has been mentioned at a price of 6 yuan each.

According to the benefits of the publisher's contracted painters, Jiangshan can withdraw one yuan of living expenses for each painting in advance.

Jiangshan is very satisfied with this.

He knew in his heart that this was just the beginning, and in another two years, with the crazy release of the villain book, its remuneration would also increase to 10 to 20 yuan per copy.

But Jiang Shan will definitely not be in this line by then, at this time, he silently cheered for the second brother in his heart,