The freedom of comic creation

This issue’s speaker:

Bai Chenguang - Tencent contracted author

Serial works: "Demon Slayer" and "Retired Witch"

Good evening.

Now let’s talk about the freedom of comic creation.

The first is the freedom of painting style.

The second is story freedom.

The third is that freedom also has limitations.

This time I will only talk about the theory of comics, excluding illustrations and other painting arts.

Generally, people who start drawing comics will definitely think about this question, that is, what kind of painting style and story are popular.

The style and story of "Vagabond" are obviously tens of thousands of times better than those of Baoman.

But this does not mean that Vagabond is more popular than Baoman.

In fact, more readers use mobile phones to read manga every day.

But this is not to encourage everyone to make violent comics. A person can freely choose what kind of comics he likes.

Maybe there are comics editors in this group or comics artists who have talked to comics editors.

The editor may talk about which style of painting is more commercial and which style of painting people don’t like.

The implication is that your painting style should cater to the market.

But the editor actually doesn’t know what the market is.

The above-mentioned "Vagabond" has sold tens of millions. The author Takehiko Inoue is a Japanese national treasure and is undoubtedly a super wealthy cartoonist. No one dares to say that his words are not in line with the market.

As for the popular cute painting styles on the market today, such as ship girls and the like, they only represent some otakus and do not represent the entire comic market, because we have witnessed hundreds of thousands of bad jokes at the box office. Very high.

That's not the "cute" that otakus like.

And there is a strange fact. Don’t think that cartoonists are all otakus. Among the cartoonist friends I know, many do not follow new series, play figures, or play games. Many are professional businessmen. , one person draws a few cartoons, and is just an ordinary uncle boss running around in society.

If an editor restricts your creative freedom by saying that a certain style of painting is not commercial, it is because he does not understand business, that’s all.

Today’s market is gradually maturing and the readership is becoming more diversified. The market is becoming more and more like the real Warring States Period.

No cartoonist or editor dares to say that a certain style of painting is suitable for all people and all markets.

To engage in comic creation, you only need to grasp your favorite style of painting and study hard, and you will be able to obtain your specific readership, which is already very good.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a niche or a general public, as long as the painting style you master can be forever popular among a fixed group, that’s victory.

So figuring out what style of painting you like best is the first priority. If you don’t like the style of painting, you can’t even grit your teeth to paint it. This is destiny and cannot be changed by manpower.

It seems that it will take more time to talk, so I will try my best to hurry up.

After the freedom of painting style, the next step is the freedom of story.

Generally speaking, traditional story comics must have rigorous stories, whether it is a cold and vigorous youth comic like Vagabond, or a passionate young man comic like Naruto One Piece, or I really want to tell you. Girls' comics must have a rigorous story structure and strict logic.

But all this collapsed instantly after encountering the Internet. Everyone took their mobile phones and hid in bed watching violent comics and stupid conversations.

Pirates sells well in Japan, but that is Japan with a developed traditional paper publishing industry.

The difference between China and Japan is that paper publishing has not yet fully matured and has directly entered the Internet, so readers are much more accepting of the Internet than Japan.

So now when creating comics, you have to consider the issue of the Internet. If you can’t draw web comics in Japan, that’s fine. If you can’t draw web comics in mainland China, you may not even have a chance to debut.

So it is important to figure out what stories are needed for NetSlow creation.

The basic characteristics of online works are that they should be fast, updated quickly, the story rhythm should be fast, and the picture division should not be too many. It should be refreshing, because everyone no longer even uses computers to read comics, but uses mobile phones.

Readers who use mobile phones do not have time to slowly ponder the story word for word with you.

As for what kind of story to create, that is the artist’s personal choice. If you feel that you naturally hate web comics and feel nauseated when you see them, you don’t have to force yourself to draw web comics. You can submit to magazines. The threshold of magazines is higher than The Internet is a little higher, but it is not difficult to reach the sky. It is also a good choice, and the magazine manuscript fee is also relatively high.

But what will continue in the future may still be online comics. Even if a single volume can be published, many people only buy it to collect it instead of reading it.

There are no other strict requirements for webcomics. The only requirement is to be refreshing. That's all. If you catch this, you can be free.

The basic points are to keep the number of words as small as possible, don’t be unreasonable if you can quarrel, don’t talk if you can fight, don’t be shy if you can have sex.

This does not matter whether it is vulgar or elegant. It can only be said that the people with different needs are different. What I am talking about here is just how to take the first step. After that, there will be more readers and the popularity will increase. When you mature, you can express your deepest things in your works. Of course, if you like to be relaxed and refreshing all your life, it is also a good choice.

This is the freedom of story.

* The course content only represents the personal views of the teacher