Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 171 Refusal to Leave
【Silver Mark (112/1000)】

The long-lost heavy rain fell, and the whole New York was instantly flooded by rain.

The sudden heavy rain plunged the whole street into chaos. The man pushing the apple cart took off his clothes and covered the apples, scrambling to find a shelter from the rain. The homeless man curled up in the corner, but was still surrounded by the torrential rain. The heavy rain drenched through.

The continuous rain covered everything on the street like a layer of rain and fog.

Ke Lin came to the door of the newspaper with an umbrella in hand.

bang-

"Good morning, Sir."

With the sound of pushing the door, Little John handed over the handkerchief prepared in advance.

"Good morning, Little John."

Passing the umbrella in his hand to the other party, Colin took off his hat and coat, took the handkerchief and wiped the rain off his body, and entered the newspaper office.

"It's been a long time since it rained this much in New York."

Putting away the umbrella and leaning it against the door, Little John glanced at the rain outside the door and sighed.

The heavy rain came so fast and heavy that there was no time for anyone to react.

"Fortunately, sir, you brought an umbrella in advance."

Otherwise, in the form of this heavy rain, you will get wet after walking a few steps.

"It's really lucky."

He put the handkerchief for wiping the rain by the stove to dry it with the residual heat. Hearing what Little John said, Colin said with a smile.

Of course, the reality is naturally not as lucky as Little John said.

In fact, the heavy rain came so suddenly that even Colin didn't realize it was raining until halfway through.

Fortunately, [Super Speed] was powerful enough, and he got the umbrella without getting too much rain.

After wiping off the rain on his face and feeling the dampness on his body, Ke Lin, who was sitting in front of the office, had a thought.

The ability of [Super Housework] is activated instantly, making wet clothes look brand new.

This ability, which was originally designed just for cleaning, is unexpectedly useful in terms of personal hygiene.

Feeling the disappearance of the wet feeling on his body, the corners of Colin's mouth twitched slightly and he put his gaze on the newspaper on the table.

The difference between the pros and cons of the two worlds has caused the difference in Colin's behavior.

Compared with the developed information that is readily available in the anti-world, he was in the era of the Great Depression and could only collect the information he needed through newspapers.

Therefore, opening the newspaper every morning has become a regular routine for Colin in this world.

"...Affected by fluctuations in steel prices, the Stutz Motor Company declared bankruptcy. This is also the No. 16 automobile manufacturing company that declared bankruptcy during the Great Depression."

During the Great Depression, the automobile industry suffered an unprecedented shrinkage. When the basic necessities of food, clothing, housing and transportation became a problem for the people, naturally they did not have any spare money to buy new cars.

Not only the automobile industry, but also the locomotive industry was greatly affected. In the 20s, the average sales volume of the industry was still 600 locomotives per year, which was a good figure for a small manufacturing industry.However, by 1932, only one locomotive was sold for a whole year.

Such a huge gap is just a microcosm of the American manufacturing industry.

Flipping through the newspaper in his hand, skipping from the economic page, Colin's eyes fell on the report on the political page.

Like the wailing economic pages, the reports on the political pages are also full of pessimistic speculations. The nominations in the Democratic Party are fierce. Although Roosevelt has won the support of the vast majority of people in the party, Al Smith did not seem to support Roosevelt as an opponent.

Even, in many newspapers, Al Smith openly opposed Roosevelt's election politics, believing that his election was a disaster for the Democratic Party and that he was giving up the presidency to his opponent.

"Democrats have abstained early!"

"Hoover cheered in the White House, the crowd wailed in Hooverville..."

The newspapers didn't like Hoover, but the Democratic nomination gave them little hope.

Although, the media newspapers are full of pessimistic thoughts.

But at least for Colin, this is good news. Once Roosevelt successfully emerges from the party's nomination, there will be no suspense in the next presidential election.

The reason why he was so sure was not that Roosevelt was so popular during this period, it was simply that Hoover was too annoying.

In fact, if we look at the election situation alone.

The election of 1932 seemed to resemble one that followed, with the choice of a less obnoxious leader between two candidates.

During the Great Depression, the American people made a "correct" choice in a certain sense, but unfortunately, their choice may not be so "correct" one day in the future.

Scanning the newspaper in his hand at a glance, as the election day approaches, most of the news on the newspaper page has become election campaign news.

Republican-leaning newspapers criticized the Democrats for their weakness, while Democrat-leaning newspapers accused the Republicans of being incompetent and turning the country into a mess.

Partisanship became more intense during the Great Depression, in which the media played a decisive role.

Everyone knows that only opposition is topical.

Closing the newspaper in his hand, Colin sorted out the information he got in his mind.

In the real world, although [Super Brain Power] is restricted, it can still bring him a lot of help.

With the collation of various information in his mind, an inspiration popped up in his mind when many messages collided.

Opening one of the newspapers in front of him, Ke Lin's eyes fell on a piece of stock information on the economics page.

"... Affected by the market, the stock price of Seashore United Oil Company, the ninth largest oil company in the United States, has continued to plummet. The overall stock price has dropped by 90%, and the price per share is less than $3..."

Oil and automobiles are linked industries, and the recession and shrinkage of the automobile industry has affected even oil companies.

Especially at the beginning of this year, two tycoons committed suicide one after another.

On March 3, Swedish match magnate Ivar Kroig committed suicide in a Paris hotel, and two days later George Eastman of Eastman Kodak committed suicide by jumping into the sea in Rochester .

The deaths of these two had a chaotic effect on the entire stock market.

This is an extremely ingenious timing, because everyone can't see the situation clearly because of the chaotic financial situation, it is a good time to enter the market.

At present, through the serialization of "Superman" and the production of peripheral products, he has accumulated a considerable amount of wealth.

The way to do it steadily is naturally to continue to invest this wealth in the development of the newspaper industry.

However, Colin doesn't seem to think so.

In this era, comics are not the only means of accumulating wealth.

……

"Sir, I've finished painting."

Jacob's voice sounded next to his ear, bringing Colin's thoughts back to the newspaper office.

"You did a good job, Jacob."

Reaching out to take the drawing in Jacob's hand, Colin said with a smile after glancing at the content on it.

Although, other thoughts emerged in his mind, but Colin did not ignore "Superman", the foundation of his foothold during the Great Depression.

The comic that Jacob colors is the latest in the weekend's Courier-Journal.

The story follows the plot of 'Metropolis Society', telling the story of Superman and the trick king, the toy man and Luthor's three super villains fighting the story.

In this plot, the "Metropolis Association" formed by the three people makes its debut.

The first evil group in the history of superhero comics had a profound impact on the development of subsequent superhero comics.

In the serialization of the comics, the three-person group headed by the prank king also brought huge troubles to Superman.

In the story, the prank king first appeared. He distributed free radios all over the metropolis. Because of the free relationship, many unsuspecting people took these radios home. At first, these radios did not seem to have any problems. Some people who turned on the radio People are also using it normally.

Until night, the prank king changed the frequency of the radio, and the special frequency emitted from the radio had a hypnotic effect on the listeners. In one night, the people in the metropolis became babies whose minds were only two or three years old under hypnosis.

Superman: "What is this?"

When Superman noticed this phenomenon, more than a thousand citizens of the metropolis had been hypnotized into babies by the radio.

Seeing these citizens with adult bodies but constantly playing and crying like children, even Superman felt some headaches.

What made Superman feel more at a loss was that even Louise was affected by the hypnosis of the radio.

Superman: "Lois, you never want to see this."

Louise: "Whoa, whoa, whoa..."

Looking at the adult babies all over the city, just when Superman felt embarrassed, suddenly a large army of toys appeared on the streets of the metropolis. Attracted by these toys, the adult babies of the metropolis were attracted by these toy army take away.

Superman: "Toy, this reminds me of a certain guy."

Looking at the army of free-moving toys, Superman immediately thought of the toy people he had fought against before, and he hid his Superman costume.Follow in the footsteps of these grown babies to their destination, a huge playground.

This is a playground made up entirely of toys, all kinds of toys filled the entire playground, and even the superman who came to the scene couldn't help but sigh.

Superman: "If only I had so many toys when I was little."

Amid Superman's exclamation, the toy man appeared on the toy train, and he watched the many citizens in the playground laughing triumphantly.

Toyman: "Haha, welcome to my paradise."

Superman: "It's a toy man."

Looking at the toy man appearing on the toy train, Superman thought.

Toyman: "Come out, Superman! I know you're in there."

While Superman was thinking, the toy man revealed his hidden identity.

Seeing that his concealment was revealed, Superman showed up without hesitation, looked at the toyman with his iconic outfit and said, "So, you did all of this, toyman?"

Toyman: "No, I'm not alone."

Facing Superman's questioning, the toy man immediately answered: "It's the Metropolitan Association!"

Superman: "Metropolitan Association, what's that?"

In Superman's doubts, members of the Metropolitan Association appeared, and the Prank King and Luthor also appeared in the playground.

Looking at the three people in front of him, Superman suddenly understood.

The colored comic plot also stays on the confrontation between Superman and the "Metropolis Association".

……

'The Metropolitan Society' was Colin's first attempt at incorporating a feature-length plot into a Superman comic.

This was a very common plot arrangement later on, and even a series of superhero plots could be as long as dozens of comics, but it was obviously a rare design in this period.

Especially in comics, the appearance of various characters and the arrangement of big scenes.

For Jacob, who was in charge of coloring, it was quite a headache. After all, the printing of comics in this era is far less convenient than in later generations.

In order to allow the newspaper's four-color rotary printing machine to present the colors of the comics, Jacob painstakingly distributed the color order for the drawing, especially the one with the most characters on the scene, which took Jacob a full morning. It takes time to arrange the colors to ensure that the effect of newspaper printing will not be connected together.

"Thank you for your hard work during this time, Jacob..."

Gently putting down the painted sketch in his hand, Colin looked at the tired Jacob in front of him, and said casually.

"Not only responsible for coloring the comics, but also creating new comics for "Messenger Comics", maybe after this period of time, you can find some time to take a break."

"That's what I should do, sir."

Hearing the word rest, the tiredness in Jacob's eyes suddenly dissipated, and he said hastily.

"I don't need a break!"

In the Great Depression, rest was not a good word.

Jacob's previous work at the "World Journal" ended because of a 'break'.

"You needn't be too nervous, Jacob."

Facing Jacob's fierce resistance, Colin was a little bit dumbfounded.

"It's a real break, not what you think it is."

"Sir, I know, but I really don't need a rest."

Even though Colin had already promised him, Jacob didn't seem to believe it, and just said repeatedly: "I still have a lot of work to deal with, and the comics on "Messenger Comics" have almost been completed. Yes, I also need to do the coloring of the "Superman" series..."

With so many examples, Jacob seems to want to show Colin that he can do a lot of work.

"Well, since you insist."

Seeing Jacob repeatedly rejecting his request for a rest, Colin no longer insisted, but just shook his head a little helplessly.

This phenomenon of workers refusing to take a break may be unique to the Great Depression.

(End of this chapter)