Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 202 Comics with Different Styles

"It's ironic, isn't it?"

On the balcony, I heard footsteps coming from behind.

Captain America, or Peggy Carter, said in a low voice: "We've been trying, but peace doesn't look any different..."

As a person who lived in World War II, most of Carter's memories are related to the war.

She had thought that the defeated America would be extremely miserable.

However, looking at everything from the balcony, it seems that it is not as bad as imagined.

Here there is no bombardment of war, no displaced families and constant fear.

For the vast majority of ordinary people living here, there doesn't seem to be much difference between victory and defeat.

After all, there is a huge gap between the eras that Stephen and Peggy Carter lived in.

Carter’s era was at the height of World War II, and everyone was influenced by patriotism. When Doctor Strange was born, World War II had long since ended, and the United States had been a defeated country for a long time, and everyone had accepted it. all of these.

Therefore, he obviously couldn't understand the meaning of war and peace in Carter's mouth.

Peggy Carter didn't seem to expect Doctor Strange to understand this, she just looked away from New York in the distance, and looked at Stephen behind her: "So, what is the purpose of waking me up?"

Being able to become Captain America after Steve Rogers in that age of discrimination against women, Peggy Carter is obviously not an ordinary woman.

Looking down at Steve Rogers' thick fingers, Carter gently held the palm, feeling the powerful power contained in this body. She had witnessed the whole process of Steve's "super soldier" experiment, but I never thought that one day I would get this power in the same way.

Although, the process of gaining power is a bit weird.

Looking into the eyes of the Captain America in front of him, Doctor Strange slowly stated his purpose: "Complete the unfinished war and bring everything back on track!"

……

"Sir, this is a cartoon created by Charles and William..."

Positive World, the Messenger Newspaper.

Jacob handed two sketches with very different styles to Colin.

With the end of the recruitment, "Messenger Comics" has gradually entered the right track. Although the content of the current comics is still dominated by "Superman", the album has also begun to try to publish the contents of other comics.

For example, Jacob's Human Torch ran successfully for several issues on Messenger Comics, and readers expressed strong interest in the character, a spin-off from the Superman story.

Even in the letters from the readers of the Courier, many fans have suggested that they hope to see the appearance of "Human Torch" in the "Superman" comics.

With the success of the manga of "Thunderbolt", "Messenger Comics" also began to try to develop more comic stories different from "Superman".

The cartoons of William Steiger and Charles Adams were created under such a premise.

Reaching out to take the sketch in Jacob's hand, Colin looked down at the content on it.

Although they are also cartoonists of the publishing house of the Courier newspaper, even both of them have worked for "The New Yorker" at different times.

But there are obviously huge differences in their creative styles and concepts.

William Steiger's comic style is more childlike and children's style, so the colors presented in the sketches are often bright and bright colors. In terms of content, it mainly tells the story of a mouse named Abel on a desert island. In the story of drifting, William has obviously borrowed a lot from the plot of "Robinson Crusoe" in terms of the plot, but the childlike style of painting brings a unique feeling to this drifting story.

Compared with the survival in the original "Robinson Crusoe", "Little Mouse Crusoe" created by William gives people a dreamy feeling like a fairy tale.

This comic style that anthropomorphizes animals is obviously created and designed for the children's market.

If it is, William Steiger's "Little Mouse Crusoe" is a fairy tale world dedicated to cultivating dreams for children, then Charles Adams is walking in another style that is completely opposite to him.

Colin once mentioned in a conversation with Charles Adams that it might be possible to put the story in the family and create a unique and weird family.

And Charles obviously took Colin's idea and put it into action.

With the invention of the four-color double-sided paper offset printing machine, the publications published by Kelin's newspaper offices are generally in color, whether it is a newspaper or a comic periodical.

However, Charles went the other way and created a black-and-white comic book "The Addams Family". Pictures of cemeteries, laughing out loud at tragic movies, growing all sorts of dangerous plants at home, borrowing from neighbors not the usual condiments but cyanide.

In short, in "The Addams Family", Charles has completely brought the Gothic style he has been implementing to the extreme.

His weird painting style complements the content of the comics, giving people a sense of absurdity but also a little black humor.

It is worth mentioning that, in the creation of comics, William and Charles once had a dispute on the issue of ideas.

William Steiger thought that Charles Adams' cartoons were too dark, but Charles retorted that the other party didn't know what humor was at all.

Of course, most of the time, it was William who expressed his dissatisfaction.

Because Charles is more immersed in his own comic stories, the idea of ​​"The Addams Family" proposed by Colin gave him great creativity, making Charles eager to vent the dark gothic style imagined in his mind Into this eccentric family.

Flipping through the two completely opposite comic stories in his hand, Colin didn't have any dissatisfaction with this. On the contrary, he was extremely happy to see such a situation happen.

After all, from the perspective of "Messenger Comics", the creation of comics does not need any boundaries.

Whether it is William's childlike "Little Mouse Crusoe" or Charles Goth's absurd "The Addams Family", they all have their own audiences. In this case, why should he abandon these readers.

There has never been more than one way to succeed in comics.

What's more, through the serialization of "Little Mouse Crusoe" and "The Addams Family", "Messenger Comics" can also attract some readers who like specific comics, and while increasing the sales of comics, it can also let these readers know or understand about " The comic content of Superman.

After all, in addition to the comics created by Jacob and the others, the most popular and published comics on "Messenger Comics" are still "Superman".

……

Inside the Courier Office.

After getting the decision that William's "Little Mouse Crusoe" and Charles' "The Addams Family" will be published together in the new issue of "Messenger Comics", Jacob took the drawing and went to the publishing house under the newspaper .

On the other hand, hand over the manga story that will be serialized in the newspaper by the "Daily Courier" tomorrow to the artist who colors it.

Colin left the newspaper office and went to the Churchville toy factory where Fisher was.

Because tomorrow is Wednesday, the day that "Superman" runs a long story in the newspaper.

Therefore, Colin made preparations early.

In this comic series, he designed two new villains to appear.

The previous story started with Luthor. This evil genius has a new evil plan. One of his reporters, John Cobain, was involved in a car accident. Luthor used his evil ability to transform him into a A metal man with a metal body all over his body, and implanted the consciousness of terrorists into the metal man's body.

Luthor gave the order to destroy Superman for the transformed metal man, but ignored the wishes of John Cobain, the transformed person. When his consciousness and the idea of ​​​​terrorists in his mind conflicted with each other and he found himself a robot, He actually started to attack his reformer, Luthor.

In the face of Luthor who was in crisis and the metal man running wild, Superman rescued his old opponent, and successfully defeated the confused metal man, clearing out the will of terrorists in his mind.

Colin's character design about Metal Man not only borrows from Superman's classic villains, but also adds some of his own ideas to it.

Especially the design about the will of terrorists obviously refers to the experience of crossbones in the anti-world.

And this idea of ​​transforming people into machines was later borrowed by movies and created into a classic science fiction work.

In addition to the appearance of Metal Man, in another story in the series, a replica of Superman appeared.

The comic content of this article mainly tells the adventure story of a Superman in the past. Professor Dalton created a replicating machine, which can emit replicating rays of light and replicate people or objects illuminated by the rays of light, but in fact this machine The equipment has huge flaws.

And in an experiment, Professor Dalton made a mistake, and the copying light hit the Superman at that time, creating a flawed, stupid, ugly super boy named Bizarro, this existence called Bizarro , has the exact opposite ability to Superman, with a reverse 'S' mark printed on his chest, can emit freezing rays from his eyes, and breathe fire from his mouth.

At the same time, a piece of equipment also exploded and became fragments.

Superman at the time couldn't defeat the cloned guy because his abilities were almost the same as Superman's, and Bizarro caused a lot of havoc in the town.

Later, he met a blind girl and became friends with the girl.

On the other hand, Superman felt that the device that created Bizarro Superboy could destroy the monster, so he found a fragment of the device in the ruins of the laboratory.

Although Bizarro is stupid, he is not evil. During the conversation with the girl, he felt the kindness of the girl and felt that he must do something for the girl. In the end, he found that his own death could heal the eyes of the blind girl, so he did not talk to the girl. Superman fights, but throws himself at the pieces of equipment, which are reduced to ashes.

After Bizarro's death, the blind girl regained her eyesight. She said: "I am blind and have never seen Bizarro himself, but from his gentle voice, I know he must have a kind face." ".

This is the plot of Bizarro's first appearance in the "Superman" comics, and Colin didn't change it too much.

The character of Bizarro in the comics has never been a pure villain. Colin also paid attention to this setting and designed an impressive ending for his debut in the comics.

And Colin has already made arrangements. Once the readers show their welcome to the character of Bizarro, he will resurrect him again in the follow-up comics.

Even the plot has been arranged, and Luther will appear on the stage, asking him to pretend to be Professor Dalton to deceive Superman's trust and then copy a Bizarro.

As for why, Superman didn't see through Luthor's disguise.

Don't ask, it's just what the plot requires, anyway, that's how it was set in the original manga.

……

"Mr. Looper."

Churchville, Fisher-Price Toy Factory.

Colin saw a large number of Lego bricks made by injection molding machines in the factory.

"We have produced a batch of Lego bricks according to your requirements."

Looking at Colin who appeared in the factory, Herman Fisher first expressed his welcome to him. Now, with the production of Superman dolls, the other party has become Fisher's main partner so far.

In addition to welcoming, Herman Fischer also expressed his concerns.

"It's just that Fisher hasn't had a complete idea internally about how to sell these Lego toys."

Starting from wooden LEGO, the sales volume of this series of toys has been in a sluggish state. Although Fisher Content has some objections to this, considering the idea of ​​the proposer Colin, they have never dared to make a big deal. be opposed to.

Anyway, unlike Superman dolls, the design of Lego blocks is completely dominated by Colin, and Fisher is only involved as a toy production factory.

Even if the brand fails in the end, the impact on the factory will not be too great.

Even Margaret and the others have begun to think about how to use injection molding machines to produce more popular toys.

Although Margery is not very optimistic about the prospect of Lego blocks, she maintains great confidence in the injection molding machine, which becomes more obvious when Fisher mass-produces Lego blocks.

Compared with ordinary toy workshops, injection molding machines are several times faster than manual production by workers in both production and production processes. At the same time, the toys produced are more standardized in terms of specifications and shapes.This is simply unimaginable in the current toy market.

Margery can almost foresee how big an impact it will have on the traditional toy market once these toys produced by injection molding machines enter the market.

(End of this chapter)