British writer

Margarita stared blankly at the landing,

"Paint? What to draw?"

His eyes were full of curiosity.

Lu Shi was embarrassed,

He just said "We can paint!", but he actually regretted it a little bit.

It is true that comics ushered in a golden age with the development of the newspaper industry, but that was also the 1920s and 1930s when printing technology was booming. Although newspapers today can publish comics, there is no precedent for long-form serialization.

Nowadays it’s 100% single-panel comics.

Lu Shi waved his hand,

"Let me think about it first."

He frowned, lost in thought.

Margarita was anxious and did not say anything to urge her. Instead, she waited quietly.

Time passes like this minute by minute,

Suddenly, Lu Shi began to rummage on his desk, took several copies of the "Illustrated London News" and read them carefully.

Her Royal Highness the Princess on the side also understood,

"Professor Lu, could it be that you want... comics?"

Lu Shi didn't answer.

It's been so long since he traveled through time, and he hasn't read the comics of this era carefully, and he doesn't even know what level they are.

As a result, after watching it, I realized that it really didn’t work.

Comics in the early 20th century functioned more like illustrations, so they were mainly single-panel comics, and there were not even four-panel comics, let alone six-panel, eight-panel, and modern comic stories.

Lu Shi couldn't help but continue to think.

After a while, he raised his head as if remembering something,

"Your Highness, you actually know comics?"

In the English context, "comics" is actually a borrowed word.

In 1814, Katsushika Hokusai, a famous painter from the Edo period in Japan, coined a new word—

Manga,

This is "cartoon", which refers to a group of paintings with casual brushwork, concise lines, highlighting the main characteristics of the characters, and taking mythology, history and daily life as the content.

Even though this word has been around for nearly a hundred years,

But for Europeans, it is almost impossible to come into contact with this word if they are not engaged in related industries such as newspapers or art.

Margarita nodded,

"I know."

Lu Shi asked, "Where did you hear that?"

Margarita smiled and replied: "Did my father receive gifts from the Japanese? Moreover, the British royal family also collected many such things. I also know that Zen paintings and Ukiyo-e were also gifts from the Japanese, and they are in the warehouse of Buckingham Palace. There are quite a few.”

When Her Royal Highness the Princess said this, her tone was reasonable.

Lu Shi: "..."

What more can be said?

I can only say "cool!" silently in my heart.

Margarita said: "Professor Lu, do you want me to draw comics? But I can't draw..."

Don't talk about her,

Even Lu Shi, a time traveler who had eaten and met before, couldn't draw.

The so-called "every row is like a mountain".

But according to Lu Shi’s understanding, comics do not necessarily have to be completed by one person.

He said: "It can be done by dividing the work. Some people are responsible for the original work and plot, some are responsible for painting, and some are responsible for assisting and painting some backgrounds and so on."

Margarita's eyes widened.

"this……"

Lu Shi nodded,

"I know, I know, I think it's complicated."

As he spoke, his eyes moved to the "Illustrated London News\

,"The current situation is that comics ≈ single board,

So, where is the plot?

After you get the subject matter, just draw it and you're done.

Margarita asked curiously: "Professor Lu, according to your ideas, how should the plot be presented?"

Lu Shi took some paper and made some gestures.

As a result, Margarita still looked confused and confused.

Lu Shi had no choice but to take another pen and divided it into four grids.

Unexpectedly, before he could explain, Margarita clapped her hands first and said, "I know!"

Lu Shi:? ? ?

"You also know?"

Margarita nodded repeatedly and said: "Divide the paper into four grids, and then create everything in the grid~ I have seen it! There is a book in the British Museum called...um...uh...I remember it was 'Northern 'What……"

Her Royal Highness blushed and felt a little embarrassed for her forgetfulness.

Lu Shi couldn't help but think deeply,

""Hokusai Manga"?"

Margarita nodded repeatedly, with admiration in her eyes,

"Yes! Yes, yes! That's it!"

Lu Shi did not expect that the British Museum also collected "Hokusai Comics".

Thinking about it, given Europeans' preference for gold, jade, bronze, stone statues and porcelain, they probably don't care much about the protection of calligraphy, paintings and magazines. Most of the "Hokusai Comics" are regarded as unimportant collections, stored in some dark place. Stay in the corner.

Lu Shi was curious,

"I haven't read "Hokusai Comics" either. Are there already four-panel comics on it?"

Margarita said: "It turns out that it is a 'four-frame comic'."

Both of them are laymen,

If their conversation was heard by a cartoonist who truly understands art history, they would most likely need to be educated.

Because real four-frame comics were born in Japan in 1902, although previous comics were also created with four frames, they either lacked layout or dialogue, and were not mature works.

Margarita asked: "Why 'four grids'?"

This question is not a professional one. As a layman, Lu Shi can still answer it.

He said: "Because it has to cover an entire event: beginning, development, climax and end, just like the structure of a novel, it is divided into four frames. Of course, this is a last resort due to the limitations of current printing technology. If the cost can be kept down, Going on, there is actually no limit to the number of frames in comics.”

Margarita was puzzled;

"Cost? Is the cost high now?"

If you don’t become a householder, you don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are.

Lu Shi had no idea about this kind of thing before. He only understood it after running "Mirror".

He introduced: "Buckingham Palace should subscribe to the American "New York World", so you may have seen a color comic called "Yellow Child"."

Margarita nodded,

"Mickey, that kid with a friendly nature."

Mickey Duggan, also known as the main character of the comics "Yellow Kid\

,"He is bald, buck-toothed, and always appears in slum alleys wearing an oversized yellow pajamas.

Lu Shi continued: ""Yellow Child" is a single-panel comic, and it only appears in the Sunday supplement of the newspaper and occupies one page. "Mirror" is a daily newspaper. If it was serialized every day, the cost would definitely be high. "

Margarita understood, picked up the pen and wrote in the four boxes:

——

beginning development

climax ending

——

Just four frames cover the occurrence, plot twist and ending of an event.

This shows that four-frame comics focus on creativity. The pictures cannot be too complicated, and the characters cannot be accommodated. The dialogue must be concise and easy to read.

Margarita frowned,

"Is this possible? Draw "Jane Eyre" using four-panel comics."

"puff!"

Lu Shi squirted,

"What did you just say!? You said you wanted to paint "Jane Eyre"!?"

Margarita looked at Lu in surprise and asked, "Isn't this what Professor Lu meant? What you just said was that you wanted me to be the original author and responsible for the plot, wasn't it?"

Lu Shi felt like he was going bald.

"Well... isn't there an original work for "Jane Eyre"? Ms. Charlotte Brontë..."

Margarita asked: "Are you worried about copyright issues?"

Lu Shi shook his head,

"No, I mean...sigh..."

Thousands of words turned into sighs.

He didn't think about "Jane Eyre" at all, but Margarita got him involved.

In that case, let's listen to Margarita's thoughts,

Anyway, it doesn’t cost anything to listen to it.

Lu Shi continued the topic just now and said: ""Jane Eyre" has the original work, what other work do you need to do?"

Margarita chuckled,

"Professor Lu, you must have read "Jane Eyre". Why do you need to test me like this? For example, before Mr. Rochester clearly revealed his feelings to her, Jane sincerely and eagerly confessed to her sweetheart. The original words were, 'Do you think Am I a machine without emotions? Do you think that because I am poor, humble, unattractive, and thin, I have no soul and no heart? You are wrong!...'"

After that, more than a hundred words are omitted.

This paragraph is very long, and Her Royal Highness actually memorized it word for word.

Lu Shi said: "This passage is really heart-wrenching."

Margarita spread her hands,

"How can we put more than a hundred words in a comic? The frame capacity is limited."

Lu Shi was instantly stunned by the question.

"this……"

Margarita said: "So, this requires someone who is proficient in the original work to adapt it. On the one hand, the essence of the original work cannot be lost; on the other hand, it should be made more suitable for comics."

Lu Shi actually felt like he was being persuaded.

He asked, "What are you going to do?"

Margarita smiled and said: "I can adapt it, but I'm not good at painting, so I'm going to ask someone from the School of Crafts and Entertainment for help."

The School of Crafts and Entertainment later became Goldsmiths College, or Goldsmiths College.

In modern times, with the QS World University Rankings, the school's art and design majors rank very high. The fine arts department has nurtured many young artists. Its graduates have been nominated for the Turner Prize more than 30 times and produced 9 winners.

Lu Shi nodded,

"This is indeed an idea that can be tried."

That's true, but I don't think so in my heart.

Because comics in the early 20th century still lacked an extremely important element——

Storyboarding.

Storyboarding is Osamu Tezuka’s innovation in comics.

He incorporates various film expression techniques such as zoom, wide angle, and bird's-eye view into comics, giving comics a dynamic feel like a movie.

The emergence of storyboards brought comics into a new development period, laying the foundation for the take-off of the comics industry.

A novel like "Jane Eyre" has no storyboards...

Lu Shi couldn't imagine it.

But he decided to let Margarita try it anyway,

After all, he just traveled through time and did not become an omniscient and omnipotent god.

Cross-category literary creation has reached its limit.

Let’s leave things like drawing comics to real professionals.

Moreover, the "Mirror" really needs a comic version, but it cannot be too homogeneous and overlap with the "Illustrated London News" and "Berlin Illustrated" in ecological niches, so it needs to innovate in content and form.

The four-frame comic is undoubtedly a good attempt.

Most people have a few pages of four-frame comics in their childhood.

"Old Master" by Mr. Wang Ze,

"Oolong Courtyard" by Ao Youxiang,

Overseas, there are even "Garfield", "Snoopy", and "Father and Son".

The success of these comics is the best proof.

Lu Shi said: "In that case, let's do what we just discussed. I hope you can succeed."

What he didn't know was that he had unintentionally gained another identity——

A leader in comics innovation.

Margarita couldn't help but look excited. She didn't expect that when she came to "Mirror" to submit an article, she would bring back such an innovative job.

Because she was happy, she bent down and rubbed my big face.

Me: "Meow!"

Helplessly ravaged.

Margarita smiled and patted the little guy's head, then came to the door and opened it, ready to leave.

At this moment, her hand holding the doorknob paused.

"Professor Lu, your office is so messy."

Lu Shi looked around,

"Indeed. I'll pack up a little before I leave."

As soon as he finished speaking,

boom--

Margarita closed the door.

She said: "Professor Lu, let me help you!"

Based on the education of the aristocracy, Her Royal Highness should not have done such an unethical thing.

But getting the comic job today made Margarita very excited, and she was a little carried away for a while, so she said such unreliable words.

Lu Shi looked at the other party's luxurious clothes and really didn't know how to complain.

Margarita also realized it. After rummaging in the cupboard for a while, she actually pulled out a curtain that had been replaced and tied it like an apron. It looked very durable.

Lu Shi was shocked,

"Your Highness, are you really doing this?"

Margarita smiled and said: "Don't look at me like this, I am very good at cleaning. And your office is not big. As long as you plan it properly, it can be cleaned in less than half an hour."

Lu Shi: "..."

Good at cleaning?

This advantage seems to have nothing to do with the status of the princess.

He was about to speak, but Margarita interrupted him with instructions: "Professor Lu, go and prepare a bucket and a towel."

Lu Shi looked at me next to him,

I also looked at him with a confused expression,

Neither one person nor the cat can understand the behavior of Her Highness the Princess.

Margarita urged: "Professor Lu, go quickly."

Lu Shi had no choice but to go out to get a basin of water and a rag for cleaning.

As a result, as soon as he returned to the office, he discovered that Margarita had moved a chair to the window, and she was standing on the chair, standing on tiptoes, squinting at the seams between the ceiling and the upper edge of the window.

I was standing there with my head raised, my big eyes full of question marks.

"Meow?"

As if to say: “What kind of human obfuscation is this?”

Lu Shi asked: "Your Highness, do you want to clean the ceiling?"

Margarita nodded,

"Well, the order of cleaning should be from top to bottom and from the inside to the inside. Forget it, you don't understand even if I tell you, just give me the towel."

Lu Shi raised his head,

I saw that there was indeed a thin layer of dust on the ceiling.

"Is there really any need to clean there?"

Margarita looked back,

"Professor Lu, take action!"

Lu Shi was at a loss and muttered: "Okay, okay! My respected princess."

As he spoke, he held up a towel soaked in water and leaned over.

Margarita showed a satisfied smile at first, but then she seemed to think of something again, her face turned red, and she subconsciously suppressed the hem of her skirt.

Lu Shi didn't come and didn't think much about it.

But Margarita's actions were almost a reminder, and he couldn't help but think more about it.

He quickly looked away and thought silently:

"See no evil!"

But this tilt of the head made Margarita even more shy, and she didn’t know where to put her hands.

She quickly jumped off the chair,

"Professor Lu, I have to leave!"

Lu Shi saw that the other person's face was so red that he could squeeze out ketchup, and quickly stopped him: "Wait a minute! If you go out in this state, people who don't know will think that I... think that I..."

After all, the words "workplace harassment" couldn't be uttered.

Margarita stood for a while and couldn't explain why when she saw Lu Shi, so she ran towards the door like flying.

She put her hand on the doorknob and turned around,

"Professor Lu, I heard that you are going to be knighted? Congratulations!"

After saying that, Her Royal Highness the Princess rushed out of the door.