Chapter 297 The popularity of Calabash Baby and the Black Cat Sheriff
Qin Zhiye smiled and agreed: "Okay, I have prepared various printing materials and labor over there, and I have also contacted a company in Japan Printing equipment manufacturer, as long as we need it, they will send a set of equipment to Hong Kong within a month."
"Okay, I hope the comic weekly will be so popular that your existing equipment is not enough. Yang Wendong said with a smile.
Although the first comic is simple, sometimes simple things are easier for people to understand.
Otherwise, when the concept of Doraemon's Doraemon was introduced in an era when national culture was not yet very high, many people didn't know how the "machine" turned into a cat, let alone Transformers.
A few days later, Yang Wendong also went to the printing factory in North Point. This was his first time here;
"Yang Sheng, currently we have one color printing production line and three black and white printing production lines here. Qin Zhiye accompanied the boss and introduced them one by one: "Oriental Daily and Hong Kong China Daily, almost 30,000 to 50,000 newspapers are issued from here every day."
"Hmm" Yang Wendong flipped through the pages just printed. When the newspaper came out, he looked at the title and asked: "Does this place also take on the business of outside newspapers?"
Qin Zhiye replied: "Yes, some very small newspapers or literary journals are small in scale, so there is no such thing as Those who can afford to buy equipment and rent factories will adopt this leasing model;
Or if there are any special circumstances among peers, they will also entrust other peers to print on their behalf. Not every newspaper company, They will have enough extra production capacity. Some time ago, Mingpao’s sales increased sharply because of our help in OEM production.”
"Well, okay." Yang Wendong nodded: "Since our initial printing production capacity is high enough, it's better not to waste it."
The subsidiaries of Changxing Group, in addition to strictly executing the orders given by Yang Wendong, or some other The designated development direction and other aspects are basically free.
If the management feels that a certain business is cost-effective and related to its own business, then it can be tried.
Of course, these can only be said to be industries that can be developed by taking advantage of some existing advantages. If additional investment is needed, it must still be reported.
Qin Zhiye then took over a color newspaper and said, "Yang Sheng, this is the first issue of our comic weekly."
"Let me take a look." Yang Wendong took it.
On the first page of this newspaper, there are pictures of seven gourd kids, Grandpa Calabash and two goblins. Each of the gourd kids is showing off their own unique skills.
On it are four big characters: "Calabash Brothers".
"It feels pretty good." Yang Wendong continued to turn to the next page, and the content was similar to what he had seen before. It was the same content as before, but there were some changes in the layout.
Then he asked: "How many issues of this book Calabash Brothers are going to be published?"
Wu Hailin replied: "Yang Sheng, I discussed with Qin Sheng and planned to divide the whole story into 12 issues, one for each gourd boy.
The next few issues are about the little gourd boy being deceived. It led to internal fighting between the gourd boys, and then they woke up together, and then they dealt with the snake monster together, a total of 5 issues. "So it ended in just over three months?" Yang Wendong asked.
Wu Hailin said: "Yes, I feel a little fast, but this is the story, and there is no way to make it longer."
Yang Wendong nodded and said: "Okay, then That’s it, it will be officially launched the day after tomorrow?”
Qin Zhiye replied: "Yes, it will be on sale the day after tomorrow."
"How much does one copy cost?" Yang Wendong asked.
Qin Zhiye said: "The tentative price per copy is 5 cents. This comic newspaper is different from ordinary newspapers. Although it is in color, there is no acquisition cost of various news in it, so on average, a comic newspaper The cost is only 2 cents.
Our ex-factory price is 3.5 cents. The remaining 15 cents are the intermediate transportation and terminal profits."
"Well, okay, let's set the price like this first." Yang Wendong added: "This itself does not require a huge profit, as long as it is appropriate. Once you become famous, there will be many ways to make money later.”
The most important thing in the cultural industry is popularity. Once you gain popularity, there will be too many ways to cash in and make profits later.
For example, "Three Thousand Questions of Naughty Blue Cat", which was well-remembered by the post-90s generation, was broadcast for free to major TV stations in its early days. Then it became famous and made a lot of money from various derivatives or licensing businesses. The bowl is full.
In the 21st century, "Bear Bears" has been filmed in many movies, with a box office of more than 7 billion.
"Okay." After Qin Zhiye agreed, he added: "In addition, I will arrange for someone to deliver this comic weekly to the school area. The students will definitely like it."
"Well, okay, but their purchasing power must be considered." Yang Wendong nodded.
In any era, the biggest customers of animation are always children. Even babies will naturally like to watch cartoons.
Qin Zhiye said with a smile: "Don't worry, Mr. Yang, most of those who can go to school in Hong Kong have good family conditions."
"Okay." Yang Wendong looked at Wu Hailin again and said: " Lao Wu, this comic has been finished. There will be another comic later. On your side, don’t worry about other things. Recruit people for me as soon as possible and go to Shuiwu. It’s good to recruit people from Tongshan, or you can find people from Hong Kong.”
There are still many talents of various types in Shuiwutongshan. Lin Haoyu arranged for people to check, and found that there are all kinds of talents. There are all kinds of occupations, and Changxing Industrial has also recruited more than 300 people, including some chefs, or strong young people, who have been brought back to do security and heavy physical work.
Wu Hailin said: "Okay, I wonder how many people are needed?"
Yang Wendong smiled and said: "The more, the better. I won't mind if you give me dozens or hundreds. The content of the next comics will be much more complicated than "Calabash Brothers"."
Not to mention some classic anime from Japan or the United States, there were many comics in the 1980s and 1990s;
"Calabash Brothers" is just one of them with less content, and it is suitable for the first place in Changxing Comic Weekly gun.
But if you want to continue to open new comics in the future, you must have a comic with one story per episode like "Conan", so that you can grow old forever, and the protagonist will still be the same when the readers get old.
"Then I will try my best to recruit people first." Wu Hailin smiled and asked: "Yang Sheng, what is the story, can you tell us first?"
Yang Wendong thought for a while and said: "It's a story about the animal society solving crimes. The content is quite long. I'll talk about it specifically next time. You can prepare various animals first and draw them with human body and animal faces. Come out."
"Human animal face?" Wu Hailin was a little confused.
Yang Wendong added: "Just be like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in the United States. Then we will change it to look better."
In fact, in this era, doing Comics that are too complex will not work, because truly complex comics are all drawn by computers, otherwise the workload of a Transformer would make people vomit blood.
The same goes for cartoons.
So when choosing comics, it’s best to start with something simple.
"Okay, I'm going to start trying to paint." Wu Hailin agreed.
On September 17, Changxing Comics Weekly published for the first time:
In a bookstore in front of St. Paul’s Secondary School on Hong Kong Island.
Several middle school students walked in, and the boss smiled and said: "Come to buy extracurricular homework books?"
"Yes, this is a shabby school. The homework books issued do not have answers at the back." A student complained: "The teacher tore them up."
The boss said: "That is also for the purpose of letting people Just do your homework and don’t have any other ideas.”
“What ideas can we have?” He smiled and said: "I just want to check the answers with the answers after I finish."
"Okay." The boss smiled and said: "Many homework books on the market in Hong Kong are here. You can find them yourself. "Okay."
"Okay." The students then dispersed and looked for the books they needed.
Suddenly, a person saw a newspaper in a conspicuous position and asked while reading: ""Calabash Brothers"? What kind of comic is this? I've never heard of it." "Calabash Brothers?" Several other people heard the voice and heard it. Come on, anything else interests him more than homework.
The boss also said at this time: "This is a comic that just came out. I read it and it is quite interesting. You can read it, but the old rule is that you can only read it. The first page.”
“Yes, okay.” Several students also agreed, and everyone knew the rules.
[Snake demon, gourd baby with super powers, spitting water and fire? Invulnerable? Infinitely powerful? 】
Looking at the introduction on the first page, several students immediately became interested, and then one of them asked: "Boss, how do you sell this newspaper?"
"50 cents per copy." the boss replied.
"Okay, let's buy one." Several students said cheerfully.
They are all families that can go to middle school. They are generally not short of money and naturally have some living expenses. Whether it is novels, comics or normal newspapers, it is enough for several people to buy one copy, average it out. , and it doesn’t cost much.
After paying the money, the boss gave them a new one and said: "There is a table over there, you can go and look at it over there."
"Okay." Several students brought newspapers and sat at the table next to them to read.
Several people took turns exchanging newspapers and soon finished reading them.
"The powerful Calabash Baby is so powerful." One student said: "I was deceived by the snake demon."
"Yes, yes." Another student said The student also agreed, then looked at the boss and asked: "Boss, when will the next copy of this comic be available."
The boss replied: "This Changxing comic is a weekly, once a week, and every time is Monday Posted, you won’t be able to see the next episode until next week”
"Next week, we have to wait for a long time." The students felt a little uncomfortable. After finally seeing a good comic, they could only see a little bit every week.
"Wait, boss, Changxing Comics? Does this have anything to do with Changxing Group?" asked a student.
The boss said: "It's from Changxing Group. It was sent here together with Hong Kong China Daily and Oriental Daily."
"It's true." The student who just asked said: "I have A relative is a senior executive in Changxing Group. He told me to study hard and then join Changxing Group?” Many people went to fetch water at the water station. ”
"Yes, Yang Wendong is praised to the sky by school teachers every day."
Seeing several students praising Yang Wendong, the bookstore owner also smiled. This is normal.
One is that his family history is really impressive and enviable, and the other is that anyone who knows what he did after he became rich will give him a thumbs up.
There are many middle schools in Hong Kong, and each middle school is surrounded by many bookstores, newsstands and even some vendors selling various books, comics, etc.
Many students, when passing by these places, will also pay attention to the new comics in them. After some inquiries, they immediately became interested. When they asked about the price, they were not very expensive. A few people gathered together. It's easy to get together. Anyway, even if ten people buy one copy, everyone can watch it.
After reading the story, they immediately became interested. Everyone was imagining how great it would be if they had this magical ability.
In the Cheung Hing Building on Hong Kong Island:
Yang Wendong is reading an English newspaper, which is from the United States. Now that many of the company's products are exported overseas, he also needs to pay attention to some in Europe and the United States. Big things.
"Dong dong dong~~~" There was a knock on the door, and Yang Wendong replied: "Come in."
The two people who came in were Qin Zhiye and Wu Hailin. , said happily: "Yang Sheng, the data for Changxing Comics came out this morning, and more than 2,000 copies were sold in total."
"More than 2,000? Is this a lot?" Yang Wendong asked casually.
Qin Zhiye smiled and replied: "It's quite a lot. It's not an exaggeration to say it's popular. We can't compare a new newspaper with a traditional newspaper. Moreover, we are still a comics weekly, so we basically reject a lot of them. Adults.
Only a few adults and children are interested in comics. In comparison, 2,000 is a lot."
"That's right." Yang Wendong put down his hand. newspaper.
Qin Zhiye added: "And since our newspaper is a weekly, it will continue to sell in the future, and there may even be sales in a few months."
"The future is too far away." Yang Wendong asked again: "How is the market feedback? Customer comments?"
Qin Zhiye replied: 'We have done some surveys, and the feedback from customers is very good, especially from the student group. We are all looking forward to the next plot. '
"Okay." Yang Wendong said: "Then we will increase the publicity later, especially near the school."
Although the comic weekly is also distributed in the form of a newspaper, the channels are completely Not the same.
Bookstores and newsstands around the school are the mainstream ones. There are also newsstands in other places, but they are not many.
"Okay." Qin Zhiye said again: "Yang Sheng, I have also discussed with some channel managers in Wanwan, and the comic weekly is also ready to be sent to Wanwan."
"Okay, open up Other markets are also important," Yang Wendong acknowledged.
Traditional newspapers are subject to content restrictions and are difficult to export to other places. After all, Wanwan is not interested in Hong Kong news, and it is difficult to pass official approval.
However, Comic Weekly belongs to the normal literary category and can easily enter other markets, especially Wanwan. The texts are the same as those in Hong Kong. Once there is a channel, it can be sent by speedboat.
"Wanwan will be a week later than us." Qin Zhiye said again.
"Okay." Yang Wendong nodded, looked at Wu Hailin again, and said, "How is the recruitment going?"
Wu Hailin said, "We have recruited 6 people in the past few days, and our team has expanded to 13 "
"We need to continue recruiting later, but now I want to tell you the plot and characters of the next comic," Yang Wendong paused and said.
The plot of "Calabash Baby" is relatively short, so it is considered a test of the waters. So far, the results are not bad. It is estimated that funds will flow back soon, and then I can take the next step.
Wu Hailin immediately said: "Yang Sheng, please speak."
Yang Wendong said: "The story of this comic is mainly about a small town composed of various animals, where different cases always happen.
And our protagonist is a black cat. He is Sheriff, who specializes in solving crimes.”
The next story is of course the black cat Sheriff who impressed the post-90s generation.
PS: Please give me monthly tickets
(End of this chapter)