1983 Past Life Manga King

“By the way, brother. You say your monthly salary is over 800,000 won, is that true?”

“It’s not a salary, it’s an allowance to be exact. The more you work, the more you get. If you don’t, you suck your fingers.”

“Still, it’s great, my sister’s monthly salary is less than 200,000 won. You should die like that, even if you work overtime.”

“Hey, 200,000 won is a small amount of money, isn’t it?”

“Hehehe, not like that.”

She smiles and warns that her mom will hit her again.

And then she turns to me again and sings.

“Why don’t you just go to high school and learn about your brother? Can you teach me how to make a story?”

At that, my mother, who was preparing her table, scolded me.

“Boy! Don’t talk nonsense, eat and go to school. Stowe, is it anyone’s business to be jealous of that? So, I’ll give you that big amount of money.”

“I love cartoons too.”

At that, the older sister tapped Kyunghee’s rice bowl with chopsticks.

“Eat quickly. Don’t be bullshit. I will be late for school.”

“Hey.”

Kyunghee is crying.

“Would you like to eat later, Yunhwan?”

“No, I’m already awake, so I’ll just eat.”

I get up from the futon bed and approach the table with hip steps. Kyung-hee, who saw that, frowned.

“Oh, little. Wash and eat. I’m going to drool.”

“Are you giving your brother a face in the morning? just eat and wash I’m cold too.”

“Mom only sided with my brother…, no, it’s nothing.”

Kyung-hee, who winced at her mother’s eyes, smirked and shoved a spoonful of rice into her mouth.

But Seon-hee, who is next to me, is silently eating and glaring at me.

I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking.

Everyone in my family, except for me, finished eating and left the house.

I wash my face late and look out the window where the light comes in from the room.

Quiet feeling.

In the past, it would have been difficult to bear such loneliness because it was boring.

As time goes by, this has its own charm, or something like that.

When there were so many things I could do, it was hard to feel the importance of no matter how great it was. However, right now everything (by my standards) is lacking. So I thought that living wouldn’t be fun, but surprisingly, it’s the other way around.

I have fun with the little things, and I am moved by the insignificant things.

I mean, it was like that when I was in the military.

I was happy with just one Choco Pie, and there was a taste of living just with the occasional vacation.

Maybe it’s not possible to find true happiness when you’re lacking like this.

Well, I’m immersed in all sorts of miscellaneous thoughts, and I hear a knock on the door.

“Yoon Hwan-ah.”

It’s Park Sang-sik’s voice.

He smiled as he opened the door and walked out.

But today, I don’t have dark circles and my beard is neatly shaved so I look like a person.

“Oh, it’s so blurry that I can’t recognize it. But what happened?”

“Come from the fire room.”

“What?”

“But he said that we should take a look at the studio.”

“Oh yeah?”

*

“Good morning.”

We greeted as we entered, but only a few greeted us, and most people are busy with their work.

“Sit over here.”

A young woman led us to the sofa.

She sits down on the sofa, and a woman brings her two cups of coffee.

She drinks coffee and looks around.

The atmosphere in the studio is quite busy.

The appearance of workers lining up at long tables is not much different from that of a factory.

It looks like the drawing man, the person touching the character, the person who draws the background, the person who paints in ink and the person who erases it are completely divided into labor.

What was especially surprising was the drawing, which was divided into a person who draws like a croquis, and a face and body.

At this time, I was well aware that it was the time when factory cartoons started in earnest. Of course, the work was also thoroughly divided. However, seeing it in person, I was really surprised.

But after a while, a man came towards us.

“Ah, my name is Yanggu Chu, who is in charge of Team B here.”

He looks like he’s in his late 20s, but he’s skinny and his hair is a mess because he hasn’t washed his hair properly for several days. His eyes are sharp, so he has a bit of personality.

Then he handed us a piece of paper.

“This is the main character.”

Several cartoon characters are drawn on the unfolded paper, and their names are written underneath.

A total of five characters were three male characters and two female characters.

“These are the characters that appear mainly in our studio. It is not necessary for everyone to appear, but I want them to appear as much as possible. And this is a characteristic of the characters, so please read it.”

Another sheet of paper with the letters written on it is also held out.

what?

Is the character set?

But he pointed his finger at the bookshelf on one wall. There are lots of comic books out there.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

“There are cartoons we have worked on so far. You can read it and understand the characteristics of the character.”

Having said that, he went back to his seat and started working.

I had a blank expression.

I was thinking that I just had to complete the story, but this was unexpected.

Existing characters must appear, and they appear in new comics while maintaining their character.

It was one of the most popular ways of working on comic books in this era.

The so-called star character system.

It’s a way to keep appearing characters familiar to people.

It is the same principle that the appearance of well-known actors in a movie is more conducive to the box office.

However, I couldn’t help but be embarrassed because I didn’t expect to have to make a story in this way.

To be honest, he’s not a well-known character enough to be called a star.

I had to discover a new star, and I had nothing to say at the thought of using only characters that were fixed in this way.

Anyway, it is something to think about after reading the book and understanding the character’s personality.

There is about a week left until the next project.

In the meantime, the story must begin.

“Sorry, I didn’t expect this either.”

Park Sang-sik said quietly, being conscious of his surroundings with an apologetic expression.

“OK. For now, we have to figure out the character first.”

“Huh. okay.”

I approached the wall with Park Sang-sik.

There are only three types of books, about 30 books.

Maybe it wasn’t long since they started forming a team like this.

Well, since it’s been less than a year since 1983, when more than 10 feature-length comics started, it’s a natural thing to do.

There were also previous works, but most of them were three or four short books, and the characters were different, so it wasn’t worth a reference.

I pulled out all 30 books and brought them to a table in one side of the studio.

Even after reading so many comics, these books are the first ones I’ve ever seen. In fact, even the types of scripted comics from the 80s and 90s are beyond imagining, and it is not even the generation I experienced in the first place, so it would be impossible to read all of them.

Anyway, I like reading manga more than eating, so there was no problem.

Park Sang-sik and I sat in the studio and were absorbed in watching cartoons.

However, as I read the book, the overall story was sloppy, unlike the memories I had in the past when I enjoyed reading it. Even with the dialogue, the whole thing is a probable mess.

It is an unpredictable process, such as recovering mentally as if nothing had happened even after a shocking event that would cause the billionaire to collapse, or suddenly acting like a genius, who had been fooling around until now.

However, the story progresses in a fun way.

In fact, if you look at it, the foreign clubs of hell and the 21-year-old chaebol are all set in a hole in the ground, and the probability is a lot of cartoons. Nevertheless, it was a hit because it was faithful to the most important part of having fun.

Of course, such a work was not common, it was truly unique, so it is unreasonable to compare it with these sloppy cartoons.

There, the character’s tendencies are erratic. Because it was all about having a basic personality.

If that’s the case, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

All you have to do is to tear it apart and leave only the rough features behind it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Manga Factory (4)

“Collock.”

By the way, this is not a raccoon den of any kind, and the interior is full of cigarette smoke.

One of the things that I am not used to the most after coming here is the tobacco culture.

What is this, people smoke at any time and any place.

Outdoors is natural, and most public places are like smoking areas.

This is especially true if it is a studio with a lot of grass like a cartoon.

At lunchtime, Jajangmyeon was delivered from a Chinese restaurant.

Everyone stopped working all at once and got up from their seats. Some people do simple stretching by stretching their shoulders and moving their body, while others move back and forth to connect two central tables and prepare food there.

If you look closely, it’s not that they’re young, but mostly post-processing workers, especially those who paint and erase. Perhaps there are actions to follow within the ranks like in the military.

By the way, it seems that we ordered according to the number of people because we came.

All multiplied, of course.

People are so busy with their work that they can’t even get out of their seats for several hours, and then they eat lunch, and they are busy chatting.

“Today is a bit tight. Aren’t there too many people showing up?”

“Hey, what’s the background? Isn’t this story supposed to be set in a big city? Buildings and cars are all over the place.”

“I’ve been drawing all morning, but I couldn’t even draw a few. Oh, my arm hurts!”

“How long has it been since you started?”

“Oh really. It’s been over a year already for me. That’s too much.”

“Giggle, that’s it. Now, please treat me with some kindness.”

However, I don’t see a recommendation to be the leader of Team B.

I asked the person next to me.

“I can’t see you, boss.”

“Ah, Yanggu hyung?”

“Yeah.”

“He doesn’t eat with us. I’m afraid we’ll be uncomfortable if we stay here.”

“You will be eating in the teacher’s room with some drawing men from Team A.”

“By the way, are you two storymen from Team B?”

“I don’t belong. It’s just free.”

In response to Park Sang-sik’s answer, several people look at us with strange expressions.

“why? Then there would be no money.”

“Yes. And money is money, but if you belong to a studio, it would be nice to be able to make connections and receive support for story-related materials from time to time.”

“We are comfortable with that.”

“Ah······.”

But it’s not a very convincing look.

I think I’ve heard somewhere that humans feel secure only when they belong to some place, but seeing these people, it seems to be true.

Anyway, they gave us a few patronizing stories about the studio, and then they started chatting with each other again.

“It was good when there were a lot of big cuts (referring to scenes where only the face part appears frequently).

“Yeah. These days, real manga isn’t the same as it used to be, so it takes a lot of work. To be honest, back in the days when there were a lot of cheerful cartoons, drawing three or four pages wasn’t even a job.”

“Yes. These days, it’s all about dramatization, so it’s not easy to draw just one.”

“But you guys think it’s easy, these guys.”

“why?”

“Didn’t you hear about the fire room at Janggeosan? Those kids were no joke at all.”

“Ah, I heard that too. I heard that the picture there is really tight.”

This time, another person intervenes in the conversation.

“Is that enough?”

“Don’t talk, I’m not kidding. He said that he could only paint one in the time he had to paint the other three paintings.”

“Wow, shit. Those students are going to die.”

“Because it is.”

“It’s because they can’t stand it unless they really like cartoons and don’t have the money to be a writer. And the cartoonist over there is like that.”

“I heard that the Janggeosan cartoonist is putting all the money he earned at the yangban, Treasure Castle, into the main office manga.”

“Of course. look at the speed People’s payroll will be tight.”

Janggeosan is a cartoonist whose quality was recognized as a work of its own at the time. But here, it’s just an object of ridicule.

“Hey, honestly, cartoons that are easy to work with are the best.”

“Yes. Isn’t it enough just to sell well in moderation?”

It’s really frustrating to hear.

Even though these people have their own opinions, I feel like I would hate manga if I lived in a place like this.

After all, these people are just simple gangsters working in a manga factory. It’s unreasonable to expect virtues like mine from such people.

After lunch, we perused the comic book a few more times, said our goodbyes, and left the studio.

On the way home, Park Sang-sik gave me a slightly annoyed expression and immediately told me.

“This is a real factory. In fact, I looked around all kinds of studios, but I felt very uncomfortable here because it was just a company where workers were gathered.”

“So did I.”

“By the way, how about the character? Does it fit your story?”

“Even though there weren’t many characteristics in the first place. Except for the occasional use of unusual tones and the occasional use of stupid things.”

“It’s quite different from the character you think it is.”