Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 205 Superman Watch
"Dad, what is this?"

"Kandor City, home of Superman."

At the entrance of the toy store, the customer pointed to the Candor City Lego bricks in the window and explained to the children.

Beside him, people stopped from time to time to look at this novelty toy in the window, and occasionally a figure could be seen coming out of the store with a toy box of Candor City.

In front of the window, Stanley stared at the Candor City LEGO toys behind the glass without blinking.

He has been standing at the door for almost two hours.

"Did you like it a lot, kid?"

Just as Stanley was in a daze, a questioning voice suddenly came from behind.

Stanley turned his head, and saw a man in a neat suit and a bowler hat looking at him.

Glancing at the man who appeared behind him, Stanley moved his steps cautiously, giving way to the window, and nodded timidly.

Seeing Stanley's careful look, Colin smiled and took out a Lego Superman from his arms and handed it over, "This is for you."

His eyes stayed on the little LEGO Superman in Colin's hand for a long time, and Stanley's eyes flashed with excitement. He wanted to reach out to take the toy but subconsciously stopped, opened his mouth and whispered.

"Sir, I have no money..."

Aware of the hesitation in Stanley's expression, Colin stuffed Lego Superman into his hand and said, "This is just a small gift, as a gift for your love of Superman."

He just passed by the toy store occasionally, wanting to see the sales of Lego in Candor City, and happened to see Stanley outside the window before the next scene happened.

In front of the toy store, Stanley watched the back of Colin leaving and looked down at Lego Superman in his hand, silently lost in thought.

It wasn't until many years later that Stanley knew that the Lego Superman he gave him was the author of Superman-Mr. Colin Luper.

"In my childhood memory, the appearance of Mr. Colin Luper was like a real superhero, illuminating my life."

……

"Sorry, I'm a few minutes late..."

In a coffee shop on Fifth Avenue in New York, Colin apologized to the inviters who had waited early.

"It's okay, in fact, I've only just arrived."

Looking away from the exquisite watch on his wrist, the person in charge of Waterbury Clock Company (Waterbury Clock Company) immediately shook his head to express his understanding.

After a brief greeting and motioning for the waiter to come and order coffee, the person in charge of the Waterbury Watch Company once again expressed his gratitude: "It's a great honor to meet Mr. Colin Luper here. Your presence It is extremely important to us at Waterbury Watches."

"No, I also have very high expectations for this cooperation."

The hot sales of Lego blocks in Candor City brought Ke Lin a lot of money, but the competition in the stock market forced him to invest more funds in it.

At present, in terms of oil stocks, Luo Stone, representing Colin, and Paul Getty are still engaged in fierce competition. Through the acquisition of Mission Company, he has now mastered more than 20% of the shares of Mission, and indirectly controlled part of the Seashore United Oil Company's shares, but Paul Getty fought back not to be outdone, and began to compete with him for the shares of the mission.

In order to be able to maintain an advantage in this battle for oil stocks, Colin had to continue his old way of superman authorized cooperation.

But this time, it was the watch company named Waterbury who took the initiative to seek cooperation.

Speaking of Waterbury Watch Company, its brand also has a very long history. The predecessor of the company was RH Ingersoll & Bro (Ingersoll Watch Company), which was once the famous American Eagle watch.

The company started out as a mail-order company selling low-cost products such as rubber stamps until 1892 when it launched the first Ingersoll watch, called the Universal.

Says it's a watch, but it's actually a small spring-driven clock, about 3 inches in diameter and just over an inch thick.They are put into the case, and the bow and crown hang from the bracelet, just like contemporary watches.The crown has no function, the watch is the mainspring on a fixed key connected by a hinge, and there is a wheel in the center of the dial for the hands, and when the case is open like a clock, both hands can be used.

At first 'universal' watches were wholesaled to dealers, but later in 1892 a mail order catalog was produced and the watches were sold directly to the public.

Later, with the popularity of watches, Ingersoll Watch Company gradually changed its business and became a watch manufacturer.

In the later period, Ingersoll Watch Company has been committed to launching new watches. Over the past 20 years, nearly 4000 million US dollars worth of watches have been sold, and Ingersoll has created "the watch that makes the dollar famous!" .

Only later, the occurrence of World War I led to economic recession Ingersoll Watch Company had to declare bankruptcy, and Waterbury Watch Company also bought it under such circumstances.

However, Waterbury Watch Company, which acquired Ingersoll Watch Company at that time, never imagined that in less than ten years, it would also be on the verge of bankruptcy.

The occurrence of the Great Depression greatly reduced the public's demand for watches, and the Waterbury Watch Company also suffered a sharp drop in revenue.

Right now, the cooperation with Ke Lin is also expected to help the company out of difficulties by virtue of the popularity of "Superman".

Therefore, when meeting with Colin, the person in charge of the Waterbury Watch Company was extremely sincere, because once the cooperation failed, the company would most likely miss the opportunity and go bankrupt directly.

"Thank you."

After taking the coffee brought by the waiter, Colin nodded his thanks and took a sip of the coffee.

"Mr. Looper..."

On the other side, after waiting for Colin to put down his coffee, the person in charge of the watch company took out the design drawings that had been prepared.

It was the result of several nights spent designing by the Waterbury Watch Company, with the aim of designing a piece that would make Colin nod his head.

After receiving the design draft from the person in charge, Colin was first attracted by the shining image of Superman on the watch. The whole watch was almost designed around Superman without any cover-up.The clock dial clearly depicts the appearance of Superman standing with his chest upright, and the two arms of Superman represent the hour and second hands.

At the same time, in the wrist part, we can also see the careful thinking of Waterbury Watch Company, and a superman flying action is also designed on the watch.

It can be said that Waterbury Watch Company has almost integrated all the elements of Superman into the design of this watch.

From a personal aesthetic point of view, this watch with the image of Superman as the main axis is indeed not very good-looking.

However, regardless of aesthetics, from the point of view of the authorizer, Colin is happy to see this happen. After all, he authorized Superman not only to obtain monetary benefits for himself, but also to let more people know about Superman. In this case, how can I make Superman appear on authorized products?

Although, in his heart, he affirmed the design of the watch company, but on the surface, Ke Lin was still very calm.

"If Mr. Looper is not satisfied with this design, Waterbury has other design drawings, which also use the image of Superman as the core..."

Seeing that Colin in front of him didn't respond much, the person in charge of the company immediately opened his mouth to explain, and at the same time took out more drawings from his arms.

From these design drawings, we can still see the design ideas of the watch company.

On the large and small clock dials, a variety of superman-based clock designs can be said to open Colin's eyes. They use heat sight instead of hour hands and seconds, and also use cloaks. Of course, the more exaggerated ones use Superman's legs.

It is foreseeable that if it is really decided to produce the last design product, everyone who buys a watch in the future will see the scene of Superman splitting on the watch, and it will be a [-]-degree all-round split.

Thinking of this scene, the inexplicable Colin felt a little trembling.

Shaking his head, he turned his eyes away from the last design drawing in his hand. Compared with this obviously speechless design, what attracted Colin's attention the most was the idea of ​​using thermal sight as the hour and second hands.It not only makes reasonable use of superhuman abilities, but also gives people a rather novel feeling.

As for, if this design is actually used in production, it is not what Ke Lin needs to pay attention to.

Anyway, he is only the authorized party of the product, and all he needs is that the final result can meet his intentions, and the rest is completely considered by Waterbury Watch Company.

"The design of this heat sight is very thoughtful."

Picking the one he likes from the drawings, Ke Lin expressed his opinion to the person in charge of the watch company in front of him.

After getting his response, the latter also breathed a sigh of relief.

At least on the issue of the contract, the two parties have reached a preliminary consensus, which at least represents the possibility of successful cooperation authorization.

Taking a deep breath, he took the design that Colin liked, and the person in charge nodded in agreement: "Indeed, this design is also one of the favorite designs in Waterbury Watch Company."

Undoubtedly, the person in charge lied a little in this regard. After all, if they were as unanimous as the other party said, he wouldn't need to bring so many design drawings for Ke Lin to screen.

Without exposing the politeness of the person in charge, Ke Lin started to guide the topic to a more practical one, that is, the profit sharing of the authorization contract.

"...As long as Mr. Looper is willing to cooperate with Waterbury, we are willing to give up the profits of the third floor as licensing fees."

Thirty percent of the profit authorization is already considered not a small fee.

In comparison, Waterbury Watch Company, as the authorized party, not only needs to design the image of the watch but also to produce and sell the products, while Ke Lin does not need to do anything in this regard, only to give up the image of Superman to authorize. Can sit and make money.

Of course, although the Waterbury Watch Company has expressed great sincerity, there is no reason for Colin to miss the money that should be earned.

Picking up the coffee and taking a sip, Colin said to the person in charge in front of him, "Fifty percent."

"Fifty percent?!"

In this regard, the person in charge of the Waterbury Watch Company showed an obviously embarrassed expression on his face.

You must know that this [-]% is the net profit after the watch is sold, which is an extremely huge profit request for any company.

"Mr. Luper, if it's [-]%, Waterbury doesn't have much to earn at all..."

The person in charge revealed the current difficult situation of Waterbury in an embarrassing tone, but the expression on Colin's face was still somewhat unmoved.

Business negotiations have never been a place to talk about affection.

Waterbury's situation may have been difficult, but there were so many companies like it in the Great Depression that Colin couldn't give up his bottom line just because of that.

After all, Superman's current popularity didn't come out of thin air.

Whether it is the serialization of the "Daily Courier", or the radio drama "Messenger Comics" and "Superman Adventure", they are all created by Ke Lin bit by bit.

Facing the firm stand shown by Colin, the person in charge of Waterbury is obviously caught in a dilemma. In fact, the bottom line given by the watch company is [-]%. , but unexpectedly, Colin had already exceeded Waterbury's original preset share if he wanted to see it, which caught the person in charge a little off guard.

"Sorry, Mr. Luper, the [-]% sharing contract is not something I can decide."

Therefore, in the coffee shop, the person in charge struggled for a long time, but still had to speak.

"I need to ask the company for instructions, and then I will give you an answer."

"can."

Colin also knew that the negotiation of the authorization contract could not be completed overnight, but before the meeting ended, he still reminded the person in charge: "However, one thing needs to be explained, that is, Walter is not the only watch company that hopes to be authorized by Superman. The Bury family, from my personal standpoint, I prefer the image designed by Waterbury, so I hope you can give an answer as soon as possible."

"..."

Colin's seemingly unintentional reminder at the end obviously stiffened the expression on the face of the person in charge of Waterbury.

During the Great Depression, there were not a few watch companies similar to Waterbury. Even though they knew that this was probably just a means used by Colin to pressure the contract, the person in charge still couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.

Sure enough, three days after the meeting ended, Colin received advice from Waterbury.

The watch company is willing to accept a 5:5 profit share, but as a condition, Ke Lin cannot cooperate with other watch companies to produce similar products before the production of this Superman watch.

In this regard, Colin does not have much opinion. In fact, so far Waterbury is the first watch company to come to cooperate.

Soon, the Courier News signed a Superman licensing contract with the Waterbury Watch Company, and immediately started the production of Superman watches.

(End of this chapter)