Hong Kong Island Comic Master

Chapter 132 Happy Cooperation
When it comes to Neon's weekly shounen comics, the most well-known ones are undoubtedly the "big three", namely: Shueisha's "JUMP", Shogakukan's "Sunday" and Kodansha's "Magazine".

The presence of "Weekly Shonen Champion" cannot be said to be thin, it can only be said to be almost non-existent.

This comic magazine is published by Neon Akita Bookstore. It was first published in July 1969, which is only ten years ago.

Not only did the magazine come into being late, but the parent company of the magazine is also not as powerful as other companies.

Akita Bookstore was founded on August 1948, 8. Its pillar industry is the publishing of comics. Therefore, in terms of human, material and financial resources, it is inferior to several other publishing houses.

At the beginning, "Champion" magazine had difficulty operating, with sales of less than 20 per issue.

It was not until 1972 that the magazine finally got on the right track when Taizo Kabemura, "the legendary editor in the comics industry and the man who beat the god of comics Tezuka", became editor-in-chief.

After taking office, Kabamura boldly implemented policies such as "complete the whole story in one episode", "poach new cartoonists from other magazines", and "increase the standard of serialization in half". Except for Yokoyama Kouki's "Babylon II", all other comics were Stop downloading and re-request manuscript.

After he recruited new authors, "Champion" magazine was able to start again, and soon entered its golden period.

Of course, there is another, and most important, reason why this magazine reached the level of one of the "three major publishers" in the 70s, and that is because of Osamu Tezuka.

At that time, Osamu Tezuka was in poverty due to the company's losses, and also because of the "W3 Incident", Kodansha announced that "it will no longer use Tezuka's works in the future."

Although it became really popular within a few years, it was the newly appointed editor-in-chief who did it at that time!

The so-called "W3 Incident" refers to the fact that Kodansha colluded with sponsors and used commercial espionage to leak the project to other animation companies in order to combat Osamu Tezuka's Insect Productions.

As a result, Osamu Tezuka was furious and announced that the new comic "W3", which had been serialized for six chapters, would switch from "Magazine" to the competitor "Sunday".

It caused huge losses to "Magazine".

Osamu Tezuka, who received an invitation from Kabemura, returned to the comics industry with "Black Jack" and quickly achieved extremely brilliant results.

In just one year, the sales volume of "Champion" surged from 21 to 100 million, becoming Neon's fourth largest comic magazine and threatening the status of the "three major magazines".

He is worthy of being the "God of Comics", so terrifying!
In today's neon comic industry, "Sunday" has Tezuka, "Magazine" has Tezuka, "Champion" has Tezuka, "JUMP" has Tezuka... Award!

"Are you the Li Sang that Mr. Tezuka mentioned?"

I thought that the tough-minded Kabemura Taizo would be very arrogant, but when he met Li Wannian for the first time, he seemed very amiable.

"I am, hello, Editor-in-Chief Kamura!"

The two of them did not meet at the company, but at a cafe near Akita Bookstore.

Compared with serious companies, this place is obviously more comfortable.

"How are you doing, Mr. Tezuka?"

“Busy as always!”

"I never expected that Li Sang would choose our "Champion". This is indeed a great choice!"

Even though Kamura Taizo's attitude was gentle, his words revealed a strong sense of confidence.

Now is the most glorious period in the history of "Champion" magazine, and it is still in the hands of Hibimura. He certainly has the capital to be proud of.

"No, this is a two-way choice!"

However, Li Wannian needs "Champion", and "Champion" certainly needs Li Wannian.Although Osamu Tezuka is at the peak of his powers, he is old after all. No one knows how long he can continue to draw, and no one knows whether he can continue to draw regularly.

Once Osamu Tezuka does not update, the sales of "Champion" will definitely suffer a cliff-like decline, so they urgently need to find new players. Unfortunately, they have not found a suitable candidate in the past few years.

"Then is Li Sang the person we are looking for?"

"You'll know if you try it?"

Although the two of them didn't say anything more, everything was left unsaid.

The cooperation between the two parties was actually decided before the two met.

Although Beicun had previously rejected Li Wannian's idea of ​​investing in Akita Bookstore, after all, this was the time when Akita Bookstore was at its most glorious, and there was no shortage of money at all.

But unlike Kodansha and Shueisha, Kamura's ability to come to see Li Wannian in person shows that he attaches great importance to this cooperation.

If at the beginning, when the editor brought Osamu Tezuka, Kabemura was just thinking about dealing with Li Wannian. When he saw Li Wannian's work, he immediately decided that no matter whether his comic could be successful or not, it would be a success. We must take him down!

A 16-year-old boy can draw such excellent comics. How can he do it in the future?

With such intentional cooperation between the man and his concubine, everything seemed to fall into place.

The subsequent negotiations mainly focused on some cooperation details, and there were not many differences on the cooperation itself.

Finally, after an afternoon of negotiations between the two, Li Wannian will bring his own "Dragon Ball" to "Weekly Shonen Champion" on February 2.

Because it only has comic serialization rights in the Neon region, "Champion" will not invest a lot of promotional resources in "Dragon Ball".

However, since "Dragon Ball" has been serialized for 3 issues on Hong Kong Island, the previous issues will be updated at the speed of two chapters one by one until it catches up with the progress on Hong Kong Island.

In addition, Akita Bookstore will also serve as the cooperative publisher of Li Wannian's other comics in Neon, relying on its channels to sell single volumes of Li Wannian's other comics, including: "Chinese Little Chef God", "Pokémon", and "Death" , "Mobile Suit Gundam", "Parasite" and "Hong Kong Island Love Story".

At this point, after various setbacks, Li Wannian's comics can finally be successfully launched on Neon!

At the same time, Li Wannian's treatment is also different from other authors.

The two parties agreed that the cooperation period would be five years, and the magazine would only have the right to suggest, but not decide, Li Wannian's works.

In other words, Li Wannian may or may not listen to the magazine's opinions!
Of course, the magazine also has the right to terminate cooperation with Li Wannian due to factors such as poor comic sales and poor reputation.

Overall, the relationship between the two parties is more like a cooperative relationship, which is very loose and each retains a certain degree of autonomy.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that although "Dragon Ball" is serialized in "Champion", it is a buyout form, but the stand-alone volumes of Li Wannian's other comics are signed with "Champion" on a share-sharing model.

Eventually, the negotiations came to an end.

Kabemura Naizo stood up and faced Li Wannian and extended his hand, "Happy cooperation, sir!"

This was the first time that Bi Cun called Li Wannian by his pen name today, which also meant that he began to regard Li Wannian as one of his own magazines.

"Happy cooperation, Chief Editor Himura!"

(End of this chapter)