At the same time, the news that Meng Zhiyuan had terminated his contract with Baiyun Comics and now switched to Huaying Comics quickly spread to all major animation information magazines and newspapers.
In this regard, some people seriously analyzed the future situation in the comics industry, while others said in a joking tone: In the future, if you find that your own comic authors have gone to the chess and card room, the editors-in-chief of major comic magazines must be vigilant, otherwise your beloved authors may be poached by mahjong and go to Huaying to play mahjong.
Netizens complained:
"Don't talk about mahjong-style poaching, how about mahjong-style interruption? Teacher Zhuo, who works diligently all year round, has learned the seven styles of Gugugugu without a teacher since he sat on Huaying's mahjong table. Not to mention the dog thief, who packed his luggage and ran away overnight after playing mahjong [manual goodbye]"
"I suddenly envy how the casino group in "Taking Over Las Vegas" was defeated. At least they were able to unite and blacklist the protagonists and not allow them to enter. It would be great if all the chess and card rooms in Xingning Province could also blacklist the thieves [sigh]"
"Wake up, the guy upstairs. Mahjong can be played anywhere. Do you think it will work if you don't let the thieves enter the chess and card room? You are too naive."
"I think it's okay, after all, Xingxing has never missed a show before. Maybe he is really out collecting materials this time? Even if not, it's okay to take a break once in a while..."
While netizens were still crying and wailing over the bad news that the Sherlock Holmes series was discontinued for the first time, Qiu Fengmao on the other side finally contacted Mu Suxing himself through his mobile phone.
Qiu Fengmao looked at the comic manuscript in his hand, which was only halfway completed, and gritted his teeth: "It was said that half of it was already finished? Is this your half?"
Mu Suxing coughed lightly and said, "Isn't there a saying that goes 'A journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step'? My 50% progress, if rounded up, is 90% right?"
Is this how you used this sentence
Qiu Fengmao was so angry, but he could do nothing about it. To be fair, Qiu Fengmao could understand Mu Suxing's sudden escape. After all, Mu Suxing was not just a simple comic author. It was a very hard job to keep the Sherlock Holmes series updated while taking care of painting, filming and animation.
What's more, the situation that Muxuxing is facing now is close to "three openings".
Human energy is limited. When the workload is already extremely heavy, an occasional willful break may catch people off guard, but what can they do
You choose your own boss, so no matter how much trouble he causes, you have to help him clean up the mess!
"Alright, alright, I won't argue with you anymore. Let's get down to business," Qiu Fengmao said seriously, "You know how much the Sherlock Holmes series has boosted the sales of Huaying Comics, don't you?"
The 27th issue of "Huaying Comics" has just been released, and the specific sales volume has not yet been released. Qiu Fengmao estimates that due to the discontinuation of the Sherlock Holmes series, the sales volume of this issue of the comics may drop by at least 30% - this is still his conservative estimate.
When the sales results come out, the decline will only be higher than this number, not lower.
In the past, the downward trend of "Huaying Comics" might not have been so obvious, but now that "Taking Las Vegas" has ended, Zhuo Liming's new work can also support some sales, but it is nothing compared to the terrifying popularity of Sherlock Holmes nowadays.
"It is impossible for Huaying Comics to rely entirely on the Sherlock Holmes series for sales."
"Of course I know that." When talking about this topic, Qiu Fengmao also felt a bit of a headache. The biggest problem facing Huaying right now is the lack of popular comics that can boost the sales of weekly comics.
It’s not that the Sherlock Holmes series is not popular, but that the Sherlock Holmes series accounts for too high a proportion of the sales of "Huaying Comics". In the long run, this is obviously not conducive to the development of "Huaying Comics".
Muxiuxing suddenly asked, "What if I didn't draw the Sherlock Holmes series?"
Qiu Fengmao was slightly stunned.
"If the Sherlock Holmes series is not drawn by me, or in other words, the comic book author who can support the sales of Huaying Comics is an ordinary comic book author who has nothing to do with you, and now this author has a problem with his status and applies for a period of suspension, according to the system of Huaying, this is of course allowed - if you encounter this situation, how do you plan to deal with the problem of the decline in magazine sales caused by it?"
"But… "
"No buts," Mu Suxing said calmly, "I recruited you to Huaying because I believe you have the ability to develop Huaying Comics into an equal presence in the animation industry. If the sales of Huaying Comics must be maintained by me, then what's the point of hiring you?"
Qiu Fengmao was speechless.
Because what Muxuxing said is true.
The development of Huaying Comics to what it is today is obviously inseparable from the Sherlock Holmes series and Taking Las Vegas. As the boss, Mu Suxing has done enough for the development of this weekly magazine—he draws popular comics and recruits top comic authors. From the first five issues that tied to its own popular animation peripherals to the recent Sherlock Holmes series that turned the tide... It can be said that without Mu Suxing, Huaying Comics would have been finished long ago.
To put it bluntly, even without Qiu Fengmao, Huaying Comics can still easily beat other comics weekly magazines in terms of sales. As the editor-in-chief, although he did not make any mistakes, he also did not have any credit.
"How to deal with the magazine gap caused by the completion of popular comics is your problem, not mine." This was the last words Mu Suxing left for Qiu Fengmao.
The call was hung up, Mu Suxing sighed, and stuffed the phone back into his backpack.
From the sudden decision to go to the time of packing up and going on a spontaneous trip, it took less than five seconds. In the past, he was surrounded by friends and employees, or was covered by a lot of work. Now Muxuxing was sitting alone on the subway in a foreign country, and the effect of relaxing his body and mind that he had thought was not achieved at all.
Instead, I became more anxious.
Sure enough, the best vacation spot for workaholics is their own study.
Thinking of this, Mu Suxing felt a little helpless.
He said it was none of his business, but as soon as the phone call was hung up, Mu Suxing couldn't help but think about his work.
Cells at Work! is not a big deal. The animation itself is not very long and is not difficult to produce. It should not be a problem to give it to Dai Yuyan. Art animation is a little more troublesome, but the main pressure at this stage is still on the gentlemen responsible for drawing the original paintings. Considering the speed of the artists' creation, this obviously cannot be rushed.
As for the Sherlock Holmes series…
According to Mu Xiuxing's original idea, he was going to hand over this series of comics to other comic authors to continue, just like animation production. However, every time he brought up this topic, the ones he trusted either refused outright or laughed it off to change the subject. It was obvious that they had no intention of taking over the Sherlock Holmes series.
"It's mainly because of too much pressure," Shen Xing said honestly when Mu Suxing asked about the reason for his refusal, "You know how much everyone is praising Sherlock Holmes. Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity to draw a classic like Sherlock Holmes? But the problem is, if I fail, I don't even have to blame you. I think those readers will make me pay for it."
After Shen Xing said this, Mu Suxing naturally couldn't force the Sherlock Holmes series to other authors.
"The Sherlock Holmes series is easy. Anyway, the four long stories have been serialized. The remaining fifty or so short stories can be arranged according to my own schedule. Each short story will be serialized for a period of time..." Mu Suxing thought: "The main problem is that there are too few popular comics in Huaying Comics."
Without Qiu Fengmao's complaints, Mu Suxing could imagine that in a short period of time, it would not be an easy task to find works that could support the sales of the magazine - not to mention works at the level of Sherlock Holmes, even to reach the level of "Taking Las Vegas".
never mind.
Now that things have come to this, I might as well give him a final hand before completely shifting the burden to Qiu Fengmao.
Now that he had an idea in mind, Mu Suxing felt a lot more relaxed.
After getting through the early anxious period when he was still worried about work, Mu Suxing chose to wander around like an ordinary tourist in the remaining six days: visiting the mountains and rivers, visiting local landmark buildings, or following the recommendations of netizens and trying all the famous local delicacies.
In the middle, Muxuxing also took time to go to a theme park. After a whole day of playing for two minutes and waiting in line for two hours, he had to say what his biggest feeling was -
"When I open a theme park in the future, I must start with the most basic food," Mu Xiuxing couldn't stand it any longer and complained, "It doesn't matter if the price is a little higher, but if it's expensive and tastes bad, I can't tolerate it!"
It has to be said that diet is definitely an important indicator that can affect the mood of tourists. The diet in this area is too different from that in Xingning Province, which has almost ruined his mood for playing these days.
In response, Fang Lian happily said: "Thank God, this is the best news I have heard all day - so when will you come back to work overtime with me?"
Muxiuxing: …
There was no point in chatting today.
Mu Suxing hung up the phone unhappily and took a bus to the last destination.
This is an ancient city with a strong historical atmosphere. It is said that it was the capital thousands of years ago. When Muxuxing arrived, it was a local festival, and the streets and alleys were full of people. Muxuxing walked along the streets full of red lanterns and beautiful paper-cuts for a while, and finally enjoyed a lively puppet show on the street corner when night fell.
The so-called glove puppet show is also known as glove puppet show or hand puppet show. Simply put, it is to put gloves into the puppet's clothes to perform puppet shows. Because the puppet's body is very similar to a "bag made of cloth", it is named "glove puppet show". Hundreds of years ago, when entertainment was extremely monotonous, it was the most popular form of entertainment among the people.
However, with the increasing number of modern entertainment methods, this traditional glove puppet show seems to have been forgotten by the public and is rarely seen.
I didn't expect to see it here.
After enjoying the puppet show, Mu Xuxing set out on his usual journey the next day. At this moment, it had been seven days since he left Huaying.
"Welcome our Director Mu who has come a long way to collect materials," Shen Xing clapped his hands in agreement, "So, what are the results of your collection, Boss?"
In fact, Shen Xing just said that at this moment - as a comic book author, he also went out to collect materials, couldn't he understand? What collection of materials, just gossip. He made a joke here, but Mu Suxing said, "I do have some ideas, come with me."
…
Three days later.
There are four days left until the release date of the 28th issue of "Huaying Comics".
While Luo Gaofeng was counting the days in his mind, he casually opened the official website of Huaying Comics. "Hmm? New work preview? Is this a new section that has been released recently?"
Unlike the picture-based trailers on other websites, the trailer for the next issue of Huaying Comics is quite perfunctory, with no pictures or even a rough plot summary. There is only one sentence that could not be simpler and cruder -
"Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Pink" is about to start serialization, so stay tuned!
When his eyes fell on the familiar title, Luo Gaofeng's first reaction was: Where did this shameless bastard come from? Is he crazy trying to ride on the popularity of our Sherlock Holmes
The second reaction was: … Shit, wait, this seems to be something Huaying did himself.
Although his reason and past experience told him that "Huaying Huaying" would definitely not do something stupid like destroying its own Great Wall, the name of this comic that couldn't be more clichéd still made him ask himself some soul-searching questions.
Luo Gaofeng: In? Why should I eat my own rotten rice