"When I saw the name of the comic, I wanted to curse, until I suddenly remembered that I was visiting the official website of Huaying [confused]"
"It's probably just a clickbait title, right? Xingxing is not that mean, and Huaying wouldn't do something that would damage their reputation. They're probably trying to take advantage of the popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series, but the actual content doesn't matter much. The name Sherlock is quite common, so maybe it's just a homonym."
"Although, whether this comic is good or not is another matter. This operation is really confusing. Considering that Xingxing stopped updating, the sales of Huaying Comics dropped by three million. Hmm..."
As the most well-known and most popular comic magazine nowadays, Huaying's new works are undoubtedly the focus of attention of all colleagues and readers.
"Taking Las Vegas" has been completed. Currently, at least half of the sales of "Huaying Comics" are driven by the Sherlock Holmes series. Although Zhuo Liming's new work is also widely acclaimed, his comics still follow the ancient style of "Returning Home on a Snowy Night". Although it can attract many fans, the audience is destined to be limited.
For a comics magazine that was just beginning to establish itself, this was clearly not enough.
Under such circumstances, "Huaying Comics" will inevitably find a way to launch a new work that can replace "Taking Las Vegas", and whether this so-called new work can take over part of the burden of the Sherlock Holmes series has become the key to Huaying at the moment.
So what about Sherlock Holmes
Can this comic, which seems to be trying to piggyback on the popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series, really offset the loss of readers caused by the completion of "Taking Las Vegas"
It was at this time that the official Weibo account of Huaying Comics suddenly uploaded the cover of the next issue of the weekly comics magazine.
A young man who is quite similar to Sherlock Holmes, but completely different.
Different from the Sherlock Holmes series which is more youth comic-style, the "Sherlock" on the cover is obviously following the common handsome style in comics - a black suit, a slim woolen windbreaker of the same color, and a dark blue scarf that brushes across his neck and falls down naturally.
Clearly modern attire.
Not only that, the background presented on the cover is no longer the luxurious and gorgeous city in the Sherlock Holmes series, but a typical metropolis with more modern characteristics.
If there is anything that immediately reminds people of Sherlock Holmes, it is perhaps those familiar grey eyes - cold, aloof, with a disdainful look in the corners of his eyes and eyebrows.
"Wait, with this background and this look, could this Sherlock Holmes be a modern version of Sherlock?!"
"Emmmm, I'm not interested after seeing the cover. Does this mean that you can't find any high-quality comics and want to start a vampire Sherlock Holmes series?"
"To be honest, I kind of... can't quite accept it. It's not that I don't trust Huaying. I believe that since Xingxing chose this comic "Sherlock", its quality must not be too bad. It is very likely to be a comic at least at the level of "Taking Vegas". But what I like is the 19th century British style. Sherlock with a different background feels different."
"The review standards for the paintings and shadows still need to be reviewed. I am a little curious about what the modern version of Sherlock Holmes will look like. Personally, I am still looking forward to it."
"Fuck, what's with this soul-stirring feeling? Is Sherlock really that handsome? Can someone who hasn't read the original Sherlock Holmes series understand this?"
As Huaying Comics released the cover of the next issue of the comic, the reviews of "Sherlock Holmes" became further divided. There are fans of the original novel who are extremely resistant to it and have no interest in it at all; there are fans of the original novel who are curious about it and are still waiting and watching; there are also passers-by fans who have never read the Sherlock Holmes series but have a preliminary favorable impression of "Sherlock Holmes".
"Have you finished reading it?" Mu Suxing asked.
Shen Xing actually didn't quite understand why Mu Suxing, who never cared about readers' feedback, asked him to understand the comments and feedback from online readers before serializing.
But out of trust in Muxuxing and habitual obedience, he still read through them carefully one by one, and nodded honestly: "I've finished reading it."
"Any ideas?"
"Ah?" Shen Xing blinked, somewhat puzzled.
He subconsciously looked at the two seniors beside him - but Zhuo Liming and Meng Zhiyuan seemed not to notice the situation here at all. They were concentrating on discussing a plot in "Night Watchmen 2" and didn't even look at him.
It's no wonder that the two didn't interrupt. Whether it was Zhuo Liming or Meng Zhiyuan, both of them were great comic book authors with popular comics and rich experience. There were many things that Mu Suxing didn't need to say, they would naturally understand what they should understand.
But Shen Xing is different.
Although "Taking Las Vegas" allowed him, a relatively unknown newcomer, to instantly achieve sales that rivaled those of the big guys, it is undeniable that many of his abilities in comics are still waiting to be discovered. This is why Mu Suxing has devoted 10% of his energy to keeping an eye on Shen Xing since returning from hiatus.
Neither of the two seniors paid any attention to him, so Shen Xing had to face the boss's test alone. He thought for a while and thought that Mu Suxing was worried about his psychological endurance, so he waved his hands hurriedly: "It's okay, such remarks have no effect on me at all. Besides, when I was drawing "Raiders of Las Vegas" before, I was scolded by fans of the Sherlock Holmes series. I'm used to it."
Muxuxing rubbed his forehead, a little speechless about his ability to understand: "Who cares about you?"
Facing Shen Xing's confused expression, Mu Suxing had to get straight to the point: "Sherlock Holmes is different from Taking Las Vegas. This is a work based on the Sherlock Holmes series. In other words, the popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series will both help you and hinder you."
"Have you figured out how to deal with this problem?"
This time, Mu Suxing did not plan to write the comic script himself. What he gave Shen Xing was the original script of the TV series "Sherlock Holmes" exchanged from the system mall. In other words, how to adapt it into a comic script, the core selling points of the script, etc., this series of issues needed to be figured out by Shen Xing himself.
For the current Shen Xing, this is also a kind of exercise.
Shen Xing obviously understood what he meant.
In fact, ever since Mu Xuxing returned from hiatus, the change in his attitude when working at Huaying Comics has been very obvious: if Mu Xuxing used to do many important matters personally, then after returning from hiatus, he seemed to be preparing to leave.
As one of the three most famous exclusive contracted authors of Huaying Comics today, Shen Xing is the youngest and also the one with the most unstable level.
Entrusting "Sherlock Holmes" to Shen Xing for full handling is a kind of trust and also a test.
Seeing Shen Xing's confused eyes gradually clear up, Mu Suxing smiled slightly. He didn't say anything more, but patted Shen Xing on the shoulder and said, "The script has been given to you. What kind of comics you want to draw in the end, how to deal with the relationship between following the original and making appropriate adaptations, these are up to you."
What is the core of Sherlock Holmes
After that day, Shen Xing put all his heart and soul into studying the original script. Just as Mu Suxing said, the more popular the Sherlock Holmes series is, the more cautious the adaptation of "Sherlock" should be. How to attract more non-Sherlock Holmes fans while minimizing the disgust of the original fans has become the top priority of Shen Xia.
Fortunately, the Shenxia script itself is good enough, which invisibly reduces the difficulty for Shen Xing.
"I understand!" Three days later, Shen Xing, who finally got the hang of it, said happily: "Boss, I know what the core of Shen Xia is!"
Mu Suxing laughed in silence: "Tell me about it, what results did you come up with?"
"No, no, no, it's not the right time yet." Shen Xing, who had found his direction, seemed to be much more energetic. He said confidently, "It will be released soon. You will know when the time comes."
"Huaying Comics" was released as scheduled along with a new work called "Sherlock Holmes".
As a fan of both Huaying animation and comics, Luo Gaofeng naturally got the latest issue of Huaying Comics as soon as possible.
Many fans of the original Sherlock Holmes series seem to have an almost instinctive aversion to the series. As a fan of the original Sherlock Holmes series, Luo Gaofeng certainly doesn't like this kind of behavior that is clearly trying to gain popularity, but the one who is trying to gain popularity this time is Huaying, whom he has been a fan of for three years.
This caused Luo Gaofeng, a long-time fan of Huaying, to inevitably feel complicated for a while.
He believed in Huaying's review standards and believed that Mu Xiuxing would not make fun of the Sherlock Holmes series, but at the same time, due to his enthusiasm for the Sherlock Holmes series, he was also worried that there would be plots or settings in "Sherlock Holmes" that would damage the original work.
I am afraid that it will be the same as the Sherlock Holmes series, and I am also afraid that it will be different from the Sherlock Holmes series.
With such mixed feelings, he opened the comic book.
Like the Sherlock Holmes series, "Sherlock Holmes" still begins with John Watson. After briefly introducing Watson's psychological disorders caused by his discharge from the army, the plot once again returns to the case familiar to reasoning readers - a suicide case that the Metropolitan Police Department is helpless to solve.
Faced with the Metropolitan Police Department's explanation of a "serial suicide case," the reporters in the audience looked puzzled, with suspicion written all over their faces: "Can the suicide cases also be related?"
As the person who had to explain the case to the public, Inspector Lestrade seemed to be aware of how unconvincing his words were, which made him a little hesitant in his actions. He said dryly, "Obviously."
“Are these three people related?”
"We haven't found anything yet." Perhaps realizing that his answer was completely untenable, Lestrade quickly added, "But we are still investigating, so there must be something."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone at the scene - including those from the Metropolitan Police Department - all of their phones simultaneously beeped, indicating that they had received a message. When they all lowered their heads at the same time, a concise and clear message quickly came into their sight -
Wrong.
Just these two words, nothing else.
In light of the current context, the meaning seems easy to understand.
"If you all received the text message, just ignore it." There was no surprise or shock, as if she had encountered this kind of sudden incident more than once. The young female police officer said as calmly as possible: "If there are no other questions, this press conference ends here."
But this is clearly just the beginning.
With the arrival of this ambiguous text message, the atmosphere at the scene became more tense, and the reporters' questions became more pointed. Inspector Lestrade had to make a series of explanations for this, but -
"Wrong."
here we go again.
The atmosphere at the press conference inevitably became more awkward, but Luo Gaofeng couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Okay, with his experience from the Sherlock Holmes series, he thought he knew who the person who was texting everyone was - a modern version of Sherlock Holmes who was able to skillfully use modern technology in solving cases and had a bit of a naughty kid's temperament - didn't seem bad
It can be seen that the plot of "Sherlock Holmes" is indeed based on the Sherlock Holmes series. For example, John Watson, who is familiar to readers, once again appears at the beginning of the comic as a soldier, and the character setting of the protagonist Sherlock Holmes is slightly different from the original work - for example, Holmes' attitude towards the police in the original work is not as arrogant as Sherlock...
But surprisingly... not annoying
The press conference ended hastily due to Mr. Sh's "disruption". Two police officers, a man and a woman, quickly left the venue. The curly-haired woman couldn't help but complain: "You have to stop this guy from making trouble. He's making us look like idiots."
To this, the inspector replied without turning his head: "If you can tell me how he did it - I will go."
Then Luo Gaofeng laughed.
Yes, that's it.
Different backgrounds, different plots, and even the cases are not an incongruous adaptation of the original work. Sherlock Holmes is still the shadow of the Sherlock Holmes he is familiar with. Even because of the change in the background of the times, this sense of distance is further shortened and the sense of substitution becomes stronger.
If there is any difference, Sherlock in Shen Xia is obviously more like a naughty child.
A cute bear kid.
But some fans of the original novel obviously don't think so.
"What the hell, the characters in both comics are wrong. In the original book, Holmes is clearly a polite gentleman, but Sherlock in Shen Xia is too rude, right? Does he know what social etiquette is?"
"Is it my illusion? I always feel that Sherlock in Shen Xia is a bit too pretentious..."
There are obviously many fans of the original novel who hold this view.
In general, the original fans on the Internet generally have mixed reviews on Shen Xia. Some, like Luo Gaofeng, think that the adaptation is good, paying tribute to the original work while not falling into clichés. Some are intolerant of some of Shen Xia's adaptations, believing that the existence of this comic has tarnished the original work.
"This is our best chance to fight back against Huaying Comics!"
In the Yanling Comics editorial department, the newly appointed deputy editor-in-chief kept chattering: "According to the survey results, half of the fans of the Sherlock Holmes series are dissatisfied with the adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Some extreme die-hard fans are even determined to boycott this comic. There is no doubt that if Huaying thinks that it can consolidate the readers left by the Sherlock Holmes series by riding on the popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series, it is a big mistake."
Chang Tianlu: “Oh.”
"…" His perfunctory attitude was too obvious, and the deputy editor-in-chief couldn't help but emphasize his tone and said, "Editor-in-chief Chang!"
Chang Tianlu really didn't like this parachuted deputy editor-in-chief, especially since he was an outsider deliberately transferred by the company's top management. He was too lazy to pay attention to his series of smart ideas. Hearing this, he asked casually, "Why don't you tell me first, what are you going to do?"
"This is a good opportunity to expand the audience of Yanling Comics in the field of mystery," the deputy editor-in-chief said confidently, "We can do what Baiyun Comics did before and invite some professional mystery novelists to create comic scripts to attract the readers of Huaying who lost to Shenxia..."
Chang Tianlu said calmly: "Do you want Yanling Comics to lose its core user base?"
This was too serious, and the deputy editor subconsciously put away his smug expression and frowned, "What do you mean by that?"
"The core of Yanling Comics has always been passion, fighting and friendship. I don't need to tell you how little overlap there is between the audiences of passionate youth comics and mystery comics, right?" Chang Tianlu said mockingly, "Do you really think you can create a second Sherlock Holmes by just finding a random mystery script?"
Why is the Sherlock Holmes series so popular
It is not only because it is a mystery comic that is above average in all aspects - the ones who really made Sherlock Holmes break away from the framework of traditional comics were none other than the big names in the historical field who played a key role in the dissemination of this comic.
This kind of success itself is not replicable.
There are many people who like the Sherlock Holmes series: there are middle school students, college students, young or mature office workers, experienced and highly intellectual people with high aesthetic tastes, and even historians who never read comics.
In other words, there is a considerable number of people among them who usually do not read comics at all. Even if they do, they have extremely high requirements for the plot, breadth and depth of the comics.
In order to meet the high demands of these people, we have to sacrifice the original readers of "Yanling Comics" and serialize unpopular comics
Is this guy crazy
As for Sherlock Holmes—
Chang Tianlu recalled how he felt after watching the first episode of Sherlock Holmes.
"This comic is not used by Huaying to consolidate the market left by the Sherlock Holmes series," Chang Tianlu said calmly, "it is used to expand the market."
Detective comics, can they expand their market
The deputy editor-in-chief scoffed at this, but reality seemed to verify Chang Tianlu's statement. As if to prove Chang Tianlu's statement, as the plot of "Sherlock Holmes" gradually unfolded, the sales of "Huaying Comics", which had been stable at 13 million, suddenly began to continue to rise.
13.49 million, 14.21 million, 15.01 million…
what does that mean
Considering that the single volumes of the Sherlock Holmes series had reached saturation not long ago, there was only one possibility left to boost the sales of "Huaying Comics" -
Some readers who are not interested in the Sherlock Holmes series but have a special liking for "Sherlock Holmes" have joined the ranks of subscribing to "Huaying Comics".
but…
Like Shen Xia, but don’t like the Sherlock Holmes series
What the hell is this?!
The deputy editor was simply baffling.
It would be understandable if some readers were attracted to Shen Xia because of the good plot later in the series, but this rule simply does not work!
Those fans of the original novel who hated "Sherlock Holmes" that he saw at the beginning still exist, and even as the plot progresses, their words become more fierce and their attitudes become more radical. However, even though the show has received a lot of negative reviews from fans of the original novel, "Sherlock Holmes" has still achieved quite impressive results, ranking second only to the Sherlock Holmes series in popularity votes.
What made him even more speechless was that some readers who came for Shen Xia became interested in the Sherlock Holmes series while following the serialization, causing the sales of the Sherlock Holmes series single volumes, which had also reached saturation, to rise again.
Do you still play like this
"I think I understand the core selling point of Shen Xia."
As the changes brought about by Shen Xia gradually stabilized, Shen Xing, the comic author, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After knowing that Mu Suxing's series of actions were all about "making arrangements for his final resting place", the pressure in Shen Xing's heart became heavier day by day.
As one of the earliest cartoonists of Huaying Comics, Shen Xing was just a rookie and an unknown figure when he first came to Huaying. If it weren't for Mu Suxing giving him the opportunity, it would have been impossible for him to achieve comic sales that could rival those of industry giants such as Zhuo Liming and Meng Zhiyuan so quickly.
It is precisely because of this that Shen Xing is even more unwilling to betray the other party's trust, and even more unwilling to let the other party down.
Fortunately, he did it all.
Seeing Shen Xing's confidence and his seeming enlightenment, Mu Suxing couldn't help but smile and became interested. He was quite curious about what he had gained from studying the Shenxia script: "What was it?"
"Strictly speaking, Shen Xia actually has many core selling points—" Shen Xing considered the words for a moment before continuing, "For example, the character design roughly continues the classics of the original work. Sherlock's characteristics are extremely attractive in themselves. In addition, Shen Xia also sets up the cases very cleverly. It does not copy the original work, but makes reasonable adaptations based on the original work. Some of the cases in the original work are even integrated into one episode."
"Many lines are also very funny. For example, I was particularly impressed by Sherlock's line 'You lowered the IQ of the entire street!' There are many lines with similar venomous tone, which has a comedic effect that makes people laugh out loud. This is also done very well."
Mu Xuxing smiled and nodded slightly.
As if inspired by his behavior, Shen Xing suddenly became more confident. He said, "Of course, there is one more important point, which is also the one I feel the most deeply."
…the deepest point
Mu Xuxing was really curious now.
He recalled Shen Xia's script - apart from the characters, lines and case plot, what else could be more touching than these
Shen Xing talked nonstop: "To be honest, I've read quite a few comics, TV series, and movies, but it's really rare to see a drama like Shen Xia's that depicts the emotional drama in such detail and without showing any emotion! For example..."
After he finished talking, he realized that the entire office was silent. Mu Suxing remained silent and had a strange expression on his face.
Shen Xing finally realized that something seemed wrong.
As if thinking of a possibility, he said cautiously: "... No, aren't Watson and Sherlock a couple?"
Muxiuxing: "?"