Pan Ye, the editor-in-chief of the art editorial department, greeted Jiang Shan as soon as he saw him: "Good morning, Comrade Xiao Jiang, what are you doing here?"
Jiang Shan raised the document bag in his hand and smiled like the sun: "Editor Pan, I'm here to submit the manuscript."
"Huh?" Pan Ye thought he heard wrongly: "Submit a manuscript? What manuscript should I submit?"
Jiang Shan was stunned when he said: "The sketch of the villain's book, three dozen white-bone spirits."
"Hey!"
Pan Ye immediately stood up and took the document bag.
At this time, Qin Tian, the leader of the sketching team, also remembered the line drawing master of "Eighty-seven Immortals" and said in surprise: "How long has it been? Have you finished all the drawings?"
Jiang Shan nodded calmly: "There are 72 pictures in total, and they are all finished."
72 drawings in half a month. At this time, Jiang Shan had no idea that his speed would drive the entire illustrator industry to crazy levels.
While talking, Editor Pan had already opened the document bag and started reviewing the manuscripts page by page.
After each page is read, it will be handed over to team leader Qin, who will check the copy and review it again.
There is no doubt that each of Jiang Shan's drawings fully meets the requirements of comic strips, both in terms of composition and artistry.
"That's great." Editor Pan was surprised, but more excited: "Comrade Xiao Jiang, let's go with me to the accounting office to collect the manuscript fee."
Jiang Shan secretly clenched his fists and did not hide his joy: "Then I'll trouble you."
After receiving the fee payment form signed by the two editors, accompanied by Chief Editor Pan, we marched all the way to the accounting office.
"Comrade Xiaojiang,"
On the way, Editor Pan couldn't help but ask Jiang Shan for a manuscript: "Our editorial department now has heavy tasks and few manpower, and the public's demand for little books has greatly exceeded our expectations."
This is absolutely true, and Jiang Shan knows it very well. He knows that in the next four to five years, the circulation of little books will be even crazier.
In the words of the editor of the publishing house at the time, this was not printing books, it was simply printing money.
During this period, there were only three main publishers of Little People's Books: People's Art Publishing House in Yanjing, People's Art Publishing House in Shanghai, and Liaoning/Ning Fine Arts Publishing House.
The popularity of Little People's Books has reached a terrifying level, with each book having a circulation base of more than 100,000 copies.
For example, "Railway Guerrilla" and "Journey to the West" started with 1 million sets.
Various publishing houses have published a total of 17 editions of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in different painting styles, with more than 3 million copies.
"Three Heroes and Five Righteousness" is even more impressive, with 7.5 million copies on the front page.
These are just the front page releases, there are even more reprints.
An unknown illustrator like Jiang Shan can only be paid based on the number of pictures.
The more famous painters can also get royalties for the number of prints and reprints. Although the royalties for the number of prints are very small, they cannot support the huge quantity.
How happy the living standards of the old artists at this time were!
Jiang Shan quickly smiled and said, "You continue, I'm listening."
Editor Pan said directly: "Our editorial department has a very heavy publishing task right now. It would be great if you could accept a few more books."
"Okay," Jiang Shan wanted this, but that was not what he was thinking about: "Editor Pan, can you do me a favor?"
"Don't worry about the royalties. Check with me later."
Jiang Shan smiled gratefully: "This matter is entirely up to you, but that's not what I'm talking about."
"Oh?" Pan Ye asked doubtfully, "Is there anything else I can do to help?"
"That's right," Jiang Shan said with an embarrassed smile: "Don't you know that I have a habit of copying? Now I really want to learn from other outstanding painters. Do you have any drawings that they don't use?"
Even if this matter makes Jiang Shan lick his face, he will still be happy with it.
"Drawing?"
Editor Pan nodded immediately: "What do I think? After receiving the manuscript fee, Editor Qin will take you to the warehouse. The manuscripts of the past few years are all there. Take the best ones you like and save money."
We packed it up."
"Okay."
Jiang Shan's eyebrows suddenly flashed, and he was about to be pinched by Editor Pan.
Looking at Jiang Shan smiling with a row of white teeth, Editor Pan's mood also improved: "Don't be too happy now, don't think the ground will be too gray later."
"Don't mind it," Jiang Shan started to squeeze Pan Ye's shoulders seriously: "Just tell me if there is any other place, I'll take care of it for you."
The reason why Jiangshan chose the temporary job of illustrator in the first place was for the generous remuneration, and more importantly, for the original drawings of the artists.
Around the 1980s, many of the country's later famous painting masters were just like Jiang Shan, drawing little books at home.
Zhao Yannian's original sketch of "The True Story of Ah Q" was auctioned for 250,000 yuan, and He Youzhi's original comic strip of "Xiao Erhei's Marriage" was auctioned for 2.07 million yuan.
Guan Shanyue's original painting "The Story of Shrimp Balls Across the Mountains and Rivers" was sold at Lanting Auction House in 2012 for 39.2 million yuan.
The original manuscript of the comic strip "Zhaoshutun and Nannuna" created by the great painter Cheng Shifa was auctioned for 11 million yuan.
The comic strip "The Red Ribbon of the Earth" created by Shen Yaoyi, director of the Comic Book Art Committee of the National Artists Association, has a total of 926 original manuscripts and has been sold at auctions for 15.4 million yuan.
What's ironic is that many people don't know that many of these comic book manuscripts, which were later auctioned for millions or tens of millions, were sold as scrap paper by publishing houses back then.
On the one hand, authors had little awareness of protecting manuscripts in the past, and on the other hand, publishers rarely returned manuscripts on their own initiative.
A large number of manuscripts are piled up in offices or warehouses. When there is not enough space to store them, they are treated as waste paper.
In 2003, a magazine moved and cleared out 33 boxes of scrap materials. At that time, an overseas collector packed them all and bought them for 1,000 yuan.
Soon these original illustrations were resold intact for 3.5 million yuan.
This actually includes the manuscripts of Hao Guanzhong, Li Keran, Bing Xin and others, the manuscript of "Flies' Front Teeth" by Mo Yan, and the manuscript of "Li Zicheng" by Yao Yunyin.
What’s even more incredible is that there are also couplets written by Xu Shichang, the president of the Beiyang Government, letters between Pujie and Puyi, portraits painted by Xu Beihong, albums by Dong Qichang, as well as Guo Moruo, Wang Meng
Manuscripts of works.
I don’t know how the publishing house at that time expressed its tragic mood when it learned about the funeral.
In his previous life, Jiangshan didn't know how many ancestral tombs were smoking, which gave him a lifetime of time travel.
After all the effort to get to 1978, what kind of entity do you still have? What kind of monkey tickets do you buy?
The waste should be collected directly!
When he walked out of the accounting office, Jiang Shan had an extra 70 yuan in his pocket, in addition to the 216 yuan royalties for "Three Strikes of Bone Demons".
Editor Pan continued to make appointments with Jiang Shan to work on two villain books: "Seven Captures of Meng Huo" and "The Battle of Red Cliff".
These two volumes of villain books have 35 pages and 70 drawings. Just now, Jiang Shan’s manuscript fee has mentioned the price of 6 yuan each.
According to the benefits of painters contracted by the publishing house, Jiangshan can withdraw one yuan of living expenses for each painting in advance.
Jiangshan is very satisfied with this.
He knew in his heart that this was just the beginning. In two years' time, with the crazy release of the Little Man's Book, its remuneration would also reach 10 to 20 yuan per copy.
But Jiang Shan will definitely no longer be in this industry by then. At this time, he silently cheered for his second brother in his heart.
