Although the first season of "Summer of the Band" has ended, the impact of the show is not only far from dissipating, but also continues to ferment. Live House tickets across Beijing have been sold out at an unprecedented rate, the national tour of the band arranged by the program group has just begun, and the number of Weibo fans of the highly anticipated New Pants Band has soared from 100,000 before the start of the show to 1 million.
When Peng Lei, the lead singer of the new pants, refused to meet the needs of a large number of media, people suddenly found that as early as 2010, nearly a decade ago, Peng Lei published an autobiographical comic "North Sea Monster", and the book was just republished last year. In the book, Peng Lei will reveal his life experience and disk, childhood life, band secrets, life troubles, and changes in the times, Peng Lei paints everything and talks about everything. "North Sea Monster" is selling well, several times in a short period of time, the number of prints has been nearly 20,000 copies; coupled with the 6,000 sets of commemorative editions that were listed last year and have been sold out so far, the total sales of "North Sea Monsters" are approaching 30,000.
If after the new pants became popular, someone asked Peng Lei to publish a book, this is not unusual. But in fact, before the hit of "Summer of the Band", rock music had faded from the public eye for many years. A common belief is that the golden years of Chinese rock and roll ended as early as the 1990s. So, who discovered Peng Lei during the years of Chinese rock and roll? What kind of idea did he/she ask Peng Lei to draw this autobiographical comic? In addition to "North Sea Monster", what books has he/she planned to publish? Nearly a decade has passed since the first edition of "North Sea Monster", what is he/she doing now?
2010 first edition 丨 "It is a very ordinary product, but we still feel that it is worth doing"
"A lot of people ask me, 'How did you expect that?' Where could I have expected that? We just have a judgment of our own about the content. In the conference room of the joint reading and creation, talking about the "North Sea Monster" that was popular with "The Summer of the Band", nearly 20,000 copies were printed in a short period of time, said Chen Jiang, the publisher.
Chen Jiang planned to publish a number of best-selling books, Da Bing's "Good, Touch Your Head" and Zhang Jiajia's "Passing Through Your World" were all made by Chen Jiang when he led the team in the Zhongnan Boji. But when he published "North Sea Monster" in 2010, Chen Jiang did not think it would be a bestseller. "In fact, the publication of this book is not a special story, that is, it happens that we have someone who knows Peng Lei, and everyone thinks that this book is not as bad as to lose money, so let's do it and gamble." Chen Jiang said.
Stills from "The Ferryman". Zhang Jiajia's best-selling book "Passing Through Your World" was produced by a team led by Chen Jiang. Released in 2016, Wong Kar-wai produced and co-written the book Of the Same Name, it is adapted from the novel of the same name in this collection.
Chen Jiang's so-called "gamble" is mainly based on the judgment made on the content of "North Sea Monster". "Because Peng Lei was born in the 70s, "North Sea Monster" paints his growth experience, the nostalgia is very strong, as long as it is from that era, you can find some shadows in it"; although 2010 is not the most popular time for new pants, as a representative of the local rock band, its lead singer will still attract the attention of some people in the group that pays attention to rock.
The inner page of "North Sea Monsters" is graphic.
"In 1982, my father took me to the movie for the first time, and it was 'Shaolin Temple'. After reading it, I wanted to shave my head and, like those monks, fight with others for justice and girls. Chen Jiang felt that as long as it was a person from that era, he could find some shadows in it.
The candidate who reported the topic of "North Sea Monster" was DTT, a product manager under Chen Jiang at that time. The product manager is equivalent to the planning editor in the traditional publishing house, and the name is changed to the product manager, reflecting the emphasis of the grinding iron on the attributes of the book product. Still, in DTT's view, it's still possible to make your favorite book: "We're counting the total number of tasks to complete each year, so even if a book doesn't make money, it's OK." ”
Like Chen Jiang, DTT said that she did "North Sea Monster" not out of optimism about the commercial value of the book, but out of recognition of the content. She sees peng Lei's estrangement from society in "North Sea Monster", sees his ironic and ridiculous attitude, and the phenomenon that many people are accustomed to but peng lei regards as crazy, and she thinks these observations and feelings are valuable.
DTT was deeply impressed by a group of paintings in "North Sea Monster": Peng Lei, an animation major, went to work at a TV station, and when everyone was drawing the manuscript like a machine, Peng Lei leisurely made himself a cup of tea. Soon, he was fired from television.
The inner page of "North Sea Monsters" is graphic. Peng Lei was bombed back to school by CCTV because he drank tea during his internship.
Peng Lei contacted DTT because she had previously published the milk coffee group's "The Lonelier, the Older You Grow.". At that time, DTT loved to listen to music, often after work, listening to Ma Shifang's "Music 543". Back in college, she followed the group's lead singer Kiki on MSN Space because she liked milk coffee. "Later, through Douban, I got to know her."
In 2009, under the planning of DTT, Milk Coffee's new album "Used to Loneliness" was released with a book containing Kiki's photographs, old photos and essays, "The Lonelier, the Older", which was regarded as a cross-border cooperation between the recording industry and the publishing industry - which was still new in the market at that time, and was quite influential in the industry at that time, when a press conference was held in a small theater in East Cotton Alley. "This circle is so big, so later Peng Lei came up with a book and found me through friends." Milk Coffee was signed under the Modern Sky banner at the beginning of its existence, and the new pants were the first band signed by Modern Sky.
"We were rehearsing in a basement with no water. When I play the piano, I will have electricity on my body. It was here that Shen Lihui decided to release the first single for us. The inner page of "North Sea Monster" shows the modern sky founder Shen Lihui and new pants.
In order to realize Peng Lei's retro vision of book binding — plastic covers, screen printing — DTT took a lot of effort to finally find a printing factory in a village in Hebei that was still using this almost obsolete technology. "Saying that it is a printing factory is actually more like a small workshop." The toilets in the village were built on the side of the pigsty, so dirty that they could not get off their feet.
In order to reduce the risk of losses that "North Sea Monster" may bring to the company, such a book with many color illustrations and four-color printing, DTT decided not to use coated paper or light paper commonly used in literary books, but to use grass paper texture of cheaper paper to print.
After the north sea monster was published in 2010, it sold relatively flat as DTT and Chen Jiang expected. Chen Jiang could no longer remember the specific number of the first print, "estimated to be 10,000 copies", but he was very clear that this book had not been reprinted. "So you know, it's a very ordinary product, but we still feel that it's a distinctive product, and it's still worth doing in terms of topic selection."
This ordinary but worthwhile product in Chen Jiangkou stems from Peng Lei's failure in the art market. At that time, in the final stage of the outbreak of modern chinese art, Peng Lei rented a studio and painted a lot of paintings, but he could not sell them. Some people suggested that he make a picture album to sell his own paintings, but it also costs a lot of money to make a picture book, so Peng Lei followed the advice of others, drew his story into a comic, and then interspersed his own art works as illustrations, which was equivalent to a picture book, but could be published as an autobiographical story.
Peng Lei drew at home for a year, recording his review of past years with more than 200 pages of cartoons. When he contacted DTT, the manuscript was already formed, and he used his autobiographical story as a picture book to promote his artistic creation, which neither DTT nor Chen Jiang knew.
In "North Sea Monster", we see this big boy who has been doing what he loves - he plays music, makes clay animation, collects tin toys, makes movies - and has experienced lack and frustration in his growth, and also feels uncomfortable and alienated in the face of society, which makes the readers of "North Sea Monster" not limited to Peng Lei's contemporaries, and all those who have not been smooth in growing up are likely to find resonance in "North Sea Monster".
Peng Lei clearly said that the painting of "North Sea Monster" was mainly to promote his own artistic creation, but in the end, none of the paintings were sold; and Chen Jiang and DTT also left the grinding iron for different reasons.
2019 re-edition丨 "We just stepped on a little bit"
DTT is now an executive producer at a leading Internet film and television company, and the work is busy. Looking back on the years of publishing, DTT laments that it was a very stable time. But in 2014, she felt bored. After six years in the publishing industry, DTT felt that his work was stuck in a duplication. At that time, the concept of Internet + was in vogue, and DTT especially wanted to go to Internet companies to see how they worked.
Leaving Motie, she went to Ali first, following Hu Xiaodong, who joined Ali from More Look, to do Taobao reading, "but Ali's problem is that he does not have much patience to raise a department." After Taobao Reading was stopped by Ali, DTT transferred to Ali Pictures to do IP evaluation, entered the film and television industry, and later changed to the current company.
Peng Lei's painting "Picking Up a Penny" inserted in "North Sea Monster". Peng Lei, "Picking Up a Penny", oil on canvas, 200cm X 150cm, 2008
In 2017, Peng Lei's wife sent DTT a screenshot of Taobao: a seller was reselling the original price of 39.8 yuan for 39.8 yuan of "North Sea Monster". After talking, DTT felt that the book "North Sea Monster" could still be re-published; and 2017 is the 20th anniversary of the new pants, and they are preparing for a national tour, which is also an opportunity for a reprint.
She found Chen Jiang, who had already started her own company. "We think that "North Sea Monster" is still distinctive, the new pants band also has iron fans, if the re-edition price is set higher, the amount is made a little less, made into a characteristic commemorative version, slowly can also be sold, will not lose money." Chen Jiang recalled his judgment at the time, "We never thought he could catch fire or sell more."
Peng Lei had imagined that "North Sea Monster" would be accompanied by a tape in the commemorative edition. But the production of tape is a problem, and now the average person does not have the equipment to listen to tape. In Peng Lei's view, the tape is just a nostalgic object, and it does not have to be listened to. Chen Jiang thought that sending a tape but everyone could not hear it, which was not good. The result of the final discussion was the selection of tin pencil cases and stickers printed with Mimi and Gaga as nostalgic objects attached to the commemorative edition.
A tin pencil case included with the commemorative edition of Monsters of the North Sea. Photo by Kou Huaiyu
Because the ISBN can not come down and other reasons, this 20th anniversary edition of "North Sea Monsters" was not published until 2018, priced at 118 yuan. After the books came out, Peng Lei went to the office of The United Reading and Creation to sign some books. At that time, no one knew that the new pants would participate in "Summer of the Band" in 2019, and no one thought that they would become popular with this show.
On the day of the signing, DTT was also there, and she remembered that Peng Lei and Chen Jiang, who were also born in the 70s, had a good chat. Peng Lei lamented at that time that he was a person who was eliminated by the times, and he was not interested in the new industrial model of the Internet, nor did he understand much, and if he let him go to work and go to the company, it was also more difficult. He said he wouldn't do anything but rock 'n' roll. ”
On the 2018 New Pants National Tour, the venue for the show is usually a place that can accommodate 700 to 1,000 people. Every time it is performed, "North Sea Monsters" can have two or three hundred sets of sales, so from last year to this year's "Summer of the Band" began broadcasting, 6,000 sets of commemorative editions have not been sold out, said Zhao Xin, the head of distribution of the joint reading and creation. And 2018 is not easy for Peng Lei, at the end of the year, he sent a Weibo, saying that he "18 years have not been good, there have been great problems in all aspects, doing everything is like walking on thin ice, has been in a continuous situation", including his savings in P2P was swept up.
In 2019, DTT learned that the new pants band participated in the filming of "Summer of the Band", and she and Chen Jiang said that they could make some preparations. After the show began, the sales of "North Sea Monster" did not particularly pick up; by the third issue, sales had ushered in a spurt of growth. After the sale of 6,000 sets of commemorative editions, United Reading and Creation produced a single-book edition with only free stickers, priced at 88 yuan. After the single book version came out, Zhao Xin asked Peng Lei to help make a recommendation on Weibo. Peng Lei forwarded the link, said a word, and sold two or three thousand copies at once. Up to now, the single book edition has been reprinted several times, and the number of printed copies has reached nearly 20,000 copies.
Speaking of this achievement, Chen Jiang said that they just "stepped on a little bit." Although he has planned many bestsellers, he admits that he is not completely sure what books will sell well. "Some very bad books also sell well, and there are cases where very good books don't sell, and we can only see if a book is valuable." A book may not have the economic value that it can see in front of it, but at least it has spiritual value, or it is in line with our quality, in line with our style, and at the same time we judge that it will not lose money no matter how bad it is, then we can do it; a book with spiritual value, if we think it will lose money, I am afraid we will not do it. ”
Peng Lei's painting "I Won't Be Lost" (partial). The painting has recently been sold for $80,000.
DTT is busy with her work as a producer, and this re-edition of "North Sea Monster" has not had time to look through. "Peng Lei didn't talk about midlife crisis in "Summer of the Band", I think I was experiencing a midlife crisis. Now sometimes I want to go out for a drink and let myself relax. But if you do go, you'll feel a strong sense of guilt the next day because you feel like, "Ah, I'm wasting my time again!" Reading books is also, in the past, reading books was more literary, and now if I choose a book, I will hope that the time I spend on this book is more valuable. ”
I asked DTT if he still listened to music. She said that listening to music is now more casual, "less and less literary"; "The point of not being literary is that I have lost the ability to capture details and am less interested in these things." ”
"But today is a good day for me, because this time has just finished one project, and the next project has not yet started, and I can go to the company and get a book to read there." I read two books in the last two days. DTT said.
"Is it the kind of book that has real value?"
"No, it's not. I'm reading Fang Siqi today, and the day before I read Vegetarianism, a Korean literary work that focuses on the situation of women in a patriarchal society. ”
On the evening of August 10, @Star Space _StarGallery posted a Weibo post saying that their micro-store began selling Peng Lei's paintings. There are more than a dozen paintings of Peng Lei in the micro-store, and the prices range from 36,000 to 140,000.
Peng Lei nodded to the microblog that night. In this way, his followers can see the message on his Weibo homepage.
As of August 24, Peng Lei had sold a total of six paintings on Star space's micro-store: one for 36,000, two for 42,000, and one for 44,000, 60,000 and 80,000.
The author 丨 Beijing News special correspondent Kou Huaiyu
Edited by 丨 Gong Zhaohua
Proofreading 丨 Zhai Yongjun