Many people's childhood reading memories are inseparable from a book that is closely related to traditional Chinese art - comic strips. In the last century, comic strips undertook two artistic functions, one was to create an interesting aesthetic life for mass readers, and the other was to popularize words and knowledge and reduce illiteracy. These two functions dictate that comic strips must be art that is open to all. It has a picture completed in the traditional line drawing art form, the style is delicate and realistic, and the script text is also easy to understand, from which highly educated adults can experience the exquisiteness of the picture and the leisure brought by the story, and children who have not been to school can also arouse the interest in reading books through simple words and continuous pictures.
Unfortunately, after completing its historical mission, the comic strip faded out of the historical stage. Its decline was very rapid, with printed volumes falling sharply in 1986 from 800 million copies the previous year to more than 100 million copies. Today, although comic strips have a tendency to regain attention, the subject has changed from a mass reader to a collector and an art market, which is far from the original intention of the birth of comic strip art. There are multiple reasons for the decline of comic strips, the impact of foreign culture is even a secondary factor, the popularity of television sets, the vigorous development of movies and film and television dramas in the late 80s, as well as the decline of their own standards and the change of creators' goals, are all the reasons for the decline of comic strips. However, at a time when comic strips have not yet completely become a memory fault, when people are reborn interested in traditional Chinese narratives, and fast reading has become a popular trend, we can rediscover the lost comic strip at this time, see its unique narrative charm, and explore its future of publishing that returns to the reader's sight.
This article is from B02-B03 of the Beijing News Book Review Weekly's March 4 feature "Rediscover comic strip".
"Theme" B01丨Refining comic strips
Theme b02-B03 | Indelible memories
"Theme" B04-B05 丨 Long talk about the art of comic strips
"Thoughts" B06 | Adorno: A Reflection on Heidegger's "Jargon as Fantasy"
"Child" B07 丨 Ping An Piglet: J · K Rowling magnifies the truth with "magic"
Theme B08 | Appreciation of the works of the master comic strip artists
Written by | Miyako
The decline of comic strips, in addition to the impact of external factors, is also a major reason for the rigidity of their own stories, especially after the rise of film and television dramas, the narrative and stereotypical character shaping in the middle of the last century have made the stories of comic strips no longer attract readers. As readers are exposed to more diverse stories, it is clear that the comic strips that have been templated cannot provide new aesthetic needs. Even so, in the period of mass publication, there are still many comic strip masterpieces that become part of the reader's memory. Ancient characters that come to life on palm-sized pages, shapes that jump on paper with every smile, and classical stories that have been adapted to become tightly paced and wonderfully condensed, are all unforgettable for those who have read them. Starting from the author's personal experience, this article talks about the drawing of comic strips, fireworks and storytelling.
"The Little Pony".
"Chatting with Sai Chi-yi Coral".
01
Childhood memories
On my bookshelf, in addition to the literary novels I usually read, there are several comic strips stuffed with my favorite comics, including french poetic cartoonist Christopher Chabut's "Full Moon", philosophical "Non-flat", Nick Nassos's "Disappearing Sebrina", Junji Ito's "Whirlpool", Italian cartoonist Valerio Vidari's "Who Do You Want to Be With for Life" and so on – sometimes, on a leisurely afternoon, lying on a bed paved by pink sunlight, Flipping through these wonderful comics or graphic novels, you will find a feeling of reliving childhood, but unfortunately, the state of your own hand reading has not changed, and the white or dirty clouds in the afternoon sky have not changed, but what you are holding in your hand is not the Chinese comic strips you saw in your childhood. Every time I think of this, I can't help but feel a little emotional, the memory is still a comic strip of some scale in the bookstore, but today, it has been very withered away, and gradually reduced to a kind of collectible. New comic strips are published every year, but the stories are still those of the old classical ones. As a book that should tell the story of China in the style of Chinese art, it is difficult to maintain the scale of the past readership today, and it is also regrettable to say.
My earliest memory of comic strips was when I was in the first grade of elementary school, and one day at noon, when my mother came home, she took a box of small books from the mysterious leather bag that always seemed to be filled with some bulging little surprises every day and gave it to me. It was a set of "Lin Hai Snow Field", which was the first complete comic strip I had ever seen. The comic strips I had read at home were all left by my mother when I was a child, and some of the books in the set were not completed at that time, some were lost in the process of moving and sorting, and some were somehow damaged to the point that only half of them were left. But even so, the surviving comic strips—which people often still call "villain books," occupied nearly half of my childhood reading time. And although the small box of villain books is incomplete, there are many kinds of books, such as "Yang Jiajian", which tells the history of China, and speculative works such as murder with banana water.
Journey to the West: The Bottomless Pit.
"Chatting with Zhiyi, Painting the Wall".
These little people's books open up a colorful world. Probably due to the innate interest of boys, I am particularly fond of those villain books with a dynamic sense of picture, whether it is the ancient warrior riding on a horse to fight and kill, or "Lin Hai Snow Field" and "Enemy Rear Martial Arts Team" such as shuttle in the woods for gun battles, are very fascinated, compared to my mother's most cherished "Dream of the Red Chamber", I really don't seem to have any interest. Those wonderfully drawn villain books sometimes do not need words at all, just look at the pictures to understand what is happening, the facial expressions of the characters are nuanced, and every move is captured by the painter. Because of the interest born from the book of villains, I began to try to read many historical novels, and even the reading of classic masterpieces, "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", began with the childhood book of villains. In this matter, the books of the little people who are incomplete in the family may have a positive effect, because the mutilation is incomplete, there is no following above, and I do not know the cause and effect, I can only go to the original book to read from the beginning.
Of course, there are also some that I can't read the original book, so I can only rely on villain books to replace. The most memorable thing is that there are about a dozen comic strips adapted from "Liaozhai Zhiyi" at home. When I was a child, I was very fascinated by "Liaozhai", the story of people and ghosts is particularly fascinating, and the ending of many stories is either very happy or poignant - as for the satire of reality that people say that "Liaozhai" satirizes reality, don't expect me to read it when I am in elementary school. My mother was not very happy with my fascination with the story of "Liaozhai", and she thought that children had better not look at it too much. At that time, I didn't quite understand, and then there were several stories (if I remember correctly, it should be "Bai Qiu Lian", "Huang Ying" and "Xiang Yu", of which the impression of Bai Qiu Lian and Xiang Yu and The Sisters of Dai Xue is unforgettable to this day), because of the plot reasons, the painters do not shy away from it, and will directly draw the nudes of the female upper body, which is also a little enlightenment of childhood, probably this is why my mother did not want me to watch the Liaozhai comic strip.
However, although I liked "Liaozhai" very much when I was a child, but I couldn't read the original work, I once went to the bookstore to find Pu Songling's "Liaozhai Zhiyi", after opening it, the ancient texts that were awkward throughout the mouth, I just went to elementary school as if I came across the Heavenly Book, and I couldn't read it at all. In fact, to this day, I can't think of any other in classical Chinese literature that is more suitable for adaptation into comic strips than "Liaozhai Zhiyi". Its story volume is very suitable for a single out, and later in middle school saw that there was a "Liaozhai" adapted into a movie and TV series, watched a little, felt that it was not suitable, the screenwriter added a lot of content, the plot dragged, the picture was exaggerated, only the form of comic strips, forty pages, a frame frame, three or two sentences, lightly, telling the story of a person who fell in love with a ghost, especially appropriate.
The name Comic Strip is conventional. "Serial" is a traditional saying, which originally refers to the jade ring that is connected into a string, and "Zhuangzi Tianxia" says: "Today is more and more than the past, and the chain can be solved." "From its original meaning, it derives the meaning of continuous and continuous interweaving, such as serial buckle, serial word, serial horse, serial set, serial gun, serial village, and even serial meter, even environmental protection, etc., all of which come from this. The first book marked with the word "Comic Book" was the Shanghai World Bookstore's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms of Comics", which was published in 1927, and since then, it has become a common proper noun.
——Ah Ying, "History of Chinese Comic Pictorial Painting"
"A Pair of Embroidered Shoes".
Catching Mickey Mouse Alive.
02
Rigorous drawing
As I got a little older, comic strips faded from my reading. There are many reasons, one is that the fun of reading books is definitely more than just looking at the paintings, the content of the comic strips has not been able to satisfy me, and later I basically read foreign novels, the adaptation of these comic strips is also particularly rare, in addition, there is occasionally a complex for comic strips, but when I walk into the bookstore, the new boxes, the new comic strips, but still those old stories, what "Water Margin", "Sui and Tang Heroes", "Red Rock" and the like, I don't know how many times I have read the story. Gradually, I lost interest in it.
In addition to the story not too fresh, the comic strip painting skills are also visibly rough with the naked eye. When I was a child, because I learned a little painting, I liked to draw myself according to the characters on the villain book, and I was interested in most of the ancient warriors, who loved to paint the armor that looked very luxurious on their bodies, and the pictures of them riding on horses and fighting, but later comic strips, you can already see that the details are not so exquisite, and even sometimes the face shape of the characters is completely out of control. At that time, I had a copy of "Fengshen Yanyi", which was that kind of binding, and in the first few times I could see which one in the picture was Wen Taishi, and in the next few times, I couldn't tell which one was Wen Taishi in the picture - the facial features on the face became very sloppy.
"Yue Lei Bai Shuai".
"Battle of Changsha".
The drawing process of the comic strip is much more demanding than expected. It is an art form with a high degree of creative freedom, what to present on the screen, how to express the content and objects, these must have a realistic basis and can not be imagined. Comic strips with ancient themes are the most difficult to draw, if they are modern, there are also materials to check, the pictures in ancient stories, what utensils are placed in the room, what the clothes worn by the characters are, these all have very strict requirements for the creators, either to find the picture style left by the predecessors in the embroidery novel, or to consult more historical research materials. Even if it is a modern theme, what the form of a house should be, what the propaganda posters of the 1930s and 40s that appeared as a background looked like, even the gate of a certain school, these can not be painted with the same prototype in the brain. So comic book authors sometimes need to go to the scene, take pictures, come back and take pictures.
So what if an author hasn't seen the real thing? Then there is no way, can only according to the existing cognition to push to draw a general appearance, this is especially obvious in the comic strips of the fifties of the last century, such as the comic strip about the aircraft combat heroes, you need to draw the picture of the pilot in the cabin, but the painters have not seen what the cabin is like, can only draw a silhouette along the cockpit, from the perspective relationship, it is obvious that it is changed from the driving action, the picture to the neck of the character is cut off, Avoid drawing places like joysticks and dashboards.
"Little Soldier Zhang Ga".
The Mystery of the Queen of the Postal Flowers.
03
Difference from manga
Comic strip drawing requires rigor, but perhaps it is this rigor that limits its further possibilities for artistic expression. The comic strip is absolutely loyal to the requirements of reality, so that even when it stands on the stage of the theatrical stage for visual representation, it will have restrictions on the way the subject matter and characters are expressed. When a person is frightened, his face is the panic on the faces of the characters in reality or on the TV set, and he does not cover his face like Munch's oil painting. The details must be plot at the same time, and the picture can be left blank, but the page cannot be - we can illustrate the difference between the two with an example. Comics and image novels have no need for words, works such as "Disappearing Sebrina" and "Lighthouse" do not have any dialogue, the first thing the reader contacts from the picture is not the story, but the atmosphere, with the help of the atmosphere formed by the picture and the storyboard, the reader is pulled into the environment of the story, so as to stimulate the reader's association with the narrative by the touch of the eyes. That is, the reader needs to compose the narrative in his own mind.
The essence of comic strips is not to express the atmosphere of the picture, but to narrate. The story is the most important thing. In comic strips, close-ups of scenes or objects without characters are extremely rare in themselves, and even if they are occasional, there must be narration that follows. Scene after scene transition forms a fixed narrative rhythm. In terms of expressing the story, the comic strip does not try to use the picture to bring the reader into a certain mood and atmosphere, but intends to use words to connect the pictures together and form a sense of flow with a fixed rhythm.
Therefore, the decline of comic strips is also related to the way of storytelling. Its form requires the author to create a flat and straightforward, classical chapter-style script from the bone, without too many jumps or retrospectives, and without overly exaggerated narrative strategies. With the introduction of foreign literary works and film and television dramas, it can actually be found that the narrative method of comic strips has a natural sense of insulation from modern and even postmodern art styles. Of course, this is not the core problem. If the traditional Chinese narrative method can be expressed in traditional Chinese artistic techniques, it will still be a wonderful presentation. However, the lack of new story mining for traditional narratives may be the real source of exhaustion for comic strip creation.
"Mirror Flower Edge: Daughter Country Beckons Relatives".
Battle by the Fish pond.
04
Characteristics of pyrotechnic gas
These are the shackles of the comic strip form. So, does the comic strip have the advantages of being unique to this form?
What I see a lot now is still a European and American image novel. Each story is very creative, the style of painting is also very different, some of the award-winning image novels, the picture style is very simple, and the vector drawing on the computer is almost the same, at the beginning of the reading is still very uncomfortable, but after reading it, I found that in fact, the form chosen by the painter is the most suitable for telling the story. The same is true of comic strips, which carry a pyrotechnic atmosphere of traditional Chinese narrative in their images. Graphic novels can be cold, but comic strips are not cold, and even if the story is a complete tragedy, it carries a hint of breathless heat.
This kind of heat is the characteristic that Chinese comic strips cannot be replaced by other similar forms. In a sense, it can only be strongly felt by Chinese readers, and the realistic painting style brings a gaze at the details of life. It doesn't even even tell a traditional story, but recalls certain lost life stories from the reader's body – when we see floor-to-ceiling electric fans in the living room, mobile phones that need to be flipped over, milk sellers blowing whistles on the side of the street, postmen and newsstands delivering letters... These scenes are memories that many readers have experienced today, but have long since been obliterated with the development of the times. A well-thought-out comic strip can use the most detailed objects to re-stitch these floating memories back into the reader's heart.
"Wang Xiaohao's Uprising".
"Qingwen".
05
The scarcity of good stories
Can comic strips be revived later? I think it's promising. There are also some picture books and graphic novels in China, using Chinese ink or line drawing methods, readers also like it, which shows that in terms of artistic techniques, the traditional style still has a strong vitality. Unfortunately, their themes are very limited, mostly limited to the old city, memories of the past, cats and dogs at home or flowers and plants, and there is basically only one theme - pleasant feelings. This may also be related to the artistic characteristics of comic strips, which have been handed down as an observation of life, as well as the presentation of classical opera, and how to use comic strips to tell a story of the "Disappearing Sebrina" or "The Taste of Sardine Canning" type is a big challenge for comic strips. Because there is not much abstract expression of the psychological activities of the characters in the traditional comic strip, to complete this in the traditional comic strip, the narrative means generally rely on letting the characters have a dream, what hints are encountered in the dream and so on. There will be no storyboarding techniques like in European and American image novels - for example, if a person is depressed, the camera will focus on the cigarette in his hand, from ignition to burndown to the ash falling, drawing several frames, and at the same time making the rhythm become very slow. The comic strip is not, it is presented scene by scene, without the concept of storyboarding. Its sense of rhythm is almost fixed, and if you want to make some innovative challenges, you not only need the artist to have a strong grasp of the picture, but also the story script is also very important.
Once the comic strip was published, the people who adapted the text were also very powerful, just imagine a "Dream of the Red Chamber", how to condense it into twenty small books, each page only no more than three lines, but also can not lose any of the focus of the original work. In the past, these tasks were done by very good editors in publishing houses, and in the comic strip awards of the last century, in addition to painting awards, there were also special editor awards. Now, however, it is difficult to find a script writer who can have this ability to adapt. Therefore, if comic strips want to be revived, then not only do they need to be re-emphasized by publishing houses, but at the creative level, it needs more original new stories to make the traditional comic strip narrative more modern and diverse.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Edict of the Belt.
"Seeing through the "Soul Returning Scheme".
For artists, painting at the same time to write a condensed small story may be a little demanding, perhaps we can first learn from some European and American image novel painters of the creative mode, in addition to some master-level authors can write their own story script to decide the storyboard, there are also many people are using the mode of cooperation, such as cooperation with writers or editors, maybe we can try to put some more attractive original works - For example, the works of some contemporary novelists (the texture of their novels is not much different from that of film and television scripts anyway), it may be appropriate to condense it and change it to a comic strip adaptation. Or try some adaptations of the works of modern and classic writers. Gradually, in the atmosphere of literary adaptation, a creative model that pays more attention to excavating stories is formed, so as to produce artists who have the ability to independently write story scripts, if there is such an environment, then no matter what new impact will occur in the future online media, the ecology of comic strips will be stable.