The so-called "horse running book" is to describe the fast publication of a book like a running horse. It is said that this theory originated in Shanghai in the 40s of the last century, when some comic book publishers found that some new films were doing well at the box office, so before the release of the film, they asked the comic book writers to watch the test screening the day before, and after watching it, they made up the comic strips according to the film instructions overnight. It was completed overnight, printed by the publisher the next day, and met with readers at the bookstall that afternoon, hence the name "horse running book".
Hundreds of pages of comic strips were completed overnight, and the answer is obvious.
In the 80s of the last century, the publication of comic books in the mainland reached its peak, at that time, comic books were veritable bestsellers, publishing houses were profitable, and comic book artists were also fragrant and sweet, and their incomes were also very high. At that time, not only general publishing houses and professional art publishing houses competed to publish comic books, but even some non-art publishers, such as science and technology publishing houses, "did not do their jobs" and joined the comic book publishing army, wanting to get a piece of the market.
During this period, in order to seize the market, many publishing houses published some comic books that could be described as shoddy, focusing only on speed and not quality, and the increasing proliferation of such comic books also accelerated the publication of comic books from glory to decline.
The author has this "Green Forest Archer" comic book in hand, let's see if it is a "horse book". This comic book, illustrated by: Jiabin Xuanming. Guangxi People's Publishing House published 1 edition and 1 printing in 1985, with a print run of more than 680,000 copies. It tells the story of Robin Hood, the leader of the British peasant uprising, who led the heroes of the green forest to resist the oppression of the reactionary church and the feudal aristocracy. The paintings are sloppy, the proportions of the characters are out of proportion, and the scenes such as the woods and houses are almost all black, like a messy, sketch-like picture.
It is said that in 1990, Guangxi Nationalities Publishing House published a set of Liao Zhai story books, "Red Jade Skillfully Marries Feng Xiangru", known as the representative of the "Horse Running Book", fortunately, this comic book has not been printed much, only 20,500 copies.
This kind of work with no sense of beauty, like a child's graffiti, is published by a regular publishing house in a grand manner, interpreting classical masterpieces in the language of painting, which is not an addition to classical masterpieces, it is simply blasphemous.
As critics have put it, "The Horse Race" completely abandons the excellent tradition of Chinese comic strips that are meticulously created, well-depicted, beautifully composed, and precise, and replaced with frivolous, coarse, ugly, and grotesque. The author thinks of the textbook illustrations that appeared in the previous period, although it cannot be said that they are all "horse running" works, but they are the same as the "horse running book", ugly, grotesque, not to give people a positive, sunny positive energy and beautiful artistic enjoyment, not to give the textbook "icing on the cake", but to smear and add chaos, such illustrations do not matter.
In May 1985 of the last century, more than 680,000 copies of one such "horse racing book" were still printed, which shows the publisher's confidence and blind optimism in the market. However, the wind and clouds have changed abruptly, and the rivers have gone down, but the comic strips have not been diverted by human will to decline. It can really be said: "There is no choice but to paint and fall, and the painting floats freely." Although it is difficult to save the market, it is only because of the speed of social change.