As the saying goes, animation does not divide families.

The animation and comic industries are often mentioned together due to their extremely high complementarity and correlation, and they even sit in the same row during meetings.

But as time goes by, the domestic comic industry has become increasingly lagging behind, and is gradually unable to keep up with the great leap-forward development of the animation industry.

The weekly comic magazine, which was very popular in the past few years and had a huge circulation, announced its suspension not long ago due to a record low in circulation and a lack of contributors.

This is already the Nth domestic comic magazine to announce the suspension of publication.

In recent years, the comics industry, especially the paper publishing field, has been greatly affected. Many magazines that specialize in comics have been forced to suspend publication, and the industry is extremely depressed.

Wanbao Comics is slightly better.

After all, most of my peers are publishing comics on paper, while Wanbao Comics is mainly engaged in online comic strips. With the Internet as my backing, I can live a comfortable life.

However, even Wanbao Comics, which is serialized online, has recently experienced a large loss of readers and an embarrassing situation where contributors are becoming increasingly rare.

“No one is willing to draw comics anymore!”

Nantong said helplessly: "Those with some ability have switched careers to making games and animations. Those with little ability have found that they can't make much money from comics, and their desire to create has dropped significantly."

Therefore, recently, the "screenshot scanning without author" comic genre has emerged in the industry.

"The industry is in recession. Compared to comics, domestic fans seem to prefer the Internet, short videos, games and other forms of entertainment."

Gu Miao pondered: "I heard that the comic version of "Dragon Ball Z" has sold less than 5 million copies in China?"

"To be precise, 4.57 million copies!"

"This is already at the top of the best-selling list, even the famous Dragon Ball series. Other works can be imagined."

Nantong is very pessimistic.

Under the impact of short videos, mobile games, Internet and other industries, he does not think the comics industry has any development prospects.

If he hadn't invested too much money in the early stage, he would have suggested to Mr. Gu to shut down Wanbao Online's online comic series platform and devote all his energy to the Bibi reading business.

"Shutdown won't mean..."

Gu Miao smiled and said: "No matter how bad the industry is, at least our Wanbao family is big enough to be able to support a comic company."

"Besides, the domestic market is sluggish, so why not go overseas to expand overseas business? The comic industry in neon regions in Europe and the United States is pretty good."

Especially American comics!

Not many people have noticed yet that American comics, which have great film and television adaptation value, and no Hollywood giants have entered the company, is a good time for Wanbao to take action.

Thanks to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "The Adventures of Uncle Dragon" and "The Lion King", Wanbao is relatively well-known in Europe and the United States. As for comics, relying on the "Dragon Ball" series, its development overseas is not bad.

With this foundation, Wanbao Comics has great potential in overseas markets. Even if it doesn't make a lot of money, it's still okay to make a living.

To put it another way, even if Wanbao Comics cannot survive overseas, there is still a way out for Wanbao Comics, and that is Xueyoushang, who develops screenshot-scanning streaming comics without an author.

However, this is the worst option.

…

The National Day holiday is here.

As a rare seven-day long holiday in a year, many popular TV series and movies are all screened together, and the excitement is no less than that of the Spring Festival.

Animation is no exception!

During this year’s National Day holiday, a total of more than seven popular masterpieces have been launched, including "Bear Bears" produced by Wanbao Animation and "Swallow the Universe" produced by Penguin Animation.

The former is broadcast on a dual-platform TV network, focusing on a group of children, while the latter is broadcast exclusively on the Internet, mainly targeting fans of the original novel and adults who love science fiction.

Competition does not exist. The two animations are incomparable. The audiences are not the same. How can there be any competition?

But Devouring the Universe does not pose a threat to Bears 2, which does not mean that Bears 2 is invincible in this National Day season.

Quite the opposite.

During this National Day, there is an animation that poses a great threat to "Bear Bears 2", and it is also a 3D animation that Gu Miao is very familiar with.

"Zodiac Legend: Twelve Zodiac Signs"!

To be honest, when he first saw the title of this animation, Gu Miao didn't remember which animation it was. It wasn't until he took a look at the promotional trailer that he remembered.

Oh yo...

It turns out to be that animation where the male protagonist seeks out the twelve zodiac sacred beasts to learn peerless martial arts, and then defeats the Nian beast!

This is a good 3D animation, and he quite likes the characters of the twelve zodiac animals, such as Thunder Tiger, Ruyue, Long Zhentian, Bamboo Leaf Green, and Dadu Rong.

What a coincidence!

If he remembered correctly, the original "Zodiac" and "Bear Bears" were both animated series produced by the same company.

It's like a teacher from the same school.

Although he hasn't seen the feature film yet, Gu Miao can confirm from the trailer that this is the "Zodiac" in his memory.

Don't ask why.

Gu Miao saw familiar faces, the pig who kneaded dough using Tai Chi techniques, the rooster who liked Danqing ink pens, the old goat who was a supernatural doctor, the divine rabbit and the martial arts tiger...

This kind of character design is rare in the entire Chinese comic industry. Apart from the Twelve Zodiac series, it is probably difficult to find a second animation that meets the requirements.

"This animation is great!"

Even as a competitor, Huang Kun still expressed his appreciation: "Just watching the trailer, I found it very interesting, and the feature film is probably not bad either. It seems to be a masterpiece."

"really."

"The twelve zodiac animals are given various identities and characters, and the story immediately becomes interesting." Gu Miao also praised it.

You can get an idea of ​​the quality of an animation just by looking at it.

Judging from the standard shown in the trailer, the animation "Zodiac" is definitely a high-quality product, with exquisite and agile modeling, clean and neat movements, and high animation fluency.

The only place where there is suspense is probably the plot level of this animation.

If it plays well, it will definitely threaten "Bear Bears: Global Adventures" which is broadcast at the same time. If it performs better, it can even defeat "Bear Bears 2".

"This company does a good job in 3D animation, I like it very much!"

Compared to Huang Kun's worries, Gu Miao, as a client, is very open-minded. In his words, if you lose, you lose, it's no big deal.

What's more, can Zodiac Signs really threaten the ratings and viewership share of Bears 2?

not that simple!

The Infested Bear is the only children's animation after Xihui Emperor to achieve enlightenment and become an emperor. It was defeated so easily. How much do you despise the Inexplicable Bear?

Zodiac Story?

Not to mention a general mobilization, even if all works such as "Twelve Zodiacs Enter the Jianghu" and "Twelve Zodiac Happy Streets" are included, Dingtian is only at the level of a "quasi-emperor in the fourth or fifth heaven".

I also have a comic "The Adventures of Little Carp" in my hand, the kind that doesn't have the author's signature and is all animation static screenshots...
Chapter completed!