Chapter 488: A generation of divine machines, a generation of divine films

In mid-June, Wei Ming and his sister arrived in Hong Kong. Before they even left the airport, Wei Hong wanted to drag her brother to Old Ghost's house.

Actually, she wanted to bring Wei Ming to Mao Mao Amin's side. As a result, Wei Ming said to her: "I bought a house in Hong Kong. Let's go live there."

Ah Long came to pick them up and brought the keys to the new house at the same time.

"Back from Modou so soon?" Wei Ming handed over the luggage. It was very heavy, containing American comic books for Ah Long.

Ah Long laughed: "Hmm, things went very smoothly, and Ah Ying has to have regular prenatal checkups, so we didn't stay too long."

"How was the harvest this time?" Wei Ming asked.

"Brought five employees over. They belong to different positions. We can basically form an animation group now."

"Oh, want to do animation?"

Ah Long didn't answer directly: "This time I returned to Modou and learned two pieces of news. One is that the American version of *The Smurfs* is going to be introduced, and the other is that Japan's *Ikkyu-san* is doing Chinese dubbing."

Wei Ming understood his meaning. Now every year, several excellent foreign TV animations flow into China, while domestic TV animations previously only had *Black Cat Detective* that could be brought out. However, for reasons such as cost saving and resource allocation, it has now been suspended.

As for theatrical animation films, domestic ones only produce one every few years. So, over time, the 80s generation will be a generation that grew up watching foreign animations. There will be a very terrible subtle influence in this.

After finishing his new discovery, Ah Long said: "Our little aunt has decided to invest in Madman Comics to film the *History Meow* animation series, and ATV is interested in buying the film. I have to draw *Dragon Ball* and can't be a director myself, but I also want to participate deeply."

"It seems the little aunt has tasted the sweetness from the *Transformers* animation. Although such publicity is a bit expensive, the effect is much stronger than conventional advertising. You can just let go and do it."

The most famous example in the country is the Hong Haier Brothers. This kind of influence is very long-lasting and profound.

Ah Long nodded: "And the *History Meow* comic also has considerable influence in the Mainland. When the time comes, we can also sell the animation to Mainland TV stations."

Wei Ming waved his hand: "Don't even think about selling, just give it away directly. When the time comes, think about what advertisements can be bundled."

Now, importing American and Japanese animations basically follows this model. Mainland TV stations are used to doing business without capital, so naturally, they can't stand having to spend money to buy from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.

Besides introducing talent from the Mainland, cooperation with Taiwanese comic artists has also been continuing. For example, Ao Ao Youxiang has published short comics in Madman Comics.

Ah Long also talked about the next plan for Madman Comics.

"Now there is a lot of cash flow in the company's account. We also plan to do other newspaper and periodical businesses, create an entertainment publication matrix, and increase our right to speak," Ah Long said. "Because our comic readers are mainly teenagers, we want to first create a youth publication."

In this regard, Wei Ming can provide some ideas. For example, the name of the publication can be called *Yes! *, and every issue uses a popular female star as the cover heroine.

"Then the company won't just have Madman Comics as a magazine in the future. Shouldn't we change the name?" Ah Long asked for instructions.

Madman Comics as a company name is indeed not very appropriate. After all, the business is not limited to comics. Wei Ming thought for a while: "How about calling it Minglong Media."

"Your Ming, my Long?" Ah Long was suddenly shy.

"Ming from 'a sudden burst of fame' (yimingjingren)," Wei Ming said. In the future, this name can be used to apply for listing. By then, it won't just be a comic magazine giant, but will have a variety of publications and newspapers, making it easier to tell stories.

Wei Ming's three-bedroom new house is located in the Causeway Bay commercial district of Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, adjacent to Victoria Park, and not far from the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. It took Ah Long about half an hour to drive from the airport, and they stopped in the parking lot downstairs.

Besides the house, two parking spaces were also bought.

After entering the door, Wei Hong praised: "Not bad, very warm!"

Wei Ming knew it wasn't like this before. It was all arranged well by Sister Xue. This house also condensed her beautiful yearning for living here with Wei Ming.

It's a pity that she has returned to Jingcheng now. Lying on the bed in the master bedroom at night, how Wei Ming wished someone could accompany him.

Wei Hong felt something was very wrong. Her brother came to Hong Kong and wasn't anxious to see Mao Mao Amin at all. This was too abnormal.

Could it be that the young couple was having a spat? Wei Hong felt that she had to take action herself. Only then did she understand that the "Hong" in Wei Hong was the "Hong" in matchmaker (hongniang).

"Brother, let's go see Grandpa and Grandma tomorrow. I miss them," Wei Hong said.

Wei Ming: "Tomorrow I have to go to Lang Ning. I have official business to talk about with the little aunt."

"Don't tell me you're going to talk for a whole day?"

"It might not be finished in a day." Besides game business, there was also the matter of buying a villa.

Wei Hong pouted: "Then I'll go see them myself. Be careful they say you are unfilial."

Wei Ming: "This time the little aunt brought back many new game consoles and games much more fun than Pac-Man from Japan."

Wei Hong immediately changed her tone: "I think it's better to talk about business first. I'll go see them another day."

That night, Wei Ming lay in bed reading the latest issue of *Madman Comics* and fell asleep. Zhao Rude's *City Hunter* appeared for the first time.

The male protagonist was indeed drawn very much like Cheng Long, with that big nose.

In addition, Master Roshi in *Dragon Ball* also began to participate in the World Martial Arts Tournament under the pseudonym "Cheng Long".

This issue parodied "Cheng Long", and the most anticipated plot of the World Martial Arts Tournament officially began. No wonder Ah Long said he didn't have many copies of this issue of the comic left; it sold too well.

*Dragon Ball* tankobon (collected volumes) have already been issued in two volumes, each volume is about ten issues of content. The first volume had a monthly sales of 150,000, and the second volume had the plot of summoning Shenron, which was issued for less than a month and reached an astonishing 230,000 copies. The third volume involves the World Martial Arts Tournament, with many fight scenes, perfectly embodying Ah Long's skill. Obviously, it will only be higher.

And the highest sales of *Wind and Cloud* tankobon is 160,000 copies.

Almost every *Dragon Ball* reader will repurchase the tankobon for collection and recollection after reading the weekly issue of *Madman Comics*. Ah Long's *Dragon Ball* is about to create a cultural phenomenon comparable to Jin Yong's martial arts novels.

If the overseas market is counted, it is also possible for the sales of each volume of *Dragon Ball* tankobon to exceed one million.

And this still has a huge gap with the achievements of the original *Dragon Ball*. The sales of each volume of that *Dragon Ball* were about 10 million copies.

Of course, time and distribution range are the main factors here, but the development of various copyrights also expanded the influence of the original work, thereby feeding back the sales of the original work.

In the original space, *Dragon Ball* launched TV animation, theatrical animation films, and electronic games two years after the comic serialization, and authorized products such as dolls and small commodities were even more numerous.

And the Hong Kong market is too small. Before the Mainland market is opened, if *Dragon Ball* wants to do these commercial developments, it has to rely on the two major markets of Taiwan and Japan.

Tomorrow, I have to have a good chat with the little aunt about how to carry out all-round development for *Dragon Ball*.

After taking Wei Hong to the office of the president of Lang Ning, Wei Ming first saw a strange yet familiar figure among the many hand-made figures and toys in the office.

McDull?

Seeing Wei Ming staring at the flower pig doll, Li Zhi came over and said: "It's called McDull, a new character prepared for the Lang Ning gift shop. It seems to be drawn by a female college student."

Wei Ming nodded. He didn't expect that under the heavy reward, this Hong Kong local cartoon image was born ahead of schedule.

Beside McDull were some cartoon dolls that Wei Ming hadn't seen before. It was estimated that they were all the results of this heavy reward.

Wei Ming glanced twice and felt that it was still difficult to compete with Sanrio with just them. People had been doing gifts for so many years and were very good at operating IP.

However, there was no rush. When he had time, he would guide them. There were still quite a few kawaii little things in his brain.

Just looking, Wei Wei Lingling pushed the door and entered. Wei Hong hurriedly asked: "Little aunt, where are the Japanese game consoles you brought back?"

She hadn't touched a game console for a long time, and her heart was itching.

Wei Wei Lingling asked: "Do you understand Japanese?"

"I only know 'baka yaro' and 'mishi mishi'," Wei Hong said.

This was not even as good as Wei Ming. At least he knew 'yamete' and 'iya da' and the like.

Wei Wei Lingling said: "Xiao Li, you take Xiao Hong to test those toys."

"Hmm, okay." Li Zhi took Xiao Hong to another room.

The door closed. Wei Wei Lingling suddenly slumped in the boss chair: "I, I am now a bit suspicious, can BBK really be done?"

"What's wrong, hit by Nintendo?" Wei Ming had checked the news. Their epoch-making product hadn't been officially released yet.

Wei Wei Lingling sighed: "When I arrived in Tokyo, I happened to catch up with Nintendo's new product presentation. They announced the price of the new product, Family Computer, at the meeting."

Family Computer is the first generation of FC, Nintendo's true rise, an epoch-making product.

And epoch-making products, besides performance, usually also have epoch-making prices.

Wei Wei Lingling told Wei Ming: "The price of this home game console is only 14,800 yen!"

What concept is this? Atari's Atari 2600 was known for its price-performance ratio, with a price of 199 US dollars.

And the price of FC, according to this year's exchange rate, is only equivalent to 60 US dollars!

Wei Wei Lingling worried: "This price is too low. Even if they don't make money on the console and rely purely on software for profit, this console price can still sweep the world."

Anyone who knows a little about home game consoles at this time knows how outrageous this price is. If they happen to have a few good games, it's simply invincible.

"Then what about the machine quality? Did you buy the machine?" Wei Ming asked.

Wei Wei Lingling shook her head: "Didn't buy it, didn't even touch it. I only remember it was red and white. The host demonstrated it, and I felt it was smoother than the Atari 2600. If you want to buy it, you have to wait a month. I only brought back Nintendo's Game & Watch and Sega's game console this time."

She brought back handhelds. Sega's first home game console hadn't been officially born yet either.

Wei Ming patted the little aunt's shoulder: "Are you worried about buying Atari, only to find their technology is outdated, technology without competitiveness." ===== CHAPTER 489 =====