A detached villa near Flushing, Queens, was rented by Li Jie as the headquarters of Marvel. The rent here was about $160,000 a year.
The villa was large with a beautiful garden. There were many rooms in the villa, which were enough to meet the needs of the start-up.
Li Jie had his own considerations as to why he didn't rent an office building in Manhattan or Queens.
First, the office prices in Manhattan were too expensive, and he couldn't afford to rent it. The price of office buildings in Queens, which were slightly better, had skyrocketed in recent years.
The key was that he couldn't sign a long-term contract, and the rent would increase every year. Now he had $10 million in capital.
But it would be very fast to spend it, so he had to focus on saving money.
Moreover, the first task of the new company was not to directly expand into movies and TV series or something big, but to start with comics.
After all, it was the first time he had done something like this. Li Jie had no experience in this area, and Peter didn't count on it. Harry thought that the Osborne Group was on the right track, and he only needed to maintain the general direction. So he didn't have much experience in the start-up of the company.
So although Li Jie hired a professional manager to take charge of the company's operations in the future, he didn't want to take too big a step at once.
Moreover, the creation of comics was more concerned with the inspiration of the artist and screenwriter. Li Jie didn't think that anything good could come out of the office building.
There was an open park near the location in Queens, and the scenery around the villa was good. The bay could be seen in fifteen minutes to the north.
In addition, because it was a quiet community, this environment was more conducive to the artist's peace of mind. So Li Jie signed a two-year long-term contract to rent the property.
The Metropolitan High School was on vacation, and the countdown to the most important holiday in the United States in December, Christmas.
The United States was preparing for this most important holiday, and Li Jie's company chose to start recruiting at this time.
According to his idea, the artist and some necessary staff would be recruited around Christmas, so that the first issue could be published in January next year.
With Harry Osborne's support, the legal process of the new company progressed very quickly, and it was also easy to recruit various professional administrative personnel.
The only people that needed to be considered were the artists and scriptwriters. After all, they were the most important people in this company. If they couldn't draw a good manga, they couldn't write a good story.
No matter how popular Spider-man and Nightcrawler were, it was still difficult for the comic to sell well.
Today was the day that Li Jie would be the examiner and the boss to examine the artists. Previously, he had already selected a few pretty good painters. Their skills were very good, and their imagination and storytelling were also not bad.
Unlike Japanese and Hong Kong comics, most of the time, the illustrators of these comics were the screenwriters. Sometimes, the illustrators would consult the opinions of the publishing house's chief editor, but most of the time, the story was in their own minds.
As a result, if a publishing house lost an important artist, it would seriously affect the business of the entire publishing house.
Moreover, in order to maximize the profits, the publishing house often allowed the artists to continue writing stories without limit. Many of the artists in Japanese comics had exhausted all their talent in the later stages. It was too difficult to rely on one person's ideas to draw five or six hundred or even thousands of lines.
However, because each Japanese artist had a different understanding of the story and characters, it was easy for many artists to form their own unique style, and because of this unique style, they had many fans around the world.
American comics, on the other hand, were more focused on assembly line production. The ideas of the artists were only a part of it, and more of it was the opinions of the scriptwriters and the company's chief editor.
Often, more than a dozen artists and scriptwriters from different studios would meet together to discuss the plot, and then fill in the gaps between each other.
Moreover, because American comics would more often create one or a few long-lasting popular characters, all the stories would be carried out around this popular character.
The copyright of this character or story itself belonged to the company, and what the artist did was only to draw it. Of course, sometimes the artist would come up with some new popular characters to fill in the gaps.
However, all the copyrights belonged to the company. Perhaps some artists might get a special share for a certain character, but most of the artists were just assembly line workers in this industry.
The advantage of doing this was that all the comics under the company had a unified style, and there was no need to worry about the company's industry being shaken by the departure of a certain artist.
However, the disadvantage was that sometimes in order to maintain the consistency of the company's style, they would be forced to modify some very shiny creativity.
However, Li Jie still decided to industrialize it according to the standards of American comics because the main purpose of this company was to create comics about superheroes that had already appeared in reality.
There was no need for the artists to create individual characters. They only needed to communicate well with the scriptwriters, and then they could vaguely modify some of the stories and put forward their opinions. Finally, the artists would draw it.
This was the production model that best suited this company's production model. After confirming the first few artists, Li Jie welcomed a more familiar person.
It was Ivy, Gwen's classmate, whom he saw the other day. She had been invited by Li Jie to apply for the job. Her original ideal career in life was to become a gourmet specially hired by a gourmet magazine.
That way, she could eat all over the United States and still have an income. The other was to become a professional cartoonist.
For her, both professions were ideal choices. Moreover, she currently had a considerable number of fans online who were following her comics.
"So this is your art collection?" After looking at the art collection that Ivy handed over, Li Jie's face looked like he was about to die. He really didn't expect Ivy to apply for this kind of art collection.
Although it was the individual's freedom to draw what he wanted, Li Jie really didn't want to see this work again.
The job application required the artist to provide previous drawings. It would be best if there was a comic with a plot. Therefore, Ivy had specially brought her proudest work.
Coincidentally, Li Jie had also seen her proudest work. It was the Nightcrawler and Spider-man series.
What kind of development was this! He opened a comic company and wanted to promote his positive image. Why did he meet such a ghost?! Li Jie was crazily complaining in his heart.
"Yes, this is my proudest work." Ivy raised her eyebrows. "Perhaps the BL direction doesn't fit the current mainstream theme, but as an artist, I can accept the plot provided by the company."
"I think since I'm applying for an artist, the most important thing is my drawing skills." Ivy was very confident when she said this.
Yes, compared to the rough lines of most American comics, Ivy's drawing skills were very detailed. It wasn't the soft texture of Japanese comics, nor was it as stiff as American comics.
It should be said that it had a considerable advantage. It wouldn't draw everyone as a muscular bro. However, this collection of paintings was really too detailed.
Li Jie decided to close the art collection in case he couldn't take it anymore. "Your drawing skills are the best I've seen among the artists."
This was the truth. Therefore, although Li Jie didn't like what Ivy drew, he didn't eliminate a potential artist just because of this.
"But in the future, the company's main business direction and artworks will also be superheroes. However, the customer base will be 14 to 25 years old, so you can't bring your personal interests into work."
Li Jie knocked on the table to remind Ivy.
"Don't worry, boss. I will only draw related works on a private website. I definitely won't bring my emotions into work." Ivy smiled and promised.
"And I know who the company will be managing in the future. Some related doujin works can also increase the sales of the company's own works."
But her promise made Li Jie want to vomit blood. Should he use legal procedures to stop her? But she was right. A certain degree of doujin could indeed increase the sales of the company's main products.
At this moment, Li Jie was really in a dilemma. Li Jie calmed down and asked. "Did you come up with the plots in these art collections yourself?"
It had to be said that many of the plots and ideas in the story were bold and imaginative, giving people a refreshing feeling.
"Part of it, but not all of it," Ivy explained. "Actually, a considerable part of the plots and passages were created by Gwen."
"Gwen is especially talented in this area. She's the smartest girl I've ever seen. I think we can hire her as a part-time editor."
Pfft. When Li Jie heard this while he was drinking water, he couldn't help but spit the water on the ground.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
