2020-03-24

Little People's Books VS Shelf Comics

There are no schools or institutions that specialize in comic book drawing, not even during the boom period of comic books in the last century. If you plan to draw comic strips, you should first learn the basics of painting: sketching, sketching, composition, etc., then find some excellent line drawing comic works to copy, and then gradually try to create comic strips. Comics have a complete storyline, with multiple consecutive pictures of the story. The pictures can be line drawings, sketches, gouache, oil paintings, watercolors, photography, etc. Those of us born in the 50s and 60s are most familiar with and love the most popular line drawing comic strips. When we were young, everyone had at least a few or a dozen copies, and everyone passed them around and read them.

Comic works from the 1950s to the 1990s were mainly line drawings, which were the spiritual food created by the older generation of comic book artists for the people. They were also the sustenance and sustenance of the children born in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Indelible memory, in the late 1990s, television gradually entered thousands of households, more directly meeting people's spiritual and visual needs. This has led to the decline of the art of comic books, but the comic strips (little people's books) will always be engraved in the minds and hearts of the older generation.

Nowadays, the comic strips at the National Exhibition are called "elsewhere comic strips." When the author heard this term for the first time, I was really confused by the word "elephant comic strips," or maybe I am just stupid. After searching, searching, and pondering carefully, I figured out the meaning of the comic strip on the shelf. But the general feeling is that the comic books on shelves have changed, and they are by no means the traditional comic books we saw when we were children.

1. The size of the picture varies greatly: most traditional comic books are around 10*13cm. Most comic strips on shelves are around 40*50cm;

2. The number of pages varies greatly: traditional comic strips are at least seventy or eighty pages. There are about eight to ten comic strips on the shelf;

3. Different story scripts: Traditional comic strips have vivid and complete stories and plots, and are generally taken from excellent literary works. The comic strips on the shelf are short in length, and the pictures and text are difficult to connect. The content can also be edited by the artist.

4. Different forms of expression: Most of the little people’s books we read when we were children used traditional line drawings. Traditional Chinese line drawings are very artistically appealing. For the generation who grew up with little people’s books, they are very interested in line drawings. I have a special liking for writing about little people. Looking at modern times and comic strips, they are almost occupied by Western foreign art, including sketches, oil paintings, gouache, watercolor, etc., but there is no place for traditional Chinese elements.

5. Different ways of reading: Traditional comic strips are small, smart and easy to carry and can be read at will. Comic strips need to be hung in a specific place for display. You can’t read them unless you take a high-speed train or even a plane to visit them.

Since the fifth national easel comic exhibition, all traditional Chinese line drawing comics have been eliminated, and all easel comic works have been Westernized. Many judges believe that line drawing is the easiest, simplest and least technical painting method. There is a group of pseudo-artists in the China Artists Association who worship foreigners and favor foreigners. They abandon tradition and admire Western painting. They don’t know where they want to take the art of comic strips.

One can’t help but sigh: the sorrow of the country, the sorrow of comic book art! With such a system and such a direction, all Chinese elements have been removed from comic strips. Where does the confidence to inherit and be confident in traditional Chinese culture come from?

(The picture comic strip is selected from the comic book works of contemporary painter Liu Zhiwei in his youth)