American comics: You're asked to fish, but you catch a Superman template?

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Upon hearing Xu Fu's explanation, the people gathered at the newspaper office looked at each other for a while.

Little John opened his mouth, but under Old John's gaze, he silently swallowed the words.

If we're really talking about timing, Superman is still a long way from his actual first anniversary, but since Xu Fu requested it, they naturally had no reason to object, and they immediately agreed to the Superman anniversary announcement.

Indeed, as the creator of Superman, how could Xu Fu possibly misremember the original series?

The reason I decided to use it is that I simply wanted to be able to serialize a Superman comic book story on a wider scale.

Xu Fu's encounter with Antimir made him realize that simply discovering or improving his abilities might not be enough to deal with the threat posed by Baron Antimir the Sabbath, nor to defeat him.

Now, the power of death is eroding him, and there is a limit to how long he can remain in the positive world.

Therefore, Xu Fu's main focus on this trip was whether he could discover a force capable of confronting the Baron of the Sabbath in a short period of time.

Think about it, the first anniversary is the reason why Xu Fu rewrote the version.

Then came the anniversary, and he did more than just replace the cartoon content he planned to put in tomorrow's Daily Messenger.

In addition, he contacted Harry and Jack at the publishing house to work on the first anniversary edition of Superman.

Previously, since there was no Saturday Baron incident, Xu Fu used a comic book published in the Messenger Daily to simply tell the story of a superhero who went into space to stop a meteor from falling to Earth, following the usual formula.

This remaining short comic continues the previous storyline. The superhero Lex Luthor comes to Superman's world, and Superman mistakes him for Lex Luthor and fights him. Then, the evil Lex Luthor appears in Superman's world, and the two Lex Luthors fight. The short ends with the superhero Lex Luthor and Superman defeating Lex Luthor together, and Superman helps the superhero Lex Luthor return to his other world.

Such storylines were invented entirely through brainstorming; they didn't have any particular plot in themselves. They were mainly created to fill newspaper space and maintain the popularity of Superman comics.

"The next few days may be a bit busy, so I hope you all have time to finish coloring the comic backgrounds before the newspaper comes out."

After handing over the Superman comic book he created for the anniversary celebration to the newspaper staff, Xu Fu hurriedly left the newspaper office.

In addition to the newspaper series, he was also responsible for designing the first anniversary issue and went to CBS radio to meet with Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre Company.

To be fair, time is running out.

"Did you feel that Mr. Xu Fu seemed particularly rushed when he returned this time?"

Watching Xu Fu walk out of the newspaper's newsroom, John couldn't help but express his deepest doubts.

Upon hearing these words, the others in the newspaper looked at them with disbelief, remained silent, but clearly agreed with John's statement; Xu Fu's eagerness was almost written on his face.

What happened in Los Angeles?

Frowning, John began to ponder the reason for Xu Fu's haste.

Although he had never been to Los Angeles, he was well aware of Hollywood's reputation, and given that Xu Fu had gone to Los Angeles to film a movie, John Jr. subconsciously associated acting there with Hollywood.

John's assumption is not entirely wrong, but it is also irrelevant.

After all, if John doesn't know what happened to Xu Fu, he can't possibly know what happened to Baron Shah, no matter how much he speculates.

"If you have time to think about it, why not consider publishing this issue in the Hong Kong Economic Journal tomorrow?"

When old John's voice rang out, the crowd inside the newspaper office once again drew their attention.

With the series being replaced, the coloring of the comics and the layout of the newspaper had to be redone, and John Sr. and his team had a lot of work to do.

After glancing around at the silent crowd, John first pretended to spend some time at his desk organizing the story materials.

But he quickly stood up from his seat, an unnatural expression on his face.

Then, under the pretext of getting water, he moved a little closer to the staff responsible for coloring, his eyes fixed on the sketches in their hands.

What they had was the final draft of the comic book that Xu Fu had left for the first anniversary edition.

"I'll just watch, I'll just watch."

Although he said this in spirit, when his gaze fell on the drawings on the coloring table, John was immediately drawn into the story of the comic strip.

I don’t know if this is related to the first anniversary special program, but Xu Fu obviously has a special plan for the plot of this comic.

A new comic book storyline features a villain named Drew Zod as the protagonist.

According to the comic book, Drew Zod was once the commander-in-chief of the Kryptonian army. He attempted to forcibly change Kryptonian society through military means, but unfortunately, his rebellion was crushed, and he and his men were eventually exiled to a space called the Phantom Quarter for 200 years.

"200 years of exile!"

It could be said that Zod's appearance at the beginning of the comics caught John's attention.

Because of his exile, Zod was unable to move freely and could only watch helplessly as Krypton was destroyed.

The destruction of Krypton also caused ripples, forcing Zod and his crew to flee the Phantom Zone. Losing their home planet fueled General Zod's vow to rebuild Krypton, and Superman became his target. This was because Superman's father, Joel-El, had, before Krypton's destruction, placed the Central Code—a document representing the hopes of Kryptonian society—on his ship with Superman when he was just an infant, due to an exile event. Because of this exile, General Zod harbored a deep hatred for Superman's biological father, Joel-El.

And so, after escaping from the Phantom Zone, General Zod continued to wander the universe, searching for Superman's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, across the country, Clark, who was working in a metropolis, received a call from his adoptive parents in the countryside.

Clark: "Yes, I am Clark, Jonathan?"

Jonathan: "Something's not right, Clark."

Clark: "What happened, Jonathan?"

Jonathan: "Your boat suddenly made a sound last night, something that has never happened before, and Martha was a little scared."

Clark: "Don't panic, I'll be right back."

While Clark was on the phone with his adoptive father Jonathan from his spaceship in the distant universe, General Zod received a signal from Earth, transmitted by Superman's spaceship.

Chapter 736 The Yellow Sun

"Little John...Little John..."

Inside the newspaper office, as young John was engrossed in telling the story, old John's voice suddenly came from behind him.

When he turned his head, he saw old John standing in front of the typesetting machine, staring ahead with an unfriendly expression.

“If you have time to read the Superman comic book script, go out and shoot more news material for me.”

Under old John's watchful eye, young John could no longer stay in the newspaper's newsroom looking at cartoons. He looked away from the drawings, picked up the camera lying on the table, and left the newsroom.

Watching John's retreating figure, John the Elder lifted his bronze mirror to his nose, shook his head, and returned his attention to his typing work.

After the Courier was renamed the Daily Courier, John Sr. took charge of a larger section.

Therefore, Xu Fu planned to hire another typesetter to share Old John's workload.

However, old John rejected the offer without hesitation.

With the arrival of a new typesetter, this person's status in the newspaper will immediately change.

Furthermore, the number of typewriters was also a problem: you couldn't have two workers take turns using the same machine. And once the machines were purchased, it became another expense.

Since it's impossible to change the typesetters' situation, the only option is to change the newspaper itself.

Newspapers during this period were relatively rigorous in their design; even the front-page news often crammed a large amount of text into a small space, giving people a gloomy and dull feeling.

When The Messenger was reissued, Xu Fu changed the layout of The Messenger Daily to accommodate typographical issues, not only expanding the number of columns and font sizes, but also including more news photos and images, and using headlines in multiple columns and page combinations, rather than limiting news to specific pages.

This certainly greatly improves the readability of the news and is more in line with the news design that Xu Fu is familiar with.

The Daily Courier's unusual layout has successfully attracted readers' attention, and its recent sales have increased significantly, even approaching those of The Mill.

It seems that newspapers like The Messenger, Le Monde, and others have also recognized the impact of layout design on reader appeal and have begun to experiment with new layout designs.

For example, most of the layout of the last issue of the World Journal was "referenced" to the layout of Xu Fu's Messenger.

If you ignore the newspaper's name and only look at the design of its news items, you might even mistake it for a newspaper published by The Messenger.

Unfortunately, news layouts cannot be patented.

Otherwise, the mere fact that the World Journal uses "plagiarism" as a "reference" is enough to be unbearable.

...

"Change the plot?"

CBS, New York radio station.

The dubbing studio for the radio drama "The Adventures of Superman".

When the Mercury Theatre members, led by Orson Welles, learned from Xu Fu that the script would be revised, they were surprised.

The eight-episode script they are currently dubbing, "My Girl," was specially left behind by Xu Fu before he went to Los Angeles. It mainly tells the story of Clark's childhood friend Lana coming to Metropolis and meeting Clark. This is an early story of Superman, and this episode shows the connection between Clark as Superman and Lois.

Back then, the up-and-coming Superman saved a plane from crashing during a flight. Lois Lane was a passenger on that plane, and the Daily Courier published the first article about Superman.

Episode eight of this radio drama tells the story of Clark's relationship with his first love, Lana, and later with Louise. Of course, Luther also appears in this episode, adding a touch of whimsy to the entire drama while maintaining a tense and exciting action sequence.

Due to the length of the entire series, Orson Welles deliberately divided the story into two episodes, and the Mercury Theater has already completed the dubbing of the first ten minutes of the first episode.

Xu Fu's sudden appearance and his demand to change the plot undoubtedly disrupted their work plans.

"I'm so sorry."

Xu Fu also realized that his approach was a bit too forceful.

Simply put, given the tense situation at the time, a mundane radio drama like "My Girl" was simply beyond his capabilities. Therefore, as a last resort, Xu Fu had no choice but to turn to Orson Welles for the script, for the same reasons he had told Old John and the others at the newspaper earlier on the first anniversary.

As the author of "The Adventures of Superman" and the creator of Superman, Xu Fu himself has a lot of radio drama content.

Therefore, after hearing his reasons, Orson Welles agreed to the request to change the plot, although he was somewhat unhappy about it.

When Orson Welles reached out to take a new script written by another person, the first thing that caught his attention was the title of the new play, "Solar Energy."

Compared to the simple and straightforward titles of the past, the title of the new script is like a three-dimensional lake.