Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 212



Only Noblemtl

212.

After finishing the winter semester of my sophomore year by taking final exams, I returned to California.

‘Time flies.’

Novels and studying, pulp fiction club activities, romance, friendship, and even filial piety(?).

I’ve been working hard, cutting down on sleep, because there were so many things I wanted to do and had to do, and now that I’m in my early 20s, my body is still fine even after staying up for several nights.

But I couldn’t turn away from the fact that I had to steadily build up my physical strength, even for the sake of the future, and I was preparing to exercise at the same time. ······Even though I absolutely hated it.

In college, I would wake up in the morning and do it, or else I wouldn’t, but after returning to California, I felt I needed to force myself to exercise, so I suggested to Jiwoo that we run together every morning. Jiwoo, who had absorbed Alexa’s positive influence and had switched from being a black magician to a runner, responded that it was a welcome thing to hear and asked me to run with him every morning.

And then a few days later, I realized.

“Brother Shin! Get up! We have to go out!”

I had to take the other person’s wake-up time into account.

It was six o’clock in the morning again today.

“Ugh······.”

“The sun has already risen this morning!”

“Just a little more······.”

“If you don’t get up, I’ll pour water on you?”

“When did you change your profession to a water magician······.”

“What are you talking about? Get up quickly!”

I was the one who promised myself that I would buy a hamster wheel for my energetic hamster, Jiwoo Jang, later on.

I got up halfway as if I was being chased, and yawned loudly as I saw Jiwoo already wearing his running shoes. I sent him out for now and quickly changed my clothes. I put on the workout clothes and shoes I had prepared to burn my motivation and went out. Only then did Jiwoo, who had been waiting in front of the door, come down the stairs with brisk steps.

We started running around the neighborhood early in the morning.

And little by little I came to my senses.

‘It’s really strange.’

Before I started, I felt like I was going to die, but once I started running, I came to my senses and the refreshing morning air made me feel good.

I followed Jiwoo, who seemed very excited and took the lead, and ran leisurely. When I started to sweat, I gradually increased my speed and followed Jiwoo’s side.

I decided to run in intervals of about 30 minutes to an hour, taking a big lap around the neighborhood, taking a few photos at the park, and then returning.

Since it was an area where many Koreans lived, I would occasionally run into people I knew, and even when I made eye contact with people I didn’t know, we would smile and say hello to each other because there was a bond between people who woke up early in the morning.

Then, Jiwoo opened his mouth with a bright smile.

“Surely, Brother Shin has good stamina.”

“okay?”

“Yes, you’re running pretty fast right now, but you’re not getting tired and you’re still keeping up.”

“Is it because my body is young······.”

“hmm?”

“No. No.”

I waved my hand lightly.

Certainly, after about a week, I felt like I had more stamina than before.

I kept running, thinking that I would have to develop more exercise habits with Jiwoo’s help in the future.

While working out like this every morning, we often talked about each other’s recent events that we didn’t know about before.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with class these days. It’s a big problem.”

“You can do it.”

“······Somehow I feel like my soul is gradually disappearing. Aha, I’m getting tired.”

“No.”

“Shall we run a little more?”

“I’ll buy you a hamster wheel later. Let’s just get on pace a little.”

“Tch······?”

“I’m joking. I’m joking.”

“Is it okay for you to go to school, oppa?”

“It’s not particularly difficult.”

“Wow, that was a bit unlucky just now.”

Jiwoo narrows his eyes.

The tail of her tied hair swung from side to side.

After a while, we arrived at the park, which was the return point, and Jiwoo and I took a short break at the water fountain to drink some water. I tried to smile, thinking that it would be over once we got back, but before I could catch my breath, Jiwoo ran ahead of me.

“Let’s go back quickly!”

“······.”

Scary guy.

“Is it okay if you rest this much?”

“Of course.”

But I didn’t want to show my weakness in front of Jiwoo, so I gritted my teeth and ran.

The talk with Jiwoo continued.

“Are your preparations for the new work going well?”

“I completed the plan and handed it in yesterday. I need to see the response and then start working on it.”

“You said it was a superhero story? I’m looking forward to it. I think it would be nice if the main character of the superhero story you write was a friendly character like Spiderman.”

“Well, he is definitely that kind of person.”

Joe, the main character of ‘Kung Fury’, was originally intended to be portrayed as a character who is becoming a ‘superhero’ rather than a ‘superhero’. Therefore, some people may not classify him as a ‘superhero’.

A man who was a Vietnam War veteran and a superhuman soldier created through state experimentation.

But the war was so brutal that even such a superhuman couldn’t endure it.

Unable to find peace even after death, he barely survived the hail of firepower and violence by relying on his power to travel back in time, but due to the trauma of war, he turned his back on the glory guaranteed to him in his home country and came to America.

However, because of these few ‘special features’, Joe was unable to blend in with Koreatown, nor was he able to adapt to general American society.

‘Then I met Shifuji, who was in a similar situation to me.’

Although the setting for him running a kung fu gym has not been fully revealed yet, he is actually a character who does not get along well with Chinese Americans.

The two of them used the fantasy of the Orient held by other races to survive in this American society, and in the process, Shifu discovered some of Joe’s abilities and suggested that they actively utilize them, and the kung fu dojo gradually prospered.

Then, the story moves forward as another superhero appears.

‘I hope we get a response from DC soon.’

Since it was a collaborative project, I thought it would be right to start working after hearing your response, so I was still waiting.

Since the new equipment had already made the work much faster, I wanted to work quickly.

So after returning home with Jiwoo, washing up, and eating the breakfast my mother prepared, I went back to my room and took a short rest.

I felt a little sleepy, whether it was because I had run since morning or because of the food coma, but since I had finally woken up early, I didn’t want to ruin my routine, so I started reading a book.

‘How relaxed.’

Could it be because I’ve been so busy with one thing or another?

I loved this time leisurely reading cheap magazines in a retro room decorated with all kinds of comic book posters.

Then, out of the blue, I remembered the closet where I had always been locked up and read books in my previous life. Now, I just laugh it off and ignore it.

It must have been around lunchtime.

dripping.

I raised my head at the knock and answered.

“yes.”

[Oppa, you got a call.]

“Ah, finally.”

I smiled at the thought that what was coming had come, and went to the phone installed in the hallway and answered it.

“Yes, I got the call.”

[Author, this is Simon.]

As expected, it was as expected.

Simon Carver, the man who runs Hardboiled Publishers and is also my editor.

He gave me the news I had been waiting for.

[Answer from DC Comics.]

“What did you say?”

[Everything is good, but I was wondering if you could leave out the part where the main character ‘commits suicide’.]

“Because of the deliberation?”

[After all, isn’t suicide an extremely taboo act?]

“······huh?”

My eyes widened.

I never expected to receive an answer like this.

‘Isn’t murder, as depicted in comics, a taboo act in the first place?’

What kind of company is DC Comics?

For nearly 100 years, it was a company that had been blocking all kinds of ridiculous stories with the setting of a ‘parallel world’ in order to sell hero comics. There were a lot of stories where people died without a care, heroes turned into zombies, villains were created, and all kinds of materials were used for confinement and assault.

“What do you think, Simon?”

[I also think it was written a little lightly.]

“hmm······.”

When I heard that, I thought about it for a moment.

Yeah, there’s no way DC Comics didn’t take that into consideration.

I thought about it for a moment, twisting the phone cord around with my fingers, then said I would think about it and call back, then hung up.

Then he ran up to the second floor and started checking the printed manuscript.

The part where the main character goes back to life through ‘suicide’ was set up to show that he can repeat the ‘process’ as much as he wants and achieve the ‘result’ at the end.

But after reading it again after receiving the criticism, I realized that it might be a bit too early for today’s era.

‘It’s 1986 now.’

It was also a setting that was included to structure the drama that would unfold in the latter half of the work, but after thinking about it a little more, it seemed like there was no need to include ‘suicide’ in the beginning.

······Yes, I actually thought it would be better for the second half if the main character didn’t ‘commit suicide’.

After coming to that conclusion, I went back down to the first floor and called Simon.

‘I should probably put a separate phone in my room too.’

The receiver rang and soon the call was connected through Miss Brown to Simon Carver.

[Oh, author. Have you thought about it?]

“Yes, after reading it again, I think it would be better to save the suicide setting for the end.”

[······Oh, so you’re saying it goes in at the end?]

“Once you get out of there, even the pickiest DC Comics editors won’t be able to say anything.”

Since I had already shared the overall plot of the piece with Simon, I was able to talk comfortably.

Simon, who had been pondering those words, soon became impressed.

[Ah, definitely. Ah, ahh······! That would be a really killer story, wouldn’t it?!]

“Haha, I think I should write this part up as a manuscript and show it to DC Comics.”

[It would be quite a lot to write that far, is that okay?]

“Of course.”

I smiled confidently.

With my new gear there was nothing I couldn’t do.

***

There are many different ways in which writers write, but I tend to set a big framework and write according to it. I think that writing, like a person’s life, is unpredictable.

‘Well, that’s kind of fun.’

A superhero series produced in collaboration between DC Comics and Hardboiled Publishers, Kung Fury was slated for release in two formats: as a novel and as a comic book.

In this day and age, there are superhero ‘novels’ that are not particularly major in terms of genre, and superhero ‘comics’ that are produced based on those novels.

After a quicker-than-expected meeting, the two companies proposed to me that we publish this work in two forms: a single volume and a comic book issue.

The novel is a single volume, and the comics are a total of 4 volumes, with 10 issues grouped together.

In other words, a novel ends in one volume, but in the case of comics, if a comic book issue is published every week or two, it becomes a long journey that takes about a year to complete. And after publication, depending on the reader response, it was planned to decide whether or not the characters in this work would be incorporated into the main DC Comics universe.

‘Readers who have read the novel will naturally follow suit and look for comics. The same goes for the other way around.’

That was exactly what they concluded. I agreed with that.

Novels and comics were media that expressed the same story in different forms: text and pictures.

Both have their own pros and cons, and they can create a synergy effect.

For example, novels depend solely on the reader’s ‘imagination’ even when read to the end, but comics were not like that. The ability to see the main character’s appearance, superhero costume, and actions in certain situations through drawings was an advantage comics had over novels.

On the other hand, comics were not capable of detailed descriptions like novels. To do so, they often had to waste space unnecessarily. That’s why they became skilled at expressing context, and this was called ‘directing.’

‘Since the way of expression is different, the approach has to be different.’

Just as when writing a novel, you intentionally omit descriptions to stimulate the reader’s imagination, in comics too, there is a technique for controlling the speed of what happens between cuts.

The conclusion that emerges from this is that art ultimately depends largely on the emotions and imagination of those who receive it.

DC Comics and Simon also expressed similar concerns about ‘suicide’.

In the distant future, the ‘regressing protagonist’ choosing ‘suicide’ as a means of escape would not be something that would be particularly criticized. Rather, it was closer to a setting that expressed the protagonist’s venom.

‘But that’s not the case now.’

Since it was a time when the setting of being able to go back in time and make different choices through the process of death was not established as a cliché, I thought it would be better to use it as a drama while slowly explaining the process.

‘I guess I received help from people living in this era.’

At the same time, I found my own transformation a bit funny.

Because of the ‘Dead Man’s Heaven’ incident in my previous life, when I was writing ‘Mother’, I felt a great sense of rejection at the very idea of ​​someone touching my novel. But now, on the contrary, I am trying to chew over the opinions of others and apply them to my novel in my own way.

DC Comics said they would like to see it removed because suicide is a social taboo.

Simon Carver expressed concern that it was written too lightly.

So what I had to do was simple.

‘If you can convince him of that, that’s enough.’

Feeling my heart pounding with excitement at the new task at hand, I slightly modified the main character’s setting and plot and started writing.