Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 217



Only Noblemtl

217.

It may come as a surprise to you, but I was actually quite knowledgeable about comics.

In my previous life, I was a late bloomer(?) who only became a full-fledged nerd in college, but since then, I’ve steadily followed the general flow of the times by buying and reading comics little by little.

After my regression, that knowledge was of great help, and I was able to express some interesting opinions among my nerd friends. Furthermore, friends like Doofy and Bill recommended and made me read many comics after my regression, so I felt like I had completed my own insight and wisdom with that knowledge.

That’s why I didn’t pride myself on knowing everything about comics. It was the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect.

‘I guess it’s the humility that comes from knowing that I don’t know everything.’

In that situation, working on the comic story was a huge challenge for me.

But I wanted to try it at least once. I thought that if I could use the knowledge I had, I would be able to understand more deeply what the culture called ‘comics’ meant and where it was headed in the future.

With the help of Robert and Simon, the editors-in-chief of DC Comics, I began the process of turning my Kung Fury manuscript into a comic book story.

The thought that occurred to me was that comics work requires much more detailed and specific drawings than I thought.

‘Well, I guess that can’t be helped.’

In general, the amount of effort that goes into drawing a single scene in a comic is much greater than the amount of effort that goes into writing a single scene in a novel.

It was quite difficult to decide how to structure and present each issue from beginning to end, but I learned a lot from it.

‘Because I also have experience writing serial novels.’

It gives readers a sense of completion at the end of each episode while also giving them the anticipation that the story will branch out into a new direction.

And, appropriately mix the introduction, development, climax, and conclusion in an issue of about 12 to 13 pages.

Write down what picture and what dialogue will go on each page.

This process was repeated.

In the meantime, I exchanged opinions with the editorial department, and even left the parts I couldn’t handle to them.

And as I went through that process, I started to feel a little strange.

‘If it were me in the past, I wouldn’t have even touched it.’

Now, I think, ‘Well, there was a time like that.’

I’ve definitely gone in a softer direction, like Simon said.

In this way, I continued to work by adding scenes or stories that weren’t in the original novel, and removing parts that were difficult to express in the comic.

And once the story work for the first issue was finally fixed, DC Comics went straight into full-scale production.

Chris McCady, who was chosen as the sketch artist, drew the picture, and another veteran added ink, and then we started working on the text based on the color and my writing.

So, just as the finished pages began to appear, I returned to school and spent my last semester of sophomore year pursuing the above-described process alongside my studies.

Apart from the enormous congratulations I received for winning the Nebula Award, my school life was not much different from before.

I take classes, do work, learn about things I’m interested in but don’t know much about, and go out with friends.

It was a faithful day, and it went by smoothly like the last semester.

So after about two months of the last semester of my second year, I returned to California in June.

I got this message from Simon:

[The first issue of ‘Kung-Fury’ is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, the third week of June.]

“It’s been two weeks. When is the novel scheduled to be published?”

[I decided to release it after serializing 4 issues. I talked to the editor-in-chief, and I thought it would be more synergistic to release the book at a point when Joe is truly becoming Kung-Fury.]

I thought the same thing, so I could agree without hesitation.

“Okay. Then the advertisement will be running as well?”

[Yes. I heard that they are currently promoting it in the DC Comics issue.]

“Oh, I can’t miss that either.”

I hung up the phone and headed straight to the comic book store.

I felt like I had become a successful nerd for some reason when I saw an advertisement for a work I had written in the comics I enjoyed reading, and it was about to be released.

I also hadn’t really told my friends at Kitten’s Comic Book Store about this new release, so I was curious to see how they would react now that they found out.

‘I guess I should go right now.’

After making up my mind, I went straight down to the garage and got into the car.

I drove along a familiar road to a familiar destination, and tilted my head when I saw the DeLorean parked in front of a comic book store.

‘Oh.’

The sight of the nerd guys huddled around it definitely made me realize how powerful the movie ‘Back to the Future’ is, but separately from that, the fact that the car was parked right in front of the comic book store naturally made me think of a man.

It was none other than Doofy Kingston.

‘Shouldn’t you be working hard right now?’

What a coincidence, our last meeting was when I showed him a superhero based on him called ‘Star Chaser’, slightly violating my contract with DC Comics and Hardboiled Publishers.

I walked into the comic book store with a feeling of wonder, and my eyes widened.

There stood a superhero.

It was none other than Black Aquaman.

And that version of the costume she’s wearing is screaming at me to kill her.

“What a strange coincidence.”

“······???”

“Not bad. Good. Duquaman. Try posing a little more.”

Bill, the comic book master standing in front of him, kept taking pictures with his camera. Doofy, wearing an Aquaman costume made of a very cheap material that I don’t know where to get, shouted while slamming a trident that looked like it was roughly made of Styrofoam on the ground with all his strength in his stomach.

“Aquaman!”

“yes?”

“Aqua-Man-!”

Are you talking to a fish?

Oh, no. That’s not the point.

I felt the need to figure out what the situation was. I cautiously approached Doofi and asked.

“Hey, why Aquaman?”

“······God. I like Aquaman.”

“Ah, um.”

“I’m sure there are many people who like majors like Spiderman, like you, but I do. And I want to correct one thing. Aquaman doesn’t talk to fish. He can only hear the voice of the water.”

Isn’t that it?

Those words almost came out at that moment, but I held them back desperately.

During that brief pause, Bill and his friends came over to me as if they had been waiting for me.

“Oh my god! It’s been a while!”

“Congratulations on winning the Nebula Award!”

“Damn it, I believed you!”

“······Thank you. But first, what the heck······.”

“The ‘Losers’ series is our pride!”

“This is the soul of Kitten’s Comic Book Store!”

“I’m planning on getting a tattoo of ‘Losers’ on my forearm soon!”

“Hey, calm down for a moment.”

By the way, this is the first time I’ve been here since winning the Nebula Award.

I couldn’t help but chuckle in front of the nerd guys who were excited and showering me with compliments and congratulations. It was because I felt like they were really happy about it as if it were their own business.

And isn’t that the beauty of being a nerd? To be able to enjoy something you like so purely?

“Thank you so much. It’s all thanks to you all.”

“What did we do!”

“Hahaha! How humble!”

“No, no, really.”

I truly felt grateful to these comic book nerds because I felt that their presence indirectly helped my writing.

After chatting like that for a while, I glanced over and saw Doopi, who had returned to his original attire, pushing up his glasses.

“Transformation canceled.”

“······Aquaman doesn’t have that kind of gimmick, right?”

“God. You’ve been making remarks that seem to ignore Aquaman. If you weren’t my best friend, we’d have a debate on Aquaman right now.”

“No, I mean. Why on earth are you wearing an Aquaman costume······.”

“I’m in the process of ‘preparing’. I’ve set a goal for now.”

“what?”

“Diet to fit the XXL costume.”

“Ah, so······.”

Am I understanding this correctly?

“Scalp, what size is it now?”

“How rude of you to ask a man his size.”

“······.”

“It’s a 4XL. I’m losing weight.”

Doopi hurriedly confessed his size to the slightly contemptuous gaze that escaped his notice.

I’m about 180cm tall, but my build is a bit thinner than the average American, so I wore a size L, which was a bit loose, and even considering my height of 180cm, my build was quite impressive.

However, when I wore everyday clothes, I could definitely feel that the volume had decreased compared to before.

“Are you going to wear ‘that guy’s’ costume?”

“Yeah, that ‘guy’ you showed me.”

Since it has not been revealed to the public yet, we are communicating in slang.

With that, everything became clear.

Doofy is currently on a diet to cosplay as ‘Star Chaser’, and it looks like he’s achieved his goal by wearing an Aquaman costume that fits his size.

When I learned the whole story, I was overcome with a sense of absurdity and asked again.

“What about you and the company?”

“I took a vacation. I’m planning to go buy some workout clothes one size smaller today.”

“······.”

What on earth should I say about this?

When I realized that Doopi was so sincere to the character I had created, I felt touched, but at the same time, I felt like it was a burden that had been unnecessary.

And even without asking any more, I could roughly guess what kind of repercussions Kung Fury would have.

“God, and there’s one more thing I want to ask you!”

“Is that what they’re advertising in DC Issues right now real?!”

“It’s real, so there must be ads in it?!”

As expected, the comic book nerd guys found the issue and showed it to me before I could even look for it.

The Superman issue is currently reaching its peak.

First up was Bill’s sidekick Fred, who opened the page to find an ad for a new issue of Kung Fury.

A collaborative project between the new author and DC Comics, with the novel and comic book scheduled for simultaneous release.

Following that brief information, the advertising text written underneath also caught my eye.

[A superhero like you’ve never seen before.]

[A wave of laughter and refreshing resolution that no one could have predicted!]

‘Not bad.’

I smiled and explained the situation to the comic book nerd guys.

“Oh, as advertised, we’re collaborating with DC Comics and will be releasing a comic book and novel at the same time. What do you think when you see it······.”

“Are you done talking?! Of course I have to buy this!”

“I’m going to buy about ten copies! I’m going to keep them for the rest of my life!!”

“The packaging price of the product for collection······ Calculation complete. It goes into savings.”

Everyone reacted in a way that made me feel embarrassed, and I thought.

‘It probably won’t be the superhero movie you were expecting.’

Rather, Kung-Fury is a superhero movie that feels like it completely destroys the ‘purity’ they have.

***

Time passed, June 18, 1986.

Finally, DC Comics’ newest title, ‘Kung-fury’, is out across the United States.

DC Comics knew that this fascinating work would definitely create a lot of fans, but they judged it not to be the type of work that would achieve huge sales from the beginning.

This was because the work itself had an antithetical tendency to existing superhero works.

As expected, outside of California, where the new writer’s name is widely known, Kung Fury’s initial sales were not particularly impressive.

But everyone who read the first issue of this work came to the same conclusion.

‘What kind of crazy work is this?’

‘Wow, what is this? It’s so refreshing?’

Because it was a worldview that made me think that if superheroes existed in reality, it would be like this.

The main character, ‘Joe’, is a large man with a blunt appearance, and was an immigrant who came to the United States from Korea after the end of the Vietnam War.

He was a war veteran, and at the same time a superhuman soldier born from a national experiment.

‘Is that Captain America?’

‘Hoo.’

‘The setting itself is quite ordinary, isn’t it?’

He didn’t adapt well to American society. It reminded me of an American soldier coming back from the Vietnam War and suffering from PTSD.

The comic deliberately depicts the first page in such a gloomy manner.

But Joe’s ‘declaration’ that appears on the next page leaves readers dumbfounded.

Joe taught ‘Kung Fu’ to a large crowd of Americans and declared:

[I’m going to turn my back on the American people.]

“······?”

“huh?”

“Huh, huh? Why is he like this?”

The reason is explained in the next chapter.

Because of his tall stature and muscular build, Joe is scouted by a kung fu dojo run by a Chinese immigrant named ‘Shifu’.

However, he had never learned kung fu, and just followed the advice of his shifu, who said that if you do this, both white and black people will die, and taught him proper breathing techniques and made him use strange punches and kicks, making him move his body in ways he didn’t normally use.

It was all nonsense, but it was meditation and exercise.

[Isn’t it all good if you are satisfied with learning the mystical martial arts of the East that purify your body and mind?]

A group that achieves a mental victory(?) in that way.

The origin of this provocative hero continued to be read with laughter by the readers.

And then came the end of issue #1, where things got tricky.

Joe discovers a white man attending a dojo in danger and, after a moment of hesitation, intervenes among the thugs to save him.

While he was tearing them apart almost like paper with his superhuman physical abilities, someone put a bullet in his chest. And up until that point, most readers assumed that Kung-Fury had super regenerative abilities like Wolverine.

But he fell to the floor and died.

“huh?”

“Huh?”

“······Is Star Chaser going to be the main character now?”

Everyone, including Doofy Kingston, was momentarily stunned by the absurd ending.

Kung Fury.

It was clearly a type of superhero story that had never been seen before, and comics nerds had no idea what would happen next.