1, origin period (before 1927)

If you want to say which cartoon is the earliest cartoon in China, it will be very difficult. At present, we only know that the comic book "The History of the Three Kingdoms" drawn by the famous painter Chen Yu/KLOC-0 and printed by Shanghai World Bookstore was crowned with the word "Comic" for the first time. Since then, China's comics have been fully established in terms of name and mode.

2. Rising period (1927-195 1 year)

There are three reasons for taking 195 1 year as the lower limit of the increase, instead of taking 1949 as the boundary recognized in the world at present:

First, in terms of quantity, we haven't seen the comic statistics published by 1949 and 1950. Judging from the current works, there are fewer comic books in these two years than before liberation. Second, from an artistic point of view, there are few excellent works produced in forty or fifty years.

Thirdly, from the content, China began to rectify old cartoons 195 1 years ago. This is based on the report on 1950 national cultural and artistic work and the key points of 195 1 year plan 195 1, People's Daily, made by Zhou Yang, Vice Minister of Culture, at the 8th1meeting in the State Council on May 20th.

In the Kuomintang-controlled areas, due to the lack of guidance and laissez-faire by the national government, the drawing and publishing of comic books were basically controlled by private publishers, who were market-oriented and profit-oriented. Therefore, there are a lot of absurd, supernatural, yellow, superstitious and other works in the comic content. Generally speaking, the theme of martial arts monsters accounts for more than half; About a quarter are adapted from historical stories, novels and folk stories; Some are adapted from movie stories and movies, about one fifth.

These comic books inherited a lot of feudal dross, and at one time they were full of supernatural chivalry and feudal superstition. In addition, most of them are printed speculatively in the "alley publishing room", which leads to poor quality of most paintings and vulgar pictures. In these picture books, there are still a few people who publicize anti-Soviet and reactionary Kuomintang rule and espionage activities, such as The Martyrdom of the Great Leader Zhang Huafu, General Dai Li and Mystery. These are more harmful to readers than SHEN WOO. This made the picture books in the Republic of China generally present a vulgar state.

During this period, Zhang Leping's The Wandering of San Mao, which was not known until after liberation, and Zhifeng Huabao, which appeared in the auction in recent years, are excellent works reflecting social and political current affairs. There are also anti-imperialist and anti-feudal works such as Hero at Sea, Qi Jiguang, The True Story of Ah Q, Edison, Shi Kefa and Ten Days in Yangzhou. Created by Zhao Hongben and Zhu and edited by Zhu, it exposed the dark rule of the Kuomintang and its disregard for human life. These progressive revolutionary new comic books have shaken the dirty and obscene old comic books.

War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the liberated areas during the Liberation War drew many cartoons to match the war, despite the poor conditions. Such as "Tiefo Temple" (Mofu, etc. ), which is the content of anti-rape; Lu's "Complaining" (Cao Zhenfeng) inspired class consciousness; The Five Heroes of Langya Mountain (written by Han Yan) pay tribute to the hero. Due to the extremely difficult conditions at that time, the printed paper and quality of these comic books were poor, but they were very inspiring.

3. Development period (195 1 year-1966)

There are two reasons: First, there are a large number of high-level comics and famous artists. Second, during this period, more than 20,000 varieties were published, and the number of copies issued reached more than 600 million.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the people engaged in production and construction with the joy and full enthusiasm of consolidating the new regime and building a new country, and all fronts showed a thriving scene. At this time, the cartoon content closely revolves around the central task of each period and reflects the historical features of each stage after the founding of the People's Republic of China in a timely and comprehensive manner.

With the theme of land reform, suppression of counter-revolution, patriotic movement to increase production, three anti-five evils, anti-US aid Korea, Sino-Soviet friendship, climax of cooperation, general line, Great Leap Forward, people's commune, three-year natural disaster, election of people's representatives, promulgation of constitution and marriage law, and many new people and things appearing on the political and production fronts, we pay attention to realism, entertain and educate, and enthusiastically praise the party's work. It gives people healthy and uplifting strength and is deeply welcomed and loved by the people. It has become the most common and unusual entertainment reading and spiritual food in China, and it is also the most popular and effective propaganda teaching material of our party.

For example, Japan and the United States have a blood feud, friendship, and small * * * members. They have the motherland, the sacred amethyst, the great changes in mountain villages, the poor shed turned dry around Kun, the Longxugou family, the iron girl vs the desert, the walking bride, Li Shuangshuang, etc. At the same time, most of these works reflect the stories of their contemporaries and are very kind after reading them.

The works reflecting War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation have attracted readers' attention, such as Flying Tigers painted by Ding Binzeng and Han Heping, Reconnaissance Crossing the River painted by Gu Bingxin, Station No.5/Kloc-0 painted by Xu Si, and Lin Hai Xue Yuan painted by Luo Xing and Wang Yiqiu, which have made readers tired of reading and printing repeatedly. Especially the spiritual strength and educational function of these good cartoons can't be described too much.

As for those cartoons with classic themes such as classics, historical stories, folklore and court anecdotes, they are numerous and of high quality, and their traditional painting techniques and distinctive artistic features are highly praised by many readers. Among them, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, A Dream of Red Mansions, Outlaws of the Marshes and The Journey to the West, as well as The West Chamber, The Legend of the White Snake, Mulan Joining the Army, Pan Bizheng and Chen Miaochang, Peach Blossom Fan and The Fairy Match, became popular and thirsty books for readers at all levels at that time.

4. Stagnation period (1966-1975)

Influenced by the Cultural Revolution, there were few works in this period, with narrow themes and strong political color, but the artistic level was high.

The cartoons of this period are also deeply branded with the times and have distinct characteristics of the times. There are mainly the following aspects:

1 "Hold high the great banner of Mao Zedong Thought". Every comic book published in this period has one or two sentences or a few "quotations from Chairman Mao" printed on its title page or content introduction. All the achievements and victories of the hero in the book are attributed to Mao Zedong Thought's great victory. For example, studying for the revolution, building a mountain with an iron fist, going to college, raining in Xingzi Village and so on.

Take "class struggle as the key link" Stories are all about class confrontation or class struggle, and the relationship between people is the relationship of class opposition. Such as Liu Wenxue, mauser pistol, Golden Hook Road and new small stone pillars. Because their creation has only one theme, one of the biggest characteristics of cultural revolution comics is similarity. As a popular jingle said at that time, all the stories were basically "the captain made a mistake, and the branch secretary came to help and found out a dog spy."

Literature and art serve politics. In order to cooperate with the political struggle at that time, "make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China", we did not hesitate to distort, fabricate and rewrite history. For example, the anti-Confucius struggle of the working people in history, the story of the line struggle between Confucianism and the army ruled by law, Qin Shihuang, revealing the surrender of Song Jiang and so on. 1976 After the Gang of Four was crushed, there were still some unpopular cartoons, such as The Fire of osawa by Dai Guobang, The Power Seized by Lv Hou by He Youzhi and Liu Danzhai.

4. Representation of characters. All positive characters are "tall" (indomitable spirit), "big" (burly figure) and "complete" (without shortcomings), while the negative characters must be "small" (skinny), "evil" (fierce) and "ugly" (ugly image) at first glance. Typical is the model opera comics. Others, such as "Children of Xisha", "Riverside of this Ququ" and "Seizing the Enemy at Sea".

5 Many works are not named by the author, but are named "XX Creative Group" and "XX Collective Creation". This is because intellectuals are regarded as "smelly Laojiu" and should not be made "famous" or "home". It should be emphasized that industry, agriculture and people are the masters of literary and artistic creation. For example, Lenin in 19 18, Crossing the Tiger Mountain, The Story of the Red Lantern, Mauser Gun, Song Jiang of Surrender School, etc.

5. Prosperous period (1975-late 1980s)

During this period, cartoons were like the sky, and the grand occasion was unprecedented. The upper limit here is 1975, because the number of cartoons published in the past two years has greatly increased compared with that in the 1960s, and there are also many fine works. As for why the lower limit of "Lian Jie" is 1986, I haven't figured it out yet, because there is no landmark event. It may be 1986, the third national cartoon award. If so, the late 1980s is more suitable.

After the downfall of the Gang of Four, a large number of works exposing and denouncing the crimes of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing's counter-revolutionary groups and summing up historical experiences and lessons vividly reflected the people's voices and were welcomed by readers. For example, Feng, Scar (,,,), Zhang Zhixin (,,Luo Xixian, Chen, Pang Xianjian, Shi Dawei, Wu), In Silence (painted by Zhao Rennian and Luo Xixian, adapted by Famous Ding) and The Prosecutor.

197865438+February, after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, cartoons with the theme of reform and opening up, "four modernizations" and socialist spiritual civilization, reflecting social changes and shaping new people and new things have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. For example, "Man to Middle Age" (Jincheng Painting, adapted by Wang Su) and "Jiang Zhuying" (Pang Xianjian Painting, edited by Dai Huanmei and Hu Naijiang) eulogize the intellectuals who are committed to the "four modernizations" construction in the new period of socialism, and "Opening the Market" (Zhang Peichu Painting, adapted by Wang Chengrong) shapes the vivid image of grassroots cadres working hard for unemployed youth and reflects the party's economic policy. Adapted by Hu), Dormitory for Female College Students (adapted by Guo Zhaoming, Le Painting and Hu Xiuqin), etc. Pay attention to real life, exude the flavor of the times, and create different characters from different sides and angles, making people look familiar and cordial.

In addition to modern themes, there are many works that reflect the revolutionary struggle and creation with literary masterpieces, historical stories, folklore, anecdotes, traditional myths and biographies of celebrities. What romance, martial arts, true story, scientific fantasy, various names, everything, can be said to be a hundred flowers, colorful. And "The Heroine Liu Hulan" (painted by Li Yu) and so on. ) The famous foreign works Spartacus (painted by Lei Dezu) and the classical Peace of the General (painted by Chen Quansheng), Fifteen Passes (painted by He Youzhi), Hai Rui dismissed from office (painted by Huang Quanchang) and The Story of Dixin and Lu Bu (painted by Xu and Xu Yougang) reflect the revolutionary struggle. At that time, many long books were published, serialized, serialized, and a complete set, including Stories of Eastern Zhou Countries, Stories of Chinese Idioms, Stories of China Poetry, Stories of a Lonely Studio, Pictures of war stories in China, Hubei, The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Jiangsu Poetry by Jilin.

6. Economic recession (from the late 1980s to the present)

Because of the lack of content, the new cultural media is more attractive, and comics are gradually abandoned by people.

From the late 1980s to today, it is the "downturn" period of comics. During this period, comic books were gradually abandoned and forgotten by people. The reasons are both internal and external.

The internal causes are: due to the large circulation, as mentioned above, 780 million copies of comics are issued a year, and almost everyone in the country has one copy, resulting in oversupply and a large backlog; Due to the concentration and repetition of creative topics, such as Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and The Journey to the West, many artists competed to draw a topic, and several publishing houses published it separately, resulting in too many editions. Because some painters have been divorced from reality for a long time, or neglected in real life, or unilaterally pursued change, or focused on economic interests, only seeking quantity, ignoring quality and shoddy; Because the editing and publishing department only pays attention to profit, efficiency and lax review, it has published a large number of inferior works. The appearance of "excessive, heavy, excessive and poor" has led to the opposite of comics, lost readers, and made the comic market flourish and gradually become deserted and depressed.

The external causes are: first, the impact from foreign cartoons with strong visual impact. Second, with the development of economy, cultural media are diversified, such as movies, television and VCD.

However, comic books are not depressed. With the advent of the era of picture reading and the acceleration of the pace of life, people have little time to read those great books, and the picture works with short words and popular content will undoubtedly rise again. Of course, comics may no longer appear in the traditional way, but in a new look.