Chapter 107 – The Finale Is Long, So Run, You Writer
In the lounge on the lower floor, Kang Min-hyuk stood by the window holding his phone and looking outside.
<<Wow, Artist Min-hyuk, this episode was insane.>>
“Was it?”
<<The reader reaction is no joke. Fan letters are pouring in like crazy. How on earth did you come up with a way to save Ma Hee-ra like that? And then continuing Shin Dong-hyun’s narrative right after…… You basically revived two characters who were on the verge of dying with a single scene.>>
Editor Go Gwang-jin’s endless praise poured out from the other side of the phone.
This was by no means exaggeration or empty words.
In reality, after this manuscript went out, fan letters flooded the office, and on the internet it was easy to find people cheering for David’s comic power.
Min-hyuk lifted the corner of his mouth slightly and replied.
“I received a lot of help from the people around me.”
<<Help? What kind?>>
“Just…… something like that. It would take too long to explain everything.”
<<Ughhh, I’m curious. When we meet face to face later, tell me the details.>>
Min-hyuk let out a deep sigh and answered.
“Yeees…… Is that all you wanted to say?”
<<Yeah, keep up the good work from now on too.>>
Click.
The call ended like that.
Then……
“What did he say?”
At the lounge table.
Dong-gyo, Rok-hee, Yu-ra.
The three of them each held a canned drink and stared straight at Kang Min-hyuk.
Min-hyuk staggered over, plopped down in his seat, and said.
“The reaction is really good. Fan letters came in heaps too. It’s all thanks to you guys.”
“Niceeeee!”
“Ahem! As expected, as expected!”
Everyone showed satisfied smiles on their faces.
This ‘Cannibalism among Kin’ episode.
The part where Min-hyuk had been completely stuck and unable to move forward had finally been wrapped up beautifully with the help of the two.
For Ma Hee-ra, who died in this episode, Kim Rok-hee had provided the ideas for her backstory and core narrative.
When asked how she came up with it……
- My mom often tells me to become a ‘good person’ too.
- Then…… your mother……
- What? My mom is perfectly healthy and alive? I just stretched the idea dramatically from there. If a character with a personality similar to mine wants to be active in a world like Brave King that has no dreams or hope, it becomes simple once you think about what needs to be added, right?
- That’s simple?
It seemed she had assumed Ma Hee-ra was a character similar to herself in nature and completed the idea by adding and removing various assumptions and settings.
And for Shin Dong-hyun’s character that continued into the next episode……
<<Ahem, a lone-wolf type character like this…… naturally has a hard time getting along well with various people.>>
<<Not lone wolf, otaku.>>
<<Hey! Lone wolf!>>
<<Anyway, keep talking.>>
<<Probably, this Ma Hee-ra character was almost the only person Shin Dong-hyun could open his heart to. But that character died right in front of him? And because of the protagonist’s mistake? Then it’s not hard to imagine how he would change after that.>>
<<Would he…… go dark?>>
<<He could. Or he might awaken heroically instead. You just have to adjust the character design according to the flow of the following episodes.>>
Through Dong-gyo’s ideas and advice, the bridge and conflict elements leading into the next episode were completed.
Thanks to that, enough weight was given back to this episode that could have felt somewhat floating, and it became sufficient driving force to carry the story forward.
Min-hyuk lifted the corner of his mouth and said.
“Really, thank you. Without you guys…… I would never have been able to break through this.”
“Ahem! You should save words like ‘thank you’ for your best friend, Min-hyuk-kun.”
“If you’re grateful, buy us a meal? For some reason I suddenly want to eat Emperor City sweet and sour pork after a long time.”
“I’ll buy it on the weekend. Anything you want to eat, just say it.”
“Really? No taking it back?”
“Yeah.”
“Yahooooo!”
“Ahem! I’m looking forward to it.”
Dong-gyo and Rok-hee showed pleasant smiles.
At that moment.
“Ahem! Ahem-hem!”
Han Yu-ra, who had been quietly sipping her coffee, crossed her legs and glanced sharply at Min-hyuk.
Her lips moved as if she had something to say.
When Min-hyuk tilted his head, Yu-ra finally spoke.
“Can I…… come too?”
“What?”
“The sweet and sour pork thing. I didn’t make a direct contribution to the work, but if you nitpick the details, you can’t exactly say I contributed nothing…….”
Han Yu-ra slightly closed her eyes and launched into a long speech.
I want to go too. Include me.
It seemed she couldn’t bring herself to say those simple words, so this was how it came out.
Min-hyuk let out a deep sigh and said.
“Of course you’re coming. You helped a lot too.”
“Specifically which part?”
This was getting embarrassing……
Min-hyuk rolled his eyes, glanced at Dong-gyo and Rok-hee, then closed them for a moment before opening again and speaking.
“You helped me apologize, didn’t you? If it weren’t for you…… I might still not have been able to say it properly.”
“Exactly! That’s right. Our Yu-ra did a really big thing.”
“I agree.”
When Dong-gyo and Rok-hee nodded, an awkward smile appeared on Han Yu-ra’s face along with a slight flush on her skin.
“Ahem, just saying this in case, but I didn’t really care that much. I was just frustrated, that’s all.”
Han Yu-ra added excuse after excuse.
As expected, she was really bad at this kind of thing.
Min-hyuk smiled faintly and asked back.
“Then should I not buy you anything?”
“No, even if the result helped…… of course I don’t know what you think, but…….”
“It was a joke, a joke. This Saturday. Let’s all go eat together.”
“Yeeees! We’re eating!”
“Company dinner! Company dinner!”
Inside the lounge, joyful cheers burst out.
***
After crossing the wall with his friends’ help.
Kang Min-hyuk’s work truly surged forward like a speeding train.
“Alright, for this week’s character design assignment, the theme is steampunk world…….”
“Yeees.”
The merciless assignments that poured in every week.
And……
“Did you check the storyboard?”
<<Overall it’s good. But on page 13, wouldn’t removing this cut improve the pacing……>>
He pushed forward with Brave King’s manuscript without hesitation.
Having firmly secured the backbone and the final highlight parts, and having broken through the weak character designs once with Dong-gyo and Rok-hee’s help……
His ability to handle such issues had also become much more flexible.
It really felt like……
‘I’ve grown a level.’
Perhaps this was one of the real reasons behind Min-hyuk’s constant claim that……
‘Coming to Animation High was the right choice.’
Anyway, that incident also greatly helped him show his true strength later on.
If there was one very small problem.
“Hmmmmm, Crow King…… is insane.”
Writer Shin Yo-seop, who he would clash with at this year’s Bucheon Comic Awards, had also started running wild along with him.
‘Yang Jae-han Writer-nim’s return definitely…… seems to have stimulated him.’
It was a little bewildering.
It was only Min-hyuk’s vague memory and might not be accurate, but……
In the Crow King he had read in the past, as it entered the latter half, it gradually lost its unique stylishness, became buried in world-building explanations, and the tension dropped.
But in this life, with each new chapter the quality of the manuscript kept rising, and he was maximizing his stylish strengths even further.
Not only that……
‘He’s also overcoming his weaknesses.’
The balance in other areas was improving too.
For example, the vagueness of the characters, which was often pointed out as Writer Shin Yo-seop’s fatal flaw.
It was being captured through several directing choices and pointed dialogue here and there, making everything feel much clearer.
Especially the character ‘Cohort,’ one of the Crows whose recent reveal as the mastermind had come out.
Twisting the original design this character had while adding charisma……
And with the recent reveal of his backstory, it gave the work an enormous sense of immersion.
In reality.
<Toriweb Korean Comic Board>
[FourDaysOnly: Wowwww, Crow King’s form lately is insane? Suddenly the work gained power that wasn’t there before]
[JJBo: For real…… The ‘Cohort’ character is fucking cool. Probably the best villain I’ve seen so far.]
[LLoKA: Looking at the recent form, doesn’t it stand a chance against School of Deadline or Brave King?]
└[FourDaysOnly: Nah, that’s going too far. No overhyping]
└[KimchiOnly: Why? I actually think so. Crow King is seriously fun lately.]
└[FourDaysOnly: Even so, both those comics are still in great form right now]
Positive messages about Crow King were frequently appearing on various comic communities as well.
Min-hyuk felt that just as he had grown through this, Writer Shin Yo-seop was also growing.
And when reading Crow King’s manuscript, somehow……
‘It feels like fighting spirit.’
It was just a comic, yet it felt as if Writer Shin Yo-seop was speaking directly to Min-hyuk.
Saying, let’s have a proper fight at the Bucheon Comic Awards.
And Kang Min-hyuk……
Thump! Thump!
‘I can’t avoid a fight that’s coming my way.’
He was more than willing to accept it.
***
During the usual free drawing time.
‘……Damn it.’
Oh Dong-gyo tore his sketchbook to shreds and scratched his head.
His face was full of frustration, and heavy sighs kept leaking out.
The reason for this reaction was……
‘Is this really all I’m capable of?’
Recently, Dong-gyo had met Editor Pan Hee-hyun together with Seung-heon and Rok-hee.
Because he had taken Min-hyuk’s advice and decided to try webtoon once.
Oh Seung-heon, who already had quite a pile of manuscripts, signed the contract right away, but Dong-gyo and Rok-hee decided to exchange manuscripts with each other and develop them first.
However, the process was not as easy as they thought.
‘Long-form comics…… the difficulty is on a completely different level from short stories.’
Until now, Dong-gyo had only drawn short-form comics.
But unlike short stories where he could lightly handle a small number of characters with a few codes and focus on direction and design……
Once he started a long-form project, problems arose.
‘What exactly am I supposed to do in the next chapter? What characters should I introduce after this?’
Putting together the first 1~3 chapters was manageable, but after that he had no center at all for how to carry the story forward.
Regarding this……
- Wouldn’t it be better to focus on what the core goal is here, Writer-nim? If the protagonist is just cynical all the time, the story doesn’t seem to progress.
- Goal?
- Yes, because deficiency creates the goal. If you think carefully about that part, I think you’ll get a sense of what to do next.
He had consulted with Editor Pan Hee-hyun and received advice, but……
The problem didn’t get solved overnight.
And with the situation like this, a vague thought came to him.
‘Is Writer David, no…… Min-hyuk-kun a god?’
Min-hyuk, who handled the endless flood of school assignments while steadily serializing a long-form comic.
The kid started to feel even more like a crazy person (in a good way).
While he was meaninglessly tearing sketchbook pages to shreds.
Ding-dong-daeng-dong!
The bell signaling break time rang.
“Damn it, damn iiiiiit…….”
Oh Dong-gyo clutched his head and walked out into the hallway.
‘My head hurts, so maybe I’ll grab a drink and change my mood…….’
When he walked into the lounge like that.
“Ughhhh, I’m trash. I’ll never be able to do comics in my life…….”
“Why, Rok-hee?”
“You can do it! You’re good at comics!”
“I’m telling you I can’t…….”
Inside the lounge, he saw Kim Rok-hee flopping around like a jellyfish and complaining to the other kids.
At that moment, Dong-gyo and Kim Rok-hee’s eyes met.
‘You too?’
‘You too?’
They must have instinctively understood from each other’s expressions.
That their current situation was by no means good.
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