[Character Interview] Huang Yulang, Godfather of Hong Kong Comics, Steps into Contemporary Art

Huang Yulang, a famous Hong Kong cartoonist and known as the "Godfather of Hong Kong Comics", recently held the "Trend Culture Master Huang Yulang Solo Exhibition" with the theme of "Focusing on the Contemporary". From the outside world, comic creation generally regarded as popular culture has entered the field of contemporary art proudly, " It must be the largest exhibition in my life!" He has been writing and painting for more than half a century, and of course he affirms the artistic value of comics, "Comic art is a part of contemporary art, regardless of technology, creativity, and content, it all occupies a seat, and comics are the most important. An artistic medium with content.”

Four series

On the day of the visit, Huang Yulang put on a Tang suit and was in high spirits, with the attitude of a generation of masters. He took us around the exhibition hall, and sometimes stopped in four series exhibition areas, including the classic series, the top ten magic soldiers series, the cover series, The masterpiece series, explaining the creative process, there are many fans along the way, it is very lively.

"Seeing my own paintings on display like this makes me feel good." Readers even more? Many have seen the big from childhood, and they are full of resonance, "This is what I am proud of. I don't have to spend years of hard work, and my reputation has already been established." The readers in the audience were mesmerized.

Huang Yulang first came into contact with comics when he was about six years old. When he moved to Hong Kong not long ago, he saw the comic strip in the comic edition of "Sing Tao Daily" and liked it very much. Disconnect. Later, I learned while watching, playing with and drawing dolls, "I'm very satisfied when I draw it like it looks like it."

His older brother, who is six years older than him, also draws dolls. He once contributed comics. He followed suit, tried to contribute, and asked for directions. "It was actually published! He suddenly became a school man. I was only ten years old at the time." When he was young, he often read "Doll Books" at the "Flying Hair Shop", and became interested in story comics. At the age of 13, he joined the comics industry. At the age of 16, he established a comics publishing house by himself and officially launched the comics business. Write history.

big eyebrows

Huang Yulang has created many classic characters over the years, and there are many heroes. "Only heroes can help people. The growth story of heroes is a good look." In the black and white work "My Children" in the exhibition, he combined some of the characters together. Furnace can be traced back to "Little Demon God", "Little Silly Fairy" and so on. "The youngest is Wentian of "Shen Bing Xuan Qi", which was born in 1999." And the image with thick eyebrows and big eyes After the painting was completed, a group of characters made "brows and eyes". ""Thick eyebrows and big eyes" are my creative markers, and readers can recognize them at a glance." With thick eyebrows and big eyes, is it not Huang Yulang's appearance?

As a parent, every child cherishes, is there any special preference among Huang Yulang's "children"? "Wang Xiaolong, Wang Xiaohu, and Shi Heilong must be my favorites. The other is Wentian and Ji Fa from "Legend of the Son of Heaven". They are a little biased."

He has already thought of developing this creative concept. In fact, he has so many popular masterpieces, such as "Dragon Tiger Gate", "Legend of the Son of Heaven", "Mysterious Soldiers", "War Heroes in Spring and Autumn" and so on. "My Children", or a set of fixed-focus works, so that the characters in the book are framed with "thick eyebrows and big eyes", and the series of works will come one after another, "even colored, or the pictures other than the eyebrows and eyes are all dolls , it's ever-changing."

Challenge the giant painting

Then we came to the "Great Book Series" exhibition area. "Ju" not only refers to the giant comic series such as "Legend of the Emperor" and "Shen Bing Xuan Qi", but also has the same meaning as "Ju". . Huang Yulang briefly described the painting process, first drafting the drawing, drawing black lines, then zooming in, and then sketching and coloring.

He said with a smile that it is very difficult to draw a painting in a huge format that he is not used to, and he specifically mentioned "Tian Yao Xuan Qi's First Issue Repainting in 2021", "The first and most important thing is to conceive the ten monsters, study with colleagues, each time It only took a lot of time to blame the characteristics and the shape." Then I thought about the composition, the background color, etc. "Maybe it's a new work this year, I feel very deep."

Large-scale creation also brings him into line with contemporary art. "Contemporary art works are generally expressed in large-scale forms." With this creative experience, "it may be larger in the future." Artists and painters all hope to create works that are recognized as handed down from time to time. "Good paintings can last for thousands of years. You can see the works of painters in the Song and Ming dynasties, which are still passed down to this day." It is available for collectors to purchase and collect, and limited editions are also launched, which are signed and stamped by Huang Yulang.

When the sun goes down

Hong Kong comics used to be very popular. There were always dozens of doll books for you to choose from in newspaper stalls, but now the number of publications has dropped significantly. Of course, he sighed, "It's definitely on the decline. In every industry, the sun rises, the sun rises in the east, and the sun sets in the west. At the same time, the same is true for Hong Kong comics.”

The reason is that he pointed out that the subject matter of Hong Kong comics is relatively simple and cannot be separated from the word "typing". Once other themes are drawn, readers often do not accept it, forming a vicious circle. , comics will inevitably be compared. There are also hundreds of flowers on the Internet, film and television entertainment, everything, and the competition is very high. In addition, the Hong Kong comics readership has begun to age, and new readers have too many online entertainment options, all of which have caused Hong Kong comics The industry is on the decline.”

The local comics market is shrinking, but the mainland comics market is relatively growing. "Pocket comics" are popular, both "striped" and "page comics", with hundreds of millions of readers. Huang Yulang said frankly that Hong Kong cartoonists might try to enter the mainland comics industry. , "Playing" is another day, "But Hong Kong comics are famous for their finesse and delicacy, or you need to think about how to meet the development of "hand-held comics", and then cooperate with Hong Kong comics' strengths such as action, story rhythm, and tight structure. The mainland comics industry has a seat.”

(Original published in the supplement of Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily" on August 12, 2021)