Full-time comic artist

Higashino nodded and accepted Toriyama Akira's request.

The Dragon Ball Z manga is currently serialized in the "Majin Buu Saga" chapter titled "Satan, run! The enraged Majin Buu has appeared."

Akira Toriyama asked Hibiki Higashino to draw the temple, which appeared many times in Dragon Ball and is a very classic one.

Goku and Mr. Popo once had a very exciting battle here.

In Higashino Hibiki's opinion, it was no worse than the battles in the World Martial Arts Tournament.

Square floor tiles, trees, and a temple in the background—20 minutes later, Higashino Hibiki finished painting.

He handed it to Akira Toriyama.

At that moment, Akira Toriyama had just finished viewing Akemi Akemi's painting.

“Hmm, it’s very well drawn,” Akira Toriyama said. “I’ll be counting on you for my assistant work from now on.”

"Yes, Professor Toriyama!" Akemi Akemi bowed excitedly.

As the daughter of a master of ukiyo-e, she was nurtured to have an interest in painting from a young age.

Her drawing skills are very good, even better than Higashino Hibiki, who is a high school student.

They just lack the brainpower to create interesting stories.

Afterwards, Akira Toriyama took Hibiki Higashino's painting and examined it for a long time.

"Yours is fine too."

He didn't offer any praise, but calmly said, "If you have any questions in the future, you can come and ask me."

……

Drawing comics is a very hard job.

Today, Hibiki Higashino, Akira Toriyama, and Akemi Akimiya spent a total of 10 hours drawing, but only completed 6 pages of the final draft.

The reader only needs to read for one minute before it ends.

A story has only just begun.

But it takes three people working hard behind the scenes for half a day.

Thinking back to the scene when he was serializing his work, Higashino Hibiki felt a chill run down his spine.

Comics are not just drawings; before that, storyboards need to be created.

Generally, Jump's weekly manga takes 3 days to draw the storyboard, which means that after the story is conceived, the various scenes are drawn out using sketches.

The size and shape of each frame, the characters' actions, the placement of dialogue boxes, the lines of dialogue, etc., must all be clearly expressed.

It can be said that, apart from more refined artwork, this is all the content of the comic.

After completing these, the tedious work begins.

A painting created stroke by stroke.

Draw the figures, draw the background, color it in black, and apply suitable halftone dots...

Today, Hibiki Higashino finally went through the entire process.

The original artist's drawing of "The War Between Gods and Humans" was more of a product of wishful thinking.

He didn't even know he was supposed to draw storyboards.

So the story quickly went off track.

They were even less aware of halftone paper, as the entire background was drawn stroke by stroke.

In short, I learned a lot.

"Thank you for your hard work today." Akira Toriyama clapped his hands, ending the day's work.

"Teacher Toriyama, thank you for your teaching."

Hibiki Higashino and Akemi Akemi said.

Akira Toriyama stood up, stretched, and asked with a smile, "Dinner will be served in about an hour. Would you like to go for a walk?"

“Excuse me,” Hibiki Higashino said, “I’d like to familiarize myself with how to use the g-pen.”

“Yes, me too! I want to summarize what I’ve learned.” Akemi Akimiya looked at the storyboard and pondered Akira Toriyama’s ideas.

"It's good to be young, you're really working hard. I won't bother you anymore, I'm going to go out and look at the horizon in the distance. Ugh, my eyes are so dry and uncomfortable."

"Please take care."

Hibiki Higashino used to really like Takeshi Obata's works.

Hikaru no Go, Death Note, and Bakuman.

Bakuman tells the story of two male protagonists, one who creates the original work and the other who draws it. They complement each other and work together to strive for success in drawing manga.

Therefore, it also depicts a lot of comic book content.

There are some regrets, such as the protagonist Mashiro's tallest uncle, Mashiro Nobuhiro.

His dream is to achieve something in comics and then confess his feelings to the girl he likes.

Nobuhiro Mashiro's story is not bad, but it's a pity his drawing skills are too poor.

Because I didn't understand the importance of G-pen when I first started drawing comics, by the time I wanted to make amends, I was no longer able to use G-pen properly.

Therefore, his paintings are always far inferior to those of others.

This is a huge disadvantage, since the biggest difference between comics and novels is that comics are created by expressing stories through drawings.

Your drawing skills are not as good as others, and you can only make up for this disadvantage if the story is very interesting.

So now, Higashino Hibiki is wielding his g-pen, hoping to quickly become familiar with it.

Its nib is soft and forked in the middle, allowing you to draw lines of varying thickness by applying pressure with your hand.

It is quite difficult to master.

Fortunately, the original owner had experience using G-Pen when drawing "The War Between Gods and Humans," which gave Higashino Hibiki some foundation.

Otherwise, it would take at least two months of practice before one could use the g-pen normally.

Hibiki Higashino was so engrossed in painting that he lost track of time until Akira Toriyama came to his studio to tell him it was time for lunch.

“Drawing comics is quite fun,” he told Akemi Akemi.

“Of course it’s fun!” Akemi Akemi replied matter-of-factly.

Otherwise, a young lady like her wouldn't have come to the countryside.

Isn't it nice for teachers to teach students comfortably?

With his father's great fame, no matter how capable he is, he can still be touted as a great painter.

The profession of painter is much harder to distinguish than that of writer.

……

Time passed, and by Thursday afternoon, the latest chapter of Dragon Ball Z had finally come to an end.

The next three days were for Akira Toriyama to brainstorm storyboards, and Hibiki Higashino and the others did not need to help.

As the most talented manga artist, Akira Toriyama didn't need Hibiki Higashino's "sudden inspiration."

He probably already had ideas about the end of Z during that summer of 1993.

Before drawing manga, Akira Toriyama worked designing flyers and posters.

He believes this profession is free and creative.

Unfortunately, there's another layer of leadership above, and then there's the client.

They would make other demands, seriously interfering with Akira Toriyama's creative freedom.

So, he, who came from a rural background, quit his job after working for three years.

Next came drawing comics.

"I wish I could draw whatever I wanted, but that's not how the business model works. Comics are no longer something the author can control. To be honest, I don't like the Dragon Ball comic."

Akira Toriyama, the creator of the world's most valuable comic book, said this.

Chapter 11 Xiaozheng's Academic Performance

Once a comic is published in a commercial magazine, the work is no longer the exclusive property of the author.

Therefore, the direction of a work can be influenced by many people, and the ending of the work is beyond one's own control.

Akira Toriyama also suffered because of this.

"So, will Dragon Ball end in 1995?" Hibiki Higashino wondered.

Eiichiro Oda has also said that he will not start a long-running series after One Piece ends.

It really hurts.

……

Friday afternoon at 5 pm, dinner at Akira Toriyama's house.

“Torishima is a very strict person,” Akira Toriyama said, waving his chopsticks at the table, “I drew 500 original manuscripts in two years to make it possible for the serialization, 500! And he rejected them all!”

"Oh dear~" Mrs. Toriyama covered her face in embarrassment at her husband's rude behavior.

“500…that sounds painful…” Higashino nodded.

"Right! It hurts! It hurts so much!"

A grown man has been unemployed for two years, staying at home drawing comics non-stop, and he doesn't even know if he'll achieve anything.

It was really tough.

"However... thanks to him, I was able to draw Dr. Slump."

Higashino recited, “When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it will first test his mind, strain his muscles and bones, starve his body, leave him destitute, and thwart his plans, so as to strengthen his resolve and increase his abilities.”

Akira Toriyama nodded. "That makes sense."

Akemi Akemi patted Hibiki Higashino on the shoulder and said proudly, "You memorized it really well! It seems you've been studying very effectively. I have high hopes for you, teacher!"