Chapter 148: Exclusive Publication
2023-05-02 Author: Yue Shang Xintou
After leaving the Polo Grounds, Colin smoothly returned to the Newspaper Agency.
Watching the car drive away, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
He had expected Luciano to have something planned along the way, but to his surprise, he was brought back without any trouble.
One could only say, as expected of Luciano, he was truly 'lucky'—and, of course, careful enough.
Shaking his head, Colin tore his gaze away from the retreating car and turned to push open the door of the Newspaper Agency.
*Clang—*
As the sound of the door opening echoed from outside, everyone in the Newspaper Agency looked up.
"Good morning, Mr. Colin."
Jacob, seated at his workbench, paused his coloring and greeted Colin.
Colin walked over to his own desk, casually picked up a letter from the tabletop, and glanced at it before looking up to nod at the workers in the Newspaper Agency. "Good morning, gentlemen."
"The new issue of *Messenger Comics* is fresh off the press..."
Once Colin had sat down, Harry Donenfeld approached him, holding the latest issue of *Messenger Comics*.
Colin took the comic from Harry's hands and casually flipped through its contents.
With the runaway success of *Messenger Comics*, the distribution of the comic book had stabilized at around five hundred thousand copies per issue.
This was an astonishing figure for any Publishing House.
It meant that in New York alone, five out of every seventy people had purchased the *Messenger Comics* published by the Newspaper Agency, and this figure didn't even account for pirated copies.
Currently, the content published in *Messenger Comics* was primarily reprints of the Serialized Story from *The Messenger Newspaper*.
While this certainly saved a lot of effort, it was still a bit too slow for Colin's liking—both for collecting [Faith] and for upgrading his Powers that were still at the [Black Iron] level.
Therefore, after a moment of thought, Colin came up with an idea.
"The sales of *Messenger Comics* have essentially stabilized, but Superman's popularity is far from its peak. Perhaps we should try developing a new comic book. We could print a quarterly publication dedicated exclusively to *Superman*. This would allow readers who missed *The Messenger Newspaper* and *Messenger Comics* to read the Superhero's story in the *Superman* quarterly."
"A publication dedicated exclusively to *Superman*?"
In this era, a publication like *Messenger Comics* was an innovation in itself.
And the exclusive Superman publication Colin spoke of was taking it a step further.
Of course, anyone familiar with later marketing techniques would know that this so-called exclusive publication was, in fact, just another form of Merchandise marketing.
And once the quarterly was released, Superman would become the first superhero in comic book history to have his own dedicated publication.
"That's right."
Colin nodded. His idea for the *Superman* quarterly wasn't simply limited to reprinting the old serialized stories to make more money.
Doing that would make it no different from the first issue of *Messenger Comics*.
In this reprinted, exclusive *Superman* publication, he planned to add two pages of a brand-new Origin Story. This would flesh out Superman's background, which had been glossed over in the newspaper serialization, making his character setting more complete and aligning it more closely with the storyline he was familiar with.
Harry didn't object to Colin's decision to create an exclusive publication for Superman. On the contrary, he also thought it was an excellent idea.
After all, the success of *Messenger Comics* had already proven *Superman*'s potential.
Even if the quarterly's sales weren't as massive as those of *Messenger Comics*, a distribution of two to three hundred thousand copies would still bring a handsome profit to the Newspaper Agency.
"So, what will the title be?" Harry asked eagerly, as soon as Colin finished his description.
"*Superman*."
Since it was a publication exclusively for Superman, there was no need for any other name. The name *Superman* alone was enough to say it all.
With the matter of the *Superman* quarterly settled, Harry immediately began to handle the related preparations.
This included contacting printing factories and making arrangements with every Newsstand, all of which were his responsibility.
Fortunately, the success of *Messenger Comics* had already laid a solid foundation. With this advantage, Harry should be able to arrange everything quickly.
With the quarterly's publication work handed over to a professional, Colin finally had time to open the letter and read its contents.
He tore open the envelope, pulled out the letter inside, and scanned its contents.
The letter was from Disney Studios.
It was mainly to inform him that Disney's first color animation, *Flowers and Trees*, had completed production and was recently released. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood's reaction to an animated film made with color film technology was enthusiastic. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had expressed great interest in the technology used in the short film. Furthermore, to acknowledge Disney's efforts in animated film, it had been confirmed that a Special Academy Award will be granted to Walt Disney.
This was undoubtedly a form of affirmation for Disney.
In the letter, Walt Disney also expressed his regret that Colin couldn't be in Los Angeles to enjoy the premiere of *Flowers and Trees* with them. He also informed him that the animation for *Mickey and Superman* was more than halfway complete. When the animation was finished, he urged Colin to be sure to come to Los Angeles to see the crossover animation.
Several months had passed since Colin had first discussed the crossover animation with Disney, and some time had also passed since Mickey's appearance was serialized in *The Messenger Newspaper*.
The fact that the *Mickey and Superman* animation was only now mostly complete was a testament to the difficulty of animation production in this era.
Especially since Disney was using the still-immature color animation technology, which had significantly delayed the animation's completion time.
Therefore, even though Walt Disney had informed him in the letter that the *Mickey and Superman* animation was mostly finished, Colin's heart remained untroubled by ripples of excitement. It was highly likely that the remaining small portion of animation on Walt Disney's plate would take several more weeks, or even over a month, to complete.
Of course, no matter what, the smooth production of the *Mickey and Superman* crossover animation was good news for Colin.
After all, this would be Superman's first appearance on the big screen.
Even if it was only in the form of an animated short film, the very thought of the Superman from the comic moving was enough to bring a sense of pleasant surprise.
Furthermore, the screening of the animated short film wouldn't be limited to theaters in Hollywood; there were plenty of cinemas in New York City where the short could be shown.
He believed that readers who loved Superman would absolutely not miss the chance to witness Superman take flight in a movie theater with their own eyes.
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