Wow~打破“次元壁”，一起“穿书”！

What kind of comics were popular in the early 20th century? Who were the comic stars 90 years ago? And on what platforms did young people of that time read comics? When it comes to these topics, “Modern Sketch”, which was founded in 1934, is a publication that cannot be ignored.

Today Binbin will start time-travelling with the book. Let’s embark on a “journey of creativity of Chinese cartoons” and start our adventure together!

The first chapter we’ve arrived at is “The Comic Knight”. Inside the showcase, there stands a handsome “Comic Knight” with a red heart, which originated from the cover of the first issue of “Modern Sketch” and was created by Mr. Zhang Guangyu. Making paper as a horse, ink as a body, and a pen as a spear, he combined the common tools of a comic artist into this “Knight”.

The “Comic Knight” embodied the spirit of “Modern Sketch” and described life, satirized social phenomena, criticized current ills, and fought against aggression with brushes, fulfilling the cultural mission of that era with a high sense of responsibility.

Let’s learn the history of “Modern Sketch” together with this “Comic Knight”. As a comprehensive illustrated publication focusing on comics, featuring a mix of text and pictures, it was known as “the first satirical and humorous illustrated magazine of China”. Over a period of more than two years, it had experienced suspension, revival, and eventual closure of the publication, publishing a total of 39 issues, collecting 1,860 comic works, and attracting 472 contributing authors.

The “Modern Sketch”, which emerged from its era, also ended with that era. However, its 39 issues left an inexhaustible treasure for future generations, including the well-known “Mr. Wang” and “San Mao”, among which “Mr. Wang”, created by Ye Qianyu, was a “comic star” popular among young people at that time and was later adapted into a series of films.

To experience the “two-dimensional” life 90 years ago, Binbin has come to the second chapter: “The Kaleidoscope of Times”. Standing at the intersection of the era, Binbin was greeted by a kaleidoscopic world, with complex and cruel social realities on the right and resplendent modern life on the left.

Various humanoid signs originating from Zhang Yingchao’s work “Bright Lips of the August” published in “Modern Sketch” truly bring to life the comic style of “dreams coming true”, giving people a chance to know the fashion and trends from almost a century ago.

As one goes deeper inside, the scene of Huang Yao’s “Courtship” is reproduced, with the protagonist seated on a chair being courted, who can possibly be anyone.

There are many other interactive installations including “Rotating Blocks to Guess Celebrities”, “Draw Your Ox Nose”, “Puppet on Strings”, and so on.

What impressed Binbin most was the “Open Reader’s Mailbox” that excerpted some readers’ questions. For example, Ms. Mai Lvzhi from Hangzhou had asked, “Are there any female comic artists? Who are they? What ages are the well-known comic artists?” After opening the mailbox, the reply from the publication can be found inside: “I once saw Ms. Ding Jingying in the Morning News Comics. I heard she is very young and still a student, with only a few works published. The ages of the artists range from nineteen to forty. In the future, we plan to publish biographies of the artists, which will undoubtedly arouse more interest among the authors.”

To echo the “Open Mailbox”, a white mailbox has been set up at the scene, allowing visitors to leave messages to interact.

After the mailbox, we arrived at the final chapter of “Scatter and Shine Like Stars in the Sky”, which provides detailed introductions to the key members of “Modern Sketch”, including what they continued to do after the publication ceased. For example, Zhang Guangyu designed the prototype of Sun Wukong for the animated film “The Monkey King”, and most images of Sun Wukong we see later are simplified and upgraded based on his design.

Here, we can also witness the significant evolution of comics throughout different eras, from newspapers to picture serials, then to comic magazines and to the digital comics we are familiar with, and finally settling on the electronic screens.

There is a content during the process of development that has caught Binbin’s attention. The “China Modern Humorous Cartoon Exhibition” founded in 1990 has been held twice before, and after so many years, the third exhibition will be held in the China Cartoon and Animation Museum.

It is said that this exhibition has invited entries from 29 countries and regions both home and abroad and has selected nearly 300 works, among which AI paintings are also included. Meanwhile, there are quite a lot of installations inspired by the artworks on display, which will bring smiles to visitors.