Chereads / Journey from Comics to Media Empire / Chapter 2 - Learning and Progress

Chapter 2 - Learning and Progress

[April 19, 1975]

- - At Newgate mansion - -

- - Robert's POV - -

After the work, I came to home. Then I saw the kid coming down with the folder. I remembered that he said about showing his little project he's working on.

Then I sat on sofa, he too came and put the folder on the table and sat beside me.

I greeted and asked when he was going to show the secret project.

Then he gave the folder to me to look for the opinion.

I was amused and looked into it. At first I thought he was like any other kid with some good brain, but when I was going through page by page, I got astonished that a kid can prepare such an idea. I finished looking into it.

Then turned to kid and looked at his face and asked are you sure it was done you. He replied proudly that he took him almost three months to finish the work.

Damn! I knew that he was preparing this plan for months, but this is another level.

Then we discussed like why their powers are like this, how they work, what type of theme is this, why did he choose this and how many types of these characters are going to appear.

When he said that he chooses the topic because he saw a greeting card when they on the tour on his birthday and how he thought about making his own cards and drew them.

But because he thought that his greeting cards should be special so he gave them a story.

I thought that it was already good that he thought about making cards but making a story to make them special is … what can I say that is very child like and also somewhat what a businessman would do.

After the dinner, we went our respective rooms to rest and continue the topic tomorrow.

Sigh! When I think back, he does have his father's business acumen and his mother's talent for learning.

When I heard of their accident and I rushed to hospital to only find my brother's life on fine thread and his wife dead and them both protecting their 2-year-old child from harm and their sacrifice.

Sigh… Brother, I wish you could see that your son is so much like his father and mother. I will keep my promise to make sure he lives a happy life and pursue his dreams without worry.

- - Next day - -

After the breakfast I (Edward) and uncle Rob had a discussion and resolved the problems in the plan.

He then said "This Care Bears project and its copyright should belong to you, so I am going to create a company; and the copyrights of your works will be in the company name and you kid will have all the rights as a creator. Also, you can get to choose to whom the licence will be given. What do you think, kid?"

Then I looked at shocked and thought 'Damn! Uncle, you are going to such lengths and create a company to a 3-4 year old kid. What the heck is going on your mind???' and asked "Uncle… what is a company?... licence… I don't understand."

He looked at me said "Don't worry kid, you will understand in the future. Now tell me a name or a word you like very much so, I will name the company with that. Don't worry and say what you think is cool."

I said "You want me to say name, Uncle… then how about GALAXY! I read it in a book. The book said it is so large and I think it is cool!"

He smirked and said "Okay, kid. This is cool. Go and play yourself kid and I will make this project yours by getting it copyrighted."

I replied "Okay, Uncle!" and then went to my room and lied on the bed thinking about the name I said GALAXY… I thought of it when he said about naming the company. Now I think, it feels kinda good and cool. GALAXY… Under its name will my works spread to all over the earth…

Then I thought about my second work title… so I looked around the room to get some inspiration to plagiarise some works that I could remember.

There I saw a horse toy. After looking at it for some time I thought of the franchise of Hasbro Toy Company My Little Pony.

Damn! I feel sorry for the Hasbro Toy company, but who can say no; to more money. According to my age I feel that My Little Pony is perfect and is somewhat similar to Care Bears which can be led to childlike fantasy stories.

This will take at most a month, as to remember the details and with my previous work Care Bears gave me some experience. So, it will be finished quickly.

I thought of another work title which will be my third; but then again, why should I always focus on work, I should also focus on improving my skills and also enjoy the childhood without effecting my learning.

 

- - One Year Later - -

Its been a year since I had debuted my first title Care Bears and GALAXY company gave licence to Newgate Toys which has produced the cards and toys and released them during Christmas. 

They have also asked to produce animation with season 1 according to my picture book; with friendship and moral stories as its theme to Hanna-Barbera studios. CBS purchased the licence to it for 10 years with my Uncle's connections. CBS also aired them during Christmas which turned out to be a massive hit.

It earned good ratings and also boosted the image. This gave Newgate Toys and GALAXY company lots of profit.

Money from licence for each episode got $500,000 minus production cost $210,000; a profit of $290,000. For 24 episodes GALAXY company earned nearly $7,000,000 which is a great amount of money in this time period.

Not only that toys and greeting cards from our family NewGates stores also earned about a lot as a small toy is sold for $3.99 to $5.99 and a big one for $11.99 to $15.99. A total of nearly 2 million toys sold earning a profit around $9,000,000.

Not only toys got sold but also greetings, they earned nearly $3,000,000 in profits.

Damn! Got a lot of money but Uncle made some preparation for Tax payments still more than ten million left in the company account after tax cuts.

I also gave my second work title My Little Pony a month later i.e., during summer break, he also made the same preparation like Care Bears. They got produced by Hanna-Barbera studios and aired in CBS during Christmas along with Care Bears.

They too brought a lot of profit about same as Care Bears but a little less about ten million dollars in profits after tax cut.

A total of more than twenty million dollars are in my company account.

Uncle Rob thought of using that money to buy stocks insted of letting them stay idle for long time and asked me which sector I like, then I said that I like food and drinks.

Then he contacted the best investment firm and asked them to invest in the food and beverage industry.

They choose to buy the stocks of Coco-Cola, Pepsi, KFC, Subway, Wendy's, Taco Bell and McDonalds along with Walmart with the recommendation of stock brokers.

I have also learned a lot of skills and techniques from interacting with Hanna-Barbera studios workers. They did answer my questions and let them observe their skills during the work.

It all happened due to my Uncle knowing the people, all those years in the Hollywood has expanded his connections which helped in the process.

It also made me learn more and improve character design, story writing, plotting, layout, panelling, pencilling, inking, colouring, costumes, extra accessories, motions, emotions conveyed, binding, publishing, distributing, advertising and all about comics and animations from Hanna-Barbera studios and Marvel studios.

During the year, I applied the skills and techniques learned into action.

I completed the second and third season of Care Bears and My little Pony by introducing new characters and refining their appearance which was enough for five years.

I only outlined the timeline of character introduction and theme of the works for each season.

Uncle Rob has contracted 10 Screenwriters with a long term and heavy compensation contract.

He gave them my work and made them refine it properly.

After that he approached and asked me if i have an idea to make a movie for the Care Bears and My little Pony with the Screenwriters.

Then I thought deeply to remember the movie that made impact on me.

So, I said start a movie by introducing new characters early from the second season with a journey to different place or make them visit famous place and plan family drama with their themes respectively.

He looked at me and said that it was a good thing he asked the creator which will make the work easy.

So, I and other screenwriters together put out a simple script for the children to understand and is family friendly.

After a month, when I checking the newspapers as daily habit, I saw an article in the New York magazine by British journalist Nik Cohn 'Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night'.

When I looked at it and lost in thought of where I have heard, then it clicked in my mind about 'Saturday Night Fever' movie which was a blockbuster.

After reading it thorough, I can say thta it has most of the content same as the movie.

Then I noted it down and read the rest of the news to see if I can encounter any other interesting news.

I saw no other interesting things and went to my room to read and improve my skills.

Uncle Rob came home with a gift, Atari's Pong. I took it but felt a bit nostalgia and expressed happiness like any other kid.

Then during the dinner, I said "Uncle, did you see the newspaper today. I saw an interesting news in the magazine. I thought if it was made into a movie it will be impressive!"

"Oh! Then show me after you have finished the dinner and come to my room with it" replied my Uncle after some thought.

After eating and I went to my room and took the todays New York magazine. Then I went to Uncle's room and showed it to him.

He read it for a while and also thought it was interesting and said that he will inquire about it.

I wished him good night and went to my room to sleep.