Chapter Sixty-One: The Ambitions of the Comic Empire

After careful consideration, William White ultimately decided not to base the headquarters of his comic company in America. The largest market for comics was undoubtedly Japan, but unfortunately, they were highly exclusionary. Despite their economic prowess, have you ever seen the headquarters of an international corporation in Tokyo? There were few even for Asian regional branches.

Another suitable location was Australia. Transportation there was extremely convenient, and it was also very close to Japan in terms of direct distance. William White had no intention of coveting American comic characters; the American comic industry had already established its own fixed pattern, with a set universe into which every character could be fitted.

Why did Japanese comic adaptations into film fail to succeed? Firstly, there was never one dominant company, so comic characters naturally had no connections to each other. It was fine to make animated series, but when adapted into movies, the scope always felt too small. The plots were also rather monotonous. Ultraman fighting little monsters was a bit far-fetched; the origin of Ultraman was never clearly explained, and every time he fought until he ran out of power. Couldn’t they just give him a more reliable battery?

The only relatively successful one was Godzilla, but that had little to do with comics—by then, it had already been altered beyond recognition. That particular film was actually quite well made and even left a teaser at the end. Unfortunately, it coincided with 9/11, so continuing to demolish buildings in New York was no longer appropriate. The damned sequel kept getting delayed, ultimately exhausting all its popularity.

At this time, Japanese comics had yet to rise to prominence. Many famous IPs were still unknown. This was a golden opportunity for easy profits; not seizing it would be a disservice to everyone involved.

To avoid exorbitant taxes, William White’s comic company was structured rather intricately. The company was registered in the Virgin Islands, with its headquarters in Darwin, Australia, and studios in both Japan and Los Angeles.

William White was not yet a prominent figure, and the company he named Viking Pirates attracted little attention. Having money made things easier. A nearly bankrupt printing factory in Darwin was quickly transformed into the comic company's headquarters.

Australia did have large companies, but they were either in Sydney or Melbourne. Darwin, located in the subtropical zone, had precious little industry aside from a handful of tourism projects. But it did have one notable feature: a large Japanese immigrant population.

If you didn’t want your comics ruined by poor translation, the best option was to recruit Japanese expatriates who had lived abroad for years. They learned English without relying on phonetic scripts and could communicate perfectly well in English among themselves; with a university degree, they handled it with ease.

If you were an American, you’d be lucky to understand half of their conversation—and much of that would be guesswork. This was no joke: Japanese living abroad had to relearn the language, as the English taught back home was incomprehensible to native speakers. Their spoken English was poor, but their reading and writing were passable. Their vocabulary was particularly impressive; even Chinese undergraduates couldn’t compete. This wasn’t because they were exceptionally talented—Japanese itself was a hybrid language, made up of roughly a third native words, a third Chinese characters, and a significant portion of loanwords.

Almost all household appliances had names that were direct translations from English; more refined terms were drawn from Chinese, and anything related to advanced technology was straight-up English. Darwin was a great place for this; many Japanese had lived there for over a decade and could handle translation work proficiently. The printing factory could also hire Japanese workers, who were much more diligent than Australians.

American workers were lazy, but Australians were another matter entirely. Could you expect the descendants of convicts to be hardworking? Don’t kid yourself. Australia was rich in resources, but did you ever see them develop much industry? In a country so uninterested in even mining, could you expect them to be enthusiastic about work? Australia wasn’t like America; they had excellent social welfare. Although not as extravagant as Scandinavia, basic support was more than adequate.

Fortunately, Darwin was an exception. There were many Asian immigrants—mostly Japanese, but also a fair number of Chinese. The printing factory didn’t require much manual labor, as the work was fairly technical.

In the 1980s, color comic pages were rare. Heidelberg presses were still luxury items, and the quality of coated paper left much to be desired—most of it looked like something off a flea market stall. Sure, you could argue that printing quality didn’t matter, that content was king in comics. That might be true, but if your content was as outstanding as your print quality, consumers would never hesitate to open their wallets.

As with all American industries, comics had entered a period of decline, while at the same time, Japanese industry was developing rapidly, and the comic industry was about to enter its golden age. At this point, Japanese comics were still limited to the likes of Astro Boy and Gundam mecha. But starting in the 1980s, a wave of classic comics began to emerge.

If Fist of the North Star still bore traces of American culture, Dragon Ball had already thrown all logic out the window, appropriating good things from around the world and making them their own. Like their language, Japanese culture was originally quite sparse, but they had an incredible knack for integrating the best of others and making it their own.

This kind of cultural fusion was something they actually learned from China. Don’t think China had no loanwords—terms for geography, history, and nature almost all came from Japan, but who acknowledges this now? Before 1954, these words didn’t exist in China. Well, since the Japanese used Chinese characters, it was essentially like helping the Chinese invent new words, so their contribution went unrecognized.

Besides, no one really knows who taught them initially; their errors were numerous. For instance, “benkyo” meant “study” in Japanese, but in Chinese, it meant “reluctant.” Was it Wu Dalang who taught them Chinese, or were there transcription errors in Buddhist texts?

On the eve of the Japanese comic boom, William White decided to make a quick killing. He felt no guilt about appropriating Japanese ideas; after all, all transmigrators were shameless—otherwise, they’d have been discovered and sent back long ago.

Wealth had its advantages. All he needed to do was devise the plan; the specifics could be handled by others. Otherwise, even managing a single farm would have been enough to drive him mad, let alone anything else.

Uncle Fook wasn’t particularly surprised by William White’s actions. He’d thought the young master was planning to get into underground comics, which truly wouldn’t have been appropriate to base in the United States.

Fredric Wertham had wanted to destroy all comics. In his eyes, every social ill was the fault of comics. He did, in fact, destroy 75% of the industry, and even children’s comics were burned by their parents. Despite these achievements, no one noticed a drop in crime rates. It seemed crime was only tied to the economy; when economic conditions worsened, public order declined.

Times had changed. The children poisoned by Fredric Wertham had grown up. Their beloved comic books had been destroyed, leaving deep psychological scars. Now, those children were ready to take their revenge.