Vietnamese comic makes crowd-funded comeback

Nguyen Quang Huy has been waiting for 10 years for the return of his favourite comic, entitled Long Than Tuong (The Dragon General).
Nguyen Quang Huy has been waiting for 10 years for the return of hisfavourite comic, entitled Long Than Tuong (The Dragon General).

Holdingthe book in his hands, Huy said he hasn't been so eager to read acomic, especially a Vietnamese comic, for a long time, as he had gotused to reading Japanese and Korean comics.

The first of fivevolumes of Long Than Tuong was released in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh Citylast weekend. It must have come up to readers' expectations as they aresponsoring the book's production and distribution.

Thecrowd-funded book is a historical story, with some fictional details,about a young man named Long (Dragon) who lived during the reign of theTran Dynasty (1225-1400), when the country was facing the secondMongolian invasion. This period saw one of the most heroic chaptersscripted in the nation's history.

Long's mission is to help thecourt fight the invaders. He is granted some magical powers and trainedto complete the mission. The authors wanted to give readers a peek intothe history of resistance in the country, and the glorious victories wonagainst invaders.

Part of the comic was printed 10 years ago andwas welcomed by readers, but unfortunately, the book's continuation wasinterrupted.

The authors of the book, including painters NguyenThanh Phong and Nguyen My Anh, and playwright Nguyen Khanh Duong, thenasked the readers to make financial contributions to help the book'spublication.

Along with the comic book, the readers will receive aposter, a handwritten letter of thanks from the authors and othersouvenirs, depending on how much money they donate.

The authorsstarted the crowd-funding project in April, hoping to raise 300 millionVND (14,280 USD). In two months, they received 330 million VND.

This is the first crowd-funded comic to be published in Vietnam.

PainterNguyen Thanh Phong, the initiator of the project, said that they hopethe readers will help them to bring out a high-quality product, not onlyby contributing money, but also ideas that can be incorporated.

ResearcherTran Quang Duc helped the authors to decide the attire and pictures ofthe book's characters. Duc, 29, is the youngest scholar on Vietnamesecostumes, and published the book, Ngan Nam Ao Mu (A Study of Costumes in1,000 Years) last year.

The fact is that Vietnamese readersdon't have many historical stories to read. And the comic market isdominated by Japanese and Korean authors. So the project to make a comicseries featuring Vietnamese history has received favourable responseand encouragement from the public, said Duong.

They have so far sold 2,000 copies of the book.-VNA

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