Ganging up on Disney (2)

Artist's ambition

Spending over 10 years constructing an imaginary world and completing a story in the comic world is not rare, especially in Japan. However, it has never been done in China.

As Rabbit Gang still regularly appears in its serialized form in Comic World, Wei's ambition is to spend at least another four years on the story.

For Wei, the general atmosphere in the market where investors look for a fast return on investment and audiences change preference all the time does not encourage cartoonists to maintain patience on one project.

Take for example the huge business success of A Li, a fox character and Zhang Xiaohe, a square-headed doll: Both became popular purely for their cute images rather than storylines. As a result, many cartoonists have gone looking for their own fast way to catch the public's attention.

Wei signed with the Guangzhou's company Comic Fans (which owns both comic magazines mentioned earlier) for publication and has a contract with Toonmax for television series and film productions as well as brand development.

The film project is scheduled to be completed in 2016. However, Wei does not think too much about any of these future business plans. "The job for me is to concentrate on painting and trust my partners," he said.