Illustration:
ill. 6.37 a (set: 6.34)
Author:
Zhao Hongben (1915-2000) 赵宏本
Date:
1962
Genre:
comic, comic book, comic strip
Material:
scan, paper, black-and-white; original source: woodblock print
Source:
SWKSDBGJ 1962: Sun Wukong san da baigujing 孙悟空三打白骨精 (Sun Wukong thrice defeats the white-boned demon). Shanghai: Shanghai meishu, 1962/4:35.
Keywords:
Sun Wukong, Journey to the West, Mao Zedong, hero, heroism, visualisation, iconography, criticism, comic

Zhao Hongben: Sun Wukong thrice defeats the white-boned Demon 1962 (Zhao Hongben: Sun Wukong san da baigujing 赵宏本: 孙悟空三打白骨精)

In the 1972 version, Sun Wukong is equipped with greater and much more dramatic fighting presence than in the earlier version. The panels are modified such that Monkey King becomes the dominant focus. In one case, for example, the background is reduced in order to make more space for more of Sun Wukong (ill. 6.37a&b). Moreover, a second panel is added to the scene, putting him, who has just defeated the old woman demon, in dramatic pose, squarely in the center (ill. 6.37c). The new version of a final fight with the demon shows Sun changed into five monkeys not only once but repeatedly (Comics SWKSDBGJ 1972, 112). This panel further substitutes a panel from the original version in which Monkey King is seen from the back, and actually has him kill the demon much more dramatically in a fire (ill. 6.38 a&b). Comparatively speaking, however, and although each of the added eight panels is to his credit, Sun does not gain all that much from revisions on his behalf.