During the Republic of China, Zhao Hongben lived at the bottom of society and earned a living by working every day. When I was six years old, I found it difficult to make a living in the rural areas of northern Jiangsu and went to Tianjin with my parents. Tianjin is rich in local culture. During the Spring Festival, the lanterns on the street were painted with Yangliuqing opera characters, which fascinated Zhao Hongben. Go home and copy into a painting, from interest to hobby, and devote yourself tirelessly. After living in Tianjin for two or three years, I dropped out of school and followed my parents to the beach of Shili Sheep Farm. Relying on the pie stall of Big Brother, Zhao Hongben took a basket to the streets every morning to sell "pie fritters". In his spare time, Zhao Hongben never gave up the habit of painting and distributed it to his neighbors on holidays. To encourage him, his neighbor gave him 20 cents for paper and pencil. Later, Mr. Wang led him to Fuzhou Road, set up a word stand, and drew reference study materials "Mustard Garden" and "Atlas of 100 Celebrities in Qing Dynasty". Teacher Wang taught him landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting, and the painter painted the nose first. Zhao Hongben also went to the "Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts" in Tangjiawan, southern Shanghai, to consult and enroll in an American school. He gave up because the entrance threshold was too high.

193 1 year, Zhao Hongben went to Zhabei to learn painting from a senior in wang xing. When the two sides met, Mr. Wang interviewed on the spot and decided to stay. Zhao Hongben took a pen and drew a picture of Yue Fei Xiu Xiang, which stunned Mr. Wang, made a decision and made a "contract". Three months after "training", Zhao Hongben officially performed on stage. I drew the teacher's script, but it was also bought by the bookstore and sold for 20 cents. In the days to come, I will draw one book after another for my teacher. Zhao Hongben's creative skills are constantly improving, and the prices of draft books sold by artists are also rising. However, Zhao Hongben suffered exploitation for four years.

Finally, in June of 1939, under the guidance of experts, according to the rules of Jianghu, Zhao Hongben spent the 300 yuan Ocean, pulled two tables (held two high-end banquets, and invited relevant personages and industry representatives from both sides), and staged a thank-you drama of "The height of the road is one foot and the height of the magic is one foot". Zhao Hongben jumped out of the fire pit and ended his eight-year apprenticeship. In the comic book circle of the Republic of China, there are four biographies of American celebrities, among which Zhao Hongben ranks first, followed by Shen Manyun, Qian Xiaodai and Chen Guangyi, which is a ranking based on sales volume.

As a teenager, Zhao Hongben entered the society and made a living by drawing cartoons. Because he lives at the bottom of society and observes the sufferings of the working people, most of his paintings are based on ethnic and social contradictions, which is beneficial to and puzzles people. These pictures bring profits to booksellers. Zhao Hongben's salary standard is the highest among his peers. In the era of strong enemy invasion, prices soared and market prices were different sooner or later. In order to preserve the value, his paintings did not fall in price, and the food price of that day was the standard for settlement. This special case embodies the value of Zhao Hongben.

1940 In the summer and autumn, at the suggestion of Mr. Hu and the initiative of Zhao Hongben, he came forward to unite a group of cartoonists and set up a cartoonist association, with more than 20 members including Hu Jingping, Zhao and so on. Zhao Hongben was elected as the president, with the purpose of uniting painters, observing and learning from each other, and studying and improving the level of comic creation. He also rented a house in Shikumen Lane as a clubhouse, and the old educator Chen Heqin wrote an inscription for the establishment of the association. Since then, colleagues have been creating cartoons with patriotic thoughts. Under the guidance of the underground party, Comrade Zhong organized progressive writers at that time to measure Zhao Hongben. Give the prepared script to the painter to make a special contribution. Prior to this, there was no such procedure between bookstores and painters.

During this period, Zhao Hongben painted many realistic pictures of China's historical stories, including the martyrdom of Jiading Santu, Qi Jiguang and Zhang Xun, the hero of the sea (Zheng Chenggong) (adapted from A Ying's script) and the thunderstorm of Cao Yu.

From the autumn of 1940 to the summer of 1942, the picture books published by chain bookstores include The True Story of Ah Q adapted from Lu Xun's novels, the Soviet novels Watching Shanghai, Heaven and Hell, Shi Kefa, Meihualing and Ten Days of Yangzhou with anti-Qing themes in the late Ming Dynasty. This kind of "imperial system" has a great influence on society and painting. 194 1 During the fall of the British-French Concession, Zhao Hongben painted the classic stories Endless, Revenge Comes, Wenwu Fortune, and the heroic stories of robbing the rich to help the poor and killing the corrupt official Thanos, Little Clipper and Little Messenger. When War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was about to win, Zhao Hongben was introduced to an underground worker. Exposing atrocities1After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in the spring of 946, Zhao Hongben studied sketch and human anatomy with Fan Shen, an art professor at Shanghai Art Center Station, which created a precedent for Shanghai cartoonists and made up for the regret that his predecessors failed to enter the Academy of Fine Arts. On July 1947 and 1, Fan Shen moved into Zhao Hongben's home, and held a ceremony to approve him to become the party member of China.

1949 in the second half of the year, some painters in the painting world began to create new paintings with the image of workers, peasants and soldiers as the main body, and their creative ideas and skills need to be improved urgently. Zhao Hongben is a leading cartoonist in Shanghai. In order to unite painters and improve political quality, the "Shanghai Comic Writers Association" was established under the leadership of the Art Department of the Military Management Committee. Participants include painters, editors and writers. Besides Zhao Hongben, the chief "famous Dan" sought after by the book industry, there are three famous painters, namely Shen Manyun, Qian Xiaodai and Chen Guangyi. 1950 1, Shanghai Comic Writers Association was formally established, and Zhao Hongben was elected as its chairman. With the support of Shanghai Artists Association (the predecessor of Shanghai Artists Association), 35 representative works with revolutionary stories were selected and adapted into comic scripts, and comic writers and bookstores were organized to meet together, and scripts were selected on the spot for creation and publication respectively. With the establishment of a publishing institution owned by the whole people in New China, the comic book creation group of Xinhua Bookstore under the guidance of Zhao Hongben went through East China People's Publishing House-East China People's Fine Arts Publishing House-New Fine Arts Publishing House, and was finally named Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House. Zhao Hongben is an administrative leader in the comic workshop, with 70 or 80 people.

Zhao Hongben has lived in Shanghai for decades and lived in the market. There are many picture books reflecting the well-off life in Shanghai. Under this new historical condition, it takes a lot of efforts to get ahead of yourself, finish fine painting without leaving work, draw unconventional paintings, and attract breakthroughs with what "new". He invited Qian Xiaodai, the third "famous Dan", to "travel around the mountains" in Zhejiang, looking for exotic flowers and stones as the background of this ghost story, so as to strengthen the strength of his works.

After nearly two years, 1 10 comic Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon was finally created in 1962. It is inevitable that Zhao Hongben, who lived up to expectations and was thoroughly remoulded and surpassed the Republic of China, was refreshed and won the honor. In order to review the achievements of national comic book publishing since liberation, the first National Comic Book Award was held in Beijing from 65438 to 0963, and Zhao Hongben's Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon won the first prize. In this award, Shanghai comics won nearly half of the awards, and the reputation of comics as "half of the country" also came from this.

Later, Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon was serialized in People's China magazine and translated into English, Japanese, German and French for distribution.

/kloc-in the winter of 0/969, the Shanghai Comic Team was put on the seaside cadre school farm in Fengxian County, and Zhao Hongben was nothing special. They went to the fields to do farm work together and stayed up for three winters. In the tide of respecting the law and criticizing Confucianism, comics have encountered "vitality" again. He picked up a pen and painted Knife Meeting, Shang Yang Reform and other paintings, which lasted for several years. Soon after, Zhao Hongben retired as required.