A Chengdu publisher has agreed to stop publication of a comic book based on Li Xintian's classic novel Sparkling Red Star and pay "appropriate compensation".

During a lawsuit filed in December, the Intermediate People's Court of Chengdu heard that the company published a series of comic books in May 2013 based on the history of China's revolution, including Sparkling Red Star.

Li found out about the books when a fan came from Jinan, Shandong province, for his autograph.

The writer's son Li He told the Huanxi Metropolis Daily newspaper that they then tried to solve the dispute through negotiation with the publisher, but the company denied infringement.

Aging author prevails in bid to protect modern classic

The novel was finished in 1971 and adapted to a film in 1974.

Its main characters Pan Dongzi and Hu Hansan became household names overnight, and even the film's theme song In the Sparkling Red Star I Go to War is still familiar to most people today.

With such a high-profile author, "it would have been easy for the publisher to find the original writer to get authorization before they published the comic books", said Wang Jian, the plaintiff's lawyer.

The writer asked for a public apology and 30,000 yuan ($4,838) in compensation.

Li He said that his father, now 85 years old, has "a benevolent personality" and thought there was no need to have fierce arguments in court.

He said what they truly wanted was not high compensation, but the respect that authors should get and the rights they should enjoy.

"We wanted to ask for only 10,000 yuan at the beginning, before launching the lawsuit, which could only cover the cost to defend our rights," he said.

He also asked the newspaper not to mention the name of the publisher, because "we do not want to bring any trouble to them".

The novel is set in a village friendly to the Red Army in the 1930s and has its main protagonist the young son of a Red Army officer who left behind a red star.

When the evil landlord comes back, the young hero, galvanized by class hatred, goes through a coming-of-age ritual that is part Home Alone and part social awakening.

It was the most popular new film in the waning years of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), said film critic Raymond Zhou.

[email protected]