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Megatokyo Forum FAQ and RULES

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:20 pm
by paarfi
Megatokyo Forum FAQ and RULES

WELCOME --------------------

What is Megatokyo?
Megatokyo is a long-running webcomic written and drawn by Fred Gallagher. You can find the comic here free to read, and you can watch Fred draw it live on Twitch. You can help support it through Fred's Patreon, with Patreon supporters getting to see the latest comic a day early. You can buy Fred's artwork from his Megagear store and Megatokyo books from most booksellers. See below for more details.

Megatokyo! I remember that from [middle school / high school / years ago]. What ever happened to it?
Megatokyo was started in August of 2000 by Fred Gallagher (Piro) and Rodney Caston (Largo). They were linked by Penny Arcade, and things took off fast. Creative differences set in, and Rod's input waned until the partnership was officially dissolved in 2002 and Fred went solo. But the comic was a great success for many years.

Around 2008, life things started happening. Fred and Sarah had a son; Sarah then spent several years fighting and beating a rare form of lymphoma, on top of her existing auto-immune issue; Fred had serious heart problems that required surgery; Sarah's mom died; Fred's dad developed a bad case of Parkinson's; Fred's mom had a series of health problems and then increasingly serious dementia; and on and on. Comic production slipped for years while Fred concentrated on taking care of family, and without regular comics many fans drifted away.

A successful 2013 kickstarter for a Megatokyo Visual Novel led to a difficult game development that took more time away from comic production, as did Fred's efforts to support Megatokyo financially by drawing ever more non-comic illustrations for sale in the Megagear store.

In February 2017, Fred started a Patreon site so fans can help support Megatokyo comic production directly, and that support is helping Fred get back to putting out comics more frequently again. If you were a Megatokyo fan before, now is a great time to come back. If you are new, now is a great time to start. And if you did hang on through the difficult years, thank you.


FORUM STUFF--------------------

What are the forum rules?
In general, nothing has changed from the rules on the old forum.
  • Behavior - Please keep it civil. No flaming, trolling, spamming, racial slurs (including "Jap"), forum wars, excessive profanity, stalking, or harassment. Keep it PG-13. This isn't 4chan or Something Awful forums.
  • Images/Links - Nothing illegal or offensive. No porn, gore, etc. No links to illegally obtained anime, games, music, etc. No browser crashing pranks. Keep it safe for work. If you want to pimp your site, do it in your signature. Keep the size of your signature under control.
  • Posting - No cross posting, double posting (use the Edit button), or excessive formatting. No "First!", "QFT", "In Before Lock", or other spam posts. Please post things to the right forum. If it doesn't seem to fit anywhere else, put it in Megatokyo Central.
  • Reporting - If you see spam or have a problem with a post, use the Report button on the post or PM a mod. If you have a problem with another forum member, take it to PM or PM a mod. Please don't try to play mod. Don't reply to spam.
  • Mods - If you have a problem with a mod, PM that mod first. If you are still not satisfied, PM another mod. Don't complain about mods in threads. Don't restart locked threads. Please be kind to the mods.
  • Spoilers - If you are discussing recent anime or manga, either do it in a thread clearly labelled as spoilery or use the spoiler tags [ spoiler]hide this[/spoiler].
  • Be nice to newbies - Don't laugh at their lack of knowledge or make fun when they say they're confused or ask "Have you see Eva?". Welcome them to this wonderful new experience that you already know.
What happened to the old forum?
We upgraded to a new forum in June 2017 with new forum software and a faster, more stable server. We did not bring forward the posts on the old forum, but you can still see the locked-down old forum if you want to look at an old post. People who had been logged in and visited the old forum within the year prior to the forum move were automatically set up with accounts on the new forum. Anybody else can create a new account, or PM a mod to request bringing their old account over.

I'm confused by the story!
Megatokyo is a big story now, Fred rarely spells things out directly in comic, and he loves layered meanings, so this is not unusual. Discussing, debating (in a friendly fashion) and guessing at what is going on in the story is part of the fun. Feel free to ask on the Story Discussion forum if you like, but you can also check out some of the Wikis and Articles linked below.

What's the artist called again?
His name is Fred Gallagher, but he goes by Piro (pee-row) here on the forums and Fredrin on Twitch and other places. Many of us prefer to just call him Fred. Please do NOT call him Freddy -- that will get your post edited and possibly deleted.


BOOKS --------------------

What books are available?
Fred has published 6 books collecting the Megatokyo comics. Those initial 6 books are now out of print, but there are two Omnibus editions from DarkHorse that collect those 6 books. You can get them at your local bookseller or online from Amazon and other retailers.
Megatokyo Omnibus 1
Megatokyo Omnibus 2

The older books can still be found in various places, and in a number of languages including the rare Japanese translated version of Book 1, published by Kodansha.

There are also a Megatokyo Endgames short story and 5 Megatokyo Endgames light novels, written by Thomas Knapp (aka chemi). These are available in print from Amazon, but also for kindle, nook, and kobo reader.
Behind the Masque (Short Story, kindle only)
Tower of Kartage (Book 1)
Dire Water (Book 2)
Fire Fox (Book 3)
The Daynish Campaign (Book 4)
The Great Underground Empire (Book 5)

When is Megatokyo Book 7 coming out?
Book 7 will come out after Fred has finished the comics for chapter 12. As of mid-2018, he was closing in on the end of the chapter, meaning the book should hopefully be out sometime in 2019.

Can I buy the books directly from Fred?
Fred no longer stocks books in the Megagear store. He will occasionally sell limited quantities of books, signed and with a sketch, but you will have to catch it when it happens.


FRED'S ARTWORK --------------------

Can I watch Fred draw?
Fred live-streams almost all of his drawing work on his Twitch channel. Fred does not have a fixed schedule for when he is drawing, but you can set up Twitch to alert you when he goes live. He will occasionally announce a drawing session on his Twitter or Facebook, but don't rely on it. If you subscribe to Fred's Twitch channel, you get access to several Megatokyo character emotes along with helping to support Megatokyo.

Is there a update schedule?
Nope. Since the Patreon got going, Fred has been putting out 4 comics per month, but they have not been on any set schedule. Back when Megatokyo first started, Fred would put out 2 or 3 comics a week on a regular basis. But his artwork has become much more detailed and complex over the years, so comics take a lot longer to complete now.

How do I know when there's a new comic?
Fred posts new comics to his Patreon site a day early, and announces them on his personal twitter and Megatokyo twitter. He also posts them to the Megatokyo facebook or you can subscribe to the RSS feed from the comic website.

Did Fred go to art school?
He didn't. Fred is actually an architect and worked as one until October 2002. You can see that influence in the buildings and rooms he draws in the backgrounds.

Why doesn't he ink?
Fred feels his artwork loses something when he inks. Lots of comic artists ink their work, and Fred is totally cool with that. He just thinks his art is better in pencil.

Why pencil rather than digital?
Fred has a Cintiq and drew the Megatokyo comic for years digitally. He went back to pencil because he thought his artwork was stagnating and going back to pencil brought some freshness back. He also had the problem that the Cintiq let him zoom in too easily, which led to overdetailing and comics taking longer to draw than they should.

What equipment does Fred use to draw?
Fred draws most of his work with a 0.4mm Pilot S5 mechanical pencil. You can get them from JetPens. He draws on HP InkJet Bright White paper. Comics panels are scanned, cleaned up in Photoshop, and assembled in Illustrator.

When he wants to color a drawing, he will scan the pencil drawing and print it out on Epson Ultra Premium Photo paper using an Epson SureColor P600 printer using pigment ink. He will then color using Copic Sketch markers (he has the (5) 72pen sets) or occasionally with watercolors. The markers would smear the pencil, which is why he scans and prints first.

What cons does Fred appear at?
Fred really only goes to Youmacon in Detroit anymore. The travel, time, and expense have made it difficult for him to go to other cons like he used to.


MERCHANDISE --------------------

Can I buy comics or Fred's artwork?
Fred sells original art and fine art prints though his Megagear store. The original art are one-of-a-kind originals, both of the panels that go into the comics as well as non-comic illustrations. The comic panels are pencil, but the non-comic illustrations are often both in pencil and colored with Copic markers. Fine art prints are prints of these same artwork or of full comics, on fine archival paper and using a high quality printer. The original arts are more expensive than the fine art prints, but they are often worth it.

Will Fred draw something for me?
Fred rarely does commissions. He has too much of his own work to do and is generally uncomfortable drawing characters other than his own. But if you want to ask, the best way is by sending him an email -- fredrin at gmail.com. If you catch him at Youmacon, he will often draw a small charcter sketch for you though.

What about t-shirts and other swag?
T-shirts are available at the Teespring - Megagear store. Fred plans to make MegaTokyo t-shirts and other swag available through other 3rd party vendors as well.

How do I get hold of Fred regarding my Megagear order?
The best thing to do is to email Fred directly -- fredrin at gmail.com. If you have trouble getting ahold of him, please PM paarfi.


MEGATOKYO VISUAL NOVEL --------------------

What ever happened to the visual novel game?
After a very successful kickstarter in 2013, Fred and team started development on the Megatokyo Visual Novel game. It did not go well. Inexperience with game development; Fred learning to delegate and work with a team; major feature creep; a big underestimation of the quantity of artwork required; the realization that only Fred could draw stuff that looked "Megatokyo"; and lots more. By the time some of these issues had improved, the Megatokyo comic had been neglected for too long and Fred couldn't afford to work on the game fulltime anymore. Fred now divides his time between the comic, the visual novel, illustrations, and Lifeā„¢. Fred and team are still working on the game, but it is coming slowly and only part-time.


MEGATOKYO LINKS --------------------

What other Megatokyo websites should I be aware of?

Main Sites
http://www.megatokyo.com/ -- comics free to view
https://www.patreon.com/fredrin -- you can help support Megatokyo.
https://www.twitch.tv/fredrin -- Fred streams his drawing work live
https://www.megagearstore.com/ -- buy megatokyo original arts and prints
https://teespring.com/stores/megagear -- buy megatokyo t-shirts
http://www.megatokyo.it/ -- fan translations of the comic

Social Media
https://twitter.com/fredrin -- Fred's personal twitter
https://twitter.com/megatokyo -- twitter for just megatokyo announcements
https://www.facebook.com/Megatokyo -- the megatokyo facebook
https://www.reddit.com/r/megatokyo/ -- the megatokyo subreddit
https://discord.gg/qSB8FdB -- the megatokyo discord

Artwork
http://fredrin.deviantart.com/ -- deviantArt
https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=494945 -- Pixiv
https://fredrin.tumblr.com/ -- Tumblr

Music and Video
https://www.last.fm/user/fred-rin -- see what music Fred is playing
https://soundcloud.com/fredrin -- more music
https://www.youtube.com/user/fredrin -- Fred's personal YouTube

Wikis and Articles
https://wikitokyo.org/wiki/Wikitokyo -- dapete's megatokyo Wiki
http://rg.megatokyo.info/ -- RayKremer's megatokyo reader's guide
http://docfuture.tumblr.com/tagged/Megatokyo -- madbadger's megatokyo articles

Megatokyo Visual Novel Game
http://vn.megatokyo.com/ -- visual novel status updates
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fr ... novel-game -- the original kickstarter