Webcomic Review #1: MegaTokyo

~Hi again. I'm sure you're familiar with the expression, "The best things in life are free", so it's time for me to introduce you to one of my very favorite free things: webcomics!

Webcomics are much like the regular comic strips that you see in the newspaper every day, except that these comics are on the internet. Almost all of them are completely free, and they have several advantages over traditional paper comics. First of all, webcomics are not constrained by a printed medium--they can be as large or as small as the creator desires. They can use color or be in black-and-white; some webcomics are actually edited collections of photographs. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, webcomics don't have to pander to a wide audience, which produces the many bland newspaper comics you see every day that have been recycling the same, carefully non-offensive jokes for decades on end.

As they say around here, taikutsu na! That's Japanese for boring (tai-ku-tsu na, 退 屈 な ).

There are thousands of webcomics out there, but the very best of them are not only well-written and well-drawn (or whatever format is used), but also update on a more-or-less regular schedule. I've been reading webcomics for years now and I have hundreds bookmarked, but there are only a few that I regularly follow and check on. Rather than simply provide you with a list of my favorites, I'm going to sporadically post a review and link to one of my favorite comics. So, without further ado, I present:

^ MEGATOKYO is not the oldest webcomic, but it is one of the best-established. It's been running for over six years now and is up to 875 pages. It is one of the few webcomics that has made a successful transition to print: a few months ago while volunteering at Eva Perry Library, I came across MegaTokyo Volumes 1 and 2.

NAME: MegaTokyo
FORMAT: Variable multipanel, black-and-white
GENRE: modern with scifi/fantastical elements
UPDATES: Usually Mon-Wed-Fri

^ MEGATOKYO follows the adventures of two clueless Americans who accidentally fly to Tokyo and find themselves with insufficient funds to return to the U.S. They settle into life in Japan in their own bizarre ways. Largo, the obsessive gamer of the duo, somehow gets a job as an English teacher despite the fact that he speaks no Japanese (does this sound familiar to you?). He proceeds to teach his students how to play video games and speak in l33t. Piro, an obsessive fan of Japanese animation, becomes involved with many women for all the wrong reasons. Supporting characters include Godzilla, a professional ninja, and a pair of video game company employees who are actually heavily-armed corporate operatives.

The art style of MegaTokyo varies widely: character art tends to be minimalist, with rounded heads and tiny eyes and mouths, while backgrounds and objects are very well detailed. The storyline is often quite slow (it IS 875 pages long, after all), and is sometimes supplemented with joke pages that consist of stick figures. The webcomic is extremely popular and has hundreds of thousands of regular readers. This has allowed the artist/writer, Fred Gallagher, become one of the few self-supporting webcomic creators; he works full-time on the webcomic (much like newspaper comic artists) and makes money from book sales, merchandising and advertising on the website.

I'll post reviews of new webcomics when I get around to it. I have about 30 links in my 'Best Webcomics' bookmark folder, so there's no lack of choices. ~Oyasumi!