Ranting to /dev/null

Otakon 2003: Webcomics

I have just a few minutes before heading off to work, so I'll blog for a bit. Again, read this and move forward from there.

On Friday evening I attended a panel entitled "Webcomics vs. Webmanga," which, it was quickly recognized, was merely an excuse to bring all of the most popular webcomic artists together and still maintain something like an anime/manga theme. The persons who made up the panel were, from left to right, Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo, Pontus Masden of LittleGamers, Ian Jones-Quartey of RPG World, and Matt Boyd and Ian McConville of Mac Hall. As you should be able to tell, these and other webcomics now have their own section in my links. Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade, possibly the most popular webcomic, were scheduled to attend but canceled at the last minute.

The panel was a lot of fun, but it became apparent fairly quickly that MegaTokyo has a following of the kind that the others simply do not. There are several obvious reasons for this. MegaTokyo is a single, continuous story, something that all but RPG World are not. Also, MegaTokyo, while fairly consistantly amusing, is not as self-consciously a comedy comic the way all the others are. The fanbase for MegaTokyo is spectacularly rabid, as evidenced by the numerous cosplayers in the audience.

Also, Fred was the oldest person on the panel by at least half a decade, the next oldest probably being Pontus. Fred was a licensed architect for quite a number of years before he got laid off and dedicated himself to MegaTokyo full time. It was pointed out that Pontus, who is Swedish, is actually the only one who works for a living. As the makers of RPG World and Mac Hall are only just out of college - Matt graduated in May, I believe, and I think Ian J. is still in school - this isn't as surprising as it might be. But Fred has got to be doing pretty well for himself. His first print edition of MegaTokyo Episode 0 and 1 sold out all 10k copies in a matter of weeks, and I think the second run is sold out as well. Not bad...

All four webcomics are free to the public, and all seemed to believe that this was something as a matter of conscience. None of them wanted people to have to pay to see the comic, though all except for Fred seemed to have no problem with people wanting to do so anyway. Fred seems completely bewildered by the fact that people actually want to buy things he has made (and as the last drawing he put upon eBay sold for over $800, some of them are apparently willing to pay quite a bit). The panel members basically said that the way the do merchendising is to sell the things that enough people ask for. Most of the merchendising ideas are apparently not original, but fan-suggested.

After attending this panel, I no longer like Little Gamers. After he returned to the comic a few months back, he has basically turned it into a space through which to bash on US policy, mostly foreign though occasionally domestic. He busted on America and Americans fairly consistently, and to my annoyance, generally received rounds of applause from the crowd.

Before the panel, I hadn't read either RPG World or Mac Hall. Mac Hall is basically about a college dorm hall and their antics. It's amusing. RPG World is a continuing story that makes fun of every single SquareSoft game ever. If you don't know anything about Japanese RPGs, this won't be that funny. Also mentioned in the panel was Demonology 101, another continuous story. It's well drawn, the story is mildly interesting (if you go for that kind of thing), and unlike all the rest of them, it's drawn by a girl. Which, as Fred suggested, is probably why the author wasn't at the convention. As a woman, she probably would have a lot more problems with psycho nut-jobs than the guys ever will (and Fred has already had to change his cell number twice).

I may edit this entry later on, as I have to go to work, but that about sums it up for now. It was an enjoyable panel, but not that revolutionary. This, more than anything else I saw that day, was something I already understood.

The other panel I attended was on Miyazaki's Spirited Away, which is the subject of my next post.

Posted by ryan at August 12, 2003 04:37 PM | TrackBack