Frederick M. Gallagher III (born November 15, 1968) is an American illustrator and web cartoonist. He is best known as the artist, co-creator, and now full owner of Megatokyo. He also goes by the name of Piro, the main character of Megatokyo, who he has stated is an idealized version of himself when he was in college.[1] He took this name from that of the cat in the visual novelKanon.[2]
The Fine Red Cat[4] (1993) is a children's book by Jennifer Ann Gallagher, Fred Gallagher's sister. It is notable as the first published work Gallagher illustrated.[5]
The webcomic Megatokyo started its run on August 14, 2000 in collaboration with Rodney Caston, who owned the domain and wrote many of the scripts for the first year and a half, while Gallagher was responsible for the artwork. Due to creative differences,[6] Caston agreed to sell his share in the venture to Gallagher in May 2002.
Megatokyo's success has allowed Gallagher to pursue it as a full-time occupation since October 2002, after being laid off from his job as an architect. Megatokyo in its entirety is available free of charge at the Megatokyo website, with strips being paired with comments from Gallagher. Gallagher's income from the strip comes from advertising, sales of Megatokyo books and merchandise sold through the Megagear store website which he owns.[citation needed]
Since Gallagher attained full control over the strip, it has become more reflective of his vision, with an increasingly complex cast of characters, and a far slower pace than the original strips. The influence of Japanese manga and computer dating sims can be seen in both the character design, plotline and storytelling. While this has earned praise from some critics, it has also alienated some fans of the earlier strips, which were more comical, relying more on humor, slapstick, gags, and simpler storylines.[citation needed]
Fredart
Fredart is a collection of Gallagher's works dating back several years. It includes development sketches from other projects, such as Warmth. Since Megatokyo began, most of the content has been focused on characters from that project.
Fredart Studios LLC is the name of the company that officially owns the trademark to Megatokyo and Fred's other works. Megagear Inc. is the company owned and operated by Fred and his wife Sarah that runs the MegaGear store which sells Megatokyo related merchandise.
envelop(e)
A doujinshi work of Gallagher's from 1999. As he describes it:
Using the format of an illustrated story, 'envelop(e)' tells the story of how a misplaced envelope and love letter causes confusion between childhood friends who never really understood how much they meant to each other before.
Warmth
Warmth is a more serious love story on which Gallagher was working before Megatokyo, but it was pushed into the background when Megatokyo became popular. A few chapters of Warmth were released in the early issues of I.C. Entertainment's AmeriManga magazine. Gallagher has stated a number of times that he has not given up on the property, and will continue it in the future. Gallagher had released a sample (but this was later deleted), and many other drawings that include characters who will be featured in Warmth.
The main characters of Warmth are called Tom Moore, Tobari Saeko, and Shizuhara Eimi. Both Saeko and Eimi have cameos in recent Megatokyo strips.
Blurred
Blurred was a semi-erotic experimental art website, created by Gallagher in 1998 using the pen name "blurri." Gallagher later took it offline for personal reasons, but a discussion on February 2, 2006 on 4chan started a coordinated attempt to discover the contents of this website. On June 8, 2006, Gallagher again allowed public access to the "blurred" site, and mentioned it in his newspost on Megatokyo, in order to end the controversy.[7]
Title TBA
Fred Gallagher announced that, some time in 2007, megagear (the Megatokyo store) would release a mini doujinshi. Little to nothing was known about this project, but it was expected later in the year. "We are looking forward to a great 2007. Megatokyo Volume 5 will be released in the Spring and we have lots of other new items planned including a skateboard deck, the first Megatokyo calendar, clocks, and a mini doujinshi for later in the year."
It is possible that this is an endgames doujinshi. "But maybe 2 regularly delivered comics with everything else you expect from these websites - rants, updates, etc - including some other projects like maybe 'warmth' getting off the ground (and that endgames doujin i want to do)...we'll see."
In 2009, he posted an endgames preview and called it a doujin.
In May 2011, it was announced that Endgames were being revamped in a light novel format, with a story written by webfiction author Thomas Knapp, with four light novels planned.[8] A short story "Behind the Masque" was also announced, and released on Amazon's Kindle Store on June 10, 2011.[9]
At conventions, Fred Gallagher hosts a panel based on the "Naze Nani Megatokyo" ("The Hows and Whys of Megatokyo") omake comic strips,[13] an idea borrowed from an anime series, Martian Successor Nadesico.[14] The panel contained Gallagher ("Piro") and Rodney Caston ("Largo") (before Caston left the project due to creative differences), and was also known to contain Dominic Nguyen ("Dom"). Gallagher has also attended anime conventions outside of the United States. He was Guest of Honour at Ayacon, an anime con located in Northampton, UK, at the start of November 2003.[15] He was slated to appear at the 2006 German convention Connichi in Kassel.[16] However, due to errors in registering his wife's ticket, this was canceled.
↑ Gallagher, Fred (2007-07-10). "Kodansha to publish MT in Japan". Retrieved 2007-07-11. Oh, and by condition i mean that Sarah and I are expecting our first child early this December.:) Or sooner. Or later.
↑ Gallagher, Jennifer Ann (1993). The Fine Red Cat. Greene Bark Press. ISBN1-880851-10-5.
Megatokyo (メガトーキョー) is an English-language webcomic created by Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. Megatokyo debuted on August 14, 2000, and has been written and illustrated solely by Gallagher since July 17, 2002. Gallagher's style of writing and illustration is heavily influenced by Japanese manga. Megatokyo is freely available on its official website. The intended schedule for updates was for postings twice a week, but new comics are typically posted just once or twice a month on non-specific days. In 2011, updates began being delayed further due to the health issues of Sarah Gallagher (Seraphim), Gallagher's wife. Megatokyo was published in book-format by CMX, although the first three volumes were published by Dark Horse. For February 2005, sales of the comic's third printed volume were ranked third on BookScan's list of graphic novels sold in bookstores, then the best showing for an original English-language manga.
Studio Ironcat was a small publishing company based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, dedicated to publication of manga and later, Amerimanga. The company is most known for its publication of the first volume of Megatokyo, a prominent webcomic, as well as the flamboyant style of one of its founders, Steve Bennett. The company was also known for regular turmoil within its wake, primarily during the years 2001–2003. One of these led to a period where the company did business under a different name as I.C. Entertainment.
Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first weekend of July, spanning the course of four days. Anime Expo is regularly hosted at the Los Angeles Convention Center but has also been held in other cities such as Anaheim, San Jose, New York, and Tokyo.
Comic Market, more commonly known as Comiket or Comike, is a semiannual doujinshi convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of doujin (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-run Comic Market Preparatory Committee (ComiketPC). Inaugurated on 21 December 1975 with an estimated 700 attendees, Comiket has since grown to become the largest fan convention in the world, with an estimated turnstile attendance of 750,000 in 2019. Comiket is typically held at Tokyo Big Sight in August and December, with the two events distinguished as Summer Comic Market and Winter Comic Market, respectively.
Yoshitoshi Abe, also stylized as yoshitoshi ABe, is a Japanese graphic artist who works predominantly in anime and manga. He first gained fame in his work on the avant-garde anime Serial Experiments Lain. He is also responsible for the concept and character design for the series NieA_7. He is the creator of the dōjinshi Haibane Renmei, which was also adapted into an anime.
Comic Party, sometimes abbreviated to ComiPa, is a dating sim video game by the Japanese game studio Leaf. It was first released on May 28, 1999, for Windows with adult content, but re-released with it removed for the Dreamcast, Windows, and PSP. The main focus of the game is the creation of various dōjinshi by the player's character, during which there are varied opportunities to interact with a cast of girls.
Nobuteru Yūki is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, animator and doujinshi artist. He has designed characters for manga, anime and video games, and has frequently collaborated with director Kazuki Akane, including on his most famous work, The Vision of Escaflowne. After working at Artland and D.A.S.T., he is currently working as a freelancer.
Haruko Momoi is a Japanese singer, songwriter and voice actress. She also produces an all-female pop group called Afilia Saga. She was born in Tokyo, Japan and is affectionately referred to as Halko by her fans, a nickname she gave herself which is inspired by HAL 9000, the computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kunicon was a series of anime conventions organized by Subarashii Nation and held throughout the United States from December 2004 through June 2005. Originally named "Otakucon", the convention was renamed to "Kunicon" after controversy erupted over the name being similar to Otakon, an anime convention held in Baltimore, Maryland. While Kunicon's original goal was to hold a convention in twelve major cities across the United States, these plans were cut short after 4 conventions as Kunicon continued to be plagued with controversy and cost overruns.
Wendee Lee is an American voice actress, writer, and director.
Frederick Walter Patten was an American writer and historian known for his work in the science fiction, fantasy, anime, manga, and furry fandoms, where he gained great distinction through a substantial contribution to both print and online books, magazines, and other media.
Ugetsu Hakua, is a Japanese artist best known as the conceptual character designer for Burst Angel. More recently, though, he created the main character designs for the anime The Tower of Druaga. Apart from that, he has worked on the visual novel games Magical Girl AI and Samurai Jupiter. He publishes doujinshi under the doujin circle name Yellow Tag. In 2005 he attended Anime Expo as a guest of honor.
Yutaka Minowa is a character designer and animation director who works with Madhouse, a Japanese animation company. His work is recognised in the Yoshiaki Kawajiri movies he has designed characters for, among them Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. He also did the character design and animation direction for the short "Program" in The Animatrix.
Takashi Takeuchi is a Japanese artist. He is notable as the co-founder of the visual novel, anime development and production enterprise Type-Moon, and for his illustrations on the visual novels, Tsukihime and Fate/stay night, which were adapted into an anime and manga series. He has frequently collaborated with fellow game designer Kinoko Nasu. In 2008, they contributed the special scenario to the Sega/Chunsoft Wii visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble, which subsequently received a sequel anime titled Canaan. His real name is Tomotaka Takeuchi.
My-Otome Zwei is a Japanese OVA anime series, created by Sunrise. Directed by Masakazu Obara and written by Hiroyuki Yoshino, it consists of four episodes, which were released across three-month intervals and is the sequel to the original My-Otome anime series. It is published in Japan by Bandai Visual and North America initially by Bandai Entertainment. At Otakon 2013, Funimation Entertainment had announced that they have rescued My-Otome Zwei, along with a handful of other former BEI titles. They also announced at the 2017 New York Comic Con that they will release My-HiMe, My-Otome, and a My-Otome Zwei + My-Otome 0: S.ifr pack, all on Blu-Ray + DVD combo packs on January 8, 2018. They will start pre-orders on October 15, 2017.
AnimeNEXT (AN) is an annual three-day anime convention held at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, New Jersey. The convention was previously held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset, New Jersey, and the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Okashina Okashi – Strange Candy is a webcomic hosted on Comic Genesis, a free hosting provider for webcomics. It is drawn by Emily Snodgrass (Emi-chan) and written by Allison Brownlow (Tanzy), Karen Olympia (Kourin), and J. Baird (Xuanwu). It was started in 2001, with Brownlow as its first writer and Olympia added to the team in October 2001. Baird became the primary author in 2004. The comic celebrated its 1000th strip on April 11, 2013. The comic concluded on July 26, 2018, with a final pin-up on August 2.
A doujinshi printer is a printer that specializes in doujinshi, self-published works. They are mostly active in Japan.
Doujinshi (同人誌), also romanized as dōjinshi, is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of doujin (self-published) works, doujinshi are often derivative of existing works and created by amateurs, though some professional artists participate in order to publish material outside the regular industry.
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