Megatokyo

Around the year 2000, as a younger, much much nerdier man (I'm still pretty nerdy), I used to read a manga webcomic called megatokyo. Being a regulation anime/manga geek with requisite asian girlfriend to boot this comic obviously appealed to my interests, namely self referential anime/geek/internet humor. It was never really that great, mediocre at best in both writing and art, but it was on the internet, and it was free.

In it's early days, Megatokyo had quite a large following, and equally large forums with an active user base on a wide variety of subjects. My hangout was the art and drawing forum. There were many quite talented manga artists on the forum, which I think was the initial appeal and what drew me to them. It was a place where you could post work and get feedback on your work.

While initially thinking by hanging out there I would learn about new drawing techniques I soon realised it was a very rigid community with a strange hero worship of the better artists. The work was a smattering of weird characters with ears, furries and ubelievably bad work done on lined paper by 15 year olds. I think as time went on I realised the majority of them were really nothing outside of the forums, and staying was detrimental to my creative development. Aside from which I felt I had outgrown the whole manga thing anyway. Eventually I saw the place for what it was: a collection of socially awkward geeks who liked to draw anime characters with ears and jack off to each other's art. Another interesting quirk was no nudity was allowed, a reflection of the very conservative, prudish nature of the forums.

Interestingly my best friend at the time (who I can say, still is my best friend) was into screenwriting, and used to post on the writing forums. He had similar complaints, but I think had the good sense to leave a bit earlier and make quite a bit statement as to why he left. I just kind of slipped away into the night.

Every few years or so I check back on the forums and it was quite interesting seeing the current state of the place. Seemingly ruled with an iron fist by moderators locking down all the threads the place is like a ghost town, about 5 threads that you can actually post in. There seem to be about a million rules that govern the forums, with the moderators doing most of the critiques. Kind of sad as back in the day it was a very active forum.

The forum aside the comic is quite tragic. Rumor has it the guys that made it had a disagreement and parted ways, leaving the creation solely to the artist Fred Gallager. Even back in the day, updates were few and far between, with many excuses as to why (got a job to go to etc), but even after doing it full time it was the same sporadic updates. Nowadays apparently he only updates it every month, and the story is so nonsensical and rambling only the most die hard fans remain. The most active part of the site seems to be the merchandise, of which seems to be the primary focus, with a swag of products selling out to a level to rival even Garfield. Obviously the guy needs to make a living, but it seems he doesn't really care about the narrative or the comic anymore, he's just doing the bare minimum to keep it alive long enough to flog off merchandise to make a living.

It's all kind of sad really.