The Megatokyo
online comic has been the most successful of its kind, but it's a long
way from being the only one. Artists have embraced the web comic idea for
its flexibility, low cost and lack of deadlines. Some of the manga and
anime-themed web comic creators got together on NekoCon's first day. From
left to right they're Jason Waltrip and T. Campbell, who work on the Faans
comic, Kara Dennison of Conscrew,
and Gregory Eatroff, another member of the Faans team. They work on each
others' projects and pretty much fell into the same mess through a common
link; they have ties to a college sci-fi club that was known to get crazy
on occasion.
Faans started
as a five-issue printed comic, then moved to the web when the stories got
really strange and moved to the odd environment of sci-fi conventions.
"It'll take another year to finish Faans," said Campbell. "It will end
in 2004 - when in 2004 is up to debate. It was never meant to go on forever.
In the early days I figured we'd go on for ten years, but when we saw the
sales figures for the comic book we thought more like five months. I think
the five-year period was decided somewhere in the middle of the fourth
story line, the Hyperman thing." Not only is Faans a sometimes-loving look
at the real world of sci-fi fandom, it's Campbell's way of doing something
different from superhero stories.
Conscrew
started as vignettes about anime convention life as seen by a group of
fangirls, then turned into a wild epic about the "fifth floor of debauchery"
at a convention (which may or may not have been fiction). "I actually want
to dig into my characters, which is scary - especially Mimi, when you go
under her bed and look at the doujin she's been reading," Dennison said.
"I'm still surprised at Conscrew because of the fans I've made," referring
to the people whom she featured in the online comic who went up to her
and introduced themselves. As for the convention takeover stories, "All
of the characters started wandering away from me. They started doing things
I didn't want them to do. Characters start yelling at you in the back of
your head because you haven't featured them recently. We do have stories
plotted out! I do have this story line plotted out but not drawn. I know
how it's going to start but not how it's going to finish."
The Megatokyo
online comic has been the most successful of its kind, but it's a long
way from being the only one. Artists have embraced the web comic idea for
its flexibility, low cost and lack of deadlines. Some of the manga and
anime-themed web comic creators got together on NekoCon's first day. From
left to right they're Jason Waltrip and T. Campbell, who work on the 
Faans started
as a five-issue printed comic, then moved to the web when the stories got
really strange and moved to the odd environment of sci-fi conventions.
"It'll take another year to finish Faans," said Campbell. "It will end
in 2004 - when in 2004 is up to debate. It was never meant to go on forever.
In the early days I figured we'd go on for ten years, but when we saw the
sales figures for the comic book we thought more like five months. I think
the five-year period was decided somewhere in the middle of the fourth
story line, the Hyperman thing." Not only is Faans a sometimes-loving look
at the real world of sci-fi fandom, it's Campbell's way of doing something
different from superhero stories.
Conscrew
started as vignettes about anime convention life as seen by a group of
fangirls, then turned into a wild epic about the "fifth floor of debauchery"
at a convention (which may or may not have been fiction). "I actually want
to dig into my characters, which is scary - especially Mimi, when you go
under her bed and look at the doujin she's been reading," Dennison said.
"I'm still surprised at Conscrew because of the fans I've made," referring
to the people whom she featured in the online comic who went up to her
and introduced themselves. As for the convention takeover stories, "All
of the characters started wandering away from me. They started doing things
I didn't want them to do. Characters start yelling at you in the back of
your head because you haven't featured them recently. We do have stories
plotted out! I do have this story line plotted out but not drawn. I know
how it's going to start but not how it's going to finish."
