Fred Gallagher

Frederick Gallagher (born 1969) is an American illustrator who has become a full-time 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", whom he has stated is an idealized version of himself when he was in college.cite web | first=Fred | last=Gallagher | date=June 8, 2006 | title=Fred Gallagher states that the character "Piro" is an idealized version of Gallagher himself when he was in college | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=868 | accessmonthday=July 1 | accessyear=2006] He took this name from the name of the cat in the visual novel "Kanon".cite web |last=Gallagher | first=Fred |date= October, 3, 2001| title= Fred Gallagher talks about the origin of Piro's name in his blog| url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=176| accessmonthday = June 28 | accessyear = 2006]

Gallagher lives with his wife Sarah and son Jack in Ann Arbor, Michigan. [cite web
url = http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=1023
title = "Kodansha to publish MT in Japan"
accessdate = 2007-07-11
last = Gallagher
first = Fred
date = 2007-07-10
quote = Oh, and by condition i mean that Sarah and I are expecting our first child early this December. :) Or sooner. Or later.] He has traveled to Japan several times but, contrary to popular belief, is not fluent in Japanese.cite web |last=Gallagher | first=Fred |date= November 27, 2002 | title= Fred Gallagher comments on his not being fluent in the Japanese language | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=341 | accessmonthday = June 14 | accessyear = 2006] Their son Jack was born November 9, 2007.

Projects

"The Fine Red Cat"

"The Fine Red Cat" [ISBN 1-880851-10-5] (1993) is a children's book by Jennifer Ann Gallagher, Fred Gallagher's sister. It is notable as the first published work Gallagher illustrated.cite web |date= February 23, 1997 | title= Homepage of The Fine Red Cat | url=http://web.archive.org/web/19981203152004/http://fmg.simplenet.com/greenebark/frc.html | accessmonthday = July 7 | accessyear = 2008]

"Megatokyo"

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 [http://www.rcaston.com/?q=node/71 creative differences] , Caston agreed to sell his share in the venture to Gallagher in May 2002. (See "Megatokyo" for further detail)

"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" [http://megatokyo.com website] , with strips being paired with comments from Gallagher. Gallagher's income from the strip comes solely from advertising, sales of "Megatokyo" books and merchandise sold through the Megagear store website which he owns.

Since Gallagher attained full control over the strip, it has now more reflected 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.

None of the "Megatokyo" strips are inked, but rather drawn in pencil, and scanned. Gallagher's attention to detail extends to the frames, which he hand-draws for each strip.

"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 has released [http://fredart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4881 a sample] 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.cite web |last=Gallagher | first=Fred |date= June 8, 2006 | title= Fred Gallagher details Blurred and announces that the site is once more open to the public | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=867 | accessmonthday = June 14 | accessyear = 2006]

Title TBA

Fred Gallagher announced that, some time in 2007, megagear (the Megatokyo store) will release a mini doujinshi. Little to nothing is known about this project, but we can expect to see it 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."

Achievements

One of the most popular artists at United States anime conventions, Fred Gallagher has appeared at Otakon in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005,cite web | title= Fred Gallagher's webpage at Anime News Network | url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=14248 | accessmonthday = June 29 | accessyear = 2006] and also has appeared frequently at A-Kon, Sakura-Con, and Comic-Con International.cite web | title= Fred Gallagher's biography at AnimeCons.com | url=http://www.animecons.com/guests/bio.shtml/260 | accessmonthday = June 29 | accessyear = 2006] Anime Central was the first anime convention where he sat for a panel discussion.cite web | title=Fred Gallagher mentions that "Megatokyo"'s first panel presentation was held at Anime Central | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/?strip_id=237 | accessmonthday=July 1 | accessyear=2006] Amid much controversy, Fred largely ignored Anime Central's tenth anniversary all while praising and attending Sakura-Con's same achievement. He is also credited with being the first American manga artist to be a guest at Anime Expo Tokyo.cite web | title= "Megatokyo" goes to Tokyo | url=http://anime-tourist.com/article.php?sid=701 | accessmonthday = June 29 | accessyear = 2006]

At conventions, Fred Gallagher hosts a panel based on the "Naze Nani "Megatokyo" ("The Hows and Whys of "Megatokyo") omake comic strips,cite web | first=Fred |last=Gallagher | date=July 25, 2002 | title=List of "Megatokyo" events at Otakon 2002, including a brief description of "Naze Nani "Megatokyo" live" | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/?strip_id=291 | accessmonthday=July 1 | accessyear=2006] an idea borrowed from an anime series, "Martian Successor Nadesico". cite web | first=Fred | last=Gallagher | date=December, 8, 2000 | title=Freg Gallagher mentions the inspiration for "Naze Nani "Megatokyo" | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=51 | accessmonthday = July 1 | accessyear = 2006] The panel contained Gallagher and Rodney Caston (before Caston left the project due to their differences in creativity), and was also known to contain Dominic Nguyen. 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.cite web | title= Aya Again 2003 details at AnimeCons.com | url=http://www.animecons.com/events/info.shtml/106 | accessmonthday = June 29 | accessyear = 2006] He was slated to appear at the 2006 German convention Connichi in Kassel. [cite web | title= Fred Gallagher zu Gast auf der Connichi 2006 | url=http://www.animexx.de/news.phtml?id=7246 | accessdate = August 6| accessyear = 2006] However, due to errors in registering his wife's ticket, this was canceled.

Notes

ee also

*Rodney Caston

External links

* [http://www.fredart.com Fredart] (Gallagher's personal art website)
*" [http://www.megatokyo.com Megatokyo] " (online comic)
*AnimeCons name|id=260|name=Fred Gallagher
* [http://www.fansview.com/person/0309pers.htm Gallagher profiled at Anime Convention Personality of the Week] (March 9, 2003)