Book Description
This re-issue of this highly successful Megatokyo Volume 1 brings fans a new and revised version of the book with improved print quality and a larger trim size. This book will contain all the comics from Chapter 0 as well as the running editorial comments featured in the original release. Exclusive to the Dark Horse reissue will be additional drawings, historical notes, and selected rants from this first developmental year of the Megatokyo webcomic.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Piro, an obsessed anime/manga fan, and Largo, a hard core American gamer and 133t h4x0rm4573r, fly to Japan on a whim and find themselves stranded, unable to afford the trip home. In their struggles to find places to crash and money for tickets home, we experience Tokyo from their unique -- and drastically different -- points of view. Megatokyo Volume 1 is a collection of strips from the first year of the highly popular online webcomic "Megatokyo." Known collectively as Chapter 0, this book also contains extensive inline notes and commentary. New to this edition is a special section called "Piro's Sketchbook," which collects drawings, sketches, and other material from Megatokyo's early years, most of which has never been available on the website. Read the book, save your bandwidth.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Following the success of his serialized Web comic and the first volume of the print manga, Gallagher continues the story of two computer game- and manga-obsessed American boys stranded in Tokyo. (Newcomers can visit www.megatokyo.com to see what they've missed.) Piro (the sensitive one who likes to sketch and read girls' manga) and Largo (the beer-guzzling brute who enjoys hacker-speak and violent sword and sorcery computer games) have found jobs and accommodations. They've also acquired a lifelike robot with the appearance and emotions of a blonde, nubile, teenage girl. Piro's conscience, illustrated as a comely but competent female, provides guidance and occasional fashion tips. Meanwhile, Largo, a gaming addict who can't distinguish between reality and virtual reality, takes a job teaching English in order to keep tabs on a schoolgirl whom he's decided is an evil zombie queen. Ostensibly, the boys are trying to earn enough cash to buy plane tickets home, but they seem more interested in exploring the brave new world of Japanese gaming culture and the cute, friendly locals. Although Gallagher doesn't ink his drawings, few artists can wield a pencil with such authority. His work, though squarely in the manga tradition, is uncommonly deft, subtle and funny. With a sophisticated script, a panoply of references to gaming and manga culture and Gallagher's stellar artwork, this series' formula makes it utterly irresistible. The book also includes a section of handsome drawings and gag strips from the Web comic as well as a prose short story following the exploits of Piro and Largo as characters in a sword and sorcery game world. (Jan.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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