Piro speaks:
Well, if and when things like that come up, and I have to pulla dead piro day, it will always at least be a fresh drawing of some sort. We have backup plans in place so that there will always be *something* here for your viewing.

Piro speaks:
Ah, what do i use to draw Megatokyo strips?
The answer might suprise you. First off - it's all done in pencil - there is no inking, just pencil. Originally Largo wanted me to ink them - but after I demonstrated my crappy inking skills, never mind the additional time to do it, i decided to try using pencil. I actually re-did the first two strips to get started. I'll have to post the inked ones again sometime.
Ok... lessee...
I'll go into history some other time - right now what i do is print 'blanks' which have two square 'frames' on them 4.75 x 4.75 inches square onto simple HP Bright White ink jet paper (thats two frames per 8.5 x 11 sheet) and i draw the comic entirely on those.
As for pencils? Well, i use simply a Pentel Graph1000 .5 MM mechanical pencil with HB lead.
Thats it.
I go thru a lot of those little white Pentel erasers on the back of the pencil. I could use any .5 mm pencil, really. I have a .3 and a .7 i use sometimes, but rarely.
I freehand the things - i used to have to sketch then trace them onto marker paper, but these days I just draw the things from scratch.
I just scan them in, rotate them till they are square, adjust the contrast/brightness a bit, clean up a little with my drawing tablet (they usually scan pretty clean) and then i insert them into the blanks in illustrator, add the text, add some bubbles, export to photoshop at 300 dpi, then reduce them to the final size, upload and go to bed.
^_^
Sometimes I copy and paste bits and peices of drawings over backgrounds - i have a 2 layer background for tsubasa's apartment i am using now (if you havent noticed) that makes my life a little simpler

Piro speaks:
Basically what happens is that I spend a lot of time working on the overall storyline, eventlists, time/locations stuffs that keep some semblance of MT in order and going in the directions I want the story to go. I develop rough episode lists that are very flexible. Final stage is to write the scripts themselves, which sometiems lead to new directions in the story or a change in that episode list.
I have a group of friends that I bounce story ideas off of here and there - dom, ed, seraphim, asmodeus, natsuki, pocky, and some others, depending on what thier interests are (for instance, i have some friends that i go over shoujo-y things with and others i discuss game threads with).
Final scripts go up for revew, and Dom is the one who tends to knock them around the most. Dom is a very good and very patient editor - i have a tendency to accept and include and work in things and suggestions, but I also tend to ignore and not apply suggested changes from my review team. I'm a bit stubborn when it comes to the story.
Biggest problem I had right up to when i was laid off, and then last week when i was workin so damn hard on the book that I didnt have time to script things properly, is that i often would not have time to get anyone's feedback on what i was doing. Usually, this turned out ok, but there is no question the better MT strips, and mt storylines across the board happen when there is time to get good feedback ahead of time.
This i think is going to be the greatest benefit of me doing MT full time - I can get things done ahead of time, in stead of the last minute. Before my last week crunch on the book, i was actually finishing comics 6hrs to a whole day ahead of time - and imho the comics were better. The last three comics suffered a little from 'not enough review time'.
Anyways, thats a little of how it works.

Piro speaks:
it is a font that you have to purchase, and you can find it here:
http://www.precisiontype.com
it's called 'comic book' and its the same font PVP Online uses.

Piro speaks:
actually, since this seems to be a real topic of discussion over the past week or so, let me clarify things on how i read and use the forums.
I read the forums, this on in particular, to see what the reactions are to what I am doing. It's facinating to see how close and how far off people tend to guess or 'get' things. This is something most print comic people don't have - instant feedback.
Do i take ideas from the story prediction threads? no. I have most of MT planned out, and I also would never use an idea found here for one simple reason - i would never use someone elses idea without giving them credit. Now, that doesnt mean that the discussions i read here don't effect me or the story - it does, mainly because the forums are like a weather vein - it makes me feel confident that people really DO read into the stories the way i hope they do.
Part of the fun, of course, with writing a good story, is avoiding predictability. If you knew what was going to happen, there would be no interest in reading. It's the fact that things might not turn out the way you really want them to that keeps people reading.
As far as all the theorising about all the characters, Miho, Erika, etc - taken as a whole over the past few years, it makes you think. Based on what people seem to think at certain part of the stories, it helps me fine tune what i need to do next.
Anyways, thought you all might find that interesting.

Piro speaks:
I like reading people's speculations, not because I like to see if people are right or not, but its a real good indication that my drawings are getting thru to people on different levels. Sometimes, i draw something and no one reacts - thats kinda dissapointing, it means i missed, that i didnt get into the image what i thought i was.
A lot of people don't spend time speculating, and thats fine. Speculation is a single path, often you have to fill in blanks with your own perceptions that may or may not be correct, and its not unusual for something to be accepted as fact that never really WAS fact, only implied. but of course, causing that kind of confusion among readers is part of the fun, and also part of the message, when thats your goal.

Piro speaks:
Girls are more fun to draw. In fact, i draw Piroko more than Piro, really. Drawing boys is boring, at least to me. :P
dont complain too much tho. Before MT, i really couldnt draw male characters at all.

Piro speaks:
actually, i never use rulers or straight edges (a more correct term) for final drawings. I use a pair of triangles for drawing straight lines, paralell lines, etc.
When i do use ruled lines (sometimes its a good idea) i alwasy draw over them freehand to loosen them up. thats the nature of how i draw things - extremely sharp straight lines would contrast too much with the rest of what i draw, and that would look odd.

Piro speaks:
I write the scripts and draw the comic. Dom will, sometimes, when i show him stuff, comment and give me feedback on stuff i write (him and others. Seraphim actually gets to do this far more than dom does because she's right here :) I also bounce stuff off of Asmodeus, Natsuki, Cortana, and other friends.