Rodney Caston

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Rodney Caston
Caston at the Libertarian Party of Texas (2004)
Born	May 13, 1977 (1977-05-13) (age 31) Baton Rouge, LA
Occupation	Writer, Author, Engineer
Nationality	United States
Genres	Comics

Influences William Gibson, H. P. Lovecraft

Official website http://www.rcaston.com

Rodney Caston (born 13 May 1977) is an American systems engineer, freelance writer and author currently living in Dallas, Texas. He is the co-creator and original writer of the popular comic book series Megatokyo and an active member of the Libertarian Party (United States). He is presently employed by Linden Lab [1], makers of Second Life.

1 Background
2 Fandom
3 Family
4 Books
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Rodney was born and spent most of his early life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He attended Louisiana State University and majored in Computer Science. After finishing school he moved to Dallas, Texas. While in Dallas he began work on what would become MegaTokyo.

[edit] Fandom

Rodney is known for being the co-creator and writer of the comic MegaTokyo. He has since parted ways with his partner, Fred Gallagher and relinquished control of Megatokyo. He is credited for the first two published volumes of Megatokyo.

His alter ego, Largo, was the insane gaming fanatic while Fred Gallagher's alter ego, Piro, played the straight man. Caston quietly parted with Fred Gallagher from Megatokyo in mid-2002 and began to work on his own online comic, Überclocked. The legal details of the breakup are private and not much was said about it at the time.

Rodney's connections to software designers and writers at Bioware landed his alter ego cameos in two of their games. In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn there is a NPC tavern keeper named Largo; and in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic there is an NPC named Largo that you can either help, not help, or kill for fun on the first planet.^[1]

In early 2005, a controversy erupted after Scott Kurtz of PvP wrote a forum post that congratulated Caston on his impending fatherhood as well as accusing Fred Gallagher of stealing Megatokyo away from Caston. Due to the fan speculation that ensued, Gallagher was forced to explain the reason for the breakup, citing creative differences^[2] and insisting that the breakup was amicable. Caston then gave his version of the events.^[3]

While speaking at a panel at A-Kon 15, Rodney responded directly to the reason for the breakup saying, "We had creative differences, I was creative, he was different." However he maintains the two are still friends.^[4]

Rodney has been a guest at various anime conventions such as Otakon, A-Kon, Animefest, Ohayocon and others.

[edit] Family

Rodney [zombie] and Ruby at their annual halloween party.

He famously used the main page of his company's website to propose to his then-girlfriend, Ruby. They subsequently married in 2002 and had a son, Ethan Case Caston, in 2005.

His son's middle name was said to have been chosen because of Rodney's appreciation of the novelist William Gibson. In Gibson's cyberpunk book Neuromancer, the main character was named Henry Dorsett Case, but often just referred to by his last name, Case.

[edit] Books


Covers of Megatokyo books 1 (1st edition), 2.

Megatokyo comics are currently published by D.C. Comics, and have been published by Dark Horse Comics, and Studio Ironcat. As of June 21, 2006, four volumes are available for purchase.

Megatokyo Volume 1: Chapter Zero (Megatokyo vol.1 1st ed.) ISBN 1-929090-30-7
Megatokyo Volume 1, 2nd ed. ISBN 1-59307-163-9 (published March 21, 2004)^[5]
Megatokyo Volume 2 ISBN 1-59307-118-3 (published January 22, 2004)^[6]
Megatokyo Volume 3 ISBN 1-59307-305-4 (published February 2, 2005)^[7]
Megatokyo Volume 4 ISBN 1-4012-1126-7 (published June 21, 2006)^[8]

In July 2004, Megatokyo was the tenth best-selling manga property in the U.S. [2]. Volume 3's highest ranking in bookscan is 3 ending February 20, 2005.[3] Which broke all previous records for sales of an American manga until that time.