Quote Originally Posted by animus
Huh, is it me or is this special using Oda's old art style before he made the switch?
Yes, that was on purpose. The story of Romance Dawn took place in East Blue in the manga.

Quote Originally Posted by DarthEnder
You know, for one of those cheesy one-off pirates, that guy was surprisingly brave. Even after finding out who Luffy was and his whole crew giving up, he was still willing to take him on, and was even threatening him after he had been defeated.
Yeah, well that Crescent Moon Gary guy was a prototype for Buggy. He wasn't a one off -- we've seen him in the anime before. Smoker catches him at Loguetown.

Actually, a lot of his crew were prototypes for later pirates. (The fatty was the prototype for Shanks' fatty, for example)