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Penny Arcade (webcomic)
Encyclopedia
Penny Arcade is a webcomic
focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins
and illustrated by Mike Krahulik
. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic strip each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The comics are accompanied by regular updates on the site's blog.
Penny Arcade is among the most popular and longest running gaming webcomics currently online, listed in 2010 as having 3.5 million readers. Holkins and Krahulik are among the few and first webcomic creators successful enough to make a living from their work. In addition to the comic, Holkins and Krahulik also created Child's Play
, a children's charity; PAX
, an annual gaming convention
; and 2 games, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
episode 1 and 2 with Hothead Games
.
The strip features Krahulik and Holkins' cartoon alter egos, John "Gabe" Gabriel and Tycho Brahe, respectively. While often borrowing from the authors' experiences, Holkins and Krahulik do not treat them as literal avatar
s or caricature
s of themselves. The two characters spend much of their time playing and commenting on computer and video games, which forms the basis of the humor in the strip. Most of the time Gabe serves the purpose of the comic and Tycho the comic foil. The strip can feature in-jokes that are explained in the news posts accompanying each comic, written by the authors.
Both Krahulik and Holkins make a living from Penny Arcade, placing them in a small group of professional webcomic artists devoted to their creations full-time. Originally, like many webcomics, Penny Arcade was supported solely by donations. A graph on the main page indicated how much people had donated that month. After hiring Robert Khoo
as their business manager, Holkins and Krahulik switched to a different income stream
based on advertising and merchandise
revenue alone. According to Holkins, the website handles more than two million pageviews daily (excluding forum traffic). On November 13, 2005, the website was given a facelift in celebration of their seventh year running and to match the designs of the Child's Play Charity and Penny Arcade Expo websites.
in Penny Arcade strips. Any story sustained for longer than a single strip is referred to as "dreaded continuity", something of a running gag
in the newsposts. A character who dies a violent death in one strip will come back in the next, perfectly whole, though occasionally these deaths have an effect on later comics. For example, often, when Gabe kills Tycho or vice versa, the killer takes a certain Pac-Man watch off the dead character, but only if he currently has the watch. Profanity
and violence
are common in Penny Arcade and the strip is known for its surrealism
: zombie
s, a talking alcoholic DIVX player called Div, Santa Claus
, the "Fruit Fucker 2000" (a robotic juicer that has forcible sex with fruit), and Jesus, among others, are known to drop in often and for petty reasons. Other such occurrences are implied, if not shown, such as mentioning Dante
from Devil May Cry
living in the building next door. However, the comic does occasionally expand into more serious issues; one even had Krahulik, in the guise of the character Gabe, proposing to his girlfriend
of two years , another, had both Gabe and Tycho praising Casey Heynes, for standing up to bullying.
Some of the strips are drawn from the perspective of fictional characters within a game or movie. Occasionally, Gabe and Tycho are featured as they would be as characters or players in the game themselves, often having some sarcastic remark to make about some feature or bug
in the game. At times the comic also depicts meetings between game developers or business people, and features or mocks the reporters of a news article that is commented on in Holkins' newspost.
Penny Arcade has a theme song, "Penny Arcade Theme", written and performed by nerdcore
artist MC Frontalot
. It was written as a thank-you by Frontalot for the creators of the webcomic linking his website to their front page and declaring him their "rapper laureate
" in 2002. The song appears in the dance game
In the Groove
.
's comic alter ego is energetic and free-spirited, but has a propensity to become extremely angry. He has a Pac-Man
tattoo
on his right arm, as well as a tattoo in honor of the demise of SNK
on his back. His eyes are a shade of slate blue. He almost always wears a yellow Pac-Man
shirt, and in one comic he mentioned having a glass eye as a result of an incident after Tycho beat him at Warcraft II, although no other references to it have been made. He has a fascination with unicorn
s, a secret love of Barbie
s, is a dedicated fan of Spider-Man
and Star Wars
, and has proclaimed "Jessie's Girl
" to be the greatest song of all time. He practices line dancing with the Kansas City Hotsteppers. He is a diabetic, though he continues to consume large quantities of sugar products. He has an odd affinity for a cardboard tube which he had fantasies of wielding as a wandering samurai, often in feudal Japan. He was for a short time addicted to Tribes but soon grew out of it. He also has an obsession with his own genitalia and possible latent homosexual tendencies. This theory can be supported by a recent recurrence of Gabriel's "personal" interest in actor Patrick Swayze
. Despite this, his "son" is also present in the strip and appears alongside Gabe's wife. As a contrast to Tycho's expansive vocabulary, Gabe usually speaks using only simple, common words. Krahulik named his son "Gabriel" in honor of the character.
' comic alter ego
(named after the astronomer
Tycho Brahe
) is bitter and sarcastic. His eyes are burnt sienna, and he's almost invariably clad in a blue-striped sweater. Tycho enjoys books
, role-playing video game
s, using large and uncommon words in conversation, and deflating Gabe's ego. He is a rabid fan of Harry Potter
and Doctor Who
. He also plays Dungeons & Dragons
often (the website's previous banner illustrates him holding a 20-sided die
), and adopts a wildly theatrical style when acting as a dungeon master. He occasionally makes reference to his scarring childhood, during which his mother physically abused him and blamed him for the family's abandonment by his father due to his body, "swelling with evil" (in fact, his puberty
). It has been mentioned that one of his aunts, believing him to be gay, regularly sends him homo-erotic material. Tycho also has a drinking problem
. In one strip, after a dream, Tycho is shown to be host to an evil spirit
, the presence of which is indicated by his eyes glowing with red light; this theme is repeated over the course of the strip. Some strips appear to indicate that he has an unhealthy sexual obsession
with long-necked animals such as giraffes and ostriches. In Poker Night at the Inventory
, Tycho is voiced by Kid Beyond
.
s specifically capture the creative process that goes into the creation of a Penny Arcade comic, usually starting with a perusal of recent gaming news, with conversational tangents and digressions to follow. As well as being a behind-the-scenes
look at the creation of Penny Arcade, Krahulik and Holkins discuss possible subjects for the comic.
The format of the show is mostly "fly-on-the-wall" style, in that the hosts rarely acknowledge the existence of the microphone. There is no theme music (not even the aforementioned "Penny Arcade Theme"), intro, or outro. The podcasts are of varying lengths, beginning abruptly and ending with the idea for the current comic.
Although the shows were initially published weekly, Holkins stated in a May 2006 blog post that they have found difficulties when trying to produce the podcasts on a regular basis. The duo planned to keep recording podcasts occasionally.
The podcast for the comic of October 20, 2006, featured Scott Kurtz and Kristofer Straub
, authors of the comics PvP
and Starslip Crisis, who were visiting Seattle.
New episodes are released irregularly, with six month gaps not uncommon. Since airing the first episode of the new PATV in February, 2010, the podcast has not been updated (as of March 20, 2011). A new segment has since appeared on PATV called "The Fourth Panel," which presents a fly-on-the-wall look at comics creation much as the podcast did.
is an episodic video game based on the strip. The first episode was released worldwide on May 21, 2008. The second episode was released on October 29, 2008. It is developed by Hothead Games
, and is built on a version of the Torque Game Engine
. The game is self-published via Playstation Network and Xbox Live
as well as the Greenhouse.com service created by Penny Arcade to distribute independent games. The game features many elements of the Penny Arcade universe in a 1920s steampunk
setting. However, a Hothead Games representative confirmed that the developer is not working on a third episode and the series was in fact canceled. At PAX Prime 2011 however, it was confirmed that the third episode is still alive and will be developed by Zeboyd Games. The game will have retro style similar to Zeboyd's past titles.
A teaser trailer released by Telltale Games
on August 28, 2010, revealed that Tycho would appear in an upcoming game alongside Team Fortress 2
's Heavy, Strong Bad
and Max
. The game, called Poker Night at the Inventory
, was officially revealed on September 2, 2010.
Both stories which were published on the site "The Last Christmas" and "The Hawk and the Hare" were released as motion comics for iOS developed by SRRN Games.
Tekken 6 has a skin for Yoshimitsu based on the Cardboard Tube Samurai.
Under the banner
of "Penny Arcade Presents", Krahulik and Holkins are sometimes commissioned to create promotional artwork/comic strips for new video games, with their signature artistic style and humor. They are usually credited simply as "Penny Arcade" rather than by their actual names. Some of these works have been included with the distribution of the game, and others have appeared on pre-launch official websites, such as:
A partial, official list can be found on the Penny Arcade website.
On August 8, 2005, Krahulik announced that Penny Arcade, in partnership with Sabertooth Games
, would be producing a collectible card game
based on the Penny Arcade franchise. The resulting Penny Arcade "battle box" was released in February 2006 as part of the Universal Fighting System
.
There are also a few spinoffs
from the main comic that have gained independent existences. The most recent example is Epic Legends Of The Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga (ELotH:TES), a parody of the written-by-committee fantasy fiction used as back-story for a wide variety of games: originally a one-off gag in the Penny Arcade comic, in late 2005 this was expanded into a complete fantasy universe, documented on a hoax "fan-wiki". ELotH:TES first appeared in the webcomic of February 7, 2005, and has subsequently been featured in the comics of November 7, 2005 and November 30, 2005. Several elements of the ELotH:TES universe are featured on the cover of their second comics collection, Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings.
On May 31, 2006 Krahulik announced a new advertising campaign
for the Entertainment Software Rating Board
. According to Krahulik, the ESRB "wanted a campaign that would communicate to gamers why the ESRB is important even if they don't think it directly affects them." Among the reasons he listed for Penny Arcade' s accepting the job was that he and Holkins are both fathers and are concerned about the games their children might play. He also stated his belief that the alternative to the ESRB would be governmental regulation of the video game industry. (The ESRB is a voluntary self-regulatory organization made up of video game publishers and developers.) The ad campaign will feature one character drawn by Krahulik to represent each of the ESRB ratings.
Krahulik and Holkins created a comic strip which compares the 7th generation consoles that appears in the December 2006 issue of Wired
magazine.
had acquired the rights to produce an animated film of the one-off strip The New Kid which was published on October 29, 2010. The strip was one of three mini-strips which featured a cinematic opening to a larger story left unexplored. The New Kid is about a boy who's moving to a new planet with his family because of his father's career. The script will be written by Gary Whitta
and will be produced by Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.
s creator Scott Kurtz. The comic follows Issac and his life as a game tester. The series was launched on August 9th, 2011 and will feature new strips every Tuesday and Thursday.
to buy new toys for children's hospital
s. They have also sponsored a three-day gaming festival called the Penny Arcade Expo
every August since 2004.
Krahulik and Holkins received a cease-and-desist
letter from American Greetings Corporation
over the use of American Greetings' Strawberry Shortcake
and Plum Puddin' characters in the April 14, 2003 Penny Arcade strip entitled "Tart
as a Double Entendre
". The strip was intended as a parody of the works of both American McGee
(especially the computer game Alice
) and McFarlane Toys
. At the time, McFarlane toys and American McGee made separate toy lines, each portraying a dark, frightening interpretation of the characters and situations from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
. Krahulik and Holkins' portrayal of Strawberry Shortcake parodied McFarlane Toys' depiction of Dorothy
as bound and blindfolded by a pair of munchkin
s.
Krahulik and Holkins chose not to enter into a legal battle over whether or not the strip was a protected form of parody
, and they complied with the cease-and-desist by replacing it with an image directing their audience to send a letter to a lawyer for American Greetings. They later lampooned the incident by portraying an American Greetings employee as a Nazi.
On June 15, 2011, a strip entitled "Reprise" revisited the issue, due to the release of Alice: Madness Returns
, another American McGee game. In the strip, Gabe suggests that he and Tycho parody a brand not "under constant surveillance", resulting in a spoof of the Rainbow Brite
franchise. Holkins stated in the accompanying news post that "it seemed like an incredible opportunity to relive the days of yore."
foundation in the name of Jack Thompson, an activist against violence in video games. Earlier, Thompson himself had promised to donate $10,000 if a video game was created in which the player kills video game developers (A Modest Video Game Proposal
), but after a mod
to the game Grand Theft Auto
was pointed out to already exist, Thompson called his challenge satire
(referring to the title of the letter as a reference to "A Modest Proposal
") and refused to donate the money. He claimed these games were not going to be manufactured, distributed, or sold like retail games, as his Modest Proposal stated, and therefore, the deal went unfulfilled. His refusal was met with disdain, given that multiple games were created or in the process of being created under Thompson's criteria. Krahulik and Holkins donated the money in his place, with a check containing the memo: "For Jack Thompson, Because Jack Thompson Won't".
Thompson proceeded to phone Krahulik, as related by Holkins in the corresponding news post.
On October 18, 2005 it was reported that Jack Thompson had faxed a letter to Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske claiming that Penny Arcade "employs certain personnel who have decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment of me by various means". Holkins defended the site by saying that the "harassment" Thompson referred to was simply "the natural result of a public figure making statements that people disagree with, and letting him know their thoughts on the matter via his publicly available contact information".
On October 21, 2005 Thompson claimed to have sent a letter to John McKay
, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, in an attempt to get the FBI involved. Thompson re-iterated his claims of "extortion
" and accused Penny Arcade of using "their Internet site and various other means to encourage and solicit criminal harassment". Penny Arcade denied the charge of "extortion", noting that they paid the $10,000 to charity, and asked nothing in return.
Thompson claimed the harassment of him is a direct result of Mike Krahulik's posts, which listed links to the Florida Bar Association. Thompson accused Penny Arcade of soliciting complaints to the Bar against him, even though Krahulik actually posted the opposite, asking fans to cease sending letters to the Bar, as the Bar acknowledged that it is aware of Thompson's actions, thanks to previous letters.
The Seattle PD eventually acknowledged receiving a complaint from Thompson, but have commented that they believe the issue to be a civil
, rather than criminal
, matter. They noted that this was from initial impressions of the letter they received, and their criminal investigations bureau is reviewing the letter to make sure that there were not any criminal matters that they missed.
On the same day, Scott Kurtz, creator of the webcomic PvP
and a longtime friend of Krahulik and Holkins, used the image of the letter Thompson sent to the Seattle PD to create a parody letter in which Jack attempts to enlist the aid of the Justice League of America
by claiming Gabe and Tycho to be villains of some description.
The Penny Arcade shop had at the time sold an "I hate Jack Thompson" T-shirt
, claiming that every living creature, including Thompson's own mother, hates Jack Thompson.
On March 21, 2007 Thompson filed a countersuit to the lawsuit brought against him by Take Two Interactive claiming that they are at the center of a RICO
conspiracy
. Penny Arcade was named as one of the co-conspirators. At Sakura-Con
2007, Krahulik announced that the suit had been dropped.
and The Boston Phoenix. Krahulik and Holkins dismissed these criticisms, later selling "Team Dickwolves" T-shirts based on the strip.
They later removed the "Team Dickwolves" shirt from their store due to complaints that it made potential PAX attendees uncomfortable.
while playing online multiplayer games. Mike Krahulik suggests that, given both anonymity
and an audience, an otherwise regular person can become a "total fuckwad," i.e., a very disagreeable person. New York University
adjunct professor Clay Shirky
, who studies social and economic effects of Internet technologies, explains: "There’s a large crowd and you can act out in front of it without paying any personal price to your reputation,” which "creates conditions most likely to draw out the typical Internet user’s worst impulses." In an Advocate
article about online homophobia
, this theory was used to account for behavior on online forums where one can remain anonymous
in front of an audience: for instance, posting comments on popular YouTube videos.
The forum is also home to a board devoted entirely to the PAX (Penny Arcade eXpo). The game boards often contain information about informal PA groups, such as Power's Allegory or Power's Affliction for City of Heroes and City of Villains, respectively, or the numerous World of Warcraft guilds.
In February 2007, the Penny Arcade changed its software from phpBB
to vBulletin
. In July 2011, the forum software again changed, this time to Vanilla
.
rated Krahulik and Holkins among their "Top 25 People of the Year". Also appearing on the list were Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and former Xbox
corporate vice-president Peter Moore. Krahulik made a post about the honor, in which he explained that Penny Arcade was created only because Next Gen
rejected the duo's entry to a comic contest many years before. Entertainment Weekly
listed Penny Arcade on their "100 Sites to Bookmark Now," calling it "a hilarious and smart webcomic for gamers." MTV Online named Holkins and Krahulik two of the world's most influential gamers, saying "they have become the closest the medium has to leaders of a gamers' movement." Time.com
named Penny Arcade as one of its "50 Best Websites" for 2008 "...for the way it pokes fun at the high-tech industry and the people who love it."
1UP.com
described it as "the One True Gaming Webcomic." Penny Arcade was used along with American Elf
, Fetus-X, and Questionable Content
as an example of comics using the web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in Scott McCloud
's 2006 book Making Comics.
In 2010, Time
included Holkins and Krahulik in the annual "Time 100
", the magazine's listing of the world's 100 most influential people.
On March 5, 2009, the Washington State Senate
honored Holkins and Krahulik, both originally from Spokane
, for the contribution that they had made to the state, the video game industry, and to children's charities from around the world courtesy of their Child's Play initiative.
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins
Jerry Holkins
Keith Gerald "Jerry" Holkins né Parkinson is the writer of the webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals...
and illustrated by Mike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik is the artist for the popular webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder with Jerry Holkins of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. He goes by the online moniker "Jon Gabriel" or "Gabe"...
. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have established their own site, which is typically updated with a new comic strip each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The comics are accompanied by regular updates on the site's blog.
Penny Arcade is among the most popular and longest running gaming webcomics currently online, listed in 2010 as having 3.5 million readers. Holkins and Krahulik are among the few and first webcomic creators successful enough to make a living from their work. In addition to the comic, Holkins and Krahulik also created Child's Play
Child's Play (charity)
Child's Play is a charitable organization founded by the authors of the popular computer and video games-based webcomic Penny Arcade that organizes worldwide toy drives to children's hospitals. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins founded Child's Play in 2003 to improve the lives of sick children by...
, a children's charity; PAX
Penny Arcade Expo
The Penny Arcade Expo is a semi-annual gamer festival held in Seattle and Boston. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop...
, an annual gaming convention
Gaming convention
A gaming convention is a gathering that centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three days long, and often held at either a university or in a convention center hotel...
; and 2 games, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic action-adventure video game series based on the webcomic Penny Arcade....
episode 1 and 2 with Hothead Games
Hothead Games
Hothead Games is an independent video game developer and publisher based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Hothead is best known for its role-playing/adventure video game series, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, based on the Penny Arcade webcomic...
.
Overview
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
s or caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
s of themselves. The two characters spend much of their time playing and commenting on computer and video games, which forms the basis of the humor in the strip. Most of the time Gabe serves the purpose of the comic and Tycho the comic foil. The strip can feature in-jokes that are explained in the news posts accompanying each comic, written by the authors.
Both Krahulik and Holkins make a living from Penny Arcade, placing them in a small group of professional webcomic artists devoted to their creations full-time. Originally, like many webcomics, Penny Arcade was supported solely by donations. A graph on the main page indicated how much people had donated that month. After hiring Robert Khoo
Robert Khoo
Robert Khoo is the "President of Operations and Business Development" of Penny Arcade, but is also referenced as the "Business Manager" for the company and the Show Director for PAX, the largest consumer gaming show in the United States...
as their business manager, Holkins and Krahulik switched to a different income stream
Independent income
Independent income is a stream of income received without directly exchanging labour power for it. Examples are interest on money capital, dividends earned by share ownership, rental income, etc....
based on advertising and merchandise
Product (business)
In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
revenue alone. According to Holkins, the website handles more than two million pageviews daily (excluding forum traffic). On November 13, 2005, the website was given a facelift in celebration of their seventh year running and to match the designs of the Child's Play Charity and Penny Arcade Expo websites.
Attributes of the comic strip
As a (primarily) topical video gaming news comic, there is little plot or general continuityContinuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
in Penny Arcade strips. Any story sustained for longer than a single strip is referred to as "dreaded continuity", something of a running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
in the newsposts. A character who dies a violent death in one strip will come back in the next, perfectly whole, though occasionally these deaths have an effect on later comics. For example, often, when Gabe kills Tycho or vice versa, the killer takes a certain Pac-Man watch off the dead character, but only if he currently has the watch. Profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
and violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
are common in Penny Arcade and the strip is known for its surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
: zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s, a talking alcoholic DIVX player called Div, Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
, the "Fruit Fucker 2000" (a robotic juicer that has forcible sex with fruit), and Jesus, among others, are known to drop in often and for petty reasons. Other such occurrences are implied, if not shown, such as mentioning Dante
Dante (Devil May Cry)
is the primary fictional protagonist of the Devil May Cry video game series published by Capcom. The character and Devil May Cry are one of Capcom's flagship game franchises, which has sold over nine million copies worldwide as of 2008 and currently spans four video games...
from Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry
is an action game developed and published by Capcom, released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2. Although it is the first game in the series of the same name, the events in Devil May Cry are second in the series storyline's chronological order, taking place after Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and...
living in the building next door. However, the comic does occasionally expand into more serious issues; one even had Krahulik, in the guise of the character Gabe, proposing to his girlfriend
Girlfriend
Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-romantic friend that is closer than other friends....
of two years , another, had both Gabe and Tycho praising Casey Heynes, for standing up to bullying.
Some of the strips are drawn from the perspective of fictional characters within a game or movie. Occasionally, Gabe and Tycho are featured as they would be as characters or players in the game themselves, often having some sarcastic remark to make about some feature or bug
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
in the game. At times the comic also depicts meetings between game developers or business people, and features or mocks the reporters of a news article that is commented on in Holkins' newspost.
Penny Arcade has a theme song, "Penny Arcade Theme", written and performed by nerdcore
Nerdcore hip hop
Nerdcore hip hop, is a sub-genre of hip hop music characterized by themes and subject matter considered to be of general interest to nerds, though it can appeal to others as well. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot has the earliest known recorded use of the term in the 2000 song...
artist MC Frontalot
MC Frontalot
Damian Hess , better known by stage name MC Frontalot, is a Brooklyn-based hip hop musician and self-proclaimed "world's 579th greatest rapper". He is best known in nerdcore hip hop and video game culture, for naming the nerdcore subgenre, and performing at Penny Arcades annual Penny Arcade Expo...
. It was written as a thank-you by Frontalot for the creators of the webcomic linking his website to their front page and declaring him their "rapper laureate
Laureate
In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary or military glory. It is also used for winners of the Nobel Prize.-History:...
" in 2002. The song appears in the dance game
Rhythm game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen...
In the Groove
In the Groove (game)
In the Groove is the first game in the In the Groove franchise, published and developed by Roxor Games, and first released in video arcades around August 30, 2004.-Gameplay:...
.
Johnathan "Gabe" Gabriel
Mike KrahulikMike Krahulik
Mike Krahulik is the artist for the popular webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder with Jerry Holkins of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. He goes by the online moniker "Jon Gabriel" or "Gabe"...
's comic alter ego is energetic and free-spirited, but has a propensity to become extremely angry. He has a Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
on his right arm, as well as a tattoo in honor of the demise of SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
on his back. His eyes are a shade of slate blue. He almost always wears a yellow Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
shirt, and in one comic he mentioned having a glass eye as a result of an incident after Tycho beat him at Warcraft II, although no other references to it have been made. He has a fascination with unicorn
Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
s, a secret love of Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
s, is a dedicated fan of Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
and Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, and has proclaimed "Jessie's Girl
Jessie's Girl
"Jessie's Girl" is a rock song written and performed by pop singer Rick Springfield. It was released on the album Working Class Dog. The song is about unrequited love, and centers on a young man in love with his best friend's girlfriend....
" to be the greatest song of all time. He practices line dancing with the Kansas City Hotsteppers. He is a diabetic, though he continues to consume large quantities of sugar products. He has an odd affinity for a cardboard tube which he had fantasies of wielding as a wandering samurai, often in feudal Japan. He was for a short time addicted to Tribes but soon grew out of it. He also has an obsession with his own genitalia and possible latent homosexual tendencies. This theory can be supported by a recent recurrence of Gabriel's "personal" interest in actor Patrick Swayze
Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest...
. Despite this, his "son" is also present in the strip and appears alongside Gabe's wife. As a contrast to Tycho's expansive vocabulary, Gabe usually speaks using only simple, common words. Krahulik named his son "Gabriel" in honor of the character.
Tycho Brahe
Jerry HolkinsJerry Holkins
Keith Gerald "Jerry" Holkins né Parkinson is the writer of the webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder of Child's Play, a multimillion dollar charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals...
' comic alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
(named after the astronomer
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations...
) is bitter and sarcastic. His eyes are burnt sienna, and he's almost invariably clad in a blue-striped sweater. Tycho enjoys books
Bibliophilia
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. Accordingly a bibliophile is an individual who loves books. A bookworm is someone who loves books for their content, or who otherwise loves reading. The -ia-suffixed form "bibliophilia" is sometimes considered to be an incorrect usage; the older...
, role-playing video game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
s, using large and uncommon words in conversation, and deflating Gabe's ego. He is a rabid fan of Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
and Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. He also plays Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
often (the website's previous banner illustrates him holding a 20-sided die
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
), and adopts a wildly theatrical style when acting as a dungeon master. He occasionally makes reference to his scarring childhood, during which his mother physically abused him and blamed him for the family's abandonment by his father due to his body, "swelling with evil" (in fact, his puberty
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
). It has been mentioned that one of his aunts, believing him to be gay, regularly sends him homo-erotic material. Tycho also has a drinking problem
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. In one strip, after a dream, Tycho is shown to be host to an evil spirit
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
, the presence of which is indicated by his eyes glowing with red light; this theme is repeated over the course of the strip. Some strips appear to indicate that he has an unhealthy sexual obsession
Paraphilia
Paraphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her...
with long-necked animals such as giraffes and ostriches. In Poker Night at the Inventory
Poker Night at the Inventory
Poker Night at the Inventory is a poker video game developed by Telltale Games. It features four crossover characters: Tycho from the Penny Arcade webcomic, Max from the Sam & Max franchise, the Heavy-class from Team Fortress 2, and Strong Bad from the Homestar Runner web series...
, Tycho is voiced by Kid Beyond
Kid Beyond
Kid Beyond is a singer, beat boxer and live looper based in the San Francisco area.-Early career:Chaikin attended Brown University and was a leader in the co-ed fraternity Zeta Delta Xi. He sang in the Jabberwocks, a student a cappella group...
.
Podcast
Krahulik and Holkins began to record and release audio content on March 20, 2006, titled Downloadable Content. The podcastPodcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s specifically capture the creative process that goes into the creation of a Penny Arcade comic, usually starting with a perusal of recent gaming news, with conversational tangents and digressions to follow. As well as being a behind-the-scenes
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
look at the creation of Penny Arcade, Krahulik and Holkins discuss possible subjects for the comic.
The format of the show is mostly "fly-on-the-wall" style, in that the hosts rarely acknowledge the existence of the microphone. There is no theme music (not even the aforementioned "Penny Arcade Theme"), intro, or outro. The podcasts are of varying lengths, beginning abruptly and ending with the idea for the current comic.
Although the shows were initially published weekly, Holkins stated in a May 2006 blog post that they have found difficulties when trying to produce the podcasts on a regular basis. The duo planned to keep recording podcasts occasionally.
The podcast for the comic of October 20, 2006, featured Scott Kurtz and Kristofer Straub
Kristofer Straub
Kristofer Straub is the creator of webcomics Checkerboard Nightmare, Starslip, Time Friends, Origin Story, and more recently chainsawsuit and F Chords. He is also the co-founder of webcomics collectives Blank Label Comics and Halfpixel...
, authors of the comics PvP
PvP
PvP, also known as Player vs Player, is a webcomic, written and drawn by Scott Kurtz, with around 100,000 unique visitors per day . On February 1, 2007, it became the subject of its own animated series.-Themes:...
and Starslip Crisis, who were visiting Seattle.
New episodes are released irregularly, with six month gaps not uncommon. Since airing the first episode of the new PATV in February, 2010, the podcast has not been updated (as of March 20, 2011). A new segment has since appeared on PATV called "The Fourth Panel," which presents a fly-on-the-wall look at comics creation much as the podcast did.
Video games
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of DarknessPenny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic action-adventure video game series based on the webcomic Penny Arcade....
is an episodic video game based on the strip. The first episode was released worldwide on May 21, 2008. The second episode was released on October 29, 2008. It is developed by Hothead Games
Hothead Games
Hothead Games is an independent video game developer and publisher based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Hothead is best known for its role-playing/adventure video game series, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, based on the Penny Arcade webcomic...
, and is built on a version of the Torque Game Engine
Torque Game Engine
The Torque Game Engine, or TGE, is a 3D computer game engine originally developed by Dynamix for the 2001 FPS Tribes 2. The Torque engine and its many derivative products are available for license from GarageGames, a company formed by many members of the Tribes 2 team at Dynamix...
. The game is self-published via Playstation Network and Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
as well as the Greenhouse.com service created by Penny Arcade to distribute independent games. The game features many elements of the Penny Arcade universe in a 1920s steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
setting. However, a Hothead Games representative confirmed that the developer is not working on a third episode and the series was in fact canceled. At PAX Prime 2011 however, it was confirmed that the third episode is still alive and will be developed by Zeboyd Games. The game will have retro style similar to Zeboyd's past titles.
A teaser trailer released by Telltale Games
Telltale Games
Telltale Games is a leading independent digital first publisher and game developer founded in June 2004 as Telltale, Incorporated. Based in San Rafael, California, the studio includes designers formerly employed by LucasArts...
on August 28, 2010, revealed that Tycho would appear in an upcoming game alongside Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
's Heavy, Strong Bad
Strong Bad
Strong Bad is one of the major characters of the Homestar Runner series of animated Flash web cartoons. He is portrayed by Matt Chapman, the principal voice actor and co-founder of the series. Strong Bad enjoys pranking the other characters of the series, along with his ever-diligent lackey pet...
and Max
Sam & Max
Sam & Max is a media franchise focusing on the fictional characters of Sam and Max, the Freelance Police. The characters, who occupy a universe that parodies American popular culture, were created by Steve Purcell in his youth, and later debuted in a 1987 comic book series...
. The game, called Poker Night at the Inventory
Poker Night at the Inventory
Poker Night at the Inventory is a poker video game developed by Telltale Games. It features four crossover characters: Tycho from the Penny Arcade webcomic, Max from the Sam & Max franchise, the Heavy-class from Team Fortress 2, and Strong Bad from the Homestar Runner web series...
, was officially revealed on September 2, 2010.
Both stories which were published on the site "The Last Christmas" and "The Hawk and the Hare" were released as motion comics for iOS developed by SRRN Games.
Tekken 6 has a skin for Yoshimitsu based on the Cardboard Tube Samurai.
The Series
Penny Arcade: The Series first aired online on February 20, 2010. It is a reality show based on the exploits of the Penny Arcade company and its founders, Gabe (Mike Krahulik) and Tycho (Jerry Holkins).Penny Arcade Presents
Web banner
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser...
of "Penny Arcade Presents", Krahulik and Holkins are sometimes commissioned to create promotional artwork/comic strips for new video games, with their signature artistic style and humor. They are usually credited simply as "Penny Arcade" rather than by their actual names. Some of these works have been included with the distribution of the game, and others have appeared on pre-launch official websites, such as:
- Asura's WrathAsura's Wrathis an upcoming action video game collaboration between CyberConnect2 and Capcom that was first announced at the Tokyo Game Show in 2010. It is currently in development to be released in Japan and North America for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3...
- A look at the character Asura's day to day life affected by his "wrath issues". Published officially by CapcomCapcomis a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
with original concept art from the game and available with pre-orders of the game from GameStopGameStopGameStop Corporation is an American video game and entertainment software retailer. The company, whose headquarters is in Grapevine, Texas, United States, operates 6,500 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New...
.
- A look at the character Asura's day to day life affected by his "wrath issues". Published officially by Capcom
- Brothers in ArmsBrothers In Arms: Earned in BloodBrothers in Arms: Earned in Blood is a video game and sequel to Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and the second game in the Brothers in Arms series, developed by Gearbox Software for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox...
- A somewhat toned-down look at a discussion between paratroopers.
- Empire Earth IIEmpire Earth IIEmpire Earth II, also called EE2, is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Vivendi Universal Games on April 26, 2005. It is a sequel to the 2001 bestselling game Empire Earth, which was developed by the now-defunct Stainless Steel Studios...
- An amusing example of the different technologies in the game.
- Far CryFar CryFar Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release. It received positive reviews upon release...
- Fallout 3Fallout 3Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
- A look into the various types of Vaults that might have been created.
- Heroes of Might and Magic VHeroes of Might and Magic VHeroes of Might and Magic V is the fifth installment of the Heroes of Might and Magic turn-based strategy video game series. It was developed by Nival Interactive, under the guidance of franchise-owner Ubisoft...
- A brief retelling of the history of Ashan.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward SwordThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Swordis an action-adventure game for the Wii console and the sixteenth entry in the Legend of Zelda series. Developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, it was released in Europe on November 18, 2011 in North America on November 20, 2011, in Japan on November 23, 2011, and on November...
- Published weekly in five parts on Nintendo's official The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword website.
- Myst V: End of AgesMyst V: End of AgesMyst V: End of Ages is a 2005 adventure video game, and the fifth and final installment in the Myst series. The game was developed by Cyan Worlds, published by Ubisoft, and released for Macintosh and Windows PC platforms on September 20, 2005...
- A recapRecapitulationRecapitulation may refer to:* Recapitulation , a section of musical sonata form where the exposition is repeated in an altered form and the development is concluded...
of the previous story and teaserTeaser trailerA teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
for Myst V.
- A recap
- Painkiller
- A comic strip based on the background storyBack-storyA back-story, background story, or backstory is the literary device of a narrative chronologically earlier than, and related to, a narrative of primary interest. Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start...
of the game, placed on the game's site in the downloads section. Also available as a poster in Painkiller: Triple Dose and Painkiller: Gold/Black Edition.
- A comic strip based on the background story
- Rainbow Six 3: Raven ShieldTom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven ShieldTom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield is a computer game developed and published by Ubisoft and released on March 18, 2003. The Rainbow Six video game series is based on Tom Clancy's best-selling novel of the same name....
- An illustration of a mission in the game.
- Splinter Cell: Pandora TomorrowTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora TomorrowTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is an action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft Shanghai, while Ubisoft Montreal, creator of the original Splinter Cell, was working on Chaos Theory. Pandora Tomorrow is the second game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by...
- A comic strip depicting a mission in the game's new multiplayer mode, from both spies and mercenaries points of viewPOVPOV may refer to:* Parliament of Victoria, Australia* Persistence of vision, a theory addressing the visual phenomenon of image retention** POV toy or device, a device that displays an image to a viewer by displaying one piece at a time in rapid succession and in varied locations* Point of view **...
.
- A comic strip depicting a mission in the game's new multiplayer mode, from both spies and mercenaries points of view
- Splinter Cell: Chaos TheoryTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos TheoryTom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a critically acclaimed action-adventure stealth game, developed and published by Ubisoft. Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by writer Tom Clancy....
- A humorous training manual for new operatives, ostensibly a classified document.
- World of WarcraftWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
- Various humorous illustrations in the official strategy guideStrategy guideStrategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete solutions to specific video games. The line between strategy guides and walkthroughs is somewhat blurred, with the former often containing or being written around the latter. Strategy guides are often published in print, both in...
, as well as the strategy guide for the Burning CrusadeWorld of Warcraft: The Burning CrusadeWorld of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, often referred to as TBC or BC, is the first expansion pack for the MMORPG World of Warcraft...
expansion by BradyGamesDorling KindersleyDorling Kindersley is an international publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 51 languages. It is currently part of the Penguin Group....
(ISBN 0-7440-0833-6). Krahulik also illustrated a number of cards for the collectible card gameWorld of Warcraft Trading Card GameThe World of Warcraft Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG, World of Warcraft. The game was announced by Upper Deck Entertainment on August 18, 2005, and released on October 25, 2006...
.
- Various humorous illustrations in the official strategy guide
- Wild Arms Alter Code: F
- Three strips featured in the official strategy guide, including a look at the downsides of turn-based combat.
A partial, official list can be found on the Penny Arcade website.
On August 8, 2005, Krahulik announced that Penny Arcade, in partnership with Sabertooth Games
Sabertooth Games
Sabertooth Games is a now defunct Memphis, Tennessee based game company, founded in 2001. The company primarily produced collectible card games as a subsidiary of Games Workshop, PLC...
, would be producing a collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
based on the Penny Arcade franchise. The resulting Penny Arcade "battle box" was released in February 2006 as part of the Universal Fighting System
Universal Fighting System
The Universal Fighting System is a collectible card game originally designed by Sabertooth Games. The themes of the cards are drawn from a multitude of licensed gaming universes, principally Fighting game licenses...
.
There are also a few spinoffs
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
from the main comic that have gained independent existences. The most recent example is Epic Legends Of The Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga (ELotH:TES), a parody of the written-by-committee fantasy fiction used as back-story for a wide variety of games: originally a one-off gag in the Penny Arcade comic, in late 2005 this was expanded into a complete fantasy universe, documented on a hoax "fan-wiki". ELotH:TES first appeared in the webcomic of February 7, 2005, and has subsequently been featured in the comics of November 7, 2005 and November 30, 2005. Several elements of the ELotH:TES universe are featured on the cover of their second comics collection, Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings.
On May 31, 2006 Krahulik announced a new advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
for the Entertainment Software Rating Board
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
. According to Krahulik, the ESRB "wanted a campaign that would communicate to gamers why the ESRB is important even if they don't think it directly affects them." Among the reasons he listed for Penny Arcade
Krahulik and Holkins created a comic strip which compares the 7th generation consoles that appears in the December 2006 issue of Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
magazine.
"The New Kid" film
Announced on June 2, 2011, Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
had acquired the rights to produce an animated film of the one-off strip The New Kid which was published on October 29, 2010. The strip was one of three mini-strips which featured a cinematic opening to a larger story left unexplored. The New Kid is about a boy who's moving to a new planet with his family because of his father's career. The script will be written by Gary Whitta
Gary Whitta
Gary Whitta is an English screenwriter, author, game designer, and video games journalist. He is known as the former editor-in-chief of both the UK and US editions of PC Gamer magazine and contributor to gaming magazine, ACE....
and will be produced by Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.
The Trenches
The Trenches is a comic series by Krahulik and Holkins in collaboration with webcomic PvPPvP
PvP, also known as Player vs Player, is a webcomic, written and drawn by Scott Kurtz, with around 100,000 unique visitors per day . On February 1, 2007, it became the subject of its own animated series.-Themes:...
s creator Scott Kurtz. The comic follows Issac and his life as a game tester. The series was launched on August 9th, 2011 and will feature new strips every Tuesday and Thursday.
The Decideotron
Krahulik and Holkins have also released an application for iOS devices called The Decide-o-tron, developed by Eedar. The app works as a recommendation engine for video games; users input games they've enjoyed and the app attempts to predict their ratings of titles they haven't yet played. Holkins described it as "Pandora for games".Penny Arcade events
Every Christmas since 2003, Penny Arcade hosts a charity called Child's PlayChild's Play (charity)
Child's Play is a charitable organization founded by the authors of the popular computer and video games-based webcomic Penny Arcade that organizes worldwide toy drives to children's hospitals. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins founded Child's Play in 2003 to improve the lives of sick children by...
to buy new toys for children's hospital
Children's hospital
A children's hospital is a hospital which offers its services exclusively to children . The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th century, as pediatric medical and surgical specialties separated from internal medicine and adult surgical specialties...
s. They have also sponsored a three-day gaming festival called the Penny Arcade Expo
Penny Arcade Expo
The Penny Arcade Expo is a semi-annual gamer festival held in Seattle and Boston. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop...
every August since 2004.
American Greetings
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
letter from American Greetings Corporation
American Greetings
American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Brooklyn, Ohio and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products , and electronic expressive content...
over the use of American Greetings' Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake is a licensed character owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products...
and Plum Puddin' characters in the April 14, 2003 Penny Arcade strip entitled "Tart
Tart
A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard....
as a Double Entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
". The strip was intended as a parody of the works of both American McGee
American McGee
-Career:McGee began his career at id Software, working on level design, music production, sound effects development, and programming in such games as Doom, Doom II, Quake, and Quake II. In 1998, he moved to Electronic Arts, where he worked as creative director on several projects, including...
(especially the computer game Alice
American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Alice is a third-person action game released for PC on October 6, 2000. The game, developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, is set in an alternative universe of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
) and McFarlane Toys
McFarlane Toys
McFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc., is a company started by Todd McFarlane that makes highly detailed models of characters from movies, comics, musicians, video games, and sport figures...
. At the time, McFarlane toys and American McGee made separate toy lines, each portraying a dark, frightening interpretation of the characters and situations from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
. Krahulik and Holkins' portrayal of Strawberry Shortcake parodied McFarlane Toys' depiction of Dorothy
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale is the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum, and the best friend of Oz's ruler Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels...
as bound and blindfolded by a pair of munchkin
Munchkin
The Munchkins are the natives of the fictional Munchkin Country in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. They first appeared in the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which they are described as being somewhat short of stature, and wear only blue...
s.
Krahulik and Holkins chose not to enter into a legal battle over whether or not the strip was a protected form of parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, and they complied with the cease-and-desist by replacing it with an image directing their audience to send a letter to a lawyer for American Greetings. They later lampooned the incident by portraying an American Greetings employee as a Nazi.
On June 15, 2011, a strip entitled "Reprise" revisited the issue, due to the release of Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns
Alice: Madness Returns is a video game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 released on June 14, 2011, in North America, June 16, 2011, in Europe and June 17, 2011, in the United Kingdom. It is the sequel to the 2000 Windows and Mac video game American McGee's Alice...
, another American McGee game. In the strip, Gabe suggests that he and Tycho parody a brand not "under constant surveillance", resulting in a spoof of the Rainbow Brite
Rainbow Brite
Rainbow Brite was a character franchise introduced by Hallmark Cards in 1983, with the animated television series starting the following year....
franchise. Holkins stated in the accompanying news post that "it seemed like an incredible opportunity to relive the days of yore."
Jack Thompson
On October 17, 2005 Krahulik and Holkins donated US$10,000 to the Entertainment Software AssociationEntertainment Software Association
The Entertainment Software Association is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association and renamed on July 16, 2003...
foundation in the name of Jack Thompson, an activist against violence in video games. Earlier, Thompson himself had promised to donate $10,000 if a video game was created in which the player kills video game developers (A Modest Video Game Proposal
A Modest Video Game Proposal
A Modest Video Game Proposal is the title of an open letter sent by activist/former attorney Jack Thompson to members of the press and to Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein on October 10, 2005...
), but after a mod
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
to the game Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
was pointed out to already exist, Thompson called his challenge satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
(referring to the title of the letter as a reference to "A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in...
") and refused to donate the money. He claimed these games were not going to be manufactured, distributed, or sold like retail games, as his Modest Proposal stated, and therefore, the deal went unfulfilled. His refusal was met with disdain, given that multiple games were created or in the process of being created under Thompson's criteria. Krahulik and Holkins donated the money in his place, with a check containing the memo: "For Jack Thompson, Because Jack Thompson Won't".
Thompson proceeded to phone Krahulik, as related by Holkins in the corresponding news post.
On October 18, 2005 it was reported that Jack Thompson had faxed a letter to Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske claiming that Penny Arcade "employs certain personnel who have decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment of me by various means". Holkins defended the site by saying that the "harassment" Thompson referred to was simply "the natural result of a public figure making statements that people disagree with, and letting him know their thoughts on the matter via his publicly available contact information".
On October 21, 2005 Thompson claimed to have sent a letter to John McKay
John McKay (attorney)
John Larkin McKay is a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington.John Larkin McKay, a member of a prominent Republican family in the state, attended the University of Washington, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1978...
, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, in an attempt to get the FBI involved. Thompson re-iterated his claims of "extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
" and accused Penny Arcade of using "their Internet site and various other means to encourage and solicit criminal harassment". Penny Arcade denied the charge of "extortion", noting that they paid the $10,000 to charity, and asked nothing in return.
Thompson claimed the harassment of him is a direct result of Mike Krahulik's posts, which listed links to the Florida Bar Association. Thompson accused Penny Arcade of soliciting complaints to the Bar against him, even though Krahulik actually posted the opposite, asking fans to cease sending letters to the Bar, as the Bar acknowledged that it is aware of Thompson's actions, thanks to previous letters.
The Seattle PD eventually acknowledged receiving a complaint from Thompson, but have commented that they believe the issue to be a civil
Civil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
, rather than criminal
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
, matter. They noted that this was from initial impressions of the letter they received, and their criminal investigations bureau is reviewing the letter to make sure that there were not any criminal matters that they missed.
On the same day, Scott Kurtz, creator of the webcomic PvP
PvP
PvP, also known as Player vs Player, is a webcomic, written and drawn by Scott Kurtz, with around 100,000 unique visitors per day . On February 1, 2007, it became the subject of its own animated series.-Themes:...
and a longtime friend of Krahulik and Holkins, used the image of the letter Thompson sent to the Seattle PD to create a parody letter in which Jack attempts to enlist the aid of the Justice League of America
Justice League
The Justice League, also called the Justice League of America or JLA, is a fictional superhero team that appears in comic books published by DC Comics....
by claiming Gabe and Tycho to be villains of some description.
The Penny Arcade shop had at the time sold an "I hate Jack Thompson" T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
, claiming that every living creature, including Thompson's own mother, hates Jack Thompson.
On March 21, 2007 Thompson filed a countersuit to the lawsuit brought against him by Take Two Interactive claiming that they are at the center of a RICO
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization...
conspiracy
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
. Penny Arcade was named as one of the co-conspirators. At Sakura-Con
Sakura-Con
Sakura-Con is an annual three-day anime convention held during March or April at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington.- Programming :...
2007, Krahulik announced that the suit had been dropped.
Rape/dickwolves controversy
An August 11, 2010 comic entitled "The Sixth Slave" wherein a character pleads with another character to save him from being raped by monsters called "dickwolves", drew criticism from many commentators, including from The American ProspectThe American Prospect
The American Prospect is a monthly American political magazine dedicated to American liberalism. Based in Washington, DC, The American Prospect is a journal "of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics" which focuses on United States politics...
and The Boston Phoenix. Krahulik and Holkins dismissed these criticisms, later selling "Team Dickwolves" T-shirts based on the strip.
They later removed the "Team Dickwolves" shirt from their store due to complaints that it made potential PAX attendees uncomfortable.
John Gabriel's "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory"
John Gabriel's "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" was posted in the Penny Arcade strip published March 19, 2004. It regards unsociable tendencies exhibited by gamersOnline disinhibition effect
In psychology, the online disinhibition effect, also known in popular culture as John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory , refers to the way people behave on the Internet with less restraint than in real-world situations...
while playing online multiplayer games. Mike Krahulik suggests that, given both anonymity
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
and an audience, an otherwise regular person can become a "total fuckwad," i.e., a very disagreeable person. New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
adjunct professor Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has a joint appointment at New York University as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and Assistant Arts Professor in the New...
, who studies social and economic effects of Internet technologies, explains: "There’s a large crowd and you can act out in front of it without paying any personal price to your reputation,” which "creates conditions most likely to draw out the typical Internet user’s worst impulses." In an Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
article about online homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, this theory was used to account for behavior on online forums where one can remain anonymous
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
in front of an audience: for instance, posting comments on popular YouTube videos.
Collected editions
- Year One: A Penny Arcade Retrospective (Limited Edition) — ISBN 1-931195-07-2
- Year One: A Penny Arcade Retrospective (Soft Cover) — ISBN 1-931195-11-0
- Year One: A Penny Arcade Retrospective (Hard Cover) — ISBN 1-931195-12-9
- Penny Arcade: Volume 1 Attack of the Bacon Robots — ISBN 1-59307-444-1
- Penny Arcade Limited Edition Signed – Attack Of The Bacon Robots — ISBN 1-59307-650-9
- Penny Arcade: Volume 2 Epic Legends Of The Magic Sword Kings — ISBN 1-59307-541-3
- Penny Arcade: Volume 3 The Warsun Prophecies — ISBN 1-59307-635-5
- Penny Arcade: Volume 4 Birds Are Weird — ISBN 1-59307-773-4
- Penny Arcade: Volume 5 The Case of the Mummy's Gold — ISBN 1-59307-814-5
- Penny Arcade: Volume 6 The Halls Below (Limited Edition) - ISBN 978-0-307-29185-1
- Penny Arcade: Volume 6 The Halls Below (Soft Cover) — ISBN 0-345-51227-8
- Penny Arcade: Volume 7 Be Good, Little Puppy — ISBN 978-0-345-51228-4(Release date June, 28 2011)
- The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11.5 Anniversary Edition (Hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-345-51226-0
Online forum
The forum is divided into several subforums devoted to a broad range of topics, including but not limited to art and video games.The forum is also home to a board devoted entirely to the PAX (Penny Arcade eXpo). The game boards often contain information about informal PA groups, such as Power's Allegory or Power's Affliction for City of Heroes and City of Villains, respectively, or the numerous World of Warcraft guilds.
In February 2007, the Penny Arcade changed its software from phpBB
PhpBB
phpBB is a popular Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board...
to vBulletin
VBulletin
vBulletin is a proprietary Internet forum software produced by Jelsoft Enterprises and vBulletin Solutions, both subsidiaries of Internet Brands. It is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database server.-History:...
. In July 2011, the forum software again changed, this time to Vanilla
Vanilla (forum)
vanilla is a light weight Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. It is released under the GNU Licence. Vanilla Forums are open-source, standards-compliant, customizable discussion forums.-Features:...
.
Analysis
On December 13, 2006, Next GenerationNext Generation Magazine
Next Generation Magazine was a video game magazine that was made by Imagine Media publishing company . It was affiliated to and shared editorial with the UK's Edge magazine. Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West...
rated Krahulik and Holkins among their "Top 25 People of the Year". Also appearing on the list were Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and former Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
corporate vice-president Peter Moore. Krahulik made a post about the honor, in which he explained that Penny Arcade was created only because Next Gen
Next Generation Magazine
Next Generation Magazine was a video game magazine that was made by Imagine Media publishing company . It was affiliated to and shared editorial with the UK's Edge magazine. Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West...
rejected the duo's entry to a comic contest many years before. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
listed Penny Arcade on their "100 Sites to Bookmark Now," calling it "a hilarious and smart webcomic for gamers." MTV Online named Holkins and Krahulik two of the world's most influential gamers, saying "they have become the closest the medium has to leaders of a gamers' movement." Time.com
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
named Penny Arcade as one of its "50 Best Websites" for 2008 "...for the way it pokes fun at the high-tech industry and the people who love it."
1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
described it as "the One True Gaming Webcomic." Penny Arcade was used along with American Elf
American Elf
American Elf is an online comic strip diary created by award-winning cartoonist James Kochalka.Many critics consider these strips to be Kochalka's most significant work. American Elf has won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic Series and Outstanding Online Comic.-Style:Each strip usually...
, Fetus-X, and Questionable Content
Questionable Content
Questionable Content is a slice-of-life webcomic written and drawn by Jeph Jacques. It was launched on August 1, 2003. Jacques currently makes his living exclusively from QC merchandising and advertising, making him one of the few professional webcomic artists...
as an example of comics using the web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...
's 2006 book Making Comics.
Awards and recognition
In March 2009, Penny Arcade won the category "Best Webcomic" in the fan voted Project Fanboy Awards for 2008.In 2010, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
included Holkins and Krahulik in the annual "Time 100
Time 100
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. First published in 1999 as a result of a debate among several academics, the list has become an annual event.-History and format:...
", the magazine's listing of the world's 100 most influential people.
On March 5, 2009, the Washington State Senate
Washington State Senate
The Washington State Senate is the upper house of the Washington State Legislature. The body consists of 49 senators, each representing a district with a population of nearly 120,000. The State Senate meets at the Legislative Building in Olympia....
honored Holkins and Krahulik, both originally from Spokane
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, for the contribution that they had made to the state, the video game industry, and to children's charities from around the world courtesy of their Child's Play initiative.
See also
- List of comic strips
- List of professional webcomic artists
- List of web comics