Games - Penny Arcade

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Penny Arcade is a webcomic written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. It is among the most popular webcomics currently online. It debuted on November 18, 1998, making it one of the oldest webcomics still receiving regular updates. New comic strips are currently posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The strip regularly features the two authors' cartoon alter egos, Tycho Brahe and Johnathan Gabriel ("Gabe"), who represent Holkins and Krahulik respectively. Holkins and Krahulik have admitted before that the characters were not originally meant to represent them, thus they are abstract representations and not caricatures. The decision to have the characters represent the authors was made very shortly after the series began, and the fact that they didn't at all resemble them had never been considered an issue. The two characters spend much of their time playing and commenting on computer and video games, forming the basis of the humor in the strip. Another theme, albeit less common, is the use of conflicts between the two in real life. The strip also sometimes refers to other Internet subcultures, and sometimes features in-jokes that are explained by the news posts accompanying each comic, usually written by Holkins.

Both Krahulik and Holkins make a living from Penny Arcade, placing them in a very small group of web comic artists devoted to their creations full-time. Donations were once accepted, but the site now operates on advertising and merchandise revenue alone. The website attracts more than 2,000,000 visitors every day. On 2005-11-13, the website was given in celebration of their seventh year running and to match the designs of the and websites. It is currently one of the largest Ruby on Rails implementations on the web.

Attributes of the comic strip

As a (primarily) topical video gaming news comic, there is little plot or general continuity 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 horrible, violent death in one strip will come back 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 not known for its realism: zombies, a talking DIVX player, a living juicer that has sex with fruit, and Jesus, among others, are known to drop in. Other such occurrences are implied if not shown, such as mentioning Dante from Devil May Cry living in the building next door .

Some of the strips are drawn from the perspective of fictional characters within a game , or a 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.

Penny Arcade is well-known for Krahulik's signature drawing and "inking" style, which uses bold lines and vivid facial expressions. Krahulik has said that his biggest influence was Stephen Silver.

Jerry Holkins' news posts which accompany each strip are often helpful (in some cases required) for background and context for the strip.

Recurring characters

Major characters

; Johnathan Gabriel : Mike Krahulik's comic alter ego (named after the archangel Gabriel). "Gabe" is energetic and free-spirited , but has a propensity to become extremely angry . He has a Pac-Man tattoo on his right biceps . He has a fascination with unicorns , a secret love of Barbies and is a dedicated fan of Spider-Man and Star Wars . He practices line dancing with the Kansas City Hotsteppers . He has an odd affinity for a cardboard tube which he had fantasies of wielding as a wandering samurai, often in ancient Japan (see Cardboard Tube Samurai below). In one strip, he claims to have a glass eye from a fight with Tycho over Warcraft II seven years prior (though that was probably a one-off reference). 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 .

Krahulik eventually named his son "Gabriel", in honor of the character.

; Tycho Brahe : Jerry Holkins' comic alter ego (named after the astronomer Tycho Brahe) is bitter and sarcastic, and having his testicles eaten by a dog doesn't help . Nearly invariably clad in a blue-striped shirt, and a beard whenever he feels like it (which isn't very often). Tycho enjoys books, RPGs, unnecessarily large words and deflating Gabe's ego. He is a rabid fan of Harry Potter . He also often plays Dungeons & Dragons (the website's banner illustrates him holding a d20 die). Though extremely intelligent, he has on several occasions made reference to his scarring childhood in which his mother blamed him for his father's leaving due to his "body's swelling with evil" (in fact, puberty) and beating him with an extension cord , . Tycho also has a drinking problem .

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Penny Arcade (comic) ]

Games - Penny Arcade

Attributes of the comic strip

Recurring characters

Major characters

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