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Ask Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade
If you're a gamer or a fan of online comics, you've likely already heard of Penny Arcade. Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins have been writing and drawing their comic for almost exactly six years under the PA name and in that time they've grown into something of a representative voice for the gaming community. An honesty in dealing with the delays, hype, and frustrations of being a gamer has made their comic into a shared experience for dorks the world over. Recently they've been involved with their games-for-kids charity Child's Play, contract work for game-specific comics, and efforts to improve the grammar of forum posters. They've kindly agreed to answer our questions, so ask away. One question per comment, please. We'll send the best on to the gents and post their responses as soon as we have them.
but... looks like penny arcade is slowing to a crawl, I can see the smoke already billowing up!
Penny arcade was one of the first major places that mentioned homestarrunner, so I think he'll get the joke.
Because when they were originally designed, they weren't supposed to be representing the creators, they were just these two guys. The two guys becoming Tycho and Gabe just kinda happened over time.
Actually the question of Flash or Superman has been settled. Flash is faster, no question.
Testimonial and tutorial.
The post is a reference to this Penny Arcade strip.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
I believe they've addressed that in the news postings in the last month or so, and said that the meetings were pleasant (Even though they weren't sure they really deserved it).
~D
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
Get with the program. Her nude scenes have been cut.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
They were lampooning American Mcgee's sick mind (that produced such a great game as Alice). They did so with one of American Greetings' characters, and got C&D letters, hence the followup 'american greetings = nazis' comic.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
It's always been the "now familiar format of Gabe vs. Tycho at home and at play." The Bench strips you saw were a Sunday-only thing that eventually turned into its own online community that eventually imploded.
Since you asked, here are some relevant links:
Here
Here
Here
Here
Here
Here
Here
Here
Here
Here
You may be wondering why the Elf Only Inn comics are there. On Valentine's Day of this year, PA and EOI did cross-over comics.. The EOI version was a blind date between the Fruit Fucker and one of the characters.
There is also a more recent Fruit Fucker comic but the site is too slow now to search for it. Enjoy.
But Flash (at least Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West) ARE capable of travelling through time, with help of some machines in some cases, see Crisis in Infinite Earths.
And, before Crisis, they were able to travel to other dimensions, and contact each other, so they are theorically, faster than Superman (by applying divide and conquer).
Also, no comic buff will take the Superman movies as canon, no matter how cool they are.
Using copyrighted material as part of a parody is only considered to be free use if the subject of the parody is the copyrighted material in question. In the case of the PA comic, they used material owned by American Greetings to parody American McGee. This was not fair use because it's parodying something unrelated. In order to distribute it, PA would need permission from American Greetings, which they have obviously not granted.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
I'd be surprised if they DID get kickbacks. Honestly people. Let's throw a little game theory into it. If it got leaked out that any video game company paid off a webcomic to trash competitors, the press would be all over it. Perhaps that won't change the sales of the game, but it would rattle up those that invest in that company and it would also lead to slew of side effects including law suits. It's not worth the risk. Chances are the gaming community will or will not buy the game regardless; the review of a single webcomic won't increase their sales enough to risk such an act.
This should answer your question.
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
Click Me.
To go against the grain here, while I love PA and read it religiously, it was not an 'obviously ... protected work of parody'. The infringed material, 'Strawberry Shortcake', was not the subject of the critique leveled ( the commentary was on A. McGee's preponderance for adapting works targeted for children into derivative works targeted for adults ).
There is a distinction. All said though, I still agree A.G. were wrong to make noise about it.
They've answered this before. IIRC: Tycho is the astronomer, and Gabriel is the Arch-angel Gabriel. Jonathan just came about later, when they wanted a first name for him.
The Cardboard Tube Samurai was mentioned in a Soul Reaver game too.
See here (I can't find the original reference).