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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.
Shitcock?
How do you type with boxing gloves on?
Do you pay the guy who links to your comics in almost every article posted on Slashdot? Is there are referal program I can sign up for?
What, in your opinion, is the best internet comic strip other than PennyArcade, and why?
--- Ãther SPOON!
how much of your personal life does Penny-Arcade consume? On that note, great job, I love your strip.
JediLuke
-Do or Do Not, There is no Try
Over the years, your opinions on various video games have grown to be respected in internet circles, and how games are portrayed in your comic and writeups has an effect on whether or not your fans will buy them.
Me question is: have any game designers/publishers ever approached you and offered kickbacks for positive reviews, and if so, how do you usually deal with the situation?
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
Were there any earlier print or web comics that influenced you?
Please list the meds used to come up with that one.
Was Penny Arcade the first, regularly produced gaming webcomic? I read approximately 20 webcomics on a daily basis, and many of them are dedicated to gaming humor or frustration. Were you guys the first, and if so or if not, who or what inspired you?
How do you feel about becoming a big name, one of the things you dispise most? How do you feel about becoming something you have stated hatred to? This is not meant as a flamebait and I await an answer.
Those poor bastards, they have us surrounded. Now we can fire at them in all directions!
A question for both of you: Name the console and three of its games that you would take to that mythical desert isle.
Just curious: Are there any webcomics you read?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Jerry's bought a house, Mike's had a baby boy. How has becoming bona-fide adults changed your lives, and do you find your priorities changing away from drawing comics and playing games.
Bonus Question: What advice would you give to geeks looking to in some way ensare geek grrls?
You guys absolutely roasted the original Halo, then gradually grew to like it. You've said you've met with Bungie since then. Were the meetings amicable?
How far does the collaboration between you two go?
Does Tycho usually come up with the text/idea for the comic, then Gabe does the art as a separate process or is it more of a collaborative venture?
Also I stronly suspect that your ideas are born of late night mescalin and tequila induced "adventures". Am I correct?
[C]
Are there any plans for a new collection of your works?
Out of all the comics you've done, which one is your all time top favourite, and why?
Obviously, this is for both of you.
How do you spend your free time outside of gaming?
And on that note, what do you and your spouses do for fun (outside of the apartment)?
Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!
What is the craziest merchandising idea that you have (or a company has) come up with, regarding your PA characters? Plush dolls? Pez dispensers?
As you get older and as PA's popularity increases to more of a mainstream level (thanks to the great job you did on last year's Childplay), are you starting to feel the pressures of self-censorship? I mean, how many news anchors could reference the good work you do with Childsplay without giving a "Within that site, there be fruitfuckers" warning?
Are you becoming too popular to maintain your riske side?
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
-Phixxr
ungggghhhh
Which one of your comics is your personal favourite?
One of the things that makes PA so valuable to me is that it shoots from the hip, the heart, and the gut. You guys are perfectly happy being fanboys for games that you love, while skewering those you hate.
I know PA isn't journalism, but it's not Nintendo Power either. That said, how do you balance your desire to be honest with the needs of running a business?
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
Are there any plans for the Tetris Movie coming out soon?
If so, do you get royalties for it?
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
I understand Penny Arcade is now the sole source of full-time employment for both of you. Presumably this wasn't always so and you both had "real" jobs to pay the bills. At what point did each of you cease to labor for The Man and start devoting your time exclusively to Penny Arcade?
Never approach a vast undertaking with a half-vast plan.
How come you guys disrespect your east coast readers so much? I mean, you cancelled on our Otakon and you only came here once ever. At a very bad time to a not easy to get to convention. Then you have PAX, which is like the best thing ever, all the way on the other side of the country.
What will you do to make up for the lack of love for the east coast? If I don't like your answer I'm going to come to PAX2 with water from the Atlantic Ocean and drench both of you with it. Seriously, watch out.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
http://mail.rochester.edu/~dr002j/pics/contraband_ comic.jpg
Strawberry Shortcake?
Perhaps the best artwork ever on PA, and the best supressed non-porn artwork anywhere.
A little while back, PA had a run-in with American Greetings over the use of the copyrighted and trademarked likeness of Strawberry Shortcake in what was obviously a (protected) work of parody.
American Greetings got called Nazis, but American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake is still missing from the PA archives.
What are the reprecussions of the Strawberry Shortcake debacle? If you had it to do over again, either the strip, or your interactions with American Greetings, would you have done anything different?
When I first started reading PA, it was a comic strip about Gabe and a Squirrel sitting on a bench. After that, there was the worlds first taste of the conflict between Red Vs. Blue (although I think they were Tribes characters, not Halo).
What was the motivation to change to the now familiar format of Gabe vs Tycho at home and at play? Was it art imitating life, or just a natural progression from simple strips to more complex storylines (the dreaded Continuity!)?
Are there any current gaming trends that you wish would lose momentum and disappear.
Are there any trends you hope take hold in the future.
Would you please reply to these questions in the form of PA comic strips? Thanks.
As the wikipedia article on Penny Arcade, your characters/alter-egos full names are Tycho Brahe, after (so we assume) the danish astronomer, and Jonathan Gabriel, who'se only reference I can find in google is a gay male porn star (no, I'm not joking, google "Johnathan Gabriel" yourself)
Although there are probably a million better questions that could be asked, I'm pretty interested by this little bit of trivia, so I would like to know: How did you come up with these names, and why?
The "Insert Quote Here" line is almost as predictable as inserting an actual quote.
On a related note, what kind of offers have you received from mainstream (and not-so-mainstream) publications?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Have you ever considered trying an animated form of Penny Arcade? It seems that your brand of humor makes particular use of precise timing, and while you tend to be successfull at conveying that through comic strip panels, the formula could translate to animation quite well.
:)
As an animation student myself, I of course have no particular stake in the matter
Yup...
You guys love games. How did it make you feel to find that Cardboard Tube Samurai got a reference in Hitman: Contracts? Have you found any other PA references in games, manuals, etc that you weren't expecting? How's it feel?
I apologize for the crass nature of the question!
But you guys are living what is essentially the dream life of a gamer - using your writing talents and artistic talents to make a living talking about games. Millions of schlubs all over the world run websites; but you guys managed to produce a website that's better than 99.9999% or more of them and make money doing it. It's not an understatement to say that you're quite an inspiration to those of us who would love to make a living doing that sort of thing. So I can't help but be a little curious about exactly what kinds of financial success it's brought.
(And whether you answer the question or not... I wish you more success in the future both with loved ones and your business)
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
The half-serious version:
Despite having nearly gotten into virtual fisticuffs with Scott Kurtz, amongst other artists, you guys still seem to maintain quite a bit of respect for each other. Do you view the little rivalries as "side quests" for your bigger endeavors, as serious competition, or as just a way to use some of those great insults you've been sitting around thinking about?
The more humorous version:
How many different other webcomics and/or their artists can you insult in a single sentence?
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.