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Penny Arcade in the New York Times

Posted by Zonk on from the they're-just-doing-it-because-we-interviewed-them dept.

Just a few weeks after our interview with Penny Arcade, the Washingtonians have landed in a feature article on the NYT Technology page (registration required). They even mostly get what the strip is about. From the article: "The strips usually feature the authors' alter egos, Gabriel and Tycho, who exist in a slightly surreal world where obsolete electronic components are drunk, vulgarity and cartoon violence run rampant, vegan damned souls roam and debates about whether the newest video game is awesome or overblown become a matter of life or death."

15 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Child's Play... by Schezar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So a major news outlet does a story on the most popular webcomic in the world, and fails to mention that said web comic also runs a massive charity for children?

    I would think it was at least worth mentioning.

    --
    GeekNights!
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    1. Re:Child's Play... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Somehow, the term "most popular webcomic" begs about as much respect as "most popular weblog" or "best-tasting airline food."

      Gabe & Tycho should be proud that they're getting recognition in a forum that thousands of 'Net-heads claim is obsolete.

    2. Re:Child's Play... by jnik · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is a hole in the article....

      Reading carefully, the second to last paragraph seems to be the lead-in to a list of other community-building activities. Then the last paragraph says they aren't "Samaritans," which wouldn't be anything like the impression one would get from the article as it stands.

      I suspect an editor got chop-happy.

      I'm amused by quotes from Scott McCloud and Infinium labs, though.

  2. Don't like Registration? by funny-jack · · Score: 3, Informative

    Try this.

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    You probably shouldn't click this.
  3. Remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Login: SlashdotNYT
    Password: SlashdotNYT

    to get past the registration...

  4. NYT's confused on their roles by ostermei · · Score: 4, Informative
    The two met in high school, where they collaborated on "really terrible projects," Mr. Krahulik said. He wrote, Mr. Holkins illustrated, and they left their "bad superhero" booklets in comic book shops in the hope that someone would pick up a copy.
    That's a little backwards. Gabe (Krahulik) is the illustrator and Tycho (Holkins) is the writer, although Tycho HAS drawn for them before... with dire consequences. Not only was the art abhorrent (sorry, Tycho... just leave it to Gabe.), but this strip was during Year One, where the characters had not yet been named. This was (as I understand it) a sort of half-assed attempt to stop everyone from asking for names for the characters. The strip didn't go over so well, as it was seen as something of a cop-out, and so as time went on, the guys gradually shifted into the current situation, where the characters are, in fact, the creators' alter egos.
    --
    "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
    1. Re:NYT's confused on their roles by UWC · · Score: 2, Informative

      The archive search functionality on the site uses the alternate text of the embedded strip images for the search keywords. Those are just the keywords they chose for that strip. Recent strips haven't had keywords and are thus currently unsearchable (only accessible by the drop-down menu with ALL strips listed and by navigating through chronologically). I'm not sure why they haven't been keeping up with that.

      Tycho does love tending his bees, though.

      --
      Honor Among Slackers. A veri
  5. Ahh.. wonderful... by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Now hundreds of thousands of NYT readers are going to go to the website and see a comic strip of a guy having a fiery car accident and looking all bloody and mangled afterwards...

    And they're not going to look at the previous installments because that's too hard.

    So this will become their opinion of all video game webcomics. "Ah... yes... extreme non-sensical violence... Ahh, much too banal for me, I must return to the comforting prose of Cathy."

    1. Re:Ahh.. wonderful... by StocDred · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Yeah, unfortunate timing, since they're into a continuity series that has little to do with video games. Then again, this happens quite a bit - see the line-dancing series, the golf series, etc. PA Wish List: More strips about games, and put the current comic right on the freaking main page.

      Will I be immediately modded down if I suggest that the Cardboard Tube Samarai is an overblown unfunny self-indulgent in-joke that reveals the lads as high on their own celebrity?

    2. Re:Ahh.. wonderful... by pezpunk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      well, the ORIGINAL CTS comic was funny, but then they took it too far.

      the

      --
      i could live a little longer in this prison
  6. Nooo!!! by Z0mb1eman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shoo! Shoo! Today's NYT is supposed to be all about Firefox :p

    I kid, I kid.

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    ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
  7. That still made me log in! Try... by antdude · · Score: 2, Informative

    here. ;)

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  8. Re:Scott McCloud by Pxtl · · Score: 2, Informative

    Scott has managed to weasel his way into being the industry advocate for Webcomics. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but he's now the point-of-contact for the press. Sucks, don'it?

  9. Missed a bit by Yer+Mom · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...who exist in a slightly surreal world where obsolete electronic components are drunk, vulgarity and cartoon violence run rampant, vegan damned souls roam
    ...and oranges are scared.
    --
    Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
  10. Re:Scott McCloud by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2, Informative

    Scott has managed to weasel his way into being the industry advocate for Webcomics. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but he's now the point-of-contact for the press. Sucks, don'it?

    I would argue that Scott is by far best known for his book "Understanding Comics." His own comic ventures are obscure and unknown.

    Scott has also turned into the advocate for the independent artist/developer of any kind of media. He wrote a column for Computer Gaming World, which was essentially "Understanding Comics" applied to games. But he came across as naive, I think.