New Penny Arcade Books Now Possible

JonLatane writes "Some of you old Penny Arcade fans may recall a time when Gabe and Tycho were planning to publish their work, only to lose the rights to all their stuff to some scumbag. Well, Gabe said today in the bottom of his post that they have gotten back the rights to their own work. This means that we may finally see some new printed works, especially since Gabe and Tycho are much more legally savvy as a result of this whole fiasco."

Comments

Details!?

[PeteyG]

The penny arcade newspost is very cryptic. Could the poster perhaps provide some background reading material on this case?

fp.

Re:Details!?

[DoubleD]

Try this forum post. At the very least you have some good search terms for google ;)

http://www.forumopolis.com/archive/index.php/t-4 08 7.html

Re:Details!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gabe and Tycho inadvertently signed the rights of PA to Kiwi Publishing (the publisher). They've been trying to get it back ever since.

Wow, now that's stupid. Maybe a little less time playing video games, kids, and more time learning about business?

Re:Details!?

[AndroidCat]

It sounds like they definitely had a learning experience.

Too cool

[Lu Xun]

This and Order of the Stick are the two webcomics that I like enough to invest my money in a harcopy version of their work.

Re:Too cool

[Anonymous Coward]

They're good but Scary Go Round is the best there is.

Re:Too cool

[Kizzle]

I might as well throw one of my favorites up as well.

Lost In Appleton

Sometimes a comic doesn't make any sense, like the current one. Go back through the archives a little bit for awesomeness.

Re:Too cool

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a Ctrl+Alt+Del fan myself :)

Re:Too cool

[Deagol]

I'd have to vote for Sinfest. Slick for president!

If Sexy Losers ran a bit more frequently, I'd vote for it. It brings crude humor to a whole new level. :)

Re:Too cool

[Lu Xun]

How is this offtopic? Moderate me surprised...

Re:Too cool

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think SGR and PA are similar enough to compare. I like them all, including Sinfest mentioned earlier, but I think PA provides more of a social commentary, or a gamer commentary as it were.

Re:Too cool

[Anonymous Coward]

What you did would be like going into a Java article and going "Oh, Java is cool, but check out Ruby". This is an article about Penny Arcade.

Maybe if you had compared them to a greater degree or presented some actual facts (what the other thing is about, if it's like penny arcade at all, etc.), but instead you just put some personal opinion crap no one cares about as well. It came across very spam like even.

Re:Too cool

[Alan Shutko]

Just in case you (or someone else) hadn't noticed, Order of the Stick does have hardcopy coming out! Order from here.

Re:Too cool

[Deagol]

That comic's a scream. I haven't played D&D since probably 1983 or so, but I recall enough to appreciate the pokes at the newer versions. :) I sucked down the entire archive and have been reading the whole thing through. I'm hooked.

Re:Too cool

[drinkypoo]

Jesus H. Christ, I just read every episode of that thing and only laughed twice - and I used to play an assortment of RPGs on a daily basis. That comic is proof that the internet is NOT the next stage of human transcendence.

Re:Too cool

[ostermei]

I'd have to vote for Sinfest.

I second that! I used to read every friggin' webcomic under the sun until finally one day I realized that a good majority of them suck ass. PA is the only one that I still check regularly, but Sinfest and Goats (and that's "Goats"... NOT "goatse". Feel free to click) survived my webcomic cleansing as well. I don't always keep up with 'em regularly, but I'll check back periodically and catch up through their archives.

Re:Too cool

[Morlark]

Hey, what's wrong with goatse? Don't knock it until you've tried it. I regularly check goatse, I've found it to be fascinating.

Umm, what happened, exactly?

[jonadab]

> Gabe and Tycho were planning to publish their work, only to lose the rights
> to all their stuff to some scumbag

For those of us who do NOT recall this story, can someone fill us in on exactly how this happened?

Re:Umm, what happened, exactly?

[abysmilliard]

As far as I know, what happened was that about four years ago, Gabe and Tycho tried to negotiate a book deal. Because they were stone ignorant of such matters at the time, they entered into a legal agreement with their publisher to publish a book.

First, the book never actually ended up coming to market, insofar as I'm aware. While they were objecting to this development (despite paying money, I think), they also discovered that they had signed away their legal rights to have any of their comics in print (or at least, they had signed away control).

Enter their manager that showed up a few years ago, and the proverbial, "WTF!?" moment. They ended up in court after that, and have been fighting ever since.

Disclaimer: This is what I've gathered, and is probably RIDDLED with inaccuracies and suppositions. I'm not clear on the details, but that's about as much as I know/have inferred. If anybody wants to correct me, please be my guest.

Re:Umm, what happened, exactly?

[aztektum]

First, the book never actually ended up coming to market, insofar as I'm aware.

Incorrect. My brother has a copy on his bookshelf of PA Year One. I would but at the time I wasn't a big fan.

Also, from what I can recall from their explanation at PAX04, I believe the publisher never paid them (although who knows, the contract could somehow say they never would see a dime since they didn't really know what they were signing) and held the rights to the first 5 years of PA strips. They were free to make books based on year 6 and up. The legal issues just tied up the first 5 years.

Re:Umm, what happened, exactly?

[Naikrovek]

dumbasses that sign documents without a lawyer deserve what they get, imho. me included.

special olympics of comics

[Anonymous Coward]

webcomics = gay

What?

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell is Penny Arcade? I mean, I've seen they've written a couple half-assed articles that Slashdot has linked to, but they're hardly good enough to fill a book. Anyway, why would I want a book of stupid bloggish comments when I can read the stupid bloggish comments (if I actually gave a fuck) on their stupid bloggish blog?

Re:What?

[th3space]

you're kidding, right? the point of the site is not the posts on the front page (which are generally pretty good reads), but rather the comics that they have been putting out for more than a few years now....

but you were joking, right?

Re:What?

[oskillator]

I can easily see why he'd be confused. Penny Arcade is the only web comic I know of that doesn't have the strip itself on the front page, which can make it quite confusing for the first time reader as to just what the point of the site is.

Re:What?

[spectral]

You don't know many, eh?

Some of them make the fact that they're gaming comic websites a bit more known, sure. But all those sites I go to primarily for the comics. All of them don't have the full comic on the front page.

Now, clanbob (specifically the life of riley) comic ISN'T the entire focus of the site. it's just a bunch of friends, one of them happens to draw a comic. The others use it for whatever they want, as far as I can tell. But penny-arcade has a link to the comic in each of tycho's posts about it, and a 'Latest Comic' link right at the top. It's fair to include all of these as being similar, I think.

Now for the inside cover

[T-Kir]

All we need is a print of Strawberry Shortcake in all her naughtiness and the book would be complete :-)

Re:Now for the inside cover

[sahrss]

For the curious, some more info on Strawberry:

PA Link:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-04 -14&res=l

Copies:
http://onethumb.smugmug.com/photos/147054-O-1.jpg
http://dailyramblings.com/images/shortcake.jpg

Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[__aaclcg7560]

It would be nice to have a Penny Arcade book to read since I normally don't read them on the web. (Several friends would usually send me a link if a particular strip was funny.) I'm still waiting for the next User Friendly book. :)

Re:Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[Anonymous Coward]

There are actually still people who read User Friendly?

Re:Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[Anonymous Coward]

User Whatty?

Re:Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[Anonymous Coward]

There are actually still people who read Penny Arcade?

Re:Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[__aaclcg7560]

There are actually still people who read User Friendly?

Yup. Even with the 30-second nag strip for financial supoort. :P

Re:Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[myc_lykaon]

Yes, it seems to have morphed into a bland comic strip atop a bunch of postings by people who seem to think that virtual group hugs and virtual coffee houses that give out virtual coffes and 'mime's/emotes of drinking this virtual coffee is in any way remotely normal. Oh, and group/public virtual self flagellation seems the norm.

Typical threads go:
Pootle: Ugh, I feel awful, shouted at mom.
Banangirl: Aaaaaaaawwwwwww {{{{{Pootle}}}}}
Zippy: Sorry to hear that {{{{Pootle}}}}
Grinch: Terrible {{{{{Mom}}}}}, {{Pootle}}
Flippy: Ow! {{{{{{{{{{Everyone}}}}}}}}}

Re:Penny Arcade book should be User Friendly...

[Col. Bloodnok]

User Friendly? Crap writing combined with utterly juvenile drawing. God, I could do better than that and I ought to have my hands chopped off.

The comics are funny, but the meat is the rant

[ribond]

It's tycho's writing style that take me back every day -- any book adaptation will have to include it. An index that categorized by game reviews would make it a must-own.

Finally.

[Threatis]

I'm a little bit of a hardcore fan. I own the first book, about 6 shirts, and a few other pieces of memorabilia. To be honest, they well admit this was their fault to being ignorant to the issues at hand, but at the same time, they where dealing with a scumbag. Seriously, how terrible a person can you be that you get 2 kids from Washington to sign over their work to you, when all the wanted to do is publish a damn book? some people should be hung by their toes over a shark pool.

Re:Finally.

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

some people should be hung by their toes over a shark pool.

sharks with ...wait for it...

frikin' laser beams on their heads!

Re:Finally.

[Threatis]

hahaha, i was waiting for someone to come out with that one. Next thing you know, there will be an attempt on this publishers life, with a laser, from the moon, called "the Alan Parson Project".

first time this question was asked...

[Anonymous Coward]

as well as the first comment on this article, and it's considered redundant?

only on slashdot, folks ;)

What does this story have to do with games?

[fondue]

Well?

Re:What does this story have to do with games?

[Taulin]

I ask a similar qestion at anime conventions when I see weapon dealers.

Sweet Moses.

[bartyboy]

It has everything to do with games.

These boys write reviews and comics about the games we play. They're one of the few reviewers I read that don't require me to swallow a proverbial grain of salt to sound believable.

Their strips deal mostly with games, so a collection published in a book is a big deal to their fans.

How would a book work?

[ShawnDoc]

I'm just curious how a book of their strips would work. Too many of their strips don't make sense unless you read the news post that goes along with them. While many you could figure out (especially if you are an obsessive gamer type), there are others that really just don't work unless you know the context from the news post. Will they have the news post on 1 page and the strip on the next?

Re:How would a book work?

[yamcha666]

Simple. Do the same thing Absath did with his Ctrl-Alt-Del Vol 1 book:

Put Commentary In It

Let's say a comic wouldn't make sense without a news post, just have Gabe or Tycho write a little bit of commentary in a bubble somewhere on the page. I particularly enjoy Absath's commentary in his book. Let me in on the little details that go along with a web comic and its story.

Re:How would a book work?

[ostermei]

Put Commentary In It

Which is exactly what they did with Year One (yes, I've got a copy). It wasn't the full newspost itself, but they did explain what each strip was about and even mentioned a little bit about the creative process behind each strip. The newspost these days usually gives enough background so that you know what the strips are about, but it doesn't always tell you what the thought process was when they were actually creating the strip itself. I'm sure they'll continue in this vein if (now "when," I suppose) more books finally come to light.

It is times like this...

[Master_T]

when we need the mod-marking: Clueless