Penny Arcade

We wondered how concise we could make a Cardboard Tube Samurai Story.  The answer?  Fairly Concise.

I need to talk to somebody, and I don’t know who else to come to.  Do you have a moment?  I require calibration.

It is Devastating and Life Altering and, of course, Gabriel is involved.  Just to help you orient your instrumentation, the way of things - the natural order - is that I am very picky and Gabriel is like a Cultural Goat who will consume absolutely anything.  You might have seen us reprise these roles from time to time in posts and strips, it’s sort of What We Do.  At some recent point, I just got tired of hating movies and slouching angrily through summer blockbusters.  I wanted to spend nine fifty on a movie and get some approximation of nine fifty back.         

Case in point.

Many readers wrote in to warn me about Terminator 3, and Lord knows I’d seen the pre-release buzz.  It was not a good buzz, either - it was a Swarm Of Hornets sort of angry buzz that saw enraged geeks taking to the streets, holding signs which said things like “Continuity Is Not A River In Egypt.”  Inexplicable signs.  If the movie had just had robots or just had time travel, I could probably skip it.  You put those two things together and I sit bolt upright, I start to sway rhythmically in accordance with its dark rhythms.  So I had to go.  And between my adoption of Gabe’s substandard quality detection and readers having eradicated any vestige of hope I had for a decent movie…  I loved it. 

It’s like some bizarre fan project writ large.  You might recall my use of the term fan service not long ago - well, “fan service” accurately describes the entire movie.  Quite simply, the things that happen are plucked from the dampest of geek wet dreams.  It also has Claire Danes, who is simply better than we poor dorks deserve in a movie like this.  I could watch her cry all day, I mean it.  She does this thing with her lip that makes me want to devour her face. 

Have I gone completely fucking nuts?  I loved The Hulk, and I loved that Goddamn Pirates of the Caribbean movie, too.  It would be one thing if you were coming by Penny Arcade via a drive-through window and I was just trying to make sure you got the requisite number of Chili Chimps.  But I’m starting to think I have no nose for entertainment.   

(CW)TB out.

begging for three pennies and a princess

Lots of times people ask me if I ever get tired or drawing Penny Arcade. It’s true that Penny Arcade will be turning five years old in a few months. For two guys in their mid twenties, five years is a long time to have been doing anything. Now that I think about it, this is the longest I’ve ever held a job. Honestly I think I probably would get bored with it if I didn’t feel like I could do stuff like today’s CTS comic strip whenever I wanted.

The CTS is a fun character for us. For a long time I wasn’t sure if anyone else really liked him. You see for the most part I only get mail when people don’t like something. The vocal minority so to speak. This makes it extremely hard to gauge the popularity of something like the CTS. That is of course until we started going to conventions. That’s when I started seeing people bringing tubes for us to sign and even going so far as to actually dress up like the CTS. It was nice to find out that he was liked because I really feel like I need him to keep the comic fresh.

I get mail all the time from webcomic creators just starting out asking how I developed my style. Just take a trip back through the archive. I have been drawing constantly for the past five years. You can not help but improve some degree under those kinds of conditions. I certainly did not start out with a very distinctive style. And honestly I don’t know that I’ve necessarily found my style yet. I know that I have improved and that I feel much more confident about my abilities, but I’m only 26. I’m not ready to say “this is my style. This is how I will draw for ever!” I like to experiment and while I feel like I can do that to some degree in the regular comics, it’s the CTS strips that really let me break out of the mold.

Today’s comic is a great example. I’ve never done a black and white comic strip with this sort of inking before. It is obviously a little homage to Stan Sakai, but more than that it was a lesson for me. Like I said I’ve never drawn this way before and so it was a learning experience. Do I think it turned out great? Hmmm, I think it’s alright. I think for my first stab at this style it’s passable. For me though the finished product is not the important thing here. What I learned about shading and line weight and panel composition, that’s the important thing about this comic strip for me. Does that mean I nailed all those things in this comic strip? God no. But it’s the stuff I fucked up in this comic that I can learn the most from. For example, the hand reaching for the tube in the first panel doesn’t read very well. This makes the jump to the second panel jarring and confusing. I do this with every comic strip we make and it’s some of the best advice I can give to other webcomic artists. Look at your comic strip when you’re done with it and learn form it. Learn from every single comic strip you make. If you can do that and you can do it consistently over a period of time like a few years you will notice a marked improvement in your work. 

So no, I don’t get bored drawing Penny Arcade. As long as you guys continue to support our fanciful ideas about samurai and tubes and Hong Kong action movies, I can’t see how I could ever get bored with it. God only knows the kind of shit we will throw at you in the next five years.

-Gabe out

San Diego Comic-Con is this week and I wanted to remind you all to come out and buy loads of our shirts and posters so that Tycho and I can purchase fancy yachts and name them Jimmy Fantastic and Jesse’s girl and then race them around Lake Washington while we drink Sprite out of wine glasses with diamonds in the bottom.

Honestly though, I do hope you come out and see us in San Diego. Come get something signed or whatever. Brad Brad the merchandise man asked that I let everyone know that the price sheet listed on the page does not include the prices for 2XL and 3XL. In order to get a 2XL add $2.00, and 3XL add $3.00. Other than that, all the info you need to plan your Penny Arcade purchases is located here.

Also, if you purchase one of the new Wang Fu T-Shirts at the con you will get one of these groovy certificates, made out to you and signed by Tycho and yours truly.

-Gabe out

This shit be hot!

-Gabe out

I made some changes to the comic for today in order to make it read better. I think it rocks now.

I am getting lots of questions about the certificates. Yes we will have them at Otakon and probably all our cons from now on until people get sick of them.

If you want to get some PA stuff from the con but can’t make it to San Diego, this is the forum thread for you. It looks like there are a few different guys taking orders.

I think Jesse’s girl by Rick Springfield is the greatest song ever recorded.

-Gabe out