Well I am back from my vacation. I had a real good time but I’m ready to get back to drawing Penny Arcade. I hate going away because it means we have to resort to disgusting continuity. I can’t help but think that while I am away all kinds of incredible game news is happening and we aren’t there to comment on it. Oh well, I’m back now…except that I’m getting on a plane for Texas tomorrow. You guys have one more strip in the current storyline and then we’ll get back to game news.

I have no idea what is going on with this server, it made getting the update posted a huge pain in the ass. To give you an example, I've been trying to post this apology for about three hours.

The behaviors that result from a combination of their mobile refreshment stands and carts is so obvious, so naturally arrived at that it must be their intention. We can assume we have the imprimatur of the clubhouse when we drive with our eyes closed, or cut straight across the fairway because we think we saw a "cool bird."

Breathtaking revelations regarding the Sport of Kings come to light.

As we had established, the full investigation into the crevices of Gabriel's strange amusements has begun.

I am going on vacation! I’ll be in Lincoln City Oregon for about a week. The whole family meets there every Fourth of July to spend some time on the beach and watch the fireworks. One of my favorite things about the trip is going to a little used book store near the beach and picking out books based entirely on the cover art. I look for pictures of space ships, space stations and strange alien worlds. If I’m really lucky I find a book that has all three on the cover. I then spend the next week relaxing and reading terrible science fiction novels. I can’t wait.

You're probably aware that Interplay wasn't paying it's employees, which culminated in the state of California telling Interplay they could go fuck themselves. Now me, I always assumed that this was the precursor to an intellectual property fire sale that would hopefully get things like Fallout into good hands. It's not that I think that putting powerful franchises on the auction block automatically leads to some omnibenevolent result. However, in Thief: Deadly Shadows, we have a recent example of how the passionate people that breathed life into a setting can, in some reconstituted form, deliver the impossible.

Well I wish you didn't lie.

I'm not a liar.

I wish you weren't a fucking liar.

You have to understand that we didn't start playing the Tony Hawk series until it hit the Dreamcast, the next version I played being the 2X one that came out for the Xbox - so when I saw the Treyarch symbol at the beginning of Spider-Man, what came to mind immediately was Tony Hawk. That's actually Neversoft's game, but Treyarch did handle the ports of it - so when Gabe mentions Tony Hark and Treyarch up there it's based on something I said that is sort of factual and sort of not. At any rate, it's my fault and he shouldn't be held responsible for it.

I picked up Spider-Man 2 yesterday and had a chance to play quite a bit of it last night. All the great stuff you have been reading about this game is true. It’s pretty amazing how all of a sudden developers are learning that a licensed game can actually kick ass. If you had told me even a year ago that some of my favorite games in 2004 would be based off of movies I’d have laughed in your face and then asked you for winning some lottery numbers since you were obviously some kind of clairvoyant.

I spelled "possess" wrong in the title of the strip and post - I just changed it. In my defense, it was practically six o'clock in the morning when I finished that post. Also, possess is as improbably spelled as any word I've ever seen. I'm surprised we have a single s left over for any other English word.

I rarely have nice things to say regarding continuity, using modifiers such as "dreaded" or "despicable" to characterize it. Aside from our general aversion to the concept, which - as we've established - is really quite vile indeed, it's simply not compatible with the way we do things around here. Certainly, we can envision a series of sequential events and transcribe them. However, the moment we commit to something of that nature, invariably something entertaining or revolting occurs and we're forced to make a decision between maintaining some artificial scenario we've invented or covering the events of the industry in real time.

We have two brand new shirts for sale in our fabulous online store. You can now purchase your very own Twisp and Catsby shirt. Now you can finally show your love for your favorite British cat and his demon sidekick. In keeping with the nonsensical nature of the T&C comics, I suggest you purchase fifty shirts and cover your car with them.

We had originally planned to announce the winners of the accounts today, but two wrinkles have appeared in the plan.