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Most people who write about "The Game Industry" tend to suck up. They figure that writing nice things about Nintendo will increase the chances of the newest Zelda beta test landing in their mailbox. Jerry and Mike prefer to rule by fear. Rest assured that they get advance copies of games. They are flown out to various game company headquarters around the country to be wined and dined by young ladies who seem to have forgotten to put on half their clothes and presented with advance screenings of the latest techno-froth that said company has to offer. This is because said companies know that these two unprepossessing fellows could utterly destroy them. Penny Arcade is faithfully read by several hundred thousand readers. Readers who like games. Readers who have no desire to waste hard earned money on shoddy game product, and will take Penny Arcade's pronouncements into consideration when deciding where to spend said hard earned money.
— From the Livejournal of Phil Foglio

Penny Arcade is perhaps the ur-gaming comic, created by Mike "Gabe" Krahulik (art) and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins (writing) and updating on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. From its humble beginnings in late 1998, the comic has inspired countless imitators and grown into a veritable household name; the franchise has its own convention (PAX) and charity (Child's Play), as well as several commissions.

Although most of the comics are connected to video games in some manner, it is not exclusively a gaming comic; much of the humor is drawn from real-life experience, as well as character interaction, both with the authors' alter-egos and with their friends.

Notable for being one of the few webcomics to actually divide up art and writing duties between an artist and a writer, with the pretty obvious result that both the art and the writing are far better than most webcomics, which tend to be solo affairs. While the benefits to dividing up the duties are obvious, the pitfalls keep most webcomics from following suit: mostly, it is really really hard to get two people to agree on how their ideal comic should look and feel, and in the rare cases where they do, well... money makes everything worse (see: Megatokyo). Gabe and Tycho make it work. Most webcomic creators would rather not try.

Also notable for a relentlessly professional update schedule. Other webcomics are subject to Schedule Slip. Penny Arcade will update every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday— even when Gabe gets swine flu.

The series has now spun off into an episodic game: Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. And now into a Reality show

This comic provides examples of:


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