- ISBN13: 9780345512260
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
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Entitled The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade, it details the history of a comic strip called Penny Arcade. The comic appears to catalog the lives of two young men who are utterly steeped in popular culture.
Each chapter gathers into a coherent beam of savory trivia, strange facts, formerly mysterious origins, biographical information, interviews, inaugural conventions, an unlikely charity, and comic strips. You get the sense that some of the content may be apocryphal—for example, the part where they eat a whole wolf basically comes out of nowhere. Also, if one of them really did become “King of the Britons,” you’… More >> The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition
Penny Arcade will be remembered as the Samuel Pepys of turn-of-the-century gaming. A thorough and insightful diarist of the trends, topics, culture, and well, games that mark the growth of a byzantine children’s hobby to a full-fledged geek legion. Sadly, this book is a sad let down compared to the polished and exceptional product that has produced comics thrice-weekly with a regularity that you could set a clock to. These were my disappointments.
1) Discussions keep referencing the pre-destined success that would be had. The air of inevitability to each topical discussion sounds more like it’s coddling the authors than giving an accurate history of what were probably terrifying moments of change for the nascent strip and community. The tone borders on arrogance but not in the wit that Holkins uses.
2) The text treats Penny Arcade as the nexus of all gaming culture rather than particular brand that the comic depicts with exquisite accuracy.
3) The source images used between sections are pixellated and crappy. The source art is probably a vector graphic so scaling it should have been trivial. The scaled jpg quality doesn’t fit.
4) The FAQ section contains many questions that the interviewees identify as foolish or that have been previously answered elsewhere in the book.
5) Space is poorly used, side graphics will take up a 1/4 of the page without adding much nor having labels.
6) It’s very easy to skip timeline pieces.
7) People who comment on Penny Arcade in the book resort to panegyrics rather than any useful insight.
The gems:
1) The print quality is absolutely exceptional. Coffee-table quality paper.
2) The artist’s commentary is delightful and should have been doubled or tripled in size.
3) Mark’s discussion of the evolution of his drawing style is insightful, but more examples of tried and failed techniques would have been swell. Rating: 2 / 5
Surely, gods walk among men in the form of Gabe and Tycho, aka Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. 11.5 years ago they descended from Mount Olympus and brought to this mortal world the Magic of Penny Arcade. Not content to merely humor us, they undertook Herculean events such as PAX and Child’s Play. This book manages to capture the impossible task of chronicling Penny Arcade’s history, and even contains JPEGS in ink form smattered through the tome’s pages.
Verily, it is written, and therefore must be read. Additionally, Amazon has struck a mighty $8 off the MSRP of the thing, a steal at half the price. Keep up the good work Gabe and Tycho: Paint the Line. Can’t wait for Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below. Rating: 5 / 5
The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade
It is so very sad that I went to university with guys like Mike and Jerry. They didn’t have the same names, but nonetheless, D and D, and early video games.
To the book now. Most people celebrate 10, 5, 1, 20 or other normal anniversaries, but the 11 ½ anniversary is odd. It matches the strip. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins take us from the early days of PC, to the wildly successful PAX. The journey is marvelous, there are interviews with the creators, art gathered from the many years of strips, part continuities, pictures from PAX, brilliant page fillers, and the occasional bit of non PA material.
I laughed. My son laughed. His friends laughed. Then they opened the book, and laughed harder. I must say, it is hard to select my favorite section. On Sorcelation is probably my favorite, almost as good as the interpretation pages. Gotta love the Stephen Silver page. I wonder where the Jack Davis page is though?
A partial listing of topics covered include:
A history
Continuing Evolution of Gabe and Tycho
Cardboard Tube Samurai
Characters of Penny Arcade
Making Jpegs
Twisp and Catsby
In the House of Penny Arcade
On Sorcelation
Child’s Play
Armagedoon
PAX
Breaking the Law
Paint the Line
Q and A
Lyrics
Idle Hands
Interpretations
We Like These Comics
This comes highly recommended folks. Take a walk over to their web page at http://www.penny-arcade.com.
Tim Lasiuta
Rating: 5 / 5
I’m a long time PA fan, with all the prior books, many shirts, posters and their games, but I still learned stuff about “Gabe and Tycho” and the history of PA. I really enjoyed reading this – and it is much more of a read and less of a collection of comics than their other books.
One cool thing that I got out of it is that Mike talking about learning to draw from “Commander Mark” Kistler made me Google him to see if I could find any of the videos for my kids, and I found that he is teaching summer art camps close to me. So yeah, watch out Mike. My son will be the next Art Angel… ;-)
If you are PA fan, you probably already ordered and devoured this book. If you are not then I’m afraid I cannot comprehend your warped mind, so this review is probably of no value to you.
Also, I like the Splendid title better than the “real” title underneath. Excelsior! Rating: 5 / 5
I’m probably one of the rare few geeks on the internet that doesn’t regularly follow Penny Arcade. I tried, briefly, in college (didn’t we all?), but, even then, I was already behind on my video game references.
Still, regular reader or not, it is impossible to avoid the influence of Jerry and Mike (or Tycho and Gabe).
Over and above a website read by 3.5 million people a day, they’ve created one of the premiere gaming conventions (PAX) and even inspired a video game. They’re always at the front line of geeky causes – from founding a charity (Child’s Play) to battling Crazy Jack Thompson. Read ‘em or not, the pair are unavoidable.
The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade recounts their 11.5 year journey from launch to now.
The content is scattershot: amusing anecdotes of legal battles and behind-the-scenes looks at PAX are combined with photos of the office and interminable Q&A’s. The highlight is a thirty-page collection of vintage strips, each paired with quick insights from the creative team. Especially as an unfamiliar reader, that’s where the book came to life. I suspect that devoted fanatics would happily spend $24 RRP for a hardcover collection of photographs of fan-donated plush toys, but I wanted a bit more meat.
The real splendid magic of Penny Arcade was in the tone of voice. It is impossible to do a retrospective like this without sinking into self-praising prose and back-patting, but Mike and Jerry were as open with their mistakes as they were their successes. And, more charmingly, they largely credit their mistakes to ignorance and their successes to luck. The pair come across as really good guys – enjoying the good fortune of their miraculous livelihoods and trying their best to spread the fun when and where they can.
As a result? The book was so-so – I’m clearly outside of the target audience of hardcore fans, and suggest that newcomers to Penny Arcade start with a traditional collection instead. But the authors? They impressed the hell out of me. Rating: 4 / 5