Until recently, all we ever saw behind the closed doors of Penny Arcade came from news posts and the webcomic itself. Then they found Lexapro, and the doors have been opened, starting slowly with their podcast, Downloadable Content, and their new show Penny Arcade: The Series (also sometimes known as The 4th Panel.)
There is a lot to be learned from these two. They started out in a high school journalism class, where they skipped school to do “field research” at a local arcade. Holkins worked on the words and Krahulik drew some pictures. The article ended up being a hit, and the two realized this little thing just might go somewhere. The rest is history, as chronicled by their webcomic.
There is a lot to be learned from both Krahulik and Holkins. These two have somehow found a way to stay funny after a tough decade of a quickly transforming industry. The guys over at Penny-Arcade.com have distilled the internet into its purest forms and regurgitated it for the public. That’s what has made it catch like wild fire. By that, I of course mean it has inspired the insane attempts by everyone, including me, to try and break into the business, the joy it has blossomed in so many people, and above all, how much their comics affect the gaming industry.
The internet is a scary place. It’s like a dark alley filled with blindfolded, sadistic clowns. But it basically comes down to three things: Immaturity, staying current, and staying simple.
Immaturity: People of the internet are so incredibly immature it’s hard to wrap your head around. It’s an element these two have fully embraced, and used it to both make fun of and build their fan-base.
Staying Current: Everything on the internet lasts about 15 seconds before every moves on to something else. Look at Digg.com for example. It is a site were news stories move through there like a river, just floating along, and whatever happens, happens. It doesn’t care what’s going on, it’s a free-flowing body, separate from the entity of the internet. If people choose to look at a story, that’s cool, but it’ll just keep moving along to keep up with the current of the internet.
Staying Simple: Ever notice how all the popular videos on the internet are about 15 seconds long, or less? If they’re longer, it’s because there is a catchy tune involved. The less a person has to think, they more people are going to watch it.
These are all things that through the years, they’ve had to figure out for themselves. Sometimes they’d learn things the hard way, but we wouldn’t have Penny Arcade as we know it today if it wasn’t for their hard times.
The best parts of this book come from their early days in the industry. The stories of when they almost quit, or the story of how they met Robert Khoo, it’s all some of the most interesting stuff that’s ever come from Penny Arcade.
The “FAQ” section at the book was a lot of fun to read. It’s section where Krahulik and Holkins basically recorded themselves answering a lot of people’s questions in a style similar to their Downloadable Content recordings.
But the book is not perfect. I was a little disappointed when I got to the end, only to realize that it was in fact the end. I selfishly wanted more, but mostly because I had only extracted a couple of things I didn’t already know from reading their other books.
It is a very beautiful book. It looks great on your mantle piece, and the cover is downright outstanding. It’s the perfect way for these two to sum up the last 11 ½ years of their website.
