Penny Arcade

See also Penny Arcade (performer).

Penny Arcade is a web comic and blog written and illustrated by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. It is among the most popular (if not the most popular) webcomics currently online.

The strip features the two authors' cartoon alter egos Jonathan Gabriel (a.k.a. Gabe) and Tycho Brahe, respectively, who spend much of their time time playing computer and video games and commenting on them. A good deal of the humour of this strip revolves around Internet subculture and video games, and often features in-jokes that are explained by the news posts that accompany each comic. One of the most popular aspects of this strip is the signature drawing style of the artist, Mike Krahulik (Gabe). Penny Arcade regularly features profanity and violence, and can easily be considered offensive to those unused to such elements. The first comic strip appeared on November 18, 1998, making it one of the oldest web comics still receiving regular updates.

There is little continuity on Penny Arcade, owing to the writers' dislike for the concept. They have been quoted as describing it as the "dreaded continuity." A character who dies a horrible, violent death in one strip will come back the next perfectly whole. There is also little realism in Penny Arcade. All manner of creatures have been known to drop in, from zombies to a talking DIVX player, and all manner of strange events have been known to take place. Just about the only thing that can be counted upon is the appearance of a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with almost no exceptions.

Both Krahulik and Holkins make a living from Penny Arcade, placing them in a very small group of web comic artists devoted to their creations full-time. The website sees tens of thousands of visitors every day, making it one of the most popular sites on the Internet.

Table of contents

1 Recurring Characters
2 See also
3 External link

Recurring Characters

As mentioned, Penny Arcade is not a comic with a great deal of continuity. The strip largely centers around conversations between Tycho and Gabe, but occasionally other minor characters make an appearance.

Jonathan Gabriel - Mike Krahulik's comic alter ego, hyper and free-spirited; almost always wears a Pac-Man t-shirt
Tycho Brahe - Jerry Holkins's comic alter ego, bitter and sarcastic
Kara - Gabe's wife
Brenna - Tycho's wife
Div - a drunken talking DIVX player with a mean-spirited attitude
Thomas a.k.a. The cat - a cat with computer skills, including (possibly) an MCSE
Frank - a Software Etc manager who is somewhat mentally unstable
Charles - a somewhat fanatical Mac user who underwent a drastic makeover around the same time as the OS X release (Specifically, the June 23, 2000 strip [1] [1] )
Fruit Fucker 2000 - a juicer with an unhealthy sexual obsession for fruit
Twisp and Catsby - an anthropomorphic cat and a devil (counter to what one might think, Catsby is the devil, not the cat) who are featured only in completely isolated strips/storylines. The frames featuring them are sepia toned. Everything about the characters and their strips is completely bizarre (for example, Twisp gives nonsensical answers to otherwise standard questions), because these characters are "not for critics".[1] [1]
"Randy" the news guy - Shows up on television news shows, usually trying to get a date
Cardboard Tube Samurai - An alter ego of Gabe, who uses a cardboard tube as a weapon as though he were a samurai wielding a sword.class="external">[1