How do you feel about Penny Arcade?

They got bad a few years ago, like bad art, too many boring side projects and too chumy with the industry or something. Then I stopped visiting.

It still amazes me how easy some of their classic strips come to mind during random situations tho. I can have a great time just going through their archives every now and then.
 
Still like them.

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Herne said:
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Going through and finding my old favourites again. Too damn many to post here.
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See, it's stuff like Slippy contacting Gabe while he's asleep for no reason, complete with the Star Fox interface. Nevermind the in your face humor used here, it's that total "what?" factor that I love about PA, because somehow it works perfectly.

Killdozer said:
Still like them.

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"Ach, Mein Thirsten!" became a commonly uttered phrase amongst my group of friends back in the day. I love this one.

Kangi said:
Still their best:

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Aside from the great "I smolder with generic rage" line, I find this to be an example of the kind of humor they use that I don't like. Far too over the top and crudely sexual. The Slippy example above is kind of like this, too, but I still find that funny for some reason.
 
SolVanderlyn said:
See, it's stuff like Slippy contacting Gabe while he's asleep for no reason, complete with the Star Fox interface. Nevermind the in your face humor used here, it's that total "what?" factor that I love about PA, because somehow it works perfectly.


"Ach, Mein Thirsten!" became a commonly uttered phrase amongst my group of friends back in the day. I love this one.
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Also the fact that it seem to imply Gabe is familiar with Slippy, like it isn't the first time at all this happened. Really cool stuff
 
I used to really like it and find it funny, but some of the opinions that have come to light from the creators make it really hard for me to like it these days.
 
SolVanderlyn said:
See, it's stuff like Slippy contacting Gabe while he's asleep for no reason, complete with the Star Fox interface. Nevermind the in your face humor used here, it's that total "what?" factor that I love about PA, because somehow it works perfectly.
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It is relevant because Slippy bugged the fuck out of you in Star Fox.


"Ach, Mein Thirsten!" became a commonly uttered phrase amongst my group of friends back in the day. I love this one.
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We used the Mein Leipen! one ourselves.





PA can still be good, and Gabe has become one fantastic artist and I'm glad he's shut the fuck up because, whoo, man did he have a big fucking mouth.
 
I've never been a huge fan, but I used to go there fairly regularly.

The art evolved from typical webcomic-looking stuff to real quality, but then at some point it... mutated. I don't really like the character designs any more. It's still very technically good, but...
 
I haven't read the site or most web comics in ages. Early stuff and some of the stuff up to probably mid to late 2000s was good and I think Gabe does some decent art outside of PA.

This though...
jambo said:
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...looks like shit. I mean, is Gabe a kid now? Did I miss something and he de-aged? I seriously don't know how anyone sees this as a good evolution of a personal art-style.
 
TheChewyWaffles said:
Tycho is a terrible writer. If I wrote papers in high school and college like he writes I'd have gotten a big fat F.
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What?

First, writing a paper for school is way different than just writing.

Second, with writing or music or any kind of art, the thing is that you make what you like and hope people gravitate toward it. Not everyone will like everything, but that doesnt make something you dont like terrible.

So even if you think hes terrible, I think hes great and were back at square one. Not a great conversation. A better conversation would sound like "I dont like Tycho's posts because he [insert specific point] and uses [specific point] too often, which just isnt to my liking"
 
Used to read it but it went from a funny game strip to a dramatic stuff about nerdy sci fi storyline strip.

And right around that time I vaguely remember one of them making some comments I didn't like, so it was a right time to stop reading.
 
I have been a big fan for years. Love the writing, but I think the latest direction the art has taken is awful. Gabe looks like a child, the freckles and nose are bizarre and the facial expressions he makes seem like the polar opposite of the character that has been established over the past 10+ years.
 
Like so many people I really hated the art changes, the noses and all. That shit was plain ugly. The comics were well written for the most part though.
 
OricWindstar said:
I kind of agree about the vegetable-nose thing getting out of hand, but Gabe is one of my biggest artistic inspirations for my drawings. Especially his non-strip stuff:
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yup... i have this cover (Issue #5 i believe)... one of my favorite AT comic covers! (i also have a shirt and wallet with this image..)
 
Remachinate said:
I've posted this before, but I just feel like the effort in writing a comic that's actually funny isn't there anymore. Compare this 2011 comic to one from 2014 using the same joke:
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It makes sense in the context of the game. The intro sequence for levels in Warframe involves you dropping down from a vent and getting into your "battle ready" pose, while the cam zooms back to show your squad mades. Sometimes, it's immediately obvious when someone really tricked out their Warframe with money.

But I guess it doesn't come across as well if you're unfamiliar with the source. That seems to apply to a lot of their game-specific comics today, they're too narrow in scope.
 
Used to love it and must have read 1000s of comics and Tycho posts. Ordered the books too. Had one autographed at E3 2006.

I somehow stopped liking and reading the comic a few years ago. The art is great but the text doesn't feel as inspired or funny.

It's a terrible thing to say, I know. Maybe they're spread too thin? Maybe something else?
 
Lost interest. The humor isn't really there anymore and their recent art styles aren't to my liking. I'm not the only one either, the official PA thread here died nearly a year ago.

Timeless said:
"Artists should do the same stuff over and over until they die." - NeoGAF, 2015
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They can do whatever they want. Doesn't mean we have to like it.
 
My favorite art was from a year or two ago. It got to a really nice, clean peak for awhile before it started getting a bit too spastic for my taste. I think it's pretty cool that his art style is constantly evolving/changing, sometimes month by month. It shows he experiments a good deal and does a ton of drawing even while not working on the comic.
 
Don't find them funny at all. But then again, I don't find any web-comics or VG related humour funny. Colour me a humorless bore.

Why the sudden interest with these comics guys?
 
pantsmith said:
What?

First, writing a paper for school is way different than just writing.

Second, with writing or music or any kind of art, the thing is that you make what you like and hope people gravitate toward it. Not everyone will like everything, but that doesnt make something you dont like terrible.

So even if you think hes terrible, I think hes great and were back at square one. Not a great conversation. A better conversation would sound like "I dont like Tycho's posts because he [insert specific point] and uses [specific point] too often, which just isnt to my liking"
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Sorry, he's just bad. Sounds like he has his thesaurus open every time he writes.
 
As someone who draws , I can see Mikes art style in an evolutionary manner - you get bored drawing the same characters the same way after so many years and want to change things up. Given that he illustrates 3 strips a week just about every week a year , the bulk of his art time is taken up drawing these strips. So why not experiment ?

I'll admit , the design choices with regards to Gabe go a little bit too far but having followed his style and the comic for quite some time , Mike goes back and forth with how much detail he feels the comic needs.

I'll admit it - the 2007-2009 era when he first started going hard with the cintiq work had a very clean and very refined look to it that , were this a corporate newspaper strip (like garfield or dilbert) - Mike would have been better off just keeping it looking like that.

But , when you're an artist that actually enjoys drawing - you want to keep improving your style and sometimes this means making decisions that people outside of your personal window (and sometimes that window is just a mirror) won't appreciate.

Mike's style used to feel like it was trapped in a generic webcomic pit - it's very clear that since then he has employed the techniques used by many of the more prominent artists working on cartoons at Nicktoons these days as well as classic styles like Stephen Silver and John Krikafalusi.

Given how long the "vegetable nose" look has been going on now , I wouldn't be at all surprised if, in another year ,it changes again to something different. PA strips are Mikes experimental art time and the theme strips such as Lookouts or Ex Machina are like the real projects where techniques he's practiced are put to a real test.

If it wasn't apparent from that large rant - I personally feel like Mike is always getting better but for the average PA reader I can also see how the strange look the strip has these days can be off putting. It also stands to reason that after 15 years of writing strips, Jerry is unintentionally recycling old material just like simpsons does.

I don't LOVE the comic like I used to , I'm more fond of other things PA is involved with like PAX and even Strip Search Winner Katie's strip "Camp Weedonwantcha".

But then, I'm 32 years old now , so obviously when the type of humor doesn't change it eventually stops resonating at the same frequency , I've grown deaf to the dick jokes I guess.
 
I find it cool only in the sense that it's pretty interesting to see such art progression in "real time" if you go through the strips

dude became a really good artist, even if he fiddled around with different stuff
 
Cyan said:
Not at all. I think it's great that Gabe has evolved over the years. I think it's wonderful and inspiring that despite the massive success they've had, they've actively tried to keep on improving. To avoid getting stale.

But seriously, stop it with the fucking vegetable noses.
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I thought that's what he's trying to get away with, as of his 2015 New Year's Resolution. Tumblr noses are pre-2015 (of course they're still in there now as he experiments).
 
I love that I've been following them through the gaming ages on the internet. Like we're going through all the same stuff together. The focus is a little different now, and not as small-time, but it's been fun.
 
With how much they expanded the site circa 2010 from a humble comic/blog combo to video game tie-ins, charities, comics independant of video games, a :lol-Kuchera-helmed news facet, and PAXes all errwhrrr, I've been of the conclusion they've gotten tired of doing video game topics and wanted to invest themselves in other ventures than penning and inking funny pages 3 times a week more so than from child-rearing. The zest and quality was just gone.

And vegetable-face. THAT'S the name for that bad habit. Shit's gotten out of control lately.

Kangi said:
Still their best:
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Yup. That or the Infamous comic where the dude's killing then reviving an NPC ad infinitum.
 
I like PAX. The best thing those two did was hire the guy who runs PAX.

The comic? Not so much. The art is decent to really good. The writing is not worth bothering with.
 
Used to check it every day when I was in middle school. But by the time I was done with high school, I realized I was just checking the latest strip out of routine, not because I actually still found them funny anymore. So I stopped. There are better, funnier web comics out there.

Though unlike many here, I actually think the new art style looks great, and I really admire the improvements that have occurred there, even if they look a bit odd to me.
 
The art is 1000x better now, you're tripping.
I remember it being in either EGM or PSM, I don't think I understood a lot of the jokes at the time
 
daveo42 said:
...looks like shit. I mean, is Gabe a kid now? Did I miss something and he de-aged? I seriously don't know how anyone sees this as a good evolution of a personal art-style.
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How else would you know he's the dumb one?! The dumb things he does every strip? Nah.
 
They've always been hit or miss, but I truly appreciate what they've done for the community with PAX and the like. Haven't read the comic in five years+.

Just looked at the past ten or so, and... yeah. Not really funny. It's like he overhears a random conversation about a slightly nerdy topic and shoehorns it into a three panel comic, regardless of if it's funny or not. Mixed in with his art funsies.

It's CAD lite, pretty much. Without the whole being a piece of shit thing, anyways.
 
It really went downhill once Mike had a kid and it became Dad Comics for Dad Gamers by Dads for Dads and every comic seemed to be based around something cute his son said.
 
Wow. I know it's cool to hate on PA these days but I had no idea people hated the art so much. I love that Mike keeps experimenting and improving his art style. The characters are a million times more expressive and interesting to look at now.

Tycho's writing is always fun to read.

Anyway, I still read it every week. I guess I feel I've grown up with them.
 
Stopped reading when they moved their website from that "all on one page" view to that weird thing they have now. Just find it impossible to navigate.
 
I used to listen to their infrequent podcast, which was just them pressing record during creative sessions for the strip. It was often more funny than the actual comics. It's rare that I go read the strip nowadays, but for a time it was quite great.
 
Regardless of the harsh opinions shown here, a lot of their comics are higher brow than any other video game comic strip on the net (of which there is an ocean of pure shit)

I also try not to get too caught up in hating on Mike's foot-in-mouth syndrome. Unless you really think he's a bad person (which he's clearly not) there's really no reason to perpetually hold things he's said (and since changed his mind or clarified himself on) against him. People are human and we've all said boneheaded things while we learn and grow.
 
The comics used to be great, but now tend to be about stuff (including games) that I rarely care about. Still, they hit the mark every now and then.

I try not to read any of the text they write though. It makes my head hurt.
 
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