The closest I ever came to being a gamer was during college when I worked at the Royal Park Cinemas in Gainesville, Florida. Theaters 3 & 4 had one of those sit-down tables with Ms. Pac-Man on it and bored, listless employees played it for hours in between movie start times.
That was okay, but I preferred the pinball game in theaters 1 & 2. Our projectionist, David Rocky, figured out how you could hit it just so and play endless free games.
That’s the extent of my experience—and desire—to be a gamer.
I’ve never had the fascination with video and computer games that is so prevalent these days; never queued up for the release of Myst or anything with the name “Final” in it that never seemed final at all.
Which is why, despite my love of print and web comics, I somehow missed the “Penny Arcade” phenomenon.
My guests today are Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the creators of the webcomic “Penny Arcade.” They are celebrating the roughly 11-and-a-half year anniversary of their strip with a new book, The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade. It is a history of the strip and themselves, a fascinating story for even the non-gamer.
Oh, and the strip is pretty damn funny, even for a non-gamer, and even if many of the gags are too inside baseball for me. And don’t be fooled by the unicorn on the cover; this is not a comic for little girls or girly men.
Penny Arcade Website
MIKE KRAHULIK podcast excerpt: “It’s just disgusting. I’m looking at a hole in Jerry’s body, intestines falling out like loops of rope. It’s an improvement, really”