Penny Arcade

Apologies for not posting much in a while. Been…

Submitted by chuckwheel on September 10, 2008 - 11:24

Apologies for not posting much in a while. Been busy working on a ton of projects. one which has been an upgrade to the first volume of the Pewfell Archive. My co-writer, Adam Prosser, and I have been hard at work writing several new stories, I've resurrected some long-retired material from the archives and with the help of colorist Carla Costa have colored it for the first time. We hope this new, expanded edition will provide the perfect entry point to the strip that the series had been lacking for a while now. Starting Monday, I'll be publishing updates 5 days a week for the next couple of months as the new stuff is released. You'll be able to see it all right here.

For now here is the cover (which I did post here already a couple of months ago -- new strips on Monday, I promise!) and the promotional blurb I'm releasing with it:

Meet Pewfell, a slacker wizard who lives in the fabulous city of Spirekassle. He's married to Tina the warrior princess and works a day job in a local pharmacy. When Tina has to take a month off due to a shortage of orc settlements to pillage, Pewfell must find other ways to supplement his income...

Movin' On Up: From Mayor of Webcomictown to Guv'nor of Webcomica!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 5, 2008 - 09:29

BUSINESS
Blogger/superhero Cory Doctorow writes about his dandelion theory of distributing his stories and why he doesn't like micropayments.

The Beat reports that Elephantman is now available on iPod comic site Clickwheel (full press release after the jump)

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Comics Worth Reading likes Dennis West's Backyard Frontier: the story of a boy and his alien.

REVIEWS
Chris Mauter posts a review of the Penny Arcade collection: Attack of the Bacon Robots! that originally ran in TCJ. Interesting but a few quibbles - I'm not much of a videogame player and I don't think it's true such knowledge is needed for every PA strip (a few yes, but far from most) and clearly this book was intended for the PA fan (i.e, the completist), not to attract new readers. (I almost forgot that Modern Humor Authority ran the definite review of this book - check it out here.)

PAX Arcadia

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 25, 2008 - 15:55

What is this - the fifth annual PAX (Penny Arcade Expo)? It seems like just yesterday that Mike and Jerry hung out with a few fans at a game center (that was the year before the first PAX) and now they're bigger than John Lennon!

The local newsprint has a pretty good feature story on the amazing success story that is Penny Arcade Inc:

PAX, or Penny Arcade Expo, taking place Aug. 29-31 at the Washington Convention Center in Seattle, is the largest video-game conference, rivaling others like E3 and earning the nickname the "Woodstock for gamers." Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Blizzard and Nintendo will be exhibitors there.

Penny Arcade

Webcomic Beacon #38 - Trans and Morph Webcomics w/ Special Guest Dan Shive

Submitted by fesworks on August 25, 2008 - 11:07

Dan Shive of El Goonish Shive joins Fes, Eric, and eventually Tanya as we discuss webcomics that have transgendering or morphologies.

Return to the Angst: An Interview with Inktank's Barry T. Smith

August 24, 2008 - 21:27 | Xaviar Xerexes

In the early half of the "naughts" Barry T. Smith appeared in webcomics with Angst Technology, a funny webcomic about a small videogame company. He also created a webcomic about paintball called Weakend Warriors and one about a comic book shop called Sorry, We're Open. All were pretty solid efforts and he certainly had a decent-sized audience for the time (for example, Angst Technology showed up at #9 on the initial "Most Read" list we did in 2003). He took a pretty big break from comics and only recently returned with his comic called InkTank. I've been enjoying the new comic and was happy to get a chance to interview Smith about his return.

Webcomic Beacon #37 - Spectacular Failure #2

Submitted by fesworks on August 16, 2008 - 21:29

Fes and Tanya, are joined by Ben Carver to help salvage what Murphy’s Law had done to this week’s show! Awesome!Let’s say it’s everyone’s fault… yea… let’s go with that.

This Day in ComixTalk (August 15th)

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 15, 2008 - 07:25

2007

Creator and entrepreneur Tim Demeter guest blogged at ComixTalk with a series called "It's Business Time" (links to part one, two and three)

2006

As Scott Kurtz debuted a new site design for PvP, I wrote asking whether webcomic websites be an artistic extension of the comic, essentially extending the look and feel of the comic, or is that not that important?

2005

Ryan Estrada reaches the 168 hour mark in the Ironbutt comic making event. In related endurance news, we reported on another entrant dropping out of the Daily Grind contest.

Ali Graham released a print collection of his first webcomic Housd.

2004

Alexander Danner wrote about how to promote your webcomic by not promoting your webcomic.

A group of creators banded together to form Found Hat Press.

2003

Warren Ellis reviewed the very first print collection of David Rees' clip art comic Get Your War On!

Bringing the Buzz Back to Buzzcomix

August 3, 2008 - 21:14 | Xaviar Xerexes

Andrew "mneonix08" Gomez created the webcomics toplist Buzzcomix back in 2002 and it has long been one of the most popular "top list" sites for webcomics. After graduating from college mneonix08 has taken apart the code for Buzzcomix and reworked the site adding several features, including a webcomics reader (with bookmarking function) that shows a lot of promise. Currently in beta, the new version of Buzzcomix is scheduled to launch August 8th. I caught up with mneonix08 over email last week.

Most Subscribed Comics at The Belfry Webcomics Index

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 30, 2008 - 16:39

The New Belfry Webcomics Index has a list of its most subscribed comics:

Penny Arcade

Highest Ranked Comics at the Webcomics List

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 29, 2008 - 10:08

The Webcomics List is practically a webcomics institution at this point. In addition to keeping track of webcomic updates, it has an active forum and syndicates news from ComixTalk. Here's a list of the highest ranked comics there: