Penny Arcade Volume 1: Attack of the Bacon Robots!

by Jerry Holkins

Book Overview

Get your geek on Penny Arcade, the comic strip for gamers, by gamers is now available in comic shops and bookstores everywhere. Not familiar with Penny Arcade? What? It's only the most popular comic strip on the web. It's the funniest, most twisted comic that ever lampooned gamer culture, and takes shots at everything from Star Wars to Steve Jobs. Experience the joy of being a hardcore gamer as expressed in vignettes of random vulgarity and mindless...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593074441
• ISBN13: 9781593074449
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Dark Horse Books
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

more than worth the price

This is a great toilet reading book. Good commentary on each comic as well.

The Comic May Not Be For Everyone, But Those Who Appreciate It Will Love This Book

While I can't really back this claim up, I've heard that Penny Arcade is one of the most popular webcomics currently in existence, and this book will show you why. Written by Jerry Holkins and drawn by Mike Krahulik, Penny Arcade is about two gamers known as Tycho Brahe and Johnathon "Gabe" Gabriel (who represent Holkins and Karhulik, respectively) who comment on gaming culture, computers, and other "geeky" topics. The pair is joined by a hilarious bunch of supporting characters, including their wives Brenna and Kara, their anthropomorphic, alcoholic Divx player Div, Chuck/Charles, the resident Mac enthusiast, and Randy, the dirty newscaster (many more subcharacters aren't introduced in this volume). Tycho and Gabe spend most of their time insulting games/people they don't like, commenting on current events in the gaming world, and attacking each other. There is little continuity in the strip, meaning that a character who dies in one strip is alive in the next. The biggest change that stays is Chuck's transformation into Charles around the time Mac computers got cooler casings. I must note here that this comic is not for everyone, it uses graphic violence and very colorful language to get its message across. The cool thing about this book is that Tycho comments on all of the comics (sadly, Gabe didn't participate; I know that Tycho is the writer of the group, but I'm sure that Gabe could have some insightful comments). The commentary ranges from insightful to hilarious to bizarre. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that Bill Amend, creator of Fox Trot, did the forward for the book. If you like Penny Arcade, you should definitely consider buying this great book. If you've never heard of Penny Arcade, you should go to its website first, because this comic is definitely not for everyone.

"Robots with needs"

As you've all probably heard by now, there is little to this book that isn't readily available on the Penny-Arcade website. So, why would anyone buy this book? Because a real Penny Arcade fan has to buy this book, it is a moral obligation. The added commentary, the introductions, the manifesto, and the slathering hordes of hungering undead only make it that much sweeter to meet that obligation. After all, they've given us years of free content and I think it's about time we started throwing money back at them, like the exotic dancers they are. Oh, and a note on the quality of the printing, the book feels like it could stop a shotgun blast, and it's paperback!

A good buy.

I have read all the comics in the archive on their site, but this book is far more interesting as it gives a little bit of background flavor to the oldies, despite the obvious lower art quality of the first strips. Penny-Arcade wasn't built in a day, and it's worth seeing how the strip evolved via "Tycho's" commentary. A must read for Penny-Arcade fans for sure. Most nerd/geek culture enthusiasts would do well to pick it up, too, even if you are not entirely familiar with their strip. Also, this book would be enlightening to Florida based lawyers with an anti-video game agenda - PA has been picking on the "Video games desensitize kids to violence" issue since 1998. Well constructed and bound book with an interesting forward by Bill Amend of Foxtrot fame. 5-stars.

A must have, but somewhat dated.

Gabe's art has changed dramatically over the years, and the comics in this collection make that point emphatically. As a previous reviewer mentioned, the strip is often topical, and as such new readers will not clue in unless they are already "one of us." Even so, the faithful will love this book (as will any nostalgic gamer) and hungrily await future works to build their collections.