Comics / Digital Comics

Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below

By Leroy Douresseaux
August 13, 2010 - 09:30

Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below is the latest collection of the humorous webcomic, Penny Arcade, which was created by childhood friends, writer Jerry Holkins and artist Mike Krahulik.  Deriving its comedy and observational humor from video games and video gaming culture, Penny Arcade debuted in 1998 and is one of the Web’s oldest online comics.

Penny Arcade revolves around two characters that are also the alter egos of the strip’s creators:  Jonathan “Gabe” Gabriel (Krahulik) and Tycho Erasmus Brahe (Holkins).  The creators apparently base some episodes of Penny Arcade on their lives, but the strip mainly derives its narrative from characters playing and commenting on video games.

Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below collects the full color Penny Arcade strips that appeared in 2005.  Each strip is accompanied by commentary and/or explanation from one of the creators.  The strips that year (usually published three times a week) follow Gabe and Tycho to various conventions and shows.  Most of the time, however, the strip is all about video games:  playing them, arguing about them, complaining about launches and poor development, plumbing the depths of MMOs, etc.

I don’t play video games, online or otherwise, but I like this strip.  People who aren’t constantly online may not get into Penny Arcade, but it is hard to imagine anyone who spends much time surfing (even if they aren’t into gaming) not liking Penny Arcade to some degree.  It is better than most newspaper comic strips.  Penny Arcade 6: The Halls Below will testify to that.

B+

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12