The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition
Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins; Del Rey; 176 pp., $24; Color, Hardcover; ISBN: 978-0345512260
Penny Arcade has grown on me over the years, I admit it. At first I found Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins’ thrice-weekly Web-comic devoted to all things videogamish to be sporadically funny at best, amateurish and insular at worst.
Time has improved my outlook. A large part of that is due to the fact that Holkins and Krahulik have stepped up their game considerably since they first began the strip 11-odd years ago. Krahulik’s art in particular has become a lot looser, wilder and more expressive. His initially stiff, awkward line has given way to a rounder, much more expressive one. In addition, Holkins’ writing and gags have become wittier, sharper and a lot less reliant on the sort of sophomoric, over- the-top violence that used to be their stock in trade.
Regardless of your opinion of the strip’s quality level, however, it’s hard not to be impressed by its success. Few comics in general — let alone Webcomics — can boast the sort of devoted readership and financial reward that Penny Arcade can.
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