I read this comic for ~5ish years, and I can't tell what female characters those are. Goddamn are his characters similiarly drawn.I guess their current art style could be worse:
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Whatever Happened to Penny Arcade?
- Thread starter Bilix
- Start date
ZeroGravity
Member
The art took a nosedive and their humor lost all their bite after the dickwolves nonsense.
Dreamwriter
Member
They wrote a comic that some people viewed as making light of rape victims, and when people complained, Gabe (being himself an instinctual troll) doubled-down and had them make t-shirts about it.
Raging Spaniard
If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Funny doesnt age well. Most comedians have theie funny periods because more often than not its a "right place and time stuff"
Mike has actually grown to be a pretty good artist! I think his high point on the comic is the first time they did Lookouts. However since then Ive noticed that:
-he has many other art interests that take up most of his time. The comic is not a priority so he rushes it out (bery obvious when he uses reference and when he doesnt)
-his "goal" is to draw like Stephen Silver, and thats a good choice! However, I dont think his fundamentals are solid enough so you get some really weird inconsistent shit, melting teeth, weirdly realistic hands, etc. Im an artist myself so this is an educated guess on my part
PA is a big company with much to do and theyre not the edgy young guys who dont care about burning bridges anymore. They make a comic that they are happy with and thats good enough. They got bigger fish to fry.
Mike has actually grown to be a pretty good artist! I think his high point on the comic is the first time they did Lookouts. However since then Ive noticed that:
-he has many other art interests that take up most of his time. The comic is not a priority so he rushes it out (bery obvious when he uses reference and when he doesnt)
-his "goal" is to draw like Stephen Silver, and thats a good choice! However, I dont think his fundamentals are solid enough so you get some really weird inconsistent shit, melting teeth, weirdly realistic hands, etc. Im an artist myself so this is an educated guess on my part
PA is a big company with much to do and theyre not the edgy young guys who dont care about burning bridges anymore. They make a comic that they are happy with and thats good enough. They got bigger fish to fry.
Super bizarre comments here. I don't understand what why this post even exists. The comic is still going. It's kind of hit or miss for me, but it's always been like that.
And really? All you guys can whine about is the art style? It's really not that bad, and to say that's the thing that turned you off from it is pretty hilarious. Fuck them for ever changing I guess?
On to complaining about the next thing gaf.
And really? All you guys can whine about is the art style? It's really not that bad, and to say that's the thing that turned you off from it is pretty hilarious. Fuck them for ever changing I guess?
On to complaining about the next thing gaf.
Wired had a pretty good write-up.
the tl;dr is:
-They made a rape joke (the joke wasn't really at the expense of rape, it mostly used "rape" for its shock value)
-Some people let it be known they felt the joke was insensitive and in poor taste
-PA responded by mocking those people, escalating the issue, and eventually issuing merchandise that celebrated the rape joke
-Eventually, they pulled the merch
-A few years later, they said pulling the merch was a mistake
Funny enough, I actually just tried reading some of their newer stuff the other day...
I quite like the art style, but I feel like the writing has really gone downhill. I think I started losing interest in the comic as it felt like they were less and less interested in video games. Which, I mean, is fair enough. They have families... They have huge obligations... I just feel like we have grown apart.
I quite like the art style, but I feel like the writing has really gone downhill. I think I started losing interest in the comic as it felt like they were less and less interested in video games. Which, I mean, is fair enough. They have families... They have huge obligations... I just feel like we have grown apart.
The quality declined (and tbh, was never that great to begin with)
Here is the most recent strip. You may notice there's no actual punchline.
Yeah, see, it's not even about the art, it's just not funny half the time.
This, combined with the last major website redesign, is what did it for me. I have a big chunk of the print comic collections, up to a few years ago when I stopped reading the site. The combination of the art and website change pushed me over.
Some classics:
Yeah, these are from the era I liked the most. Mike's work was always evolving, and there's nothing wrong with that. But the current iteration went in a direction that I find to be actually grotesque.
Just look at the faces in the first strip. I find it downright repulsive to look at.The quality declined (and tbh, was never that great to begin with)
Here is the most recent strip. You may notice there's no actual punchline.
They're still pretty great and their empire is as big as ever. They're busy running multiple conventions, making board games, doing streams of games, hosting other comics, and so on. They've become a lot more than just their strip and Tycho's news posts.
Also, this thread is funny, especially the art criticisms, considering a recent comic they did:
I love when they do this sort of gag.
The one where they muse about having the comic in super high resolution and for one panel they look like detailed cartoons of the actual real life versions of them is equally hilarious.
The art style is fine for what it is, but it doesn't fit the comic well and generally isn't serving the gags properly. It's pretty obvious he's drawing like that to try and keep himself interested rather than because it's an appropriate style for the material. I feel like he's kind of progressed beyond the strip's format as an artist and it's like watching someone work in a box.
MisterShine
Member
This recent one got me
edit:
From what I recall, Gabe just got sick of doing his same art style for so long and just wanted to start playing around and seeing what he liked. I would see there's a gradual shift in the art over the past couple years, I expect it to keep changing.
ZeroGravity
Member
I mean, yes, it was. But it's pretty clear to me that the blowback they got for it caused them to step back from pushing the envelope. They became afraid of offending people and it shows in how sterile their humor became.
Off topic : Why is rape not allowed to be used in web comics / jokes? We joke about everything.
GAF still revels in that bloody awful miscarriage web comic. Where do we draw the line (no pun intended)? The shit you speak off was pilled on by anonymous internet users to project some air of moral superiority, just like years later by GamerGaters. Same mind set.
And once PA started responding with shit themselves anonymous internet users proclaimed themselves the winners.
On topic : The art went to shit.
Sarcasm, neogaf has a history of calling out VGcats for being trash.
I haven't been a loyal reader in years so I can't really defend the modern version of the comic but I disagree that the art is bad. Actually I think it's fascinating how much Gabe's art style changes through the years. Seriously, it's different on a year to year basis it seems.
Though I think my favorite iteration of the style was maybe 4-5 years ago when I was reading it weekly.
Though I think my favorite iteration of the style was maybe 4-5 years ago when I was reading it weekly.
NullPointer
Member
Its whining if you personally don't like an art style? I don't see petitions here to force them to change it back - its just listed as a reason why some people don't dig it as much as they used to. There's absolutely nothing unreasonable about that.
BassForever
Member
The quality declined (and tbh, was never that great to begin with)
Here is the most recent strip. You may notice there's no actual punchline.
Oh god what is this art style D:
Glass Shark
Banned
.
Mike and Jerry don't have anything to do with the forums.
Manmademan
Member
They're still pretty great and their empire is as big as ever. They're busy running multiple conventions, making board games, doing streams of games, hosting other comics, and so on. They've become a lot more than just their strip and Tycho's news posts.
Also, this thread is funny, especially the art criticisms, considering a recent comic they did:
The bitching about PA is hilarious.
Those two have consistently put out a comic three times a week since 1998, plus all the other side comics and business ventures and fatherhood, etc.
Is there ANY web content that's been published that consistently for 20 years that's still around, let alone successful to that degree? Because I'm struggling to come up with any examples that aren't extremely obscure.
Obviously nothing stays at creative peak indefinitely but PA is fine, with some hits and misses here. And it's OK to admit that long time fans sometimes just age out of gamer humor and dick jokes.
You're talking about a guy that deleted the entire PA Forums from existence because someone on the internet made fun of his wife. They have/had rather thin skin for what they were pushing out as comics.
They've actually been more involved recently, for example they made the 'hub' subforum and took away the new comics/content threads away from SE++ and had them posted by staff (and now a bot) and more heavily policed those threads.
It's the year of our Lord 2017 and you tell me that Mega Tokyo still exists? The apocalypse can't come soon enough.
Mike wanted a family friendly forum, so yes, he had something to do with enforcing the rule.
Hello? This is Hailun!
Member
It's hosted on their site and their branding is all over it.
I remember when somebody posted a Last of Us PA comic and found it unfunny as hell. Thats the last of them Ive seen actually.
Never was a fan of the comic, barring one or two strips.
At least it isnt actively unfunny as VG cats. That shit is irrelevant as hell.
Case in fucking point look above.
Never was a fan of the comic, barring one or two strips.
At least it isnt actively unfunny as VG cats. That shit is irrelevant as hell.
Case in fucking point look above.
EatinOlives
Member
Beyond just "looks bad", Gabe's face doesn't match the dialogue. It's obvious he's happy about downloading Puyo Puyo, but this expression is "explosively happy", almost reacting to something immediate. It's "over-acted" if such a thing exists in comic strips.
Hello? This is Hailun!
Member
They didn't make a rape joke.
They made a joke about how insincere video games treat terrible topics, and in this instance, that topic was rape.
It completely and utterly went over people's heads but PA ended up proving them right in the long run because they ultimately weren't able to handle that serious topic either themselves.
Ah I see. I haven't been back there in awhile.
Thank you!!!
GoldandBlue
Member
Here's one of their most recent strips. With this quality it's no wonder VG cats ate their lunch.
This is fuckin awful.
I think in general there just isn't an interest in the whole video game webcomic genre anymore.
StrangeRoboMemory
Member
Good lord, Megatokyo still exists?
old manatee
Banned
I don't even care about the initial joke. The way they handled the fallout was what disgusted me.
IrishNinja
Member
this was it for me
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I still love the guys. Tycho is someone whose writing style and sense of humor I really looked up to growing up. I own all their strips in paperback form.
Messofanego
Banned
Still the best
Hadn't see this before haha
Oh 2011, that was 6 years ago lol. How time flies and their art style apparently, too.
Orochinagis
Member
I stopped understanding their jokes on their page, like I literally have zero idea what are they talking about
MDSVeritas
Member
I started following them around 2007 or so, and have kept up basically to this day. The humor of the comic is fairly hit and miss on the comics, but I've found it to always kinda be that way. And some of the hits have been quite good.
Not to mention that they run PAX now, which seems like it is essentially ALWAYS happening somewhere in the world. Plus Mike's Thornwatch game, Child's Play, Acquisitions Incorporated, and all their other streaming stuff.
Overall they still seem to be doing well, and I dig a lot of what they put out, comic or otherwise.
As a note, I usually find their strips like these to be better than the ones trying to be more grotesquely humorous (though those have their moments):
And even quite recently
Not to mention that they run PAX now, which seems like it is essentially ALWAYS happening somewhere in the world. Plus Mike's Thornwatch game, Child's Play, Acquisitions Incorporated, and all their other streaming stuff.
Overall they still seem to be doing well, and I dig a lot of what they put out, comic or otherwise.
As a note, I usually find their strips like these to be better than the ones trying to be more grotesquely humorous (though those have their moments):
And even quite recently
NeOak
Member
Best eraSome classics: