Penny Arcade is a webcomic about video games and the culture around them. It was created by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic first appeared in 1998 on the website loonygames.com. Later, Holkins and Krahulik started their own website, which usually posts a new comic strip every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The website also includes regular updates on its blog.

By 2005, Penny Arcade was one of the most popular and longest-running webcomics online. In 2010, it was reported to have 3.5 million readers. Holkins and Krahulik were among the first webcomic creators to earn a living from their work. In addition to the comic, they started several other projects, including Child's Play, a children's charity; PAX, a gaming convention; Penny Arcade TV, a YouTube channel; Pinny Arcade, a pin exchange; and the video game series Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, developed with Hothead Games and Zeboyd Games.

Overview

The comic strip includes two characters, John "Gabe" Gabriel and Tycho Brahe, who represent the creators, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. These characters are not exact copies of the authors but are inspired by their lives. Much of the strip’s humor comes from the characters playing and discussing computer and video games. Gabe usually takes the lead in the comic, while Tycho often plays the role of the opposite or contrasting character. Some jokes in the strip are explained in news posts that accompany each comic, written by the authors themselves.

Both Krahulik and Holkins earn their living through Penny Arcade, making them part of a small group of webcomic artists who work full-time on their creations. Initially, Penny Arcade was supported only by donations from readers. A graph on the website showed how many people donated each month. Later, after hiring Robert Khoo as their business manager, the creators changed their income model to rely on advertising and sales of merchandise. In 2006, the website received more than two million visits daily (not counting forum activity). On November 13, 2005, the website was redesigned to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the comic and to match the designs of the Child’s Play Charity and Penny Arcade Expo websites. Since then, the site has been redesigned several times.

Attributes of the comic strip

Penny Arcade is a comic that focuses mainly on news and topics related to video games. It does not follow a long story or have much ongoing plot, except for a few jokes called "dreaded continuity." These jokes involve stories that continue across multiple strips. For example, a character who is killed in one strip might return in the next, often without any lasting effects from their death. However, sometimes events, like one character taking a Pac-Man watch from another after a fight, are repeated in later comics. The comic includes many humorous and strange elements, such as zombies, a character named Div who is an alcoholic and talks about a video format called DIVX, Santa Claus, a robotic juicer called "Fruit Fucker 2000," and even Jesus. Other characters, like Dante from the game Devil May Cry, are mentioned but not always shown. Occasionally, the comic addresses serious topics, such as a character proposing to his girlfriend or praising someone for standing up to bullying.

Some strips are drawn from the perspective of characters in video games or movies. Gabe and Tycho, the main characters, sometimes appear as players or characters within these games, making sarcastic comments about game features or problems. The comic also shows meetings between game developers, business people, or reporters discussing news articles.

Penny Arcade has a theme song called "Penny Arcade Theme," created by a musician named MC Frontalot. He wrote the song as a thank-you to the creators of the comic for linking his website to theirs and naming him their "rapper laureate" in 2002. The song was included in a dance game called In the Groove, released in 2004.

Protagonists

Mike Krahulik's comic character is lively and carefree but often becomes very angry. Unlike Tycho, who uses many complex words, Gabe usually speaks in simple, common language. He frequently wears a yellow Pac-Man shirt and has a Pac-Man tattoo on his right arm. His eyes are a color called slate blue.

Gabe is interested in unicorns, secretly enjoys Barbies, is a fan of Spider-Man and Star Wars, and claims "Jessie's Girl" is the best song ever. He is married and has a son. Gabe has diabetes, but he still eats a lot of sugary foods.

Krahulik named his son "Gabriel" after the character.

Jerry Holkins' comic character (named after the astronomer Tycho Brahe) is bitter and sarcastic. His eyes are a color called burnt sienna, and he often wears a blue-striped sweater. Tycho enjoys reading, playing role-playing video games, using complex words, and making Gabe feel less confident. He is a fan of Harry Potter and Doctor Who. He plays Dungeons & Dragons frequently (the website's old banner showed him holding a 20-sided die) and acts dramatically when playing the game's leader.

Tycho sometimes mentions his difficult childhood, during which his mother physically harmed him. He also struggles with alcohol use.

In Poker Night at the Inventory, Tycho is voiced by Kid Beyond.

Podcast

Krahulik and Holkins created a podcast from 2006 to 2018. They began recording and sharing episodes on March 20, 2006, with the title Downloadable Content. The podcast focused on the process of making a Penny Arcade comic. Each episode usually started with the hosts discussing recent gaming news, followed by random conversations and side topics. The podcast also gave a behind-the-scenes look at how Penny Arcade comics were created, including ideas for future comics.

The podcast had a "fly-on-the-wall" format, meaning the hosts rarely mentioned the microphone. There was no theme music, introduction, or closing. Episodes varied in length, often starting suddenly and ending with the idea for the next comic. New episodes were released at irregular times, with gaps of up to six months between some episodes.

At first, the podcast was published weekly, but Holkins wrote in a blog post in May 2006 that keeping up with regular releases was difficult. The hosts planned to continue recording episodes occasionally.

After the first episode of PATV aired in February 2010, the Downloadable Content podcast was no longer updated. A new segment called "The Fourth Panel" later appeared on PATV, offering a similar behind-the-scenes look at comic creation.

On May 8, 2013, Penny Arcade started a Kickstarter campaign to fund more Downloadable Content episodes. The campaign was successful, and new episodes were released every Wednesday. However, the podcast is now on hiatus, with the last episode dated August 23, 2018.

Games

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is a video game series based on the Penny Arcade comic strip. The first two episodes were created by Hothead Games using a version of the Torque Game Engine. The first episode was released worldwide on May 21, 2008, and the second on October 29, 2008. These episodes were published through the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and a website called PlayGreenhouse.com, which was created by Penny Arcade to share games made by independent developers. The game includes characters and settings from the Penny Arcade universe, set in a 1920s steampunk world. In 2010, the creators of Penny Arcade, Krahulik and Holkins, said the rest of the series would not be made to let Hothead Games focus on other projects. However, at PAX Prime 2011, it was announced that Zeboyd Games would continue the series with a style similar to their previous games. The third episode was released on Steam and Penny Arcade’s website on June 25, 2012. The fourth and final episode was announced in January 2013 and released on Steam and Xbox Live in June 2013.

A teaser trailer made by Telltale Games on August 28, 2010, showed that Tycho would appear in a new game with characters from Team Fortress 2, Homestar Runner, and Sam & Max. The game, called Poker Night at the Inventory, was released on November 22, 2010. A remastered version of the game was released on March 5, 2026.

Two stories from the Penny Arcade website were made into motion comics for iOS devices by SRRN Games. These were released as "The Last Christmas" in 2010 and "The Hawk and the Hare" in 2011.

The 2008 North American release of Tekken 6 included a character skin for Yoshimitsu based on the Cardboard Tube Samurai. In 2012, a downloadable content pack for Dungeon Defenders featured skins of Tycho, Cardboard Tube Samurai Gabe, Annarchy, and Jim Darkmagic.

Cryptozoic Entertainment created a licensed deck-building card game called Penny Arcade The Game: Gamers Vs. Evil in 2011. A second expansion pack, Penny Arcade The Game: Rumble in R'lyeh, was released in 2012. Playdek made a digital version of Penny Arcade The Game: Gamers Vs. Evil available for iOS devices in 2012.

Penny Arcade: The Series

Penny Arcade: The Series began airing online on February 20, 2010. It is a documentary series with multiple seasons that follows the experiences of the Penny Arcade company and its founders, Krahulik and Holkins. The final episode of the series was posted in September 2015.

Other works

Under the name "Penny Arcade Presents," Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins sometimes create promotional artwork and comic strips for new video games. These works often use their unique artistic style and humor. They are usually credited as "Penny Arcade" instead of using their real names. Some of these works have been included with the release of games, while others appeared on official websites before the games launched. A complete list of these works can be found on the Penny Arcade website. The last of these commissions was posted in 2012.

On August 8, 2005, Krahulik announced that Penny Arcade, working with Sabertooth Games, would create a collectible card game based on the Penny Arcade franchise. The game, called the "battle box," was released in February 2006 as part of the Universal Fighting System.

Some stories from the main Penny Arcade comic have grown into separate projects. One example is Epic Legends Of The Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga (ELotH:TES), a parody of fantasy fiction often used in games. This story first appeared as a joke in the comic on February 7, 2005, and later expanded into a full fantasy universe. It was documented on a fake "fan-wiki" and appeared in the comic on November 7, 2005, and November 30, 2005. Elements of the ELotH:TES universe are shown on the cover of the second collection of Penny Arcade comics, Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings.

On May 31, 2006, Krahulik announced a new advertising campaign for the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). The ESRB wanted to explain why the group is important to gamers, even if they do not think it affects them. Krahulik said he and Holkins accepted the job because they are fathers who care about the games their children play. The campaign began in the summer and fall of 2006, and a second campaign was released in 2012, featuring a mother, father, and gamer explaining the ESRB’s tools.

In 2008, Penny Arcade partnered with Wizards of the Coast to create a podcast of Dungeons & Dragons adventures. This led to the creation of Acquisitions Incorporated. After the podcast was popular, the group began livestreaming games at the PAX festival starting in 2010. In 2012, the group switched to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and used the Forgotten Realms as their campaign setting. Emily Friedman, an academic, noted that some people mistakenly believe Acquisitions Incorporated started the actual play genre. In 2019, Inverse described the series as the "longest-running live play game."

Friedman, writing for Polygon, noted that the shows became more complex over time, moving from two cameras in a hotel ballroom to a multi-camera setup with costumed players at PAX Prime in 2012. Other prerecorded and edited actual play series, such as AI: The Series (2016–2017) and The "C" Team (2017–2021), were also released. In 2019, an official Acquisitions Incorporated sourcebook was created, featuring the series’ concept and characters. In 2023, the series changed to the Greyhawk campaign setting. At PAX Unplugged 2025, Acquisitions Incorporated Daggerheart was announced. The series will be rebooted with a new campaign and setting, using Daggerheart instead of Dungeons & Dragons. Francesco Cacciatore of Polygon noted that while many changes have occurred since 2008, including only Krahulik and Holkins remaining from the original cast, the brand has kept its identity and connection to fans.

On June 2, 2011, Paramount Pictures and Paramount Animation acquired the rights to make an animated film based on the comic strip The New Kid, which was published on October 29, 2010. The strip was part of a series of mini-strips with cinematic openings to larger, unexplored stories. The New Kid follows a boy moving to a new planet with his family because of his father’s job. The script was written by Gary Whitta and would have been produced by Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.

At PAX Australia in 2016, Holkins revealed that changes at Paramount caused the film rights to be returned to Penny Arcade, and the project was canceled. However, he noted that Whitta’s script was complete and the project could be revived by another company in the future.

The Trenches was a comic series created by Krahulik and Holkins in 2011–2015, in collaboration with Scott Kurtz, the creator of the webcomic PvP. The comic followed a man named Isaac and his life as a game tester. The series began on August 9, 2011, with new strips posted every Tuesday and Thursday, often paired with a short story called "Tale from the Trenches," written by readers about their own experiences in the game industry.

In September 2012, Kurtz stopped drawing the comic due to time constraints and was replaced by Mary Cagle, a former intern and creator of Kiwi Blitz. Kurtz continued to write the comic with Krahulik and Holkins. In late August 2013, the artwork was taken over by Ty Halley and Monica Ray, former contestants of the Strip Search series.

The Trenches was eventually abandoned. The last comic was posted on January 5, 2016, and the last "Tale from the Trenches" was published on September 10, 2015.

In 2011, Krahulik and Holkins released an iOS app called The Decide-o-tron, developed by The Binary Mill. The app helped users find video games they might enjoy by suggesting titles based on games they had already played. Holkins described it as "Pandora for games." By 2014, the decideotron.com website was no longer active.

In 2012, Penny Arcade launched two Kickstarter projects. The first, in July 2012, was Paint the Line, a card game that came with an exclusive comic. 259 backers pledged $9,025 for this project. The second project, Penny Arcade Sells Out, aimed to replace advertising revenue with crowdfunding. If the goal of $250,000 was met, the leaderboard ad on the Penny Arcade website would be removed. If the goal of $999,999 was reached, the entire site would be ad-free for a year. 9,069 backers pledged $528,144 for this project. A reality web series called Strip Search, described as "our version of America’s Next Top Webcomic," was created as part of the $450

Penny Arcadeevents

Every Christmas since 2003, Penny Arcade has supported a charity named Child's Play, which buys new toys for children's hospitals. As of 2025, Child's Play had received over $67 million in donations since it started. They have also sponsored a three-day gaming festival called the Penny Arcade Expo, which was later renamed to PAX, every August since 2004.

Legal issues and controversy

Krahulik and Holkins received a letter from American Greetings Corporation telling them to stop using the company’s Strawberry Shortcake and Plum Puddin’ characters in a comic strip titled "Tart as a Double Entendre" from April 14, 2003. Instead of fighting in court over whether the comic was protected as parody, they followed the letter’s request and replaced the image with a message asking readers to contact a lawyer for American Greetings. Later, they made fun of the situation by drawing an American Greetings employee as a Nazi.

On October 17, 2005, Krahulik and Holkins donated $10,000 to the Entertainment Software Association foundation in the name of Jack Thompson, a lawyer who lost his license and campaigned against violence in video games. Earlier, Thompson had promised to give $10,000 if a video game was made where players could kill game developers. However, he later said this was a joke, referencing a famous essay titled "A Modest Proposal," and refused to pay. He claimed such a game would not be sold as regular games, so the deal was not completed. Krahulik and Holkins donated the money instead, with a note on the check that read, "For Jack Thompson, Because Jack Thompson Won’t."

Thompson called Krahulik, as Holkins later described in a news post. On October 18, 2005, it was reported that Thompson sent a letter to Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, accusing Penny Arcade of having employees who harassed him. Holkins responded by saying the "harassment" was simply people disagreeing with Thompson’s public statements and sharing their opinions through his contact information.

On October 21, 2005, Thompson claimed he sent a letter to John McKay, a U.S. Attorney, to involve the FBI. He accused Penny Arcade of "extortion" and said they encouraged people to harass him. Penny Arcade denied the claim, explaining they had donated the $10,000 to charity and asked for nothing in return.

Thompson said the harassment was caused by Krahulik’s posts, which linked to the Florida Bar Association. He falsely accused Penny Arcade of encouraging complaints about him to the Bar, even though Krahulik had actually asked fans to stop sending letters to the Bar, as the Bar already knew about Thompson’s actions.

Seattle Police acknowledged receiving Thompson’s complaint but said the matter was civil, not criminal, based on their initial review. They noted their criminal investigations bureau was checking the letter for any missed criminal issues.

On the same day, Scott Kurtz, creator of the webcomic PvP and a friend of Krahulik and Holkins, made a parody of Thompson’s letter to the Seattle PD, showing Jack asking the Justice League of America for help against Penny Arcade.

At the time, the Penny Arcade shop sold a T-shirt with the message "I hate Jack Thompson," claiming that every living creature, including Thompson’s mother, hated him.

On March 21, 2007, Thompson filed a lawsuit against Take Two Interactive, claiming they were part of a RICO conspiracy. Penny Arcade was named as a co-conspirator. At Sakura-Con 2007, Krahulik said the lawsuit was dropped.

In an August 11, 2010 comic titled "The Sixth Slave," an NPC begs a player not to save him, saying, "Every morning, we are roused by savage blows. Every night, we are raped to sleep by the dickwolves." The comic received criticism from groups like The American Prospect and The Boston Phoenix. Krahulik and Holkins dismissed the criticism and later sold "Team Dickwolves" T-shirts based on the comic. They later removed the shirts after complaints about making PAX attendees uncomfortable. Krahulik said the removal was partly due to pressure but mainly because people emailed him with reasonable concerns. He also said people still uncomfortable with PAX should not attend. At PAX 2013, Krahulik said removing the shirts was a mistake, but later apologized on Penny Arcade’s website for contributing to the controversy. Both critics and Krahulik and Holkins reported receiving verbal abuse and death threats online.

In a 2012 article in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, academics Salter and Blodgett studied the Dickwolves incident as an example of "hypermasculinity and sexism within the gaming community." They argued the case shows how overly masculine attitudes in gaming can prioritize masculinity over femininity and discourage women from participating in discussions about gender.

"Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory"

"John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" was shared in the Penny Arcade comic strip on March 19, 2004. It discusses the online disinhibition effect, a phenomenon where people on the internet behave in ways that are unfriendly or disrespectful when interacting with others online. Krahulik and Holkins explain that when individuals are anonymous and have an audience online, they may act in ways that are aggressively negative. In 2013, Holkins added an idea: "Normal Person – Consequences + Audience = Total Fuckwad."

Clay Shirky, a teacher at New York University who studies how internet technology affects society, explains that when people are part of a large group online, they may act out without facing consequences for their behavior. This situation can encourage people to show their worst tendencies. In an article from The Advocate about online discrimination based on sexual orientation, this theory was used to describe how people behave on forums where they can stay anonymous while being watched by others, such as when leaving comments on popular YouTube videos.

Collected editions

• Year One: A Penny Arcade Retrospective (Limited Edition) — ISBN 1-931195-07-2
• Year One: A Penny Arcade Retrospective (Soft Cover) — ISBN 1-931195-11-0
• Year One: A Penny Arcade Retrospective (Hard Cover) — ISBN 1-931195-12-9
• Penny Arcade, Volume 1: Attack of the Bacon Robots — ISBN 1-59307-444-1
• Penny Arcade Limited Edition Signed – Attack Of The Bacon Robots — ISBN 1-59307-650-9
• Penny Arcade, Volume 2: Epic Legends Of The Magic Sword Kings — ISBN 1-59307-541-3
• Penny Arcade, Volume 3: The Warsun Prophecies — ISBN 1-59307-635-5
• Penny Arcade, Volume 4: Birds Are Weird — ISBN 1-59307-773-4
• Penny Arcade, Volume 5: The Case of the Mummy's Gold — ISBN 1-59307-814-5
• Penny Arcade, Volume 6: The Halls Below (Limited Edition) — ISBN 978-0-307-29185-1
• Penny Arcade, Volume 6: The Halls Below (Soft Cover) — ISBN 0-345-51227-8
• Penny Arcade, Volume 7: Be Good, Little Puppy — ISBN 978-0-345-51228-4
• Penny Arcade, Volume 8: Magical Kids in Danger — ISBN 978-1-620-10006-6
• Penny Arcade, Volume 9: Passion's Howl — ISBN 978-1-620-10007-3
• The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11.5 Anniversary Edition (Hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-345-51226-0
• Penny Arcade, Volume 10: The Fall of Penny Arcade — ISBN 978-0-997-16190-8

Reception

On December 13, 2006, Next Generation Magazine named Krahulik and Holkins among its "Top 25 People of the Year." Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, and Peter Moore, former corporate vice-president of Xbox, also appeared on the list. Krahulik shared a message about the recognition, stating that Penny Arcade was created after Next Gen had previously rejected the duo's submission to a comic contest years earlier. Entertainment Weekly included Penny Arcade in its "100 Sites to Bookmark Now," describing it as "a funny and clever webcomic for gamers." MTV Online listed Holkins and Krahulik as two of the world's most influential gamers, noting "they have become like leaders of a gamers' movement." Time.com named Penny Arcade one of its "50 Best Websites" for 2008, saying it "makes fun of the high-tech industry and the people who love it." 1UP.com called Penny Arcade "the One True Gaming Webcomic." In Scott McCloud's 2006 book Making Comics, Penny Arcade was used with American Elf, Fetus-X, and Questionable Content as examples of comics that use the web to create "a lot of different types and styles" of art.

Awards and recognition

On March 5, 2009, the Washington State Senate honored Holkins and Krahulik, who were both born in Spokane, for their contributions to the state, the video game industry, and children's charities worldwide through their Child's Play initiative. Later that month, Penny Arcade won the "Best Webcomic" category in the fan-voted Project Fanboy Awards for 2008.

In 2010, Holkins, Krahulik, and Khoo received the annual "Ambassador Award" at the Game Developers Choice Awards for their work in the video game industry. That same year, Time magazine included Holkins and Krahulik in its annual "Time 100" list, which names the world's 100 most influential people.

In July 2015, Holkins and Krahulik were recognized as "Multimedia Empire Builders" in Ad Week's issue titled "10 Visual Artists Changing the Way We See Advertising."