Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

I laughed so hard I cried..., 25 Feb 2007
This is a fantastic book which is a collection of the web comic strips which spans over about a year.

The stories revolve around two young men who are unhumanly obbessed with video games. The results are both side-splitting and nostalgic.

If you're a gaming fan then this is a must have!

Genius, as always from Gabe and Tycho, 19 Jun 2006
It's somewhat incredible that even after 7 years Penny Arcade is still as fresh, witty and downright brilliant as it ever was. A quick look through this book not only gives you wave after wave of nostalgia (I'd forgotten how bad Daikatana was) but also shows how little the quality has dropped since day one. Perfect timing, word play, slapstick, artistic visions and one downright tear inducing strip make this a worthwhile purchase. If you are a fan then get this, if you are not then get it anyway and become a fan.

And in the style of Penny Arcade I must include the word wang in this review...wang.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

I laughed so hard I cried..., 25 Feb 2007
This is a fantastic book which is a collection of the web comic strips which spans over about a year.

The stories revolve around two young men who are unhumanly obbessed with video games. The results are both side-splitting and nostalgic.

If you're a gaming fan then this is a must have!

Genius, as always from Gabe and Tycho, 19 Jun 2006
It's somewhat incredible that even after 7 years Penny Arcade is still as fresh, witty and downright brilliant as it ever was. A quick look through this book not only gives you wave after wave of nostalgia (I'd forgotten how bad Daikatana was) but also shows how little the quality has dropped since day one. Perfect timing, word play, slapstick, artistic visions and one downright tear inducing strip make this a worthwhile purchase. If you are a fan then get this, if you are not then get it anyway and become a fan.

And in the style of Penny Arcade I must include the word wang in this review...wang.

Gags galour, 28 Oct 2007
Does everything it says on the tin. I was sceptical but the concept works, it feels like surfing the web. every page is brimming with nuggets, so there is plenty to dip back into.

This book on Amazon - oh the irony, 24 Oct 2007
Basically a very good idea done very very well about another good idea that's been done, on the most part, really badly.
This brilliantly observed and stupidly funny book delivers the internet a juicy kick in the nuts. Quality.

Click on this pastiche, 11 Oct 2007
This is the time of year when publishers put out their stocking filler illustrative humour books, usually tied to a celebrity name for better sales. Mostly they are poor efforts that end up as stockroom dust-catchers in the early months of the new year. This book I'm happy to say is way above the dross.

David McCandless and crew have really done their homework because this is a visual treat to look at. Websites are generally a mixture of photos, graphics and words in different colours and types and if you want to make fun of them you better make sure they look convincing and in this book they are really impressive. The page you are reading right now is in the book as amasszone.com, the right types, colours and layout for the book: `Notes from the Superhighway' by Bill Bison. The Guardian ends up as PreserverLimited and looking of course just like the papers site. For the ladies check out justByou.co.uk, YouTube fans click into YouFlue and everyones favourite search engine Bahoogle gets a brilliant five pages.

So it all looks like the real thing, how does it read? As classy as it looks. The word mavens have avoided the easy lads mag route (which I always thought was one of the big let downs in most illustrative humour books) and delivered some quality satirical writing.

So the thing to do is scroll up this page and click on Add to Shopping Basket and shortly you'll get some fun stuff courtesy of a few cut down trees.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.






Bloody, bloody funny..., 03 Oct 2007
Read this and find it difficult to take any website seriously again. Let's face it, the web had it coming, the smug git, and this book gives him a hard, yet playful slap in the face. Buy it, and give social networking a rest - nobody likes you anyway.

Funny funny funny..., 24 Sep 2007
This is a laugh out loud, gaffaw a plenty style book. Absolutely hilarious - there are millions of jokes on every page. Some are so obvious you can't help but think there cannot be anymore in the book, but actually it is the one liners that really made me laugh. The detail is incredible.
The book is a spoof of the internet pages we have grown to love, loathe, hate or just become ambivalent too. Google, Apple and Amazon will suddenly never be the same after reading this book. A must for anyone that likes a good joke, or thousands.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

I laughed so hard I cried..., 25 Feb 2007
This is a fantastic book which is a collection of the web comic strips which spans over about a year.

The stories revolve around two young men who are unhumanly obbessed with video games. The results are both side-splitting and nostalgic.

If you're a gaming fan then this is a must have!

Genius, as always from Gabe and Tycho, 19 Jun 2006
It's somewhat incredible that even after 7 years Penny Arcade is still as fresh, witty and downright brilliant as it ever was. A quick look through this book not only gives you wave after wave of nostalgia (I'd forgotten how bad Daikatana was) but also shows how little the quality has dropped since day one. Perfect timing, word play, slapstick, artistic visions and one downright tear inducing strip make this a worthwhile purchase. If you are a fan then get this, if you are not then get it anyway and become a fan.

And in the style of Penny Arcade I must include the word wang in this review...wang.

Gags galour, 28 Oct 2007
Does everything it says on the tin. I was sceptical but the concept works, it feels like surfing the web. every page is brimming with nuggets, so there is plenty to dip back into.

This book on Amazon - oh the irony, 24 Oct 2007
Basically a very good idea done very very well about another good idea that's been done, on the most part, really badly.
This brilliantly observed and stupidly funny book delivers the internet a juicy kick in the nuts. Quality.

Click on this pastiche, 11 Oct 2007
This is the time of year when publishers put out their stocking filler illustrative humour books, usually tied to a celebrity name for better sales. Mostly they are poor efforts that end up as stockroom dust-catchers in the early months of the new year. This book I'm happy to say is way above the dross.

David McCandless and crew have really done their homework because this is a visual treat to look at. Websites are generally a mixture of photos, graphics and words in different colours and types and if you want to make fun of them you better make sure they look convincing and in this book they are really impressive. The page you are reading right now is in the book as amasszone.com, the right types, colours and layout for the book: `Notes from the Superhighway' by Bill Bison. The Guardian ends up as PreserverLimited and looking of course just like the papers site. For the ladies check out justByou.co.uk, YouTube fans click into YouFlue and everyones favourite search engine Bahoogle gets a brilliant five pages.

So it all looks like the real thing, how does it read? As classy as it looks. The word mavens have avoided the easy lads mag route (which I always thought was one of the big let downs in most illustrative humour books) and delivered some quality satirical writing.

So the thing to do is scroll up this page and click on Add to Shopping Basket and shortly you'll get some fun stuff courtesy of a few cut down trees.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.






Bloody, bloody funny..., 03 Oct 2007
Read this and find it difficult to take any website seriously again. Let's face it, the web had it coming, the smug git, and this book gives him a hard, yet playful slap in the face. Buy it, and give social networking a rest - nobody likes you anyway.

Funny funny funny..., 24 Sep 2007
This is a laugh out loud, gaffaw a plenty style book. Absolutely hilarious - there are millions of jokes on every page. Some are so obvious you can't help but think there cannot be anymore in the book, but actually it is the one liners that really made me laugh. The detail is incredible.
The book is a spoof of the internet pages we have grown to love, loathe, hate or just become ambivalent too. Google, Apple and Amazon will suddenly never be the same after reading this book. A must for anyone that likes a good joke, or thousands.

A jolly amusing book, 19 Sep 2007
A most interesting book compiled from answers to bizarre questions posed to unsuspecting Ebay sellers by an American (who else?). Some have taken the question very seriously others have obviously seen it as a wind-up & replied in the same vein (these are very good). Also useful as a guide on what not to sell on Ebay (in case it attracts the attention of a nutter). A book to dip into now & then which would make a most excellent "Secret Santa" present for the office or make a suitable gift that hard-to-buy-for relative/friend/neighbour/stalker whatever...

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

I laughed so hard I cried..., 25 Feb 2007
This is a fantastic book which is a collection of the web comic strips which spans over about a year.

The stories revolve around two young men who are unhumanly obbessed with video games. The results are both side-splitting and nostalgic.

If you're a gaming fan then this is a must have!

Genius, as always from Gabe and Tycho, 19 Jun 2006
It's somewhat incredible that even after 7 years Penny Arcade is still as fresh, witty and downright brilliant as it ever was. A quick look through this book not only gives you wave after wave of nostalgia (I'd forgotten how bad Daikatana was) but also shows how little the quality has dropped since day one. Perfect timing, word play, slapstick, artistic visions and one downright tear inducing strip make this a worthwhile purchase. If you are a fan then get this, if you are not then get it anyway and become a fan.

And in the style of Penny Arcade I must include the word wang in this review...wang.

Gags galour, 28 Oct 2007
Does everything it says on the tin. I was sceptical but the concept works, it feels like surfing the web. every page is brimming with nuggets, so there is plenty to dip back into.

This book on Amazon - oh the irony, 24 Oct 2007
Basically a very good idea done very very well about another good idea that's been done, on the most part, really badly.
This brilliantly observed and stupidly funny book delivers the internet a juicy kick in the nuts. Quality.

Click on this pastiche, 11 Oct 2007
This is the time of year when publishers put out their stocking filler illustrative humour books, usually tied to a celebrity name for better sales. Mostly they are poor efforts that end up as stockroom dust-catchers in the early months of the new year. This book I'm happy to say is way above the dross.

David McCandless and crew have really done their homework because this is a visual treat to look at. Websites are generally a mixture of photos, graphics and words in different colours and types and if you want to make fun of them you better make sure they look convincing and in this book they are really impressive. The page you are reading right now is in the book as amasszone.com, the right types, colours and layout for the book: `Notes from the Superhighway' by Bill Bison. The Guardian ends up as PreserverLimited and looking of course just like the papers site. For the ladies check out justByou.co.uk, YouTube fans click into YouFlue and everyones favourite search engine Bahoogle gets a brilliant five pages.

So it all looks like the real thing, how does it read? As classy as it looks. The word mavens have avoided the easy lads mag route (which I always thought was one of the big let downs in most illustrative humour books) and delivered some quality satirical writing.

So the thing to do is scroll up this page and click on Add to Shopping Basket and shortly you'll get some fun stuff courtesy of a few cut down trees.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.






Bloody, bloody funny..., 03 Oct 2007
Read this and find it difficult to take any website seriously again. Let's face it, the web had it coming, the smug git, and this book gives him a hard, yet playful slap in the face. Buy it, and give social networking a rest - nobody likes you anyway.

Funny funny funny..., 24 Sep 2007
This is a laugh out loud, gaffaw a plenty style book. Absolutely hilarious - there are millions of jokes on every page. Some are so obvious you can't help but think there cannot be anymore in the book, but actually it is the one liners that really made me laugh. The detail is incredible.
The book is a spoof of the internet pages we have grown to love, loathe, hate or just become ambivalent too. Google, Apple and Amazon will suddenly never be the same after reading this book. A must for anyone that likes a good joke, or thousands.

A jolly amusing book, 19 Sep 2007
A most interesting book compiled from answers to bizarre questions posed to unsuspecting Ebay sellers by an American (who else?). Some have taken the question very seriously others have obviously seen it as a wind-up & replied in the same vein (these are very good). Also useful as a guide on what not to sell on Ebay (in case it attracts the attention of a nutter). A book to dip into now & then which would make a most excellent "Secret Santa" present for the office or make a suitable gift that hard-to-buy-for relative/friend/neighbour/stalker whatever...

read the book/ see the museum.., 20 Oct 2003
A high-context book where the pranks begin on the cover page.. The Amazon description says it is by TF Peterson. Well the cover says it is by 'Institute Historian T F Peterson'. This can be abbreviated to IHTFP, an acronym which stands for many things in MIT and not all will pass the editor's scrutiny for propriety. Many self-respective techies know that hacking is not a derogatory term in the trade, since its origins were not of malicious intent. The book introduces novices to MIT speak where a 'hack' is a practical joke with criteria such as nobody should find out about it, it should be removable with no permanent damages and so on. It chronicles witty pranks such as an MIT ball in the stadium during a Harvard game. Cambridge University in England has seen similar pranks but somehow hanging an umbrella on King's College Chapel pales in comparison with a police car on the MIT dome! Almost all of these pranks are preserved in the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass. The book gave me hope that there was a life beyond nerdiness in MIT and helped me decide to go to MIT. I hope it will put a few smiles your way. Highly recommended but DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (or in your University).. 4 Stars because it may not have universal appeal.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

I laughed so hard I cried..., 25 Feb 2007
This is a fantastic book which is a collection of the web comic strips which spans over about a year.

The stories revolve around two young men who are unhumanly obbessed with video games. The results are both side-splitting and nostalgic.

If you're a gaming fan then this is a must have!

Genius, as always from Gabe and Tycho, 19 Jun 2006
It's somewhat incredible that even after 7 years Penny Arcade is still as fresh, witty and downright brilliant as it ever was. A quick look through this book not only gives you wave after wave of nostalgia (I'd forgotten how bad Daikatana was) but also shows how little the quality has dropped since day one. Perfect timing, word play, slapstick, artistic visions and one downright tear inducing strip make this a worthwhile purchase. If you are a fan then get this, if you are not then get it anyway and become a fan.

And in the style of Penny Arcade I must include the word wang in this review...wang.

Gags galour, 28 Oct 2007
Does everything it says on the tin. I was sceptical but the concept works, it feels like surfing the web. every page is brimming with nuggets, so there is plenty to dip back into.

This book on Amazon - oh the irony, 24 Oct 2007
Basically a very good idea done very very well about another good idea that's been done, on the most part, really badly.
This brilliantly observed and stupidly funny book delivers the internet a juicy kick in the nuts. Quality.

Click on this pastiche, 11 Oct 2007
This is the time of year when publishers put out their stocking filler illustrative humour books, usually tied to a celebrity name for better sales. Mostly they are poor efforts that end up as stockroom dust-catchers in the early months of the new year. This book I'm happy to say is way above the dross.

David McCandless and crew have really done their homework because this is a visual treat to look at. Websites are generally a mixture of photos, graphics and words in different colours and types and if you want to make fun of them you better make sure they look convincing and in this book they are really impressive. The page you are reading right now is in the book as amasszone.com, the right types, colours and layout for the book: `Notes from the Superhighway' by Bill Bison. The Guardian ends up as PreserverLimited and looking of course just like the papers site. For the ladies check out justByou.co.uk, YouTube fans click into YouFlue and everyones favourite search engine Bahoogle gets a brilliant five pages.

So it all looks like the real thing, how does it read? As classy as it looks. The word mavens have avoided the easy lads mag route (which I always thought was one of the big let downs in most illustrative humour books) and delivered some quality satirical writing.

So the thing to do is scroll up this page and click on Add to Shopping Basket and shortly you'll get some fun stuff courtesy of a few cut down trees.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.






Bloody, bloody funny..., 03 Oct 2007
Read this and find it difficult to take any website seriously again. Let's face it, the web had it coming, the smug git, and this book gives him a hard, yet playful slap in the face. Buy it, and give social networking a rest - nobody likes you anyway.

Funny funny funny..., 24 Sep 2007
This is a laugh out loud, gaffaw a plenty style book. Absolutely hilarious - there are millions of jokes on every page. Some are so obvious you can't help but think there cannot be anymore in the book, but actually it is the one liners that really made me laugh. The detail is incredible.
The book is a spoof of the internet pages we have grown to love, loathe, hate or just become ambivalent too. Google, Apple and Amazon will suddenly never be the same after reading this book. A must for anyone that likes a good joke, or thousands.

A jolly amusing book, 19 Sep 2007
A most interesting book compiled from answers to bizarre questions posed to unsuspecting Ebay sellers by an American (who else?). Some have taken the question very seriously others have obviously seen it as a wind-up & replied in the same vein (these are very good). Also useful as a guide on what not to sell on Ebay (in case it attracts the attention of a nutter). A book to dip into now & then which would make a most excellent "Secret Santa" present for the office or make a suitable gift that hard-to-buy-for relative/friend/neighbour/stalker whatever...

read the book/ see the museum.., 20 Oct 2003
A high-context book where the pranks begin on the cover page.. The Amazon description says it is by TF Peterson. Well the cover says it is by 'Institute Historian T F Peterson'. This can be abbreviated to IHTFP, an acronym which stands for many things in MIT and not all will pass the editor's scrutiny for propriety. Many self-respective techies know that hacking is not a derogatory term in the trade, since its origins were not of malicious intent. The book introduces novices to MIT speak where a 'hack' is a practical joke with criteria such as nobody should find out about it, it should be removable with no permanent damages and so on. It chronicles witty pranks such as an MIT ball in the stadium during a Harvard game. Cambridge University in England has seen similar pranks but somehow hanging an umbrella on King's College Chapel pales in comparison with a police car on the MIT dome! Almost all of these pranks are preserved in the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass. The book gave me hope that there was a life beyond nerdiness in MIT and helped me decide to go to MIT. I hope it will put a few smiles your way. Highly recommended but DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (or in your University).. 4 Stars because it may not have universal appeal.

a genuinely side-splitting treat, 20 Aug 2000
A great book to entertain all your friends with. The drawings are also completely original. Would make the perfect little present.

A brilliant source of jokes to plague your friends!, 18 Jul 2000
If youve missed the email jokes floating around the office. This is a constant supply of gags. The very best jokes from all over the world. No matter your culture, everyone will find appeal in its contents.

Someone has missed the point here..., 25 Mar 2007
Yes, this is not going to be for someone just browsing this site thinking, 'Ooh, this looks like something I'd read'. This is for hardcore fans only. But that's the point. They are not trying to sell this to people new to the Penny Arcade universe, this is for fans of the online comic who would like a hard copy of the Penny Arcade archives.

Yes, this is simply a compendium of strips from the site with commentary from the creators. It's not trying to be anything else. They're not trying to explain each comic because you might not know why it's funny, they're explaining each comic because of the time many of the strips were 'valid' for.

Some strips are funny whenever you look at them, but they openly admit some are not funny now, simply because the news/trivia the strip was based on is long forgotten not by many readers, but even by the authors themselves. Penny Arcade books are not just an archive of the Penny Arcade site, they're an archive of computer gaming history (and jokes about Duke Nukem Forever).

If I lost you at 'hardcore', then this isn't for you. But if you're looking for a collection of (mostly, currently funny) comic strips based on computer games, and insight and commentary from the creators, then this is for you.

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

ignore the philistine above, this book is brilliant, 20 Apr 2007
Penny arcade is a brilliant comic, not only is it stuffed with brilliant gags that people of ALL levels can appreciate its also a great way to look back at gaming commentary from yesteryear,


it is a great comic - it's funny, intelligent and well drawn

what you have hear is a damned good comic

A fans only book, 13 Mar 2007
What we have here, in essence, are a pair of mid twenty year olds, who make the same crude jokes you would find in an internet chatroom. The only difference is one of them can use the mighty power of Photoshop to enhance his otherwise average drawings so that they stand out to the artistically ignorant and easily amused gamer.
Don't get me wrong, Penny Arcade have been known to make funnies, you buy enough tickets, eventually you win the raffle. But neither the writing by itself, or the artwork, would get noticed or indeed hired by a company.
The book is outdated and often requires forewards by the author to explain why the joke in the comic strip is humorous. It's as if they make out that you are not educated enough to understand it without their help, when in fact the opposite is true. You're probably far too educated to enjoy the crude 'humour' and no degree of explaining will make it funny.
In summary, the writing is nothing your friend hasn't once said to you in a drunken musing and the artwork compliments the writing perfectly in that respect. If you read the comic strip and like it, then you already know what you are getting and you should buy it to support Penny Arcade so that they may release more pearls of wisdom. However if you are a browser looking for some cutting edge humour mixed in with gifted artwork, keep searching.

Help with a pinch of humour, 19 Jan 2008
I've had Manga Studio Debut since Christmas and I've been feeling my way with it. While I love the program, I found that the instruction manual (which is in pdf format) isn't that intuitive, so I pre-ordered Manga Studio for Dummies. After a first read through, I can see that it's going to be really useful. It gives great hints and tips and explains how to use all of the tools in a really easy to understand way. There are several tools that I was obviously using wrong!

This book is well laid out, thoughtfully written and very humorous in places. It also comes with a cd, which has a trial version of Manga Studio EX and some other goodies, including bonus chapters. The book is a step by step guide to using Manga Studio (both versions) from the ground up and it's a bonus that it includes information on both the Mac and PC versions (with the caveat that the author uses PCs, not Macs!), meaning that users of both platforms will get good use out of this book. The screenshots and illustrations are clear and very useful, as are the list of tens at the back!

If you have the program, I'd really recommend getting this book to help you get the most out of Manga Studio.

I laughed so hard I cried..., 25 Feb 2007
This is a fantastic book which is a collection of the web comic strips which spans over about a year.

The stories revolve around two young men who are unhumanly obbessed with video games. The results are both side-splitting and nostalgic.

If you're a gaming fan then this is a must have!

Genius, as always from Gabe and Tycho, 19 Jun 2006
It's somewhat incredible that even after 7 years Penny Arcade is still as fresh, witty and downright brilliant as it ever was. A quick look through this book not only gives you wave after wave of nostalgia (I'd forgotten how bad Daikatana was) but also shows how little the quality has dropped since day one. Perfect timing, word play, slapstick, artistic visions and one downright tear inducing strip make this a worthwhile purchase. If you are a fan then get this, if you are not then get it anyway and become a fan.

And in the style of Penny Arcade I must include the word wang in this review...wang.

Gags galour, 28 Oct 2007
Does everything it says on the tin. I was sceptical but the concept works, it feels like surfing the web. every page is brimming with nuggets, so there is plenty to dip back into.

This book on Amazon - oh the irony, 24 Oct 2007
Basically a very good idea done very very well about another good idea that's been done, on the most part, really badly.
This brilliantly observed and stupidly funny book delivers the internet a juicy kick in the nuts. Quality.

Click on this pastiche, 11 Oct 2007
This is the time of year when publishers put out their stocking filler illustrative humour books, usually tied to a celebrity name for better sales. Mostly they are poor efforts that end up as stockroom dust-catchers in the early months of the new year. This book I'm happy to say is way above the dross.

David McCandless and crew have really done their homework because this is a visual treat to look at. Websites are generally a mixture of photos, graphics and words in different colours and types and if you want to make fun of them you better make sure they look convincing and in this book they are really impressive. The page you are reading right now is in the book as amasszone.com, the right types, colours and layout for the book: `Notes from the Superhighway' by Bill Bison. The Guardian ends up as Preserve