So it was written, so shall it be.

Penny Arcade's latest adventure into continuity has involved an imaginary world wherein the duo behind the strip unleashes Olympus: the future of the arcade, and/or the arcade of the future.

It's a fun little tale, and delivered as brilliantly as usual. People ask me why I like Penny Arcade, and even occasionally accuse me of rapid fandom, but I'll hold by my guns - these guys have the comic art down. Even aside from my particular enjoyment of Gabe's art and Tycho's writing, I find the rhythm of the strip to be invariably spot-on.

But what struck me the most, in the latest two installments, was that I had several moments of pondering whether or not the plan proposed in the strip was grounded in reality. It's a foolish, ludicrous thought - but immersed in the grand vision of what Penny Arcade has become, it seems almost tangible.

I'll get back to why that is possible in a few moments. For now, let me make mention that I picked up a copy of the Warsun Prophecies.

As with their previous books, it is an unsurprisingly quality - and professional - piece of work. The only thing that astounds me is how fast they are coming out with these, without even any noticeable slowdown in their production of new strips.

But aside from the book itself, what caught my attention was the bonus feature in the last few pages - some previews of concept art on their upcoming video game, On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness. It's pretty brilliant stuff - the game is set in New Arcadia, a humble city in 1920s America, no doubt infested with hobos, gangsters, and more.

What especially stood out, though, was the following statement: "Rather than simply licensing the property to a developer and then standing back while they make the game, we're actually partnering with Hot Head and making the game together. That means Tycho and I are writing the entire thing and I'm doing all the concept artwork."

So, obviously, that both bodes well for the game itself, and again, leaves me wondering how they have the time to accomplish all of this. (Enslaved colonies of clones? Diabolical machinations? Potential radical temporal manipulation?)

The big realization, though, was that I expected the game to rock. To rock hard. Which wouldn't seem so weird... if I didn't realize how little faith I had in other webcomic pros similarly branching out into new areas.

The foreward of the book is by Scott Kurtz, and is a clearly tongue-in-cheek attack on the success of Penny Arcade over PvP (along with a brief shot at Ctrl-Alt-Del.) And yet, for all of Scott's cracks at Ctrl-Alt-Del, and his claims that PvPs animated series was going to blow Buckley out of the water... he failed to deliver.

Oh, the PvP animated series isn't bad. It also has barely even started - I'm sure it will ramp up as they polish the show and get into their proper rhythm. But I am confident that even at it's best, it won't blow me out of my shoes. It will be a nifty little novelty, but not ground-breaking. A nice addition to the strip itself, something for the dedicated fan to enjoy, but that's about it. And, generally, all I can see from most similar endeavors from many and sundry webcomics out there.

Somehow, Penny Arcade inspires a much higher level of faith in what they can accomplish. Partly because of what they have already accomplished. The most readers of any webcomic, by a landslide, if I remember my numbers right. Child's Play. PAX. And, yes, it helps that they have the weight to through around to get something like this done.

But having the ability to make it happen isn't as important as having the drive to make it happen right - and that's what I've got faith in.

That's why, if they said they were going to sit down and open their own utopia of a gaming arcade, I'd take them at their word. And I know for damn sure there isn't any other webcomic that would get the same response from me.

Sure, they aren't perfect - for one thing, they need to fix their archives into a slightly more functional state. (Read: a state wherein navigating feels more like searching for strips, and less like wading through a rabid pack of mutant weasels.)

But damn, New Arcadia is gonna rock.

Dancing with the Devil

Ok - I'll admit I was rather dubious when the latest PvP storyline seemed to be an arbitrary strike against those who weren't entirely happy with Skull's voice in the upcoming PvP animated shorts. Grinding the point into the ground... well, it seemed to be doing the very thing that Kris Straub spoke out against not long ago.

Kurtz wants to use a high-pitched voice for Skull. That's how he views the character, it's his property and his show, so no problem - that's his call to make. Of course, he shouldn't be angry at fans for giving their honest opinions on the topic - they are entirely able to feel however they want about it, and certainly free to not spend the relatively insane price of purchase if they don't want to. Regardless of which side you are on, it's not worth continuing to beat the topic to death - which is what I was afraid Kurtz was doing in this sequence.

But while the first strip or two seemed along those lines, I was pleased to realize that wasn't entirely the case. Kurtz has taken the topic and run with it, with some very funny results. But more than that, I realized what was actually going on.

See, one of the worries about this just being a grudge-fest on Kurtz's part is that it would be meaningless to the majority of readers. If they didn't watch the animated PvP teaser - or if they did so, but didn't pay any attention to the discussions that sprung up regarding it - some of the strips just would have neither point nor punchline.

But what Kurtz is doing is establishing Skull's voice within the story. Readers generally have to invent within their own minds how each character sounds. Given that this is a character that clearly engenders all manner of different possible voices... Kurtz is putting his view of the character clearly in the story.

This way readers who have read through this arc won't be as startled if they go on to watch the tv series. More than that, it allows Kurtz to flesh out details of the world that normally he can't convey on paper.

So I'm ok with that. I'm hoping the storyline doesn't feel the need to make any more low blows at those who originally imagined Skull's voice different than Kurtz did, because attacking a loyal fanbase over such an irrelevant detail is... well, let's just say that Kurtz has spoken out against other webcomic creators who have acted like that, and here is his chance to prove he is better than them.

In other news, given that I realize that I've had a lot of posts on the same strips of late, I'm making an on-the-spot, Third-Tuesday-Afternoon-of-January Resolution to spend the next few weeks focusing on new comics, or ones that have fallen by the wayside. So if Kurtz does descend into rampant villainry, or if the current Sluggy storyline proves to be as inane as it looks to be, you won't hear about it from me!

Second Looks

Websnark is back, in force. Websnark is the grand-daddy of webcomic blogs, but I'm pretty sure everyone already knows that. The esteemable Eric Burns has set a challenge for himself in 2007, and set out to accomplish a certain amount of writing by the end of the year. Towards this writing, he'll be endeavering to post daily on Websnark.

I'm pretty pleased to see this for a number of reasons. One, my own webcomic blog was inspired largely by Websnark. Two, the final motivation for actually starting it was to give myself something to keep me actively writing day in and day out. And three - well, let's face it, he writes some damn powerful stuff.

Already worth checking out is his final tribute to Narbonic, which says it better than I ever could.

I'm confident he doesn't need the plug, but for those who weren't aware of his resurgence, I figure it can't hurt to mention it.

The Webcomicker is launching similarly forward with a hefty goal of a post for every single day in the year - and has brought back his webcomic, Birdsworth, as well.

While I don't have any such lofty ambitions for my own blog, I do have some big ideas in store for the coming year. More will be revealed in time!

Moving on to other topics - I've got to give props to Questionable Content for some strips earlier this week. After suddenly (and skillfully) making Ellen into a villain a little while ago, he equally skillfully has rendered her human again. Despite being let-down by a lot of the other storylines in the strip of late, J.J. has done this little exchange extremely well, and I have to give him credit for that.

And finally, Scott Kurtz seems to be continuing his recent trend of stealing material from Tim Buckley, as he suddenly has his characters launching their own winter gaming holidays (complete with bizarre holiday outfit) in eerie similarity to Ctrl+Alt+Del's Winter-een-mas.

Which, let me clarify, I don't find despicable for its own sake. Stealing ideas you like from other sources is a long honored tradition in pretty much all forms of creative work, and there isn't anything inherently wrong with that.

The problem is that Kurtz has spent so much time lambasting Ctrl+Alt+Del for just that - being a rip-off of PvP and Penny Arcade. Taking their ideas and somehow finding success with it. Kurtz has ripped into Buckley time and time again for this very thing. I simply find it rather... ironic that Kurtz is now doing the exact same thing. The plagiarism is fine - the hypocrisy, a little less so.

I'm sure Kurtz would give the same defense he gave when he launched the Animated PvP Series - namely that even if he was doing the same thing as Ctrl+Alt+Del, he was doing it better, funnier and with more quality than Buckley ever did. While I don't believe that renders the hypocrisy null, I can't deny the truth of it - I've generally flinched when I saw a new Winter-een-mass storyline, whereas this last week of PvP has been one of the funniest I have ever read.

So I can't deny having enjoyed this storyline. I just hope that, after all this, Kurtz will at least ignore Buckley, rather than continue accusing him of ripping off other artists.

Oh, and a final disclaimer - I'm not saying all this in defense of Tim Buckley. Even if he's behaved himself in recent drama this year, and regardless of his comic's quality or lack thereof, his actions in the past have still rendered him, in my eyes, the vilest webcartoonist I know of.

Rather, I'm simply taken aback by Kurtz's actions after his rants in the past. It seems a strange note on which to start the new year, but I suppose if Brent can do it, then so can he.