Readers pick best webcomic: Justice for Penny Arcade

by Ross Miller { Oct 24th 2006 at 4:00PM }

We aren't sure if people really loved this comic strip, voted because of its clout, or mistakenly voted for this when trying (in vain) to get "none of the above" to work, but Penny Arcade took a commanding lead in this week's webcomic wrapup.

Second place went to Ctrl+Alt+Del and third place is a virtual three-way tie, with Digital Unrest holding a meager lead (happy birthday, Chris). Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any gaming webcomics you stumble upon this week!

Tags: gabe, penny arcade, PennyArcade, tycho, web comic, WebComic

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

PapaChabre @ Oct 24th 2006 4:09PM

I'm pretty sure people voted for PA because it is absolutely awesome.

Evan @ Oct 24th 2006 4:17PM

I'm one of those people who wanted to vote "none of the above". Without a VGCats entry, Penny Arcade won by default.

LK @ Oct 24th 2006 4:18PM

I'm pretty sure people voted for PA because they love shit injected right into their eyes until the eyes pop with vitreous humor with shit mixed in.

Gaming webcomics in general suck nowadays, and PA has lost all its funny years ago. There were better comics on that list.

rockintom99 @ Oct 24th 2006 4:21PM

Is it popular to hate penny arcade now? I don't see why, I found the bf2142 comic to be hilarious.

Skippy @ Oct 24th 2006 4:31PM

PA is hilarious, I don't care what anyone says

Denji @ Oct 24th 2006 4:32PM

It's probably a mix of the clout factor and the fact that this week's strip is actually pretty funny. Normally we only see the clout part.

Vercin @ Oct 24th 2006 4:33PM

Rockin' Tom, the inhabitants of the internet hate whatever is successful and popular. And if something they like gets popular, they said that it was good before it was well-known but sucks now. Hipsters and internet-folk might seem different, but are, at their core, identical.

Kristof @ Oct 24th 2006 4:35PM

Yes, "rockintom99" , that is the IN thing now. A million people read their comic. They go to the site now because they hate it, yet they read it every new post only to say it's not funny.

That's how this world works, when you're on top, people go out of their way to knock them. If PA comics showed up in "stan's crappy videogame webcomics" everyone would love them.

People nominate a lot of crappy comics (like those damn HL2 comics of boredom) and then slam the top comic.

I don't find ALL PA comics funny, but they are more consistent than most of the stuff I see.

Agent MOO @ Oct 24th 2006 4:37PM

PA has always been a mixed bag of hella funny and "meh". This one is hella funny.

PiratePete @ Oct 24th 2006 4:38PM

No, PA's is the best by far! I can't stop laughing. That's what I call great!
Gonna print that one off for cubicle wall.

protoman.exe @ Oct 24th 2006 5:00PM

Something can be very popular..and be 'hip' to hate at the same time?
Pease quit calling us hipsters out. Boy, I wish I had a sense of humour. :(

LK @ Oct 24th 2006 5:11PM

Popular to hate things that are popular? I didn't know that!

I just hated things that were unfunny.

Waldo @ Oct 24th 2006 5:28PM

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that in general, a lot of the cartoons just stink. They aren't funny, the art work isn't that original (just clones of others). And just to be straight out about it, I always thought Boondocks stunk too :/

SteveZ @ Oct 24th 2006 5:31PM

i was one of the ones that definitely tried to vote for none, in vain of course.

Vasil @ Oct 24th 2006 5:59PM

I tried to vote for None of the above too. =( PA would've been my second choice. The new VG Cats needs to win this week. =D

Judd @ Oct 24th 2006 6:05PM

I'm gonna go on another rant. I'm going try to show the merits of both sides of this argument.

Yes, it is very easy to be a "back-runner." It's easier to root for the underdog. What's hard is to support something even though it is so popular. My brothers(Mets fans) mock me for being a Yankees fan. I say sometimes it's harder to support something that everybody likes.

On the other hand I can't stand it when people only listen to bands when they become popular. I think what people should do is support what they like whether everyone hates it, and just as much when everyone likes it. Just ignore what everyone else says, how do you feel?

For instance, I'm sick of everyone on TV and people on the street talking about how much they hate Bush even if they don't follow the news. But even though I hate people like Michael Moore, if I take out of the equation what everyone else thinks, I still don't like this administration. I know one guy who became conservative because it's become so mainstream to go against them. This is also a guy who claims anytime a band gets popular that they "sell out" and he doesn't listen to them anymore. That's what I mean by a "back-runner."

So it's not always a bad thing to root for what's on top. The problem lies in, if they compromised who they were to begin with to be number #1. For me a band doesn't sell out when they become big, they sell out when they change their style of music to conform with the mainstream.

A lot of people say that everyone only hates EA, because they are the biggest. No. Everyone hates EA because they skip out on content in games, try to push people to buy video tutorials for their games, charge money for pay-per view events, have their own crappy online servers, put tons of ads in their games, track people who play their games, and buy out great developers. Sure people would hate Target if they were number #1. But people hate Walmart for the tactics they used to get to number #1 (buying out small businesses, exploiting the lack of Chinese labor laws).

That brings me back to PA. I've been following them not from the beginning, but for five years. Since they became big, have they changed for the worse?

At first I felt like Childs Play was a bit self-righteous, but I realized how good of a cause it was, and how it showed how wrong people like Jack Thompson are. Then I thought that PAX was a little bit too egotistical, but I appreciate the effort to bring a gaming convention to gamers and not the media.

My problem with PA is this moral high ground they've had recently. They mock Wikipedia and yet use it in their links. They famously refered to this site as "the retard rodeo", yet just recently linked to the Bully article. http://www.penny-arcade.com/ (bottom of first post).

I still read Penny Arcade, and never miss a strip, just because I've been doing it for so long. But I rarely find their strips that funny, maybe finding a good one, once a month. I'll still continue reading it, just because at least they are still making comics and writing about games. But I hope they go back to try to make their strips funny again, and not be concerned about doing other things, like making their own video game.

HN @ Oct 24th 2006 6:14PM

The important fact is Ctrl+Alt+Del is terrible.

Brandon @ Oct 24th 2006 6:53PM

#17 That and Press Start to Play.

The reason people hate things that are popular is that as they become more popular, more light is shed on them and we see them for what they are.

Also see: Fall Out Boy

Rob G @ Oct 24th 2006 6:55PM

Judd, one question: By liking PA, which is popular, that gives me permission to hate Ctrl-Alt-Del without being a 'back-runner,' right?

Judd @ Oct 24th 2006 7:31PM

Rob G- My point was that you should be able to like whatever you want. By using the term back-runner, I was trying to imply that it's no better rooting for something that is unpopular, than rooting for something that is popular. Being a front-runner or a back-runner isn't a mater of what you like, it's the motivation. Do you simply like PA because everyone else likes it, or do you like PA because you would enjoy the comic strips even if nobody else in the world did? If it's the latter, then there's no problem. Like what you wanna like, whether it's popular or not, as long as it hasn't changed from what it originally was.

PapaChabre @ Oct 24th 2006 7:33PM

Come the hell on. "badboysbigbirds.com!" That, sir, is the hilarious.

I'll agree that many of them do not make me laugh, at least audibly, but I do find them somewhat humorous and they are drawn very well. I haven't found a better gamer comic unless you consider 'Order of the Stick' a gamer comic.

Scott @ Oct 25th 2006 2:06AM

its amazing how varied the discussions always are in the webcomics wrapup. ten bucks says we discuss revamping the voting process again next week. dont take me up on that, im poor. :P

Ross, can you give these guys a look for me? you need to view the site in firefox, but its definitly worth a looksy:

http://dakstudioz.com/

and remembering F@NB0Y$ is always appreciated. thanks again, Ross.