Title: Penny Arcade: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings Volume(s): 6+ Creator(s): Jerry Holkins/Mike Krahulik Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Dark Horse Comics MSRP: $12.95 Genre(s): Humor Rated: Mature (18+)

When we last left Gabe and Tycho in "Attack of the Bacon" robots, the two gaming geeks were torturing a company with a nasty e-mail to a cleaning company. We continue the story with Gabe harassing a computer over a telephone. The two strips may be related. Around the time these comics were written, the boys at Penny Arcade were out of jobs and still had a comic to produce. A couple of commentaries in this book reveal that the writer was having some customer service problems with his landlord (as well as some other things). Early comics in this book suggested that the comic was in serious trouble, and Tycho admits in one commentary that there was a time when they were considering closing shop and getting real jobs. Thankfully, this didn't happen. In fact, the comic became so wildly popular that these two boys were able to turn their comic strip into their full time jobs, and they've been making us laugh since then. The introduction of this book is written by J. Allard, who is the head honcho of the XBox team at Microsoft. Ironic how J. Allard does an introduction for a book that starts out with so much gloom in it. This introduction proves, if nothing else, that dreams do come true.

I remember doing this. Man, thank God THOSE days are over!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the review for the second Penny Arcade book, entitled "Penny Arcade: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings." As usual, if you read this book expecting magic sword kings or legends, then read something else, this book isn't for you. This book is a collection of the third year of Penny Arcade comics. If you don't know what Penny Arcade is, go to www.penny-arcade.com and read some of their comics. It will give you a VERY good idea of whether or not this book is for you or not! That said, looking back on review for the first Penny Arcade book, I said that Penny Arcade was a very "at-the-moment" comic strip that made fun of video game culture as it was happening. While this is certainly true, I think I may have made a mistake is complaining that this dates the comics. Oh don't get me wrong, some of the comics ARE dated because of how much time has gone by since they were first produced, but I think the oldness of the comics is also a blessing in some cases! Have you ever looked through news archives of online video game websites? No? Why? I know what most of you are thinking: "Because it's old news." This is true. There is old news in the video game community, but that isn't to say that old news isn't interesting. Penny Arcade proves that old news is interesting. Once we get past the comics of financial uncertainty, Tycho and Gabe get back to living in the gaming world, which was just getting introduced to the Game Boy Advance, Gamecube, and XBox. The XBox comics in particular are interesting to read, because they were written with the perspective that Tycho and Gabe couldn't even believe that Microsoft was actually MAKING a game console!

This is why my last relationship didn't last very long.

I remember when I first heard Microsoft was making a game console. My reactions were that of laughter, as I thought it was an April Fools joke or something. But then I found out the announcement was serious, and that Microsoft was indeed getting into the console market. The comics about all the first impressions the world had about the XBox are spot on and brings back lots of memories. While there has been very few complaints about the XBox and XBox 360 controller, would you believe that the XBox shipped with a different, much bulkier controller that everyone hated? Some of you might have to think back a bit for this, but there was a time when everyone thought the console would fail because of the original controller design. Penny Arcade comments on these reactions in their comics, and it gives you a VERY good idea of how far Microsoft has come in the console market since they first entered it (hmm, maybe now I can see the reasoning behind J. Allard doing the introduction for this book)! This book also reminded me of some of the problems the Game Boy Advance originally had. Most noticeably, a problem with the screen and the fact that you COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING ON IT!!!! No kids, I'm not talking about the GBA SP, or the Nintendo DS, this was the original Game Boy Advance. The rectangle shaped handheld. The back light for this thing was the worst thing in the world, and one of the only places this thing worked well enough for you to see it was in the bathroom. Some of these Penny Arcade comics comment on the GBA problems, and boy does it bring back some issues I'd rather forget (but can laugh at now). Oh, and there are tons of comics about "Metal Gear Solid 2" and it's loopy ending.

Ah, the memories.

Some of you might not remember all the fuss and commotion about "Metal Gear Solid 2," and then all the complaints and problems people eventually had with the game (most of them being directed at the ending), so these comics will give you a glimpse at what was the big topic in gaming in 2000. Aside from establishing the brand of humor that would put Penny Arcade on the map though, this year would also introduce several characters that would become icons in the comic. This year features the first appearance of Frank the game store owner who returned from Vietnam, the first passing mention of the Fruit Fucker 2000, and the establishment of the "We're Right Awards" (which were basically top ten lists with humorous comments thrown in the mix). All very funny, all brilliant in one way or another, and all this leads up to what would be the best two years Penny Arcade has seen in terms of humor and funny puns. Now I didn't have too many problems with the first book, but a couple things that stood out as major flaws were the "sketches" section, which were really just the E3 comics recycled, and the lack of page numbers. Well, the pages are now numbered in this book, but even better are some extras that are worth checking out. First of all I should point out that the commentaries for almost every comic strip by Tycho return in this book, but as an added bonus some of the best front page rants Tycho wrote for the website have been included in this book. The most memorable of these rants are a multiple week rant about rats living in Tycho's apartment, and his landlord refusing to do anything about it.

My best friend back in 98. I think he's still hanging outside the EB Games in Roseville.

Also included are some full color pictures from the new Penny Arcade trading card game. I have no intention of buying the card game since I don't really play card games, but judging by the art seen in this book, the cards must be very pretty to look at. These full color drawings are more welcome then those pathetic "sketches" that accompanied the last book. Finally we have some comic book concepts of comics that Gabe and Tycho almost made, but didn't. This section is the most painful section to read because several of their ideas sound really awesome, and I would have loved to read them. Thankfully, at least one concept was saved from their trash bin, and that is the Cardboard Tube Showdown Warrior, who gets his own multiple comic storyline every year (though it may be a couple more books before we see them in print form). When all is said and done, "Penny Arcade: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings" is a definite improvement from the previous book. It's not a HUGE improvement since the first book was a very good book as it is, but more refined drawings and writing, not to mention much cooler bonus features, makes the first book look a little silly in comparison. I've also learned to better appreciate how the old Penny Arcade moments are stuck in time, and that by being stuck in time actually provides a better experience then the new comics do for the simple reason that today's comic don't provide the nostalgia these comics do. If you are a fan of Penny Arcade, this book is a must. If you aren't...well then, they let you tear apart their comics for free online. Have at it.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -