Samwise does guest strip for Penny Arcade
by Zach Yonzon 
Sep 23rd 2009 at 6:00PM
That's nice, you say, but what's this got to do with World of Warcraft? Well, see, Gabe from Penny Arcade (aka creator Mike Krahulik's alter ego) apparently picked up some kind of bad bug during their PAX or Penny Arcade Expo, and some well-known comic folks such as Bill Amend and Kris Straub stepped in to help. The highlight is that World of Warcraft's art director, Samwise Didier, the man largely responsible for the look and feel of many of Blizzard's games also pitched in his contribution.
It has nothing to do with our favorite game, but it's freaking Samwise doing a freaking Penny Arcade strip! I mean, I don't really have to explain why I'm posting this, right? One of our favorite WoW icons doing a guest strip on one of our favorite webcomics (that occasionally tackles WoW) is so full of win it almost makes Saurfang cry. These sort of crossovers are so cool, you almost wish these webcomic creators would get sick more often. Ok, not really, but you know what I mean.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Comics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vindalla Sep 23rd 2009 6:09PM
Eh... PA used to be pretty decent but I gave up on them when they couldn't keep a solid story line or even a quick blurb to give you an idea of what the heck a particular strip was about. There are much better web comics out there IMHO.
ComradeSean Sep 23rd 2009 6:21PM
So basically what you're saying is that since you fail to have the comprehension skills of a three year old and end up not understanding a particular comic then the problem obviously lies in the fact that the comic creator did not write the punchline out in plain text.
Also if you believe Pennyarcade is even attempting to "keep a solid story line" then you must have fell a little short when reading it. There is "no" storyline.
Vindalla Sep 23rd 2009 6:48PM
If you bothered to read the older strips, there USED to be a story... and by older, I mean more two years ago.
So basically what I'm saying is that the strips used to be funny. If I wanted to go read something deep and meaningful, I'd pick up something by Kierkegaard.
Lemons Sep 23rd 2009 10:59PM
Ummm story? they've said they make a conscious effort to avoid long storylines that extend over more than one comic. There's a few specials here and there that span more than one comic, but mostly each comic is its own isolated incident.
If the "story" is about two roommates who laze around and play video games...there's still plenty of that.
Killchrono Sep 23rd 2009 11:37PM
Stories in Penny Arcade two years ago?
I dunno, I've been reading Penny Arcade for about five years now, and picked up the published books of their earlier work, and I'm pretty damn sure the closest they've ever had to a story is a few multi-part strips and the special stories they did earlier this year (May We Die in the Forest and Automata, which were AMAZING btw).
It's basically a sitcom as a comic strip, only with higher quality humour and no annoying laugh tracks.
Glintwell Sep 23rd 2009 6:37PM
Although it may not be intentional, Sithillus IS a spoonerism form Silithus. So the WoW connection isn't completely non-existent.
Justin shaw Sep 23rd 2009 6:46PM
I was thinking it was a play on syphilis with the whole virus theme
Ad134 Sep 23rd 2009 7:52PM
Syphilis + Sith = Sithillus
Valent1ne Sep 23rd 2009 7:52PM
Actually syphilis is a bacteria, not a virus. :P But yeah, since Darth Vader was in there, it was probably about that.
But back on topic: Yay Samwise :D
Terethall Sep 24th 2009 3:11AM
It's a double-entendre. It's funny because of Darth Vader and the sith/syphilis joke, and it's also a play on Gabe's WoW addiction and Sillithus. (If it weren't a play on Sillithus, then he would have called the disease "Sithilis" and not "Sithillus." It's all the more obvious since it's Samwise doing the strip.)
RedRubberBall203 Sep 23rd 2009 9:25PM
A vindalla if you didn't know it, tycho writes a blog daily explaining the comic
Iwanttobeasleep Sep 23rd 2009 11:13PM
Gabe didn't just pick up a bug, there was a swine flu outbreak at PAX.
Zach Sep 23rd 2009 11:13PM
Not clicking on links FTL! =p
poggg Sep 24th 2009 4:20AM
Oh man, this is amazing.
kinsleia Sep 24th 2009 12:19PM
and here I thought the Panderan face etched in the background behind Vader would have been mentioned by someong