Tagged: Penny Arcade

Real-Life Versions of Cartoon Characters

Real-Life Versions of Cartoon Characters

Most digital art websites always remind me how little I know about Photoshop. For example, even if I spent the next full week with my nose in a copy of Photoshop for Dummies, I couldn’t begin to create anything like Pixeloo’s "Untooned" image of cartoon  and videogame characters.

Seen at right is Pixeloo’s "Untooned" version of Stewie Griffin from the animated television series Family Guy. Creepy, eh?

Wait until you see Homer Simpson… *shudder*

Head over to Pixeloo to view so-big-they’re-terrifying images of Stewie and Homer, as well as Mario (of the Mario Bros. videogame franchise) and Jessica Rabbit (of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame). There are even a few animated versions of the images that successfuly up the creep-me-out ante.

Oh, and if you decide you want to see more of this type of "Untooned" image editing, check out the gallery of "Reality Cartoons" submitted to Worth1000.com as part of a recent contest. The images include a pair of real-life versions of Tycho and Gabe, the main characters from the Penny Arcade webcomic.

Now if we could only get an "Untooned" image of GrimJack.

‘Penny Arcade’ Game Prequel Comic Goes Online

‘Penny Arcade’ Game Prequel Comic Goes Online

Penny Arcade is well known in the webcomic world for its wickedly funny lampooning of the videogame industry. On May 21st, they’re becoming a target themselves by releasing Penny Arcade: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One. The Penny Arcade videogame will premiere as a digital download for Xbox 360, PC, Mac and Linux systems.

The adventure role-playing game imagines the Penny Arcade cast in a 1920s Lovecraftian setting where Gabe and Tycho are a crime-solving team at the Startling Developments Detective Agency in the city of New Arcadia.

To help readers understand Gabe and Tycho’s role in this world, Creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik have created a four-page prequel webcomic that explains what the characters were up to just before the game starts.

In all honesty, they had us when they showed a steampunk version of Fruit F***er, the kitchen juicer gone bad.

UDON’s Street Fighter Tribute: Nice, But Worth the Price?

UDON’s Street Fighter Tribute: Nice, But Worth the Price?

Remember when we told you that comic publisher UDON was working on a 20th Anniversary art book for the popular Street Fighter franchise? Well, UDON’s website is taking preorders on Street Fighter Tribute and gave some details on the book.

By far the most surprising aspect of the title is its $80 price tag. Even though it’s a 320-page hardcover, you can expect most fans’ jaws to drop at such a steep price. If you don’t mind the cost, the rest of the book should be pretty appealing.

Street Fighter Tribute measures 8.25 x 11.25 inches and features work by UDON regulars Arnold Tsang, Alvin Lee, Omar Dgan, Jeff "Chamba" Cruz and Joe Ng, as well as comic celebs like Adam Hughes and J. Scott Campbell.

Even Gabe from Penny-Arcade.com is in there, representing  the webcomic side of the industry.

Sample artwork is provided after the jump:

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NYCC: ‘Webcomics: Threat or Menace’ Panel Report

I’m not certain whether anyone determined if webcomics were a threat, a menace or a combination of the two during Saturday’s "Webcomics: Threat or Menace" panel at New York Comic Con, but it was a lively discussion all the same.

Gary Tyrrell of Fleen moderated a panel that featured an intriguing spectrum of webcomics interests, consisting of Rich Stevens (Diesel Sweeties), Robert Khoo (Director of Business Development for Penny Arcade), Richard Brunning (Senior VP and Creative Director for DC) and Jeremy Ross (Director of New Product Development for Tokyopop).

The discussion kicked off with a hard look at the definition of webcomics found in the convention programming schedule, and its curious (one would hope, tongue-in-cheek) view on the potential effects of the webcomic evolution:

There’s a dizzying array of different models for delivering comics over the Web, from Webcomics, to PDFs for a fee, to ad-supported PDFs, to PDFs as promotional tool, and behind it all is the backdrop of illegal file sharing of comics. Are comics on the Web going to be a tool to increase the popularity of paper products, an alternate distribution channel that takes sales from retailers and circulation from libraries, or a threat to legitimate channels as illegal downloads grow?

While all of the panelists agreed that the definition and potential implications of webcomics in the booklet left quite a bit to be desired, that was pretty much the only point at which everyone was on the same page with regard to webcomics, where they’re headed and what the ripple effect might be for print publishing.

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COMICS LINKS: Wired Pennies

COMICS LINKS: Wired Pennies

Comics Links

Wired has a long article about the creators of Penny Arcade, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik.

Rick Geary presents: The Comic Con Murder Case, a short online comic.

Comics Reporter interviews Nick Abadzis, cartoonist of Laika.

Greg Hatcher of Comics Should Be Good thinks about history and comics and ends up daring DC Comics to just reboot their entire line already.

Comics Reviews

The Toronto Star reviews Scott Chantler’s The Annotated Northwest Passage.

The LA Times reviews Adrian Tomine’s upcoming graphic novel Shortcomings.

Brad Curran of Comics Should Be Good reviews Countdown to Adventure #1.

From The Savage Critics:

Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing reviews DMZ: Public Works.

Edward Champion reviews Warren Ellis’s novel Crooked Little Vein in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

SF/Fantasy Links

The 2009 World Science Fiction Convention will be held in Montreal, Canada. Neil Gaiman will be the author Guest of Honor.

SF Site has indexed the contents of the first twenty-four annual volumes of Gardner Dozois’s annual Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology, by author, title and volume.

Reports from Worldcon:

And reports from Dragon*Con:

Neil Gaiman visits the Great Wall of China and learns that giraffes are forbidden to drive cars there.

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Todd Goldman sending cease-and-desist letters

Todd Goldman sending cease-and-desist letters

Boy oh boy. We’re a little late to the party, here’s the quick recap: Todd Goldman is the founder of "David and Goliath," a merchandise company which produces clothing, posters and other merchandise featuring a variety of artwork and slogans that he theoretically created all by himself. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sales volume of "David and Goliath" was US$ 90 million in 2004. Earlier this month, Goldman was accused of plagiarism by webcartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly, in a post on the Something Awful forums, claiming that Goldman’s piece "Dear God Make Everyone Die" was taken directly from a 2001 comic by Kelly.

Since Kelly’s initial accusation, other bloggers and webcartoonists have found numerous other cases of alleged creative tracing. In the meantime, Goldman (or someone claiming to be him) has accused Kelly of pedophilia, posted pornographic images to defame Kelly which ended up being seen by minors, hijacked the MySpace account of the person who originally reported the theft, openly mocked anyone who expressed concern about this… and has enlisted his lawyer to threaten anyone who reports on any of the above, even when such reportage sticks to verifiable facts. As a result, Publisher’s Weekly has now taken down posts from Heidi MacDonald on the issue.

Dirk Deppey, Gary Tyrrell, and Tom Spurgeon have been all over this story, and now it’s gotten the attention of Boing Boing, Penny Arcade, and Slashdot.

Mr. Goldman, meet the Internet – filled with lots of people from all over the planet who do their research and hate bullies and like crusades.