My Penny Arcade Guest Strip is Up
Posted on December 14, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 35 Comments
And it’s full of nerdy parental goodness, if I do say so myself. The full strip is here. I figure most people who are nerds who spend any time online will get the punchline, but if you don’t, this link will give you context.
For those of you wondering if I drew the comic as well as having written it, allow me to say: AH HA HA HA HAH HA! No. The artist in this case is the estimable Jeff Zugale. Jeff, some of you may recall, has collaborated with me before: Here’s one thing he’s done for me; here’s another. I was delighted to be able to call on him for this. I’ll also note that if you enjoy Jeff’s web comic stylings, you’ll be able to see more of them soon; he’s got himself a ginchy new gig. Congratulations Jeff!
Some of you may ask: How did I get this guest gig at Penny Arcade? Well, I’ve known and been friends with Jerry and Mike for a while now; indeed, we go waaaay back, all the way back to the previous century in fact, when PA and Whatever were both starting out. Indeed, I believe I may have been one of their first advertisers, since I advertised the Web version of Agent to the Stars there, back in ’99. We’ve since occasionally done work with and for each other; Mike did the cover art for the Subterranean Press hardcover of Agent, and not too long ago I did the introduction for their book The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade. So there’s a history there.
Nevertheless, it’s super mega ultra cool to be asked to do a guest strip for PA, and I hope they liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it and working with Jeff to make it. I hope you like it too.
Oh, and one other thing. Penny Arcade runs a fantastic charity called Child’s Play, which donates games and toys to children in hospitals. I’ve been a big supporter of this charity from the first year it started. As a way to saying thanks to Jerry and Mike for letting me do a guest spot, Jeff and I will be auctioning off the signed print original of today’s strip, with the proceeds to go to Child’s Play. More details on that, coming soon.
(Update: Here are the details.)
I love PA. I’m glad got the guest spot.
Also, your daughter is badass.
That was pretty damn awesome.
Heartwarming and funny at the same time – great comic.
I look forward to the day I first get to watch Star Wars with my kids.
Smashing.
Could have been more disturbing. When she asks “Would you kindly make me a sandwich?” that you know all is lost.
That was epic. A masterstroke of nerdly awesomeness. If there’s some sort of secret Top Geek competition going on, you just totally *won*, man. Very cool, and very funny.
The first time an eight year old is sharp enough to go for the jedi mind trick they deserve to get ice cream.
How does that work? Did Mike draw it while you did the writing or were you responsible for the whole strip?
Mike didn’t draw it, as I noted in the entry. Jeff Zugale did. I sent him the script and then he drew it.
If this is one of your secret projects, I fear that all may be lost when we finally discover qhat other secret projects still lurk in the dark recesses of the interwebs… especially the one that made you laugh maniacally.
G!
Department of stupid questions, here: Does the ‘sudo’ in the XKCD strip reference something else, or is it the original joke? If the latter, I still don’t get. I hang my head in nerdly shame.
Also, MarkHB: AWESOME and PERFECT
Your daughter is full of win (but I suspect you know this already).
I’m with you, Catherine. I consider myself pretty geeky but I had to go to Wikipedia to look up “sudo.” Of course my acquaintance with Unix extends to the fact that it’s mentioned in the movie version of JURASSIC PARK. Not all of us are into computers.
Catherine @ 9:16
If you are not the type of nerd/geek that squees with delight at each new release of a Linux build, chances are you’Re not going to get it. Not all nerds need be Linux affectionados.
SUDO is the linux equivalent of using the force on your computer to make it do stuff.
Still, believe us when we tell you it’s hilarious.
Aha. I actually realized I could google this one myself, and I now agree it is extremely funny. I am not one of those people who squee with delight at each new Linux build, but I am married to one, so I really have no excuse for missing this. I promise to do better in the future.
In order to use MacPorts, I had to issue a
sudocommand from the terminal on my MacBook. The first time, it tries to warn you off with a stern “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could mess up your computer” kind of message (I forget the exact wording).Wow. You’re daughter was doing linux administration stuff when she was 8? Damm.
[snerk].
You totally painted with words there.
Catherine Shaffer: “I am not one of those people who squee with delight at each new Linux build, but I am married to one, so I really have no excuse for missing this.”
I must respectfully disagree. You have a perfect excuse: your spouse is being true to the principles of a Linux system operator and not allowing you to have root access.
Plus, if you are like my spouse, you’d start snoring as soon as your spouse would start ranting about the latest distro.
The sandwich bit is a comic reference (probably intentional, I can’t imaging someone geeky enough to make that joke isn’t familiar with xkcd): http://xkcd.com/149/.
Hint: hover mouse and read the pop-up alt-text too.
I did link to the xkcd cartoon in the text of the entry, actually.
Isn’t Artistic License wonderful, I mean how old were you REALLY when you had that much hair?
;)
I never had that much hair. ALAS.
Great strip, John and Jeff. I haven’t watched Star Wars with my girls yet (although they are familiar with the music and character names thanks to Lego Star Wars on our Wii). I can very easily see them trying this on me.
If they ever figure out sudo I’m screwed.
Nice to see you’re all buddy-buddy with rape apologists and minimizers there… Google “Team Dickwolves,” why don’t you.
She knows all the Words of Power.
Anon, if you’re only now figuring out that Jerry and Mike have been friends of mine for a very long time, I don’t know what to tell you.
How they handled the Dickwolves thing is not how I would have handled it, but they have their own karma on that, and I’ll let them deal with the repercussions of it. It doesn’t scrub them off my list of friends.
In a more general sense, if I was required to abandon friends every time they showed their ass on the Internet for one reason or another (or they were required to abandon me when I show mine — and I have, more than once), I suspect I would be very lonely.
And that’s the totality of the Dickwolves discussion we’ll be having on this particular thread.
Cross-polinating web comics? Isn’t that a lot like crossing the streams? You’re gonna explode every IP on the iInternet at the speed of light!
And for the record, I swear I had not yet followed the link to this week’s filmcritic.com article before posting my last comment.
This is too cute. STOP BEING SO CUTE!
This is totally filled with win. You are so doomed.
I need a T-Shirt of this to go with the XKCD sudo shirt that I got myself as a Merry Xmas gift to me.
Totally missed that you had linked it already. Well played.
Well, I certainly can’t afford the original comic, but have made a donation to Child’s Play.
Did Athena really sudo you when she was 8?