Penny Arcade
| Penny Arcade | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author(s) | Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik |
| Website | |
| Update schedule | Monday, Wednesday, Friday |
| Launch date | November 18, 1998 |
| End Date | Ongoing |
| Genre | Gaming, humor |
| Rating(s) |  |
Penny Arcade is a combination (non-furry) webcomic and blog created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, dealing mainly with the video game industry.
Penny Arcade and furry[edit]
In November 2005, the strip started a parody fantasy fiction called "Epic Legends Of The Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga" that contained anthropomorphic furniture called "furniliars". Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, one of the writers of the strip, started a wiki about the fiction, which fans have greatly expanded over time. One of the articles describes fans of furniliars, called "furnies" (an obvious parody on furries).
Controversy[edit]
A comic in April 2002 presented a strip entitled Things We Hate: Volume One,[1] which was was interpreted by many within the furry fandom to refer to it. The comic specified "animals who are also people" - with a special nod to "Sexy Fox Ladies", "Animals Going To School" "Smoldering Cheetah Temptresses", and an exclusion for animals who are also ninjas, and animals that think they are people). According to Tycho, the strip was just intended to make a statement about erotic furry art:
| The incendiary reaction to the first volume of the series makes me glad that, even four years out, we never delivered the second installment. I was under the impression that we were making a statement about a genre of art, i.e. "We think that pictures of eroticized, bipedal animals are ridiculous." What we would come to find out was that this kind of imagery is a cultural signifier for a group of people - "furries" - for whom this material amounts to some kind of sacrament.
So, imagine my surprise when we received hundreds of mails suggesting that we were "bigots", which is not a word I associate with people who think pictures of impossible animals are silly. The discourse was fascinating. I'm not difficult to talk to, and once it became clear that I had discovered something completely unlike anything I knew, I began to interrogate the authors of the hate mail themselves. I made about a hundred friends in a couple of hours, people I talked to for years. What I think is funny about the strip is that it purports to make some kind of strong point in the first panel, and then invests the remainder of its short time with the reader running away from the point at top speed. Of course, if you only look at the first panel and then send an angry mail, it doesn't matter. There are very few things we can actually say we hate, and a picture of two gazelles on a first date hardly makes the cut.[2] |
Some[who?] have put, though, that he was not 'running away from that point' at all, as his exceptions are really saying that he only approves of furry characters that are very mainstream - such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc. - and not considered 'furry' by the public.
Did you know? The anthropomorphic female jaguar shown on the first panel of this strip was lifted from an illustration by furry artist XianJaguar, which depicts her fursona.[3]
See also[edit]
- Penny Arcade on Wikipedia
- Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga on Wikipedia
References[edit]
- ↑ Things We Hate: Volume One - Penny Arcade strip for April 3, 2002
- ↑ Penny Arcade Volume 3: The Warsun Prophecies, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (January 31, 2007)
- ↑ XianJaguar's original illustration archived by archive.org. Retrieved 2010 January 16.
External links[edit]
- ELotHTES: Prologue - Penny Arcade strip for November 7, 2005
- ELotH:TES pbwiki article on Furnies
 This stub about a comic could be expanded.
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