Kara burst onto the scene with a succession of handles, which is right and necessary: the first one I knew about was Angel Eyes, which I always assumed was a Steelheart reference but never asked. Her ability to kill men from an elevated position lead to her being dubb'd Orbital Strike, which stuck for awhile. Various groups have formed and dissolved since then, and when she wants to play there's always a spot, but competing against John Rando isn't really her thing these days.
Dream Big
I read Ben's thing about EVE: Valkyrie, and I saw something over at Joystiq about some spitballed VR shit for the Oculus Rift, and it occurred to me that somehow we've never made a comic about the thing. This is after having the Goddamned future strapped to our heads. I was even eaten by a shark at one point! No strip catalogues the event.
Missive
Deciding what to play with your leisure time, let alone deciding what to make a comic about, is a non-trivial matter at the moment. Shit's dense. And then a will-o-the-wisp like Hearthstone shoots off into a cave, and you pretty much have to follow it.
The Tithe
I'm working on our new Daughters of the Eyrewood story line.
Savagery
Perhaps the only thing my father and I ever agreed on was that videogames were pretty cool.
Disney Infinity
The reviews for Disney Infinity are all over the place. You've got everything from 2 out of 5 to nine out of ten. Even Ben over at the Penny Arcade Report gave a pretty mixed review of it. I think it’s a strange sort of video game and it’s not for everyone. Personally I’m really enjoying it and I’ll tell you why.
Innovationes
We've been playing Splinter Cell: Blacklist, mostly independently but on occasion together, learning just how spectacularly it is possible to fail when attempting to sneak anywhere in tandem.
The Penny Arcade Scholarship
You might not know this about Penny Arcade because we don’t make a big deal out of it. Every year since 2007 we have given away a ten thousand dollar scholarship to a deserving young person interested in making an impact in the games industry.
Exploration
We've been playing Payday 2; see if you can tell.
Backstab
We use the word "betrayal" in the strip, mostly ironically, but there is a little heart-bound ice associated with it. When everyone - and around here, I do mean everyone - has a substantial investment on every investable axis in League of Legends, and then you start engaging in these sunny afternoon trysts with Defense of the Ancients 2, it's like... lips get pursed.
PA Presents: Fetch, by Kris Straub
We used to do a lot more Penny Arcade Presents projects, but as the empire grew it got tougher to fit them in. But we know a lot of artists, and they also like to eat, so we started putting them in touch with people who needed projects. There's more stuff like this coming - I've got some stuff going with Katie Rice (from Strip Search) that's gonna be hot. But Kris' strip about Fetch came first, and Fetch is really great, so let's start there. You should grab it; it won't cost you nothin'. That goes for the strip and the game both.
The Middle
We played Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, and we think you should too.
Fauna
We did a "Make A Strip" panel at the last PAX, in accordance with the ancient scrolls, but since Sand was still running we couldn't put it up Monday. So, here you are.
Lookouts Comic Book!
Issue six of the Lookouts comic book is out now. This brings the first story arc to a close. If you have not read it yet now is a great time to go grab all six issues and read the entire story. It also has some interesting revelations about the Daughters of the Eyrewood that will play a big part in the upcoming Daughters project that Tycho and I will be doing for the site.
Katie and Fairway Solitaire
Do you remember when Katie won Strip Search? Well part of the reward was that she would be integrated into the PA machine. What the hell does that mean exactly? Well it means she will be drawing some PA Presents projects! The first one is a collaboration with Big Fish games. Katie will be doing some artwork for Fairway Solitaire that will appear in the games “daily course” mode.
Sand Q&A
So that’s it for this chapter of Sand. If you want to read all ten parts you can find the very first page of Sand right here. Sorry it took us two years to get around to finishing it. Hopefully it was worth the wait.