We have always liked Assassin's Creed, even when you weren't supposed to - even everyone agreed it was a no-no. A huge part of that is that we did not make up a game we thought it was, and then scourge it based on how often it diverged from that fantasy. We play them in stages, where Gabriel gets us through the atmosphere and I typically take over because I want to see the story resolve. I'm not sure which part that is within the astronomy metaphor. Let's say it's the moon.

I know that it's supposed to be out, or out soon, but even even from my thrumming media roost I couldn't tell you with one hundred percent certainty whether or not Windows 8 has actually been released. There isn't a single copy of it installed anywhere in the office, and we're all massive dorks. No doubt I'll come into contact with one of its cilia at some point - Smart Glass, or something - but I don't upgrade software just to upgrade it anymore. Hardware's another story. But all my shit works, finally, and the computer is completely ascendant in my house as a leisure-time vessel.

It seems that my job now is just to post awesome songs created by our readers and based on stuff we make.

This comic is a word for word translation; that's what makes it acceptable for us to reference Human Centipede two years out of phase. Technically speaking, Scott should be in there somewhere - it occurred while we were writing The Trenches. He'd told us about the absolutely vital South Park documentary 6 Days To Air, which is what started us down that path.

When we arrived at Harry Potter world for the first time our little group made a beeline for Hogwarts in an effort to be the first on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. I was pulled along with them even though I don’t actually go on many rides. Erika shouted at us not to stop as we ran past Ollivander’s wand shop. None of us had ever been before and so we were all floored by Hogwarts. The line for the ride winds through the castle but it’s so cool that there is a separate line for people who just want to see the castle but not go on the ride. This is what I should have done.

The Harry Potter shit at Universal Studios is off the hook, I am told. It is, among other things, the place where viral wand videos are produced. There is also a "broom ride," which takes place in some kind of projected dome, whose potpourri of stimuli can ask hard questions of your equilibrium. These hard questions can have, as their answer, an eruption of whole milk and Fruit Loop paste with considerable force and range.

I got an email this morning pointing me towards a very cool Reddit thread. It seems Reddit user shmallowfish went ahead and recorded his own interpretation of a comic we made back in 2006. In the Open Mic Night strip Tycho plays a folksy ballad about DLC. Check out this take on it set to the tune of Bastion’s "The Pantheon (Ain't Gonna Catch You)"

It's three bucks for mobile, five bucks for Mac, and here's where you get it:

Our vacation to Disney World included a day spent over at Universal Studios. I knew this was the home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter but beyond that I had no idea what to expect. I was incredibly disappointed to discover that the Harry Potter zone is miniscule. Don’t get me wrong, what they have there is fucking amazing I just wish there was more of it. Kara and I decided to walk a loop around the rest of the park and both of us were really disappointed. There are rows of fair games like the ring toss and basket ball. Over all it just feels incredibly low rent.

I'll be honest; I had sort of forgotten that we make goofy comics. I'd gotten used to being a purveyor of dead boys, girls with nominal "blessings," and haunted-ass men! I'm genuinely confused right now that this kind of thing is what makes up the bulk of our archive. I like making those, too, I just... forgot.

I just got back from a five day vacation to Disney World. Kara and I had never been before and we had a great time. Every time I go to a Disney park I get the pin collecting bug. In fact it was about four years ago that I came back from a trip to Disney Land and told everyone here in the office that we needed to make Penny Arcade pins. I’m happy to say that Pinny Arcade is finally happening and (fingers crossed) we should have the first selection ready before the end of this year. The plan is to do tons of great PA pins but also pins for games and publishers. I’d love it if you could get an Assassins Creed pin at the Ubi booth during PAX or maybe sit in on a panel for the next Halo and walk out with a sweet pin. I really want pin trading to be big at future PAX shows!

So that's the basic idea of Thornwatch: weird bargains made under duress in the thick of a hostile wood. A "campaign" in Thornwatch is designed to be like a season of a show: you've got individual missions (b plots) all tied into an overarching story (a plot) that isn't entirely clear at first. They aren't mean to run long, they're mean to deliver discrete arcs. CSI: Eyrewood.

Okay, now we're getting into it. I could explain it now, but I think it would be more fun for you to learn in your first few adventures, or in a story. I don't really like it when people do that, either - that is to say "tease cocks or cock-equivalent manifolds" - but now I know why they do it. Some of them are simply bastards, some don't actually know, but occasionally it's about delivering intent and context in a tidy package. That's what I hope is happening here. Believe me, we have every intention of paying up.

If you play the Preview game like we do, that cut of today's Wolf/Bat thing in the upper right is pretty choice.

This is what we're thinking about all the time, the wayward (?) inheritors of the Lookouts' creed, so when we needed to get a few strips done ahead of time it was the first thing I thought of. It's three parts total, running until Monday.

We're overjoyed to have been invited in, but we wanted to remind people that the little arrow by "authors" can be clicked to reveal a more granular list. On this list, you can zero out our "cut" altogether and then scooch the funds over to Child's Play (or anybody else). That can happen automagically, based on percentages, or you can grip that little slider like you mean business and then GO CRAZY (with precision).