Following “The Feast of Afterwinter” we waited a full nine months before doing “As Spring Dawns”. One of the things I try and do with the CTS strips is force myself to draw things that I don’t normally draw. If you look back through them you’ll see that they almost all start with some sort of nature scene. Obviously that sort of imagery is super important to the whole Samurai theme. But also I have a hard time drawing that sort of thing so it’s a good exercise.

It is here - the final page of The Hawk And The Hare. Why is is called that? Well, now you know.

After the Wandering Age 2 it was another six months before the CTS popped up again. This time it was in a three part storyline called "Last Rights". Finally we realized that each Wandering Age comic should have its own subtitle instead of a number. This one told the story of the CTS and his friend Tobun. It was originally just going to be a one page comic. Just this single page depicting the CTS leaving a body in the snow. We have always liked the idea of readers creating their own stories when it comes to the CTS and this seemed like a really interesting scene. It proved to be so interesting that people demanded we finish it. Many of you wanted to know who this guy was and why the CTS killed him so we made the other two parts. These ended up being Last Rights Part one and part two.

If it had been made clear to me that my accomplice would append each comic I uploaded with a fabulous treatise, I might have nipped off with some mysterious bottle, claiming to have been "laid low" by a vaguely defined pox. However, I understand that you may (from time to time) appreciate a host who can spell the word "palette." Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to present this, the third page of our Cardboard Tube Samurai Event, entitled The Hawk And The Hare.

In my last post I had talked about the Cardboard and Steel storyline. Taking the character of the CTS and trying to make a more serious comic out of him bothered some people who preferred Gabe running around hitting people with the tube. I can completely understand that, our CTS comics are weird. We're constantly trying new things with the art as well as the story telling. Some times it works and some times it doesn't. About four months after the Cardboard and Steel storyline in which we introduced the concept of "The Wandering Age" we did the first WA strip. It's a pretty good example of one that I don't think worked.

Merry Christmas. Is "Happy Christmas" chiefly British in usage? Sorry, someone gave me beer this year, and I'm sitting here in the middle of the night drinking it and talking to you.

If you've played Raving Rabbids then you're familiar with the crazy bunnies and the sorts of things they do and don't like to do. See all the mini games have funny names like "Bunnies don't like being disturbed on vacation" or "Bunnies are addicted to carrot juice". We thought these names were great and so when Ubi asked us to do something for Raving Rabbids we decided to make up a few of our own and then illustrate them as one panel comics. Thanks to Joe Pekar who colored these for me. He did a great job as usual. You can see our finished products over on the Rayman site.

I apologize to those of you who are not fans of the CTS. I know he's not for everyone. Honestly I think he's mostly for Tycho and I. He represents an opportunity to do something very different from our normal routine. I think of the CTS as a vacation from Penny Arcade that we try to give ourselves once or twice a year. We decided to pull him out for our Holiday special and to make it a little bit more interesting I'm going to try and provide some "directors commentary" regarding the entire life of the character. With each new page of the storyline I'll cover a bit more of the history of the character as well as try and provide some insight into the creation of the current strip. If you don't like the CTS I recommend quitting here. The standard Penny Arcade warning is in full effect today… This is not for critics.

Starting with The Last Christmas, we moved away from the low-impact recitation of "which games came out, mans" and moved instead to a place we once renounced: the murderous peaks and ravenous valleys of Continuita, "the perpetual realm."

GameTrailers just posted their video footage from the Child’s Play charity dinner and auction. They were there all night filming and doing interviews. As always, they did an awesome job of cutting it together and making us look great. Thanks to the crew from GT for covering the event and thanks for the generous donation from the GT community.

I wanted to point out a couple of people who are doing cool things for Child’s Play. First CheapyD from Cheap Ass gamer had a fundraiser over on his site with a goal of bringing in $5,000. Well he updated yesterday with news that they had actually managed to raise $10,285! All of my interactions with CheapyD are on Xbox Live, R6 Vegas specifically. It’s usually him at the far end of the elevator hallway in Calypso shooting me in the face as I breach the slot room. Because of this I had come to think of him as a real son of a bitch and one night I think I actually called him a “garbage fucker”. I was very angry. I feel sort of bad now. He’s obviously a good guy and he’s got a lot of very generous readers. So thanks to CheapyD and the Cheap Ass Gamer community. You're not a garbage fucker. 

The Wii's Forecast Channel just debuted, with the Internet Channel (i.e., Opera for Devices) arriving later this week - treats for that new or even lapsed gamer referenced by Nintendo marketing materials. I know instinctively that this person does exist, but that's all I know. I don't know if the Wii is a draw for that person long term, I don't know if there's a strong current of titles to maintain that person's interest... To be honest, I don't even know if a constant stream of content is as important to these shy, mysterious creatures as it is to us. I can tell you that the Forecast channel does have merit, even to the hardcore, but one must be creative in its application.

So the comic was late today and that’s my fault. You may have seen on the news that a good chunk of Seattle was without power over the weekend thanks to a massive wind storm last week. Parts of the city are actually still dark today but juice in our office is back even if the heat isn’t.

Emerging from the dim cavern of the Electronics Boutique into the fully lit mall, I blinked several times and tried to adjust. A single, determined bat still clung to my sleeve. I shook him off, as gently as he allowed, and tried to remember why I shopped for games in a place covered in lichen.

You can now get free replacement straps from Nintendo, but whether this is them admitting that they have done wrong or them taking out idiot insurance I think is an open question. In any event, there is a window of opportunity here for the savvy extortionist - one that could potentially incorporate an innovative orifice.

I used to be obsessed with the Pirates Constructible Strategy Game from Wizkids - if you have seen people putting together little pirate ships they punched out of what looked like credit cards, that's probably what they were playing.  Imagine my surprise when Sony Online Entertainment - a company we have been savage to, behaving much as wild animals would - not only announced that they were bringing the game online, but that all proceeds from the launch would go to Child's Play.

The launch day, coincidentally, is today.

We're grabbing the client as we speak - there's even a free demo.  I must admit to being quite humbled by their generosity.

(CW)TB