Time Magazine has listed Penny Arcade creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik as one of their top 100 most influential people. The comic is published three times a week and boasts 3.5 million readers.
Lev Grossman writes for Time:
For a lot of people, that would have been enough. But in 2003, Krahulik and Holkins, with their business manager, Robert Khoo, started a charity called Child’s Play that sends video games to sick kids in more than 60 hospitals around the world. In 2004 they started the Penny Arcade Expo, a convention in Seattle that celebrates gaming culture. Last year more than 60,000 people turned out for it.
Krahulik and Holkins have become the tastemakers, and conscience, of an industry the size of Hollywood. But for all their success, they are almost compulsively self-deprecating, and they give all the credit to their fans. You can’t put a label on them. Labels smack of hype, and Penny Arcade doesn’t do hype. “We don’t think about it,” Holkins says. “We specifically don’t try to figure out what we are.” Krahulik adds, deadpan: “Except rad.”
Whatevs. You still can’t make a living with a webcomic. Or it’s not a real comic, or something. I can’t remember what the argument was.
Hahahah!
Yeh there’s no way that they have 3.5 million readers! Time magazine a major player in political journalism couldn’t have gotten their facts straight. Because google statistics and other such programs are not to be trusted.
Not to mention a Charity raising millions…. Lies all LIES!
Kidding aside. Congratulations Mike and Jerry!
Oh and Grats to Robert Khoo and the staff at Penny Arcade! You guys earned it.
Until I see a W9 from these two, I don’t believe this article.
Well deserved for sure. The fundraising they’ve been able to accomplish is astounding.
(Cue slapfight)
Well deserved recognition.
They’ve done a fantastic job and it’s nice to see this kind of recognition.
Ok. Posting with my BlackBerry gives me weird error messages.
@ Ted Rall. 😉
The raw power of lines on paper on the internet – way to go Penny Arcade! And way to go TIme Magazine for recognizing them!
High fives Mike & Jerry!
Yay for cartoons having social and cultural impact! The childish fights that are always instigated here aside, what they’ve been able to do with the success of their comic in the form of PAX and especially Child’s Play is amazing and I’m glad to see it’s getting the praise it deserves.
(BTW, congrats to Mike too on the new baby!)
Thanks guys, it really has been an amazing week. The new baby and then time magazine.
This proves the importance of creating a feature specifically for your niche audience.
Niche is the new media paradigm.
A well deserved CONGRATS to Jerry and Mike!
It made me really happy to see these guys acknowledged in TIme. Congrats on all counts.
BTw, the latest Penny Arcade TV is powerful stuff. Bravo
Congrats, Mike!
Double congrats!
What’s a “magazine?” is that like a “newspaper?”