Penny Arcade is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. Fifteen years ago they hit on the idea of making comics about video games, as time passed Penny Arcade grew into making awesome things for gamers and geeks. In 2004, Jerry and Mike decided they wanted a show exclusively for gaming and PAX was born, what started as a small gathering of gaming enthusiasts in Washington State has grown exponentially. Since that first show in Bellevue, WA with a respectable 4,500 attendees, PAX has exploded. PAX now includes 3 annual shows: PAX Prime in Seattle, PAX East in Boston, and PAX Australia, in, well Australia. In 2007 PAX Prime relocated from Bellevue to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in downtown Seattle and earned the distinction of North America’s biggest gamer festival. PAX Prime 2013 has expanded to a 4-day event for the first time and 4-day passes, along with one-day passes, sold out in under 6 hours, with an anticipated attendance of ~70,000 people. Today is the fifth time PAX East kicks off in Boston. PAX Prime and PAX East are the greatest gaming community events in North America. The success of the show and its growing coverage in genres such as table top, PC Gaming, mobile, console play, and the ever great OMEGATHON would simply not have been possible without the passion and enthusiasm of the team at Penny Arcade.
For Mike, Surface Pro 2 is his mobile drawing studio and the one device he uses to do what he enjoys most and that’s create. He’s able to do on the go what he could only do before on his desk. Mike shared with us that he has a separate gaming PC at home, but since getting Surface Pro he no longer uses it at all, Surface Pro is his gaming PC. You can read more of Mike’s thoughts on Surface Pro 2 on the Penny Arcade Blog.
Drawings of Mike’s done on a Surface Pro while he was on vacation with his family. Picture via his blog post here.
Since launching the original Surface Pro we have been fortunate to learn a lot from Mike and his team. It so happens that the Penny Arcade team sits in Seattle, WA and when we had a chance to stop by their offices and chat with Mike about how Surface has changed the way he sketches, works, and games – we couldn’t say no.
Check out this video below for a look inside Penny Arcade headquarters:
