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Why We're Starting a Comic Based on Video Games
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posted by: Aaron Stanton
publisher: GamesFirst.com
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date posted: 12:00 AM Sun Apr 17th, 2005
last revision: 12:00 AM Sun Apr 17th, 2005


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Click to read.Dear GamesFirst Reader,

My name's Aaron.  I'm the story side of twoplayer comics; Noah Kroese is the visual side.  I'm also an editor here at GamesFirst.com, and I'm here to try to justify what the hell we're doing by creating a weekly comic strip based on games, found at http://comics.gamesfirst.com

So why are we doing this, anyway?  Our target market is well served by both Penny Arcade and vgcats.com, hilarious comics that have each been going strong for years.  Besides the fact that we here at GamesFirst.com are funny? - and I'm serious, most people really do make those little quotation marks with their fingers when they refer to us as funny - and are certainly funny looking, what gives us the nerve to try something like this?  I've been thinking about that a lot lately, ever since about a month ago when, while flexing in front of the bathroom mirror, I realized I had a weird and sick desire to see myself as a cartoon character.  The only answer that seems to fit is that we're just not very smart.  

There are many hints that this is true.  I insist on being a writer, even though I can't spell.  I'm co-founding a comic, even though I can't draw.  I keep hitting on girls way outside my league even though I'm all furry and was once mistaken as a wild boar.  Probably the biggest clue that I'm not really all that bright is that I'm starting a comic in a field with brilliant competition.  I can't speak for Noah, who is the artist and currently the other half of twoplayer comics, but I personally feel a bit out of my league.  While showing off the prototype layout for twoplayer to one of my friends, I started off by saying, Hey, check out the comic strip we're working on,? and the dude cut me off.  

First off,? he said, there's only one comic here, so it ain't no strip yet.  Second, did you realize when you named it that the initials of your comic are T.P.??  

The second major indication that we're possibly not the most intelligent people in the world is that we choose a name for our comic that appears, at least when abbreviated, to refer to a bathroom product.  I immediately de-invited my ex-friend to supper.  After all, you can't trust the opinion of anyone that doesn't realize that without the space between the words our initials are actual just T, not T.P.  

What stuck with me, though, was the first of the two comments.  It's not a comic strip until there's more than one, and probably more than a dozen by most standards.  It's disheartening to drop by either PA or Vgcats to surf through their archives; the one comic that we're launching with seems a really small thing to be proud of in comparison.  But I am.  I'm really proud of it, and I hope to be more so after a few weeks and some refining of style.  

Are we going to be funny?  We're going to try.  Are we going to succeed?  I think so, yes, but then we've already established that I might not be the best person to judge.  After all, my absolute favorite Penny Arcade is this one here from 1999, and it's not funny at all, just damn near the coolest move I've ever seen in my life.  Whether or not anyone likes anything that we here at twoplayer create? well, that remains to be seen.  We're going to try our best, though, and hope it's worthwhile for everyone on all sides of the table.  If we haven't made you laugh at least once after ten cartoons, then either we're just not very good or you have no sense of humor.  Honestly, I hope we can blame you.  If not, you can blame us.  That's cool, too.  I figure there's no foul either way.  

Best of luck to us both,

Aaron Stanton

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