News: Star Wars and Child's Plau
114753
Gabe: ***STAR WARS NERD CRAP!***I've been meaning to mention Karen's new book in the Republic Commando series for a while but I wanted to wait until I finished it. I'm a ridiculously slow reader so I didn't actually wrap it up until a few weeks ago. If you're reading the series "True Colors" is out in stores and it's great. If you're not reading the series you should start at the beginning. Karen is essentially covering the Clone Wars like a real war correspondent would. Seeing as that was her previous job it makes sense. She's looking at the war and asking the questions a real journalist would ask. "Why do we all of a sudden have a clone army? Don't they take ten years to grow?" "How are we paying for this?" "Why doesn't anyone ever see veterans or wounded clone troopers returning home?" She is cutting through the Galactic/imperial propaganda and showing the war from the point of view of the soldiers. Star Wars fiction tends to be about Jedi. All the movies are about Jedi and almost all of the books tend to revolve around Jedi and their lives. Republic Commando is refreshing because it's not about Jedi. It's about soldiers fighting a war that the government will never let them win. The newest book also happens to introduce my new favorite Star Wars characters. Gaib and the Tk-0 droid are data bounty hunters. Essentially hackers for hire. So fucking awesome.  *** END OF STAR WARS NERD CRAP***  I also have some Child's Play updates for you. If you couldn't make it to the dinner last week or you just want to remember how rad it was, you can hit Kiko's Flickr for his pictures. As of last Friday we're up to $850,000 for the year. It looks like we'll have no problem breaking a million before we wrap things up in January.This is the last day for a very cool Heroes auction over on eBay. The auction was assembled by our friend Ollie who works on the show. He managed to get a pilot scrip signed by a bunch of the cast members as well as a bunch of other great Heroes collectibles.-Gabe out
582539
Toy-inspired movies like Transformers and Bratz are lucrative for Hollywood, but experts warn they could also be harmful for kids' development
144168
Tycho: Gabe had to watch the other Gabe today, so we made the comic a day in advance. It's about the guy who wrote that ridiculous Mass Effect article. We decided to put it up a day early because, just as we predicted in the strip, he's taken a swipe at gamers. The young man quoted in his piece did not represent our community well, but locking horns with a professional liar would bring out the worst in anyone. (CW)TB
256515
Several dozen baby galaxies have turned up in galactic retirement communities near the Milky Way, new observations reveal. The objects resemble primitive galaxies from the early universe and may shed light on what triggers galaxies to form.
324343
A NASA observatory discovers dozens of 'baby' galaxies in our midst. Scientists say the newborns could tell us a lot about our own aging Milky Way. By Amit Asaravala.
410882
A look at the top movie stories this week.
120951
Writer/director Brad Bird (&quot;The Iron Giant&quot;) and the wizards at Pixar Animation Studios (&quot;Toy Story,&quot; &quot;Monsters, Inc,&quot; and &quot;Finding Nemo&quot;) have created a marvelous movie that works for children
425582
Scarlett Johansson to star opposite Ewan McGregor.  Plus news in brief on Sandra Bullock and the Black Eyed Peas.
571220
There is good news for Star Wars fans, for they can now see a glimpse of the sixth and last movie in the series, seven months before its release.
262838
While Eisner invests in web content studio Disney is launching a new website, Disney Family, aimed specifically at mums. The media giant says the site will host user generated articles, and will eventually form a "Parent Pedia", with information on hundreds of subjects of interest to mums and dads.â¦
262917
What's it like to slip into James Bond's three-piece suit? What about disappearing beneath Obi-Wan Kenobi's rough wool cloak? Or maybe strapping on Supergirl's blue elastic leotard and red knee-high boots?
453295
The Star Wars trilogy will be out on DVD soon. How will Fox fare?
719172
Tycho:   The foe revealed, Armadeaddon is now almost complete.  Monday will see the promised epilogue, so at this point you have very nearly survived the ordeal.  We have endeavored these past weeks to reward the true "enthusiast," that man or woman who, brow heavy, has faced such cruel abuse at our hand for the last seven years.  It is apparently our policy to honor such dedication one every decade.    Since it was announced a couple days ago, the revelation that MS would be actively courting the hardcore boardgame player is something I've thought about almost constantly.  It may be that you weren't aware there was such a thing as a hardcore player of boardgames if your last experience with the context was playing Sorry! with your sister when you were eight.  Things have progressed.   There's a million experiences in this space I could use to lure you in, but one company in particular - Days of Wonder has already decided to make electronic variants of their tabletop crack, so they occupy a twilight space between the worlds.  I hope they see an opportunity to take their (already completed!) games over to the 360, or that Microsoft offers them a locked case containing an unspecified amount of untraceable U.S. Currency, because I'd love to see this prescient move by MS turn into a new era.   Days of Wonder makes a game called Shadows Over Camelot that could quickly become a dangerous obsession, obscuring biological realities with a single-minded focus on grails.  Well, grail I guess.  There's just the one.    But it's a completely cooperative boardgame, so every player is working toward the same goals - fighting back invasions, questing, all of it.  Except there might be a traitor in the group, determined by a hidden draw, who tries to derail the effort.  He's not always there, but the potentiality of that nefarious force can create unbelievable social tension.    The gaming table's fixed coordinate in space is its asset and its obstacle - managing space and time is actually the primary challenge of any gaming group, as opposed to banishing necromancers, though that also ranks up there.  Boardgames are so rich in design that, when one of these gets dropped in front of them on Live, I think many gamers will be shocked at their sophistication.    My thumbs hurt.  (CW)TB out.
57105
Gabe: The Penny Arcade store has been updated with some new items. First we've got a brand new zip up hoodie.    It's got a slick PA logo on the front and Tycho's speech from the comic strip "I Hope You Like Text" on the back. We've been getting requests for a zip up like this for a long time. I don't want to sound like a used car salesman but my guess is that these will not last long.     We've also added a new sticker pack. This pack includes Tycho, Gabe, Annarchy, Charles, The Merch, The Fleshreaper, The Fruit Fucker and two bumper stickers.  The sticker pack is $10 but we've got a special deal going right now. If you spend $50 in the store we'll toss in the sticker pack for free.    Also, don't forget that you can now purchase prints of just about all our comic strips. If you're looking for strips with specific characters or games, Pennypacker is a great way to search our archives. I've had a few people ask me what my favorites are or which ones I think would make for especially nice prints. Tycho and I are each working on a list of our favorites but off the top of my head I'd say "The Hawk And The Hare" series would look pretty classy all framed up and hung on someone's wall.     -Gabe out
669430
Astronomers have observed for the first time a jet of matter spiraling outward from an infant star, as if a lengthy strand of curly pasta.
358298
The latest movies to spark political controversy are two animated family films, 'The Incredibles,' and 'Polar Express.'
43210
The Star Trek icon chats with Wired News about the franchise's staying power, video games and the unintelligible language of Esperanto fans. By Lore SjÃ¶berg. Plus: My Love Affair With Star Trek