The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition Book

Penny Arcade will be remembered as the Samuel Pepys of turn-of-the-century gaming. A thorough and insightful diarist of the trends, topics, culture, and well, games that mark the growth of a byzantine children's hobby to a full-fledged geek legion. Sadly, this book is a sad let down compared to the polished and exceptional product that has produced comics thrice-weekly with a regularity that you could set a clock to. These were my disappointments.

1) Discussions keep referencing the pre-destined success that would be had. The air of inevitability to each topical discussion sounds more like it's coddling the authors than giving an accurate history of what were probably terrifying moments of change for the nascent strip and community. The tone borders on arrogance but not in the wit that Holkins uses.
2) The text treats Penny Arcade as the nexus of all gaming culture rather than particular brand that the comic depicts with exquisite accuracy.
3) The source images used between sections are pixellated and crappy. The source art is probably a vector graphic so scaling it should have been trivial. The scaled jpg quality doesn't fit.
4) The FAQ section contains many questions that the interviewees identify as foolish or that have been previously answered elsewhere in the book.
5) Space is poorly used, side graphics will take up a 1/4 of the page without adding much nor having labels.
6) It's very easy to skip timeline pieces.
7) People who comment on Penny Arcade in the book resort to panegyrics rather than any useful insight.

The gems:
1) The print quality is absolutely exceptional. Coffee-table quality paper.
2) The artist's commentary is delightful and should have been doubled or tripled in size.
3) Mark's discussion of the evolution of his drawing style is insightful, but more examples of tried and failed techniques would have been swell.