The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade

I love Penny Arcade, but its backstory – at least as told here – is just not especially interesting. Here, let me sum up: “We met in high school, we knew immediately we wanted to make comics together, we started to do that, we put them on the internet, people liked them, so that's pretty cool.” Any obstacles or doubts are glossed over, and the bemused way they talk about PA's accidental success gets old after awhile.

The whole book is very much “they're just these two guys, you know?” As much as I like them, there just isn't very much meat here for a biography, and the whole thing ends up coming off as self-indulgent and kind of pointless. It contains a lot of filler; even as a fan, I struggled to enjoy things like photographs of their office space or details of three times PA was involved in legal battles.

Redeeming qualities: Mike talking about how his artwork has evolved, arc stories such as Cardboard Tube Samurai, and the collection of their favorite comics at the end.