One of the best reasons to go to library conferences is the free books. And as an exhibitor the level of free bookage goes up a notch, as there is a certain unspoken agreement among we-who-man-the-booths. This year at ALA we were right next to Dark Horse books, and the prize I requested was a set of Penny Arcade collections.

To describe Penny Arcade as a comic strip about video games is to significantly oversimplify the facts of the matter. First of all, it's a webcomic, which is to say that it is first and foremost targets the web medium. That means color, varying format, and even occasional animation. It also means uncensored - more about this later.

Secondly, it's about video games in much the sam way that Unshelved is about libraries. Which is to say, sometimes. Sometimes it's very much about video games, often a particular video game, and then too some detail or industry scuttlebutt about that video game. So in-jokey are these jokes that strips are usually explained in a parallel blog entry. Normally a joke that needs to be explained is what we call "not funny," but the wonder of PA is that, once filled in on the background material, the reading list if you will, the strips really are funny.

That's because the strips are really about Gabe and Tycho, the alter-egos of artist Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins. I first came across these two three years ago at Comic Con in a panel discussion on comic strip syndication. They were rude and crass and I wanted to dislike them but they were so outrageously hysterical that I instead became a fan. Their relationship goes through some sort of transformation and ends up on the page, where they are even funnier.

And even crasser. You absolutely and positively must avoid Penny Arcade if you have particularly sensitive ears, eyes, or brains. There is cursing. There is extreme violence. There is deviant sexual behavior. There is sacrilege. Some will say that these elements are not required for humor, and those people should not read this comic strip.

And so to the books. They are a handsome set, and the books are cleverly designed such that they manage to absorb the varying formats of the comic strip. The books are padded with extra material - book two, for example, has full page art from the PA card game. Each strip has some annotation by Jerry, occasionally reusing the original blog entries. Jerry is an extremely talented writer and, especially for the early strips, the annotations are often funnier and/or more insightful than the strips.

Today PA is a very handsome strip. Mike has matured into one of the most admired artists in webcomicsdom. To go back in time seven years is to see how impressively his skillset has grown. As I well know, cartoonists go through a very visible learning curve. Let's just say his earliest strips are still better than most of what I draw today. Unlike me, he practices practices practices, and it shows.

As for the strips themselves, they start off very rocky indeed with a few glimpses of brilliance. I found myself pretty much plodding through the first book Attack of the Bacon Robots, and didn't start really laughing until the second volume Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings (each collection's title is something totally random, unrelated, and hilarious). By the third volume The Warsun Prophecies they really hit their stride and I'm avidly looking forward to the next volume. But here's the clincher - I'm not a gamer at all, not one iota. If you are, even a little, all this would be substantially more recognizable and thus even funnier.

Gaming, and Penny Arcade's take on it, is simply part of our culture. If your library or bookstore has a place for comics that aren't for kids, these books belong there.