Jerry Holkins (born Parkinson"Holkins is a combination of Holcomb (hers) and Parkinson (mine)." https://twitter.com/TychoBrahe/status/12073336701 on February 6, 1976) is an American writer. He is the co-creator and writer of the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

'' Penny Arcade'' along with its artist

Mike Krahulik Michael Krahulik (; born September 25, 1977) is an American artist for the webcomic '' Penny Arcade'' and co-founder with Jerry Holkins of Child's Play, a charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. He goes by the online moniker ...

. Holkins sometimes uses the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Tycho Brahe", which is also the name of a Penny Arcade character based on Holkins. Holkins is a co-founder of PAX (originally called the Penny Arcade Expo) a series of gaming festivals that began in 2004 and has been held around the world. He is also a co-founder of Child's Play, a multimillion-dollar charity which organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. Holkins, along with Krahulik, was included in the

Time 100 ''Time'' 100 is a list of the top 100 most influential people, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now a highly ...

for 2010.

Early life

Holkins was born in

Auburn, Washington Auburn is a city in King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington, United States (with a small portion crossing into neighboring Pierce County, Washington, Pierce County). The population was 87,256 at the 2020 United States ...

and grew up at least partly in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

, Washington. He met future collaborator

at Mead High School, Spokane in 1993 or 1994 through the

school newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...

, where they became friends. After graduating high school, Holkins and Krahulik shared an apartment together. Holkins moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

around 2000. His online handle "Tycho Brahe" was named after a Danish astronomer

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, ; 14 December 154624 October 1601), generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He ...

Career

Penny Arcade

Holkins created the webcomic '' Penny Arcade'' in 1998 with

, with Holkins writing and Krahulik illustrating. The title of the comic is suggested by himself. According to an oral history, the two submitted cartoons to a contest run by a magazine in 1998. The magazine did not accept them but the creators sought other places to publish them, and worked with a site called looneygames.com to create what would become ''Penny Arcade''. The strip initially ran once a week. Around a year later, they created their own website for the strip. In addition to the comic, Holkins wrote accompanying blog posts. Initially, this was partly because the format of their website left blank space. Holkins says that while now the posts are a key part of the site, when they first started he would delete each post to make space for the next one so the early posts are lost. These posts are often computer and video game commentary, but also include personal reflections or rants. According to Julia Swan of the Museum of History and Innovation, ''Penny Arcade'' was one of the first, if not the first, highly successful webcomics. By 2000, ''Penny Arcade'' was profitable enough that Holkins could quit his day job. As of 2010, the strip was running three times a week and had about 3.5 million readers. Holkins is also the basis for one of the two central characters in ''Penny Arcade'', "

". Holkins and Brahe share similar interests and personalities, though their appearances differ; for example, Tycho has mussed hair and sideburns, while Holkins's head is shaven.

Child's Play

Holkins, along with Krahulik and their business manager Robert Khoo, founded the charity Child's Play in 2003. Child's Play is a

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

that donates toys and games to children's hospitals worldwide. The charity was founded in part to refute mainstream media's perception of gamers as violent and antisocial.

PAX gaming conventions

PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and

video gaming Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

. PAX is held annually in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

in the United States; and

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in Australia. PAX was originally created in 2004 by Holkins and Krahulik because they wanted to attend a show exclusively for gaming. Defining characteristics of the shows include an opening keynote speech from an industry insider, game-culture inspired concerts, panels on game topics, exhibitor booths from both independent and major game developers and publishers, a

LAN party A LAN party is a social gathering of gamer, participants with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router (computing), router or network switch, switc ...

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

, tabletop gaming tournaments, and video game freeplay areas.

Other work

Holkins and Krahulik played ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' 4th edition in Seattle for a day prior to its release, with Krahulik, Chris Perkins from

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

, Scott Kurtz of '' PvP'', and

Wil Wheaton Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film ''Stand by Me (film), Stand by Me'', ...

. Jerry is also featured in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 4th edition and 5th edition podcast, playing a character named Omin Dran, a Cleric of the Goddess Tymora (formerly Avandra), and CEO of an adventuring party named Acquisitions Incorporated. This has expanded into another streamed game entitled Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team. This work has led to official D&D products featuring the Acquisitions Incorporated concept and characters. Holkins wrote ''The Lookouts'', a comic which imagines a Boy Scouts-like group in a fantasy setting. Initial versions were written by Holkins and illustrated by Krahulik, while the final version was also co-written by Ben McCool, with art done by Robb Mommaerts and colors by Rainer Petter. The premise has also been adapted into a short live-action film. Holkins wrote a book of poetry called ''Lexcalibur'', featuring poems about D&D-style adventuring with illustrations by Krahulik. Holkins created a fictional fantasy series called ''"Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga"'' as a parody of generic fantasy fiction, and created a

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

for others to make up lore and backstory for the series. It rapidly grew in size as ''Penny Arcade'' fans joined in expanding the parody to describe the non-existent books, spinoffs, and life of the author.

Writing style

A review of ''Penny Arcade'' in 1Up.com said of Holkins, "Language itself, whether dirty or clean, is increasingly a focus f the comicas Holkins stretches himself to work his favored baroque dialogue and unusual words into the script."

Personal life

Holkins is married to his wife Brenna. They have two daughters, Samantha and Ronia. In a tweet, Holkins said that his surname "is a combination of Holcomb (hers) and Parkinson (mine)." Old versions of the Penny Arcade site credit the work to "Mike Krahulik and Jerry Parkinson". Holkins said in his Penny Arcade Podcast that he sings and plays guitar in the band The Fine Print, and that his band once opened for the band

Anal Cunt Anal Cunt, also called AxCx and A.C., was an American grindcore band that formed in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1988. From its inception, the band underwent a number of line-up changes and never had a bassist. The band, known for its flippant and ...

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Bibliography

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References

External links

Penny Arcade
Holkins' main project
Oral history interview with Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (transcript)
by the Museum of History and Innovation. {{DEFAULTSORT:Holkins, Jerry 1976 births Living people Penny Arcade (webcomic) American comics writers American male novelists American critics American webcomic creators Writers from Seattle Writers from Spokane, Washington Collaborative fiction American fantasy writers Video game critics American video game writers Novelists from Washington (state) Game Developers Conference Ambassador Award recipients Place of birth missing (living people)