Penny Arcade is no longer just a web comic strip about gaming. It has evolved into having those strips collected into books, launching a hugely successful children's hospital charity called Child's Play and the basis for a new episodic series of games called Penny Arcade Adventures. Perhaps the biggest part of their empire is the one that begins in Seattle on Friday; the fifth edition of the Penny Arcade Expo.

The Seattle Times has posted up a new look on Penny Arcade on the eve of PAX 2008, telling the story of how two buddies, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, created the web strip, survived the first few rough years and then met Robert Khoo, a University of Washington business graduate who took over the money end of Penny Arcade and helped Krahulik and Holkins become the massive success they are today. Penny Arcade Expo first started as a way for fans to meet the two creators; in five short years it has exploded into the single biggest consumer video game event in North America. Yet Krahulik and Holkins still work mostly on the strip while Khoo handles the numbers.Sounds like a good deal to us.