"The Case of the Mummy's Gold" is the fifth randomly-named Penny Arcade book; the strips covered are from 2004. The extras - random sketches from Comicon 2005 - aren't really that interesting this time.

Krahulik and Holkins do wander further afield in terms of writing - golf, square dancing, a Cthulu Christmas sequence, and a number of other things depart from the gaming and geek humor that still make up most of the strip. The humor there is less trapped in topical events and knowledge of gaming/geek culture; even when the jokes are extremely topical, though, the commentary can keep it in context. Holkins' commentary itself is rarely overexplanatory, often adding humor of his own.

There's less change in the art; it's never bad, and the character designs continue to evolve, but apart from where they step outside of the normal strip format (Twisp & Catsby, Cardboard Tube Samurai, and the Cthulu Christmas sequence) there aren't the leaps or experiments of previous volumes.

Krahulik and Holkins can still tell a joke, of course. "Case of the Mummy's Gold" is an extremely funny book.

****1/2

If you read the brilliant webcomic Penny Arcade, then you need to buy this book.

It's as simple as that.

No boring, long review. Just know that Penny Arcade is fantastic, and if you do not enjoy Penny Arcade, not only is this book not for you, but neither is oxygen.

Collecting year 04 of Penny Arcade, Gabe and Tycho are at it again. What are they at you may ask? Hardcore hilarity. A great addition to your ever growing comic book/Web Comic collection.

If you are looking at this book most likely you are all ready a fan of Penny Arcade. If you are a fan and wondering why you would buy a book containing strips freely available in the Penny Arcade archives, I will tell you that Tycho has, as with the first four volumes, gone back and written new commentary for all the strips in the book. As Penny Arcade fans know, a great part of the Penny Arcade experience is enjoying the strips again through Tycho's commentary on the thought process behind the strip and/or the events that led to it. There is a section in the back which includes sketches made on various convention table tops from across the years which is fun bonus material as well.

I love Penny Arcade. It's one of those little pleasures I look forward to 3 times a week while I'm at work. The 4th collection by Mike and Jerry is a lot of fun. I like the author's notes for each comic especially.

I've been buying these PA collections as they're released, and all this time I've been under the impression that they were complete. I assumed that they contained every single strip that was posted on the web, the only exceptions being things like the Strawberry Shortcake parody which they had to omit for legal reasons. But yesterday I wanted to show someone a particular comic because it was pertinent, so I went to the website and started browsing through the archives. I must have looked through close to 100 comics beofore I found what I was looking for, and in doing so I noticed that there were a few here and there that I had not seen in a long, long time. Which was odd, because I go through the books all the time, I keep them in the can after all. So I printed a couple of them out and then went to the books and sure enough, they weren't there. It's no big deal, but it surprised me and I figured I'd spread awareness.

As with the four volumes before it, Penny Arcade is brought to you in handy paperback format so that you may enjoy the antics of Tycho and Gabe from any location, not just in front of a computer. The addition of notes in hindsight make for some interesting takes on their past opinions, as well as additional insight into some strips' motivations.

This book rocks. Not that there has been one so far I didn't love, but the instant I finished reading this one I went through and read it again. I can't believe how much gold there is in this year. Some of the earlier books were interesting in a historical sense (as Tycho outright admits) but I think this is the first book where they have found personalities for Gabe and Tycho that allow them to make the most use of them, and their comedy is always on. I think some people were a bit disappointed in "Birds are Weird" because of the lack of extras, this one has some interesting extras I think you'll like.