Жерри Холкинс: «Penny Arcade» авторы және ойын фестивальдерінің ұйымдастырушысы

American writer and co creator of Penny Arcade

Jerry Holkins (born Parkinson; February 6, 1976) is an American writer. He is the co creator and writer of the webcomic Penny Arcade along with its artist Mike Krahulik. Holkins sometimes uses the pseudonym "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 for 2010.

Holkins was born in Auburn, Washington and grew up at least partly in Spokane, Washington. He met future collaborator Mike Krahulik at Mead High School, Spokane in 1993 or 1994 through the school newspaper, where they became friends. 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. though their appearances differ; for example, Tycho has mussed hair and sideburns, while Holkins's head is shaven.

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

A review of Penny Arcade in 1Up. com said of Holkins, "Language itself, whether dirty or clean, is increasingly a focus [of the comic] as Holkins stretches himself to work his favored baroque dialogue and unusual words into the script." In a tweet, Holkins said that his surname "is a combination of Holcomb (hers) and Parkinson (mine)." 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.