Last year, Penny Arcade founders Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins -- perhaps better known as their fictional counterparts Gabe and Tycho -- launched a massively successful Kickstarter campaign to make their site ad-free. Since they reached their initial goal of $250,000 with ease, they launched a few stretch rewards, including one at the $450,000 level for a new Master Chef-style reality competition based around web comics called Strip Search.
The series is now set to premiere online this Friday, March 1, at www.stripsearch.tv. The series hosts a slew of talented up-and-coming cartoonists and pits them in challenges to display their skills and acumen for the business of comics while living in a house together, leaving one ultimate winner to receive $15,000 and space in the Penny Arcade offices for a year to operate out of, including access to the company's widespread resources.
After launching on Friday, the show will move to regular episodes every Tuesday and Friday. A few weeks back, I had a chat with Krahulik to get the scoop on the inspiration behind Strip Search.
IGN Comics: Obviously you guys are successful comics creators, but where did your desire to do this reality competition based around making comics stem from? How did the idea even come up?
Mike Krahulik: I'm just a fan of that stuff. The idea of taking something like Master Chef or Hell’s Kitchen or these reality shows where you’re taking this group of people who are good at something and then put them through tests based on that skill set.
IGN: What qualifications or experience were you looking for in the contestants for the show? Was it based on artistic skill, past work, personality, or maybe all of the above?
Krahulik: I was focused on picking quality artists who were also funny – their work had to be funny – and Jerry [Holkins] was more focused on finding clever writers; the art to him was secondary. But together, we were able to pick a group of people that had really good skill sets across the board.
IGN: So what was the dynamic in the house like? Was it what you expected?
Krahulik: Well in reality, Jerry and I were not in the house. In fact, it was really important to us that we not be there to mess it up. The only time that they saw us or that we saw them in person was during the elimination challenges. When we were faced with two people and one of them had to go home, that was when they met us.
IGN: So how did you approach the judging of the comics? What’s the basis of elimination on the show?
Krahulik: Originally, that was probably the part that made me the most nervous. I mean, judging someone is fun on the Internet, but judging them in person is difficult! [laughs] I think it comes down to the same thing again, where Jerry and I are looking for two different things. When we agree on something, that means it’s probably got the best of both, right?
We were definitely looking for a talented artist and a clever writer, but the thing that made the winners stay and the losers go is usually just what made us laugh. Nine times out of ten, if you can get us laughing, that’s what we’re looking for.
IGN: On the site, you wrote a nice little post about how shooting the show was a life-changing experience not only for the contestants, but for you as well. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Did it affect you in terms of your own understanding of making comics?
Krahulik: I definitely saw how much fun it would be to have a reality show and give away this big prize to the contestants. But it’s difficult for me a lot of times – we’ve been doing Penny Arcade for almost 15 years – it’s hard for me to remember just how hungry you have to be to do this, you know? How this was my life’s dream. To see these kids there and look in their eyes and you’ve got two people there and you’re not so much giving the prize to someone as you are taking it away from someone else. So that was tough; that was hard. The lip starts to quiver ad you can see just how much it means to them. So I think going in I thought this would be sort of a fun, goofy show, and now I realize how powerful it was for everybody involved.
In terms of how it has affected me making comics now, I think it’s just given me that perspective again of, wow, how lucky am I to have this job?
IGN: What do you hope the winner will gain from getting to work in the Penny Arcade offices for a year?
Krahulik: Well, they’re going to have access to a lot of stuff that took us 15 years to build up. If you want to make t-shirts or if you want to make posters, that’s all super easy for us now. We’ve got all those channels already. We can make merchandise, we’ve got a warehouse, we’ve got fulfillment, advertising; all of that stuff that we’ve built up, they’re just going to have access to right out of the gate.
IGN: What kinds of challenges did you create for the contestants, and as artists, did you try to accomplish any of them yourselves?
Krahulik: [laughs] I don’t want to go into too much detail before the show airs, but all of the challenges definitely had to do with the business of making web comics. There’s a lot more to that, really, than just drawing comics. Conventions, meeting people, making merchandise, dealing with vendors, dealing with clients, and doing work-for-hire. All the things that you need to be good at to make this a living, we wanted to test them on.
IGN: How many episodes is this going to be?
Krahulik: I’m not 100% sure on that; as we were filming the show, we were just thinking we had a plan where they were going to be shorter episodes, but we were filming and were like, “This is too good!” So, that’s all kind of still in flux right now. [Editor's Note: Since conducting this interview, I learned that the series will run between 30-35 episodes.]
IGN: Aside from Penny Arcade (obviously), do you have any particular favorite web comics that are currently running?
Krahulik: Yeah! PvP -- Scott Kurtz is a super good friend of mine. I guess Hark! A Vagrant isn’t running anymore but Kate Beaton is one of my favorites out there. I read a lot of stuff.
IGN: Awesome. Well, I’ve been a big fan of the site for a long time, so best of luck with Strip Show!
Krahulik: Thanks man!
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. If he could, he'd run away to live amongst wild cats for the rest of his days.
Source : ign[dot]com
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