You might not know this about Penny Arcade because we don’t make a big deal out of it. Every year since 2007 we have given away a ten thousand dollar scholarship to a deserving young person interested in making an impact in the games industry.

We've been playing Payday 2; see if you can tell.

We use the word "betrayal" in the strip, mostly ironically, but there is a little heart-bound ice associated with it. When everyone - and around here, I do mean everyone - has a substantial investment on every investable axis in League of Legends, and then you start engaging in these sunny afternoon trysts with Defense of the Ancients 2, it's like... lips get pursed.

We used to do a lot more Penny Arcade Presents projects, but as the empire grew it got tougher to fit them in. But we know a lot of artists, and they also like to eat, so we started putting them in touch with people who needed projects. There's more stuff like this coming - I've got some stuff going with Katie Rice (from Strip Search) that's gonna be hot. But Kris' strip about Fetch came first, and Fetch is really great, so let's start there. You should grab it; it won't cost you nothin'. That goes for the strip and the game both.

We played Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, and we think you should too.

We did a "Make A Strip" panel at the last PAX, in accordance with the ancient scrolls, but since Sand was still running we couldn't put it up Monday. So, here you are.

Issue six of the Lookouts comic book is out now. This brings the first story arc to a close. If you have not read it yet now is a great time to go grab all six issues and read the entire story. It also has some interesting revelations about the Daughters of the Eyrewood that will play a big part in the upcoming Daughters project that Tycho and I will be doing for the site.

Do you remember when Katie won Strip Search? Well part of the reward was that she would be integrated into the PA machine. What the hell does that mean exactly? Well it means she will be drawing some PA Presents projects! The first one is a collaboration with Big Fish games. Katie will be doing some artwork for Fairway Solitaire that will appear in the games “daily course” mode.

So that’s it for this chapter of Sand. If you want to read all ten parts you can find the very first page of Sand right here. Sorry it took us two years to get around to finishing it. Hopefully it was worth the wait.

Part Ten, the Final Part of Sand, is now available. There's obviously more to tell, I could tell it for the rest of my life if I decided that was the sort of life I wanted. Next up, though not immediately, are Lookouts: The Tithe and Automata: Silverside. Don't really know what order; whichever one makes the loudest, most insistent subconscious demand. Tithe is about The Daughters of the Eyrewood, which is something we needed to understand for the Lookouts comics we did with Cryptozoic. So, it's still kinda fresh. Also, it's fresh in the way that Doug E. Fresh is fresh - that is to say, it's fly. And there's things you might need to know strictly for cosplay purposes that we're in a position to reveal.

Scott, Gabe, Jamie and I played through the first major boss on the Playstation 3 - if you're curious how it works, you can learn along with us. That video is a couple hours long, though; you might also check out the Highlight Reel, if you're looking for something quick.

Sand is up to part nine now and we’re starting to bring this little story to a close. Thanks to everyone who has emailed or tweeted me about the project. It makes me really happy to hear from so many people who are enjoying it. It’s been a lot of fun for us revisiting a project that we started almost 18 years ago. This is sort of like the reboot only we’re the ones doing the reboot I guess. Also no one ever saw the original.

Part nine of Sand is available, and I think there's only one more. That's why it took us so long to get around to it - it's, uh... I guess Elaborate would be the word. It's ten "strips," total, but many of the strips are larger than standard. This would have been a month at least according to the regular schedule. At the very least.

You can start treating Blocked calls like toxic sludge again.

I’m back home from Australia now and I had an incredible vacation, or should I say holiday? I brought a ton of stuff to manage the long flights, and hotel downtime. I figured I’d toss up a list of what I enjoyed.

The flight home was surreal. We managed the return sans crisis, so I was able to absorb every tolerable movie they had available, and some less tolerable, and some which were far better than they are generally believed to be. It was pretty fresh actually and I daresay I enjoyed myself some appreciable percentage of the time; Brenna and I high fived over the sleepforms of our larvae.