Crappler319

Edit: Man, this got super personal and I didn't really mean for it to, and I'm not sure if Mike or Jerry will even see it. I was tempted to delete it because I'm not really prone to airing shit publicly, but it's been brewing in my head for years now and I don't know that I'll ever get another chance to say it, so fuck it.

I've been following you guys on and off for years, almost since the beginning. Off the top of my head the only time I can remember you skipping a comic was on 9/11.

I remember because I was 13 and lacking in older nerd role models (Incidentally, I'm now almost 29. You guys have been doing this for a long fucking time, now that I think of it.) all I could think of was "WHAT DO THE PENNY ARCADE GUYS THINK OF THIS" and you had a splash screen up saying something to the effect of "we don't really feel like making funny jpegs today."

I've since more or less gotten out of gaming culture (I still enjoy the hobby casually, but I'm not interested in the community as a general rule) but I still have a very special place in my heart for you guys and catch up on your work a couple of times a year.

To me Penny Arcade is like an old friend that I've grown apart from but always have a blast visiting even if our interests don't match up anymore, because we just 'click'.

You guys have profoundly affected my sense of humor and personality. I grew up a nerdy only child to a single mother in a pretty bad area, and had no older male relations that I could connect with on any sort of an authentic level. I didn't know anyone else like me, and I felt that difference everyday in school on the playground, and at home as I sat alone and played video games in a dark room. You guys were at the time the only indication I had that there were other people like me, successful, entertaining people, and I wasn't just some fat little freak alone in the wilderness.

Years later your public discussions about your struggles with depression and anxiety were the catalyst that lead me to finally accept that I needed to be medicated for mine. I don't know that I'd ever have gotten there without you.

These days I'm older, have grown into my own skin socially, and somewhere along the line switched from video games to strength athletics as a main hobby.

I don't really know where to go with this, except to say that if you saw me as I am today you might not recognize me as someone whose life you touched. or who ever needed your help, but I owe you guys a huge debt of gratitude. You were there when I desperately needed you or someone like you, and I leaned on you, and you helped me be better than what I was.

So, from a fan and a friend that you might not recognize anymore, thank you so much.

I don't really have any questions, but I just want to say thank you for having the courage to do what you did, and to let you know that you're a fucking hero.

I think it should also be pointed out that while the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were novel in method, they weren't entirely novel in effect. Both sides had been practicing strategic bombing of civilian areas for years before the atomic bombs were dropped, and conventional and incendiary bombs had taken many more lives than the atomic bombs had.

I think it's a hard case to make that more Toyko-style firebombing would've been less bad than dropping the atomic bombs.