Now Thompson's called the feds

Angry, loud and enigmatically coiffured American lawyer Jack Thompson has stepped up his PR campaign against charitable web-comic Penny Arcade, following up last week's alleged fax to the Seattle police department with a missive directed at John McKay, US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, complaining of "criminal harassment" at the hands of the comic's fanbase, CCed to numerous media outlets in line with his previous tactics.

"Please help me if you can," said Thompson, who recently implied that David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family was corrupted by greed before disavowing a pledge to donate $10,000 to charity as 'satire'. According to Thompson's letter, Penny Arcade has been using various means to "encourage and solicit criminal harassment". In an email to GameSpot, Thompson later specified that PA had "orchestrated death threats" - although he didn't mention that PA had donated $10,000 to charity in his name.

Penny Arcade, for its part, continues to make light of the affair. In a news port, artist Mike Krahulik told fans "not to worry". "Should Jack actually decide to come after us we're quite prepared. Until then he's more than welcome to send ridiculous faxes to any uninterested third party he wants." Krahulik also suggested that readers ceased complaining to the Florida Bar about Thompson, linking its website in the process. "I feel like by now they understand what the situation is," he wrote.

Unhappy with this, Thompson, perhaps unaware that a document such as the Florida Bar's public website was actually reachable by means other than a direct web-link, then cited the link as "simply illustrative of what has been going on by this outfit for quite sometime". "The principals at Penny Arcade, like many others in the video game world, want those of us who know and can prove the dangers of the game industry driven by extortion, and other means, from the public square," he said.

There's more, but you can probably imagine what it sounds like.