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Interview With A Half-Life Comic Creator
Bundini writes "Primotech has an interview with Chris Livingston, creator of the immensely popular Concerned Half-Life Comic. He talks about the impact of machinima, posing ragdolls with Garry's Mod, and what's next for Gordon Frohman. From the article: 'There's a sort of smug satisfaction one gets when tuning in to the Gordon Frohman show every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's like an inside joke only you (and the other however-many million players of Valve's epic first-person shooter) will get.'" I highly recommend this gent. Concerned is a great comic.
Was 8-bit Theater the inspiration for these "machinima" comics? The only difference I see is a 3rd dimension.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
FWIW, I read it religiously but it's waaay funnier than any organized religion has been for the last two thousand years. :-)
Money for nothing, pix for free
Wait. Who is Gordon Frohman? Isn't he the Sausage King of Chicago?
GodDAMN Voltron is looking tough as hell standing here in my office! I wish my manager would walk by and see this shit!
Just discovered the comic this monday. And it's on slashdot on friday. I must be the centre of the universe.
I strongly recommend anyone to go read it - it is indeed highly funny. I don't know if this qualifies as 'news for nerds', let alone 'stuff that matters', though. After all, this is really going to be interesting to a small subset of the webcomics audience, which is itself only a pretty small group.
If any of you fans of this comic are unfamilar with Chris' earlier work. You *must* read Not My Desk. I've been a notmydesk fan since 2001 and it is funnier (and truer) office humor than "Office Space", "The Office", "Dilbert", and anything else I've found.
Two of my favorite essays: Fired and See Spot; Run.
This comic is pretty hilarious, and really does a great job of highlighting the abilities of Garry's Mod, which has had more impact on the gaming/tech community than HL2 has. /.ers need to take note: G-mod is revolutionary.
Teh Hammre is classic.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
I've never played HL2 (I have played/beaten HL1, however). I generally despite sprite comics, too.
But there's something about Concerned that I can't get enough of. Maybe it's the relative stability of the fourth wall and lack of a l33t author character. Maybe it's because it's actually following the plot of the game and not meandering around with whatever the author decides is "funny" that day. Maybe it's because the comic isn't a catchphase/meme generator.
Could be that despite being heavily tied to HL2, the comic isn't too injokey that it's entirely inaccessible to anyone who's never played the game. Could be the attention to details in the plot that the author gives it (i.e. Ravenholm could very well have been that way a few weeks before Freeman showed up). Or it could just be because it's downright silly fun to read.
I enjoy reading Concerned. If nothing else, it shows me what can really be done with a sprite comic-like setup* if it's not written by a hyperactive child of the 80s/90s.
*: Yes, I know it's not really a sprite comic, but that's the first thing that'll come to my mind whenever this sort of setup presents itself.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Can't say enough good things about "Concerned": like Rosencrantz & Guildenstern for the world of Half-Life. Apostasy is also a good read, if you're in the mood for something serious.
No one else read these during the height of Quake?
http://riad.usk.pk.edu.pl/~pmj/quakecomics/
These were the first "sprite" comics I've personally read.