Concerned 2: A Concerned Rip-Off

I apologize for the lack of comics recently, but the webhost has been having some problems related to the sidebars. I had to disable them in order to edit the site properly.

I've also added a second forum which should be linked at the top. Because the host doesn't allow me to transfer over all of the old topics to the new forums, I've decided to leave the old one up for a while before I delete it entirely.

As for the comic, I had finished this one several weeks ago, but because of the problem mentioned above, I wasn't able to post it until this week once I figured out how to get everything working again. Anyway, in this issue you get to see the origin of one of the most annoying moves the zombine/combies pull on you in this game.

At long last issue 51 is here.

This one has a lot of dialogue in it. I probably should have made it 8 panels long instead of 6 because it's pretty crowded. Anyway, Frohman again finds a way to get more Combine inadvertently killed. I was planning on getting some Left 4 Dead props like the sandbags with the minigun for this scene, but I forgot to download some so I had to make-do with the combine barriers and machinegun (which is barely visible anyway). I thought it would be cool to have the Left 4 Dead stuff, just because this part of Episode 2 is so much like the Finales in that game. Then again, I could have just waited for Left 4 Dead 2 to come out and use the "new" props, but you guys wouldn't want to wait that long.

The Comics Archive II page for this comic should be up sometime later today.

Finally, my 50th comic. Here's to 50 more and beyond without Chris suing me!

I'm not sure how popular "Concerned" was at its 50th comic because I didn't find out about it until after it was finished, but I'm sure it fared better than my rip-off. I blame it on the first several comics. I need to redo those.

When I made these comics, the lighting was really dark, so I had to max out the brightness/contrast in Photoshop. I think it turned out pretty well, but that's on my monitor. You guys might see it differently. Also, here's a tip for anyone planning to do a scene in Gmod where a guy is tied up with rope: DON'T DO IT.

My original plan was to have Frohman and Mini-Breen completely wrapped up in rope like the damsel on the train tracks in those old cartoons, but it turned out to be way more difficult than I thought. I first tried to use the rope tool, but that didn't work, then I tried to use a power cable, but manipulating that thing was a pain in the ass and it wouldn't work anyway. Finally I just used the rope tool to attach them to the ceiling, but because of the lighting, you couldn't see it so it looked like Mini-Breen was just floating there. I finally decided to get a picture of rope off the interwebs and just use that. After a bit of photoshopping I was finally able to get panel 6 looking right. So, yeah. Don't try to tie anyone up in Gmod. It's a bad idea.

Also, I changed the title area of the comic slightly, adding in the "Concerned 2:" title part. I'm also going to be going with the grey panel frames that Chris used in the next several comics. The black border is fine, but in dark scenes like this they're just too difficult to make out. I'm not sure why Chris went with the grey borders, but that's why I'm doing it.

Sorry for the delay on this one. More computer trouble. One of my graphics cards died and it took me a while to figure out it wasn't a driver issue. Anyway, here's the comic.

We're nearing the end of Frohman's time underground, and I was planning on having him be reunited with the Combine that had abandoned him, but I wasn't sure how. I ended up having him stumble into them and have them try to kill him. The "CHUNK" sound in panel 4 is supposed to be the spotlight in panel 6 turning on. I wasn't sure what kind of sound effect to use, so I just went with that. However, it still doesn't sound right.

Although I did notice when I was putting the comic together that I probably should have showed the antlion dying and blood coming out of it in the second to last panel rather than just having it sit there. That could have been done way better. Also, in the last panel you can see a white dot over the "spotlight" (really just a lamp) that I really should have spotted before leaving Gmod. This part of the level is pitch black and working by flashlight alone is a pain in the ass so I put up some lights to help me see, unfortunately, I forgot to delete that one, so you can still see it hanging in the background. I was thinking of photoshopping it out, but I don't think I could.

Finally another G-man appearance. About time. I was planning on adding more antlions into the final panel and then a zombine (combie?) with a grenade, but it was just too much work to pose the Antlions so that when I enabled the NPC AI they wouldn't attack each other. So I just left out the zombine and spawned antlions. The scene got too crowded if I added a third, but with only two it looks kind of empty. Crud.

I had this comic in my mind for a while and it's nice to finally make it and get it out there so I can stop thinking about it. I just wish I had spent more time thinking of the dialogue instead of the Antlions busting up from underneath Frohman. I know now what Chris was talking about when he was complaining about having to pose the Antlions. I only used 2 ragdoll Antlions in the entire 6th panel (the 2 above Frohman), all the others are NPCs. I had also planted a thruster to create a sort of smoke/dust effect, but it just ended up being really white and bad looking, so I got rid of it.

Hiding the holes before Frohman summoned the Antlions was also a big challenge. Especially because they have those floating orange things over them. I had to disable particle effects, and then try to crop out the holes or block them off so they couldn't be seen by the camera. I was also experimenting with different sound effects to use for the last panel, but in the end I decided that the soundless effect was best. If this was a movie though, I might have gone with some slow classical music while the entire scene played out in slow motion... maybe.

I apologize for the non-updating of the site recently. Again, I have no (decent) excuse other than I was lazy. Hopefully I will resume scheduled updating from now on, but... no promises.

If you have ever played any of the Pokémon games for the Gameboy systems, then this situation will feel familiar to you. I had been planning on doing this for a while now, but I needed to introduce the gnome first. And in case you were wondering, no I won't be doing a segment where Frohman turns into a headcrab zombie like Chris did when Frohman was in Ravenholm. The last panel is there for comedic purposes only (or for stupidity purposes. It depends on your perspective of the comic).

Sorry I didn't update last week. I don't really have an excuse as to why. I was just more lazy than usual I guess.

Okay, so apparently I was wrong in the last comic, and Alyx can die if the difficulty is set to hard. Well... screw you guys. I tried playing HL2 on hard once and got my ass thoroughly kicked. Anyway, in every encounter with Alyx she seems pretty indestructible, and I believe that if someone is able to get hit in the face with multiple objects thrown from the gravity gun without flinching (everyone has to have done this. I can't be the only one) then they are classified as invincible.

The dumb thing is that for this comic I downloaded a flashlight model because I didn't think the method I was using (the Chris technique of stuffing a stun baton in Frohman's forearm) was going to work here. Unfortunately, after I did all the posing and photoshopping, it turns out that it didn't really matter. You still can't see the end of the flashlight when it's on the ground because the light overpowers it, and when Frohman's holding it in panel 3, you still can't tell because it's so dark and the glare from the flare cuts everything out. (Yes, he is holding the flashlight in his hand along with the pistol. That's why he's holding it so awkwardly.)

Anyway, I guess most of you saw this comic coming a mile away, but hey, it had to be done.

A lot of you probably knew this was coming eventually, but didn't know when. Well, here it is. The introduction of the gnome from Episode 2. Complete with Alyx's ability to resist all forms of damage (that Barney didn't seem to have in that one city segment from HL2) minus the unlimited supply of ammo. It always annoyed me when teammates in a game are immortal, but never seem to actually do anything when you really need them to. Especially if it's one of the Call of Duty games on Veteran difficulty.

Sorry about the not updating thing last week. I was installing the final parts for my computer (a 1300 W power supply, and 2 GTX 295 graphics cards).

Chris was right when he said drawing pencils was hard. He should have mentioned pads of binder paper as well. I'm going to have to find a better way of making those if I plan on doing something like this again.

Oh, and when you smash that Breen bust (heh, bust the bust) the "gibs" only stay around for so long before they disappear. I learned that the hard way. I must have gone through five or six of those things just getting the screenshots to look right.