No webcomic will ever fill the void left by Chris Livingston's "Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman."
Its secret, I've found, is based on two principles: first, its humor is unabashed in depending on its readers having thoroughly enjoyed Half-Life 2. But more importantly, it at no point specifically sets out to be funny. Funny happens; he reports.
There's subtle humor right from the get-go, with a train that arrives months over-schedule, an obvious lampooning of how distinctively patient Valve fans have become. Livingston isn't afraid to break the fourth wall, drawing attention to its ultimately hackneyed existence in the realm of gaming webcomics. But Concerned is peerless in its sharp writing, with most of its jokes skillfully woven in just six panels. It is almost of a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" variety, walking us through a notable work of art, and riffing it into the trivial ones and zeros it really is. Almost all other webcomics, particularly ones that limit themselves to the Penny Arcade formula (2PSTART!, Dueling Analogs, Brawl in the Family), systematically set up a reality in panel one, break it in panel two and/or three, and make a snide, hopefully clever remark in the final panel. Penny Arcade is skillful in interweaving understated gaming political statements, and doesn't necessarily strive to be funny either, and for the most part, it isn't.
But Concerned is funny - perhaps the funniest - because of the obvious attention and care that went into each and every panel. And because of Livingston's obvious affinity for Half-Life 2, expressing his extensive knowledge of every facet of its design. And because he does all this, not in the hopes of making us laugh, or that we will buy merchandise, or exalt him into internet stardom, but because he felt that Half-Life 2 deserved the highest quality webcomic he could muster.
Mission Accomplished.
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