Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman is a
webcomic created by Christopher C. Livingston, parodying the first-person
shooter video game Half-Life 2. The comic consists of game screenshots, with
characters posed using Garry's Mod, a tool which facilitates manipulation of
the Source engine used by Half-Life 2. The first issue was launched on May 1,
2005. The comic completed its run on November 6, 2006 with a total of 205
issues.
While Half-Life 2 takes the player through a dystopian future
as protagonist Gordon Freeman, Concerned follows a similar path through the
eyes of Gordon Frohman, a hapless, lethally clumsy oaf who arrives in the
setting of the game a few weeks before Freeman. The comic's dark humor is
derived from its contrasts with the game, and through references to the game's
shortcomings. On several occasions in the comic, Frohman becomes the cause of
various disastrous circumstances that Freeman will later encounter.
Concerned has been well received by critics and fans alike.
Several reviews praised the attention to writing and presentation, as well as
the comic's humor. Livingston has also reported uniformly positive relations
with personnel at Valve, the developer company of Half-Life 2, who were pleased
to have a comic based on their game
