Half-Life Graphic Novel

[Noodle]

This is sort of a spin off the Half-Life Movie thread. As the title says, I'm thinking that Half-Life, the whole story all the way from Black Mesa through Episode 3 (when it's out), would make a pretty damn good graphic novel if done well.

The best part is that it would be easier than a movie to remain pure to original Half-Life stuff (i.e. Gordon not talking at all).

It WOULD take creative, high-quality artwork that fits the HL Universe, but dialogue can already be taken from the games to an extent.

I'm thinking (wishfully) of something much more professional than your average webcomic type stuff. Specifically, something directly endorsed by ValvE, and regarded as official in canonical respects (if anything is added in, which would probably be unnecessary.)

Well, it's a thought, so go forth and discuss any other thoughts on the idea.

 

[yep]

Do not want.

Gordon Freeman's (i.e., the player's) experience of the Black Mesa and City 17 worlds are made significant by the panicky, pulse-pounding uncertainty, mystery, and stress of continuously having to find a way to survive in impossible and completely unreasonable circumstances.

Gordon Freeman, in both games, is initially motivated not by heroism or ideology, but by the simple need to survive and escape. This is what makes the games so good: they drill into the simple animal need to not die. We don't know what is happening, or why it is happening. We certainly do not have any clear sense of who the good guys, bad guys, victims, or perpetrators are. All we know is who is trying to kill us and who is not.

In this sense, the interactivity is crucial to the merit of the thing. Frankly, the first HL is not all that great a story. It's not bad, but it's fairly generic, and also extremely unsatisfying plot-wise, since we never know and never even really find out what's happening. Graphic depictions of a non-speaking guy in a super-suit killing soldiers and aliens sounds like a pretty generic and kind of lame concept for a graphic novel or a movie.

City 17 offers much richer opportunities, but not in terms of telling the "Gordon Freeman story." Because once again, his story is not actually all that interesting. He doesn't even know what's going on. He's just killing and fighting because the only alternative is death. Which is a cool concept, but not a very compelling plot. We would just be watching 100 pages of him killing stuff and not talking.

There a million cool and mysterious stories, dramas, and plots in the HL world. The Vortigaunts' unexplained hive-mind and enslavement, the government secrecy and conspiracy regarding Black Mesa, the Combine and their nature, the Administrator and his role in everything, the G-man, and so on. But they are all peripheral atmospherics to the interactive experience of simply trying to stay alive in a world where everyone is trying to kill you, with all these mysteries and violent dynamics.

Gordon Freeman is not awesome because he doesn't speak, he is awesome because is simply a cipher, a persona without motivation, agenda, ideology, or background. Thrust into a bewildering and deadly world, he ends up leading an army of revolutionaries not because he agrees with them or even knows what they are fighting against, but simply because it is the only way to stay alive.

The first-person experience of the half-life games is so compelling because it is so panicky, confusing, stressful, and relentless. There is no way to "tell" that experience as a story.

Now, there are a lot of cool stories that could be told, in any format, about people living in the half-life world. But Gordon Freeman's story would only be diminished in any detailed re-telling. Moreover, Gordon Freeman has lived a million lives. He has solved each level and every problem in a million different ways. The brilliance of the game design is such that there is no "best" or definitive version, especially as it relates to good storytelling. Some of the best gameplay strategies make for the most boring stories, and vice-versa. I conquered most of Nova Prospekt without hardly firing a shot, just letting the Antlions do all the fighting. How many comics pages or movie-minutes of that would we be able to watch before it got really boring, even though the first-person experience was extremely pulse-pounding and immersive?

It might be possible to create some awesome stories about, for example, Eli Vance's history between Black Mesa and City 17, or the formation of the resistance, or the rise of the Combine, or the government conspiracies, or the G-Man, or the Vortigaunts, or any of a thousand different things. But I fear that opening this world up to third parties would also bring in a lot of cheap, hackneyed crap, ala the Star Wars novels etc, that would only cheapen and diminish the coolness of the HL universe.

Gordon Freeman, talking or not, should not be depicted in any spinoff work. Freeman is a placeholder for the player, to a vastly greater degree than other first-person game protagonists.

 

[IronicBob]

It's been done.

http://www.hlcomic.com/view.php?date=2005-05-01

 

[Noodle]

It's been done.

http://www.hlcomic.com/view.php?date=2005-05-01

I love Concerned, but that is what I was specifically NOT talking about. A webcomic, though a great one. I mean something serious covering the original HL story.

 

[Acepilotf14]

But that's satirical. It's not a serious graphic novel.

 

[lefty]

to the long winded newbie; you're either unimaginiative or haven't read any good graphic novels. Or both.

 

[Reginald]

I agree with "long-winded newbie". I think Gordon's story is told as perfectly as possible in the game and any attempt to re-tell it would reduce it. But an officially licensed comic set in the game world chronicling Barney's escape from City 17 to meeting up with him in Episode 3 would be brilliant. It's not unusual for games to have canon spin-off comics these days (Mass Effect, Halo, The Old Republic) and I don't see why Half Life shouldn't jump on the bandwagon.

 

[lefty]

I agree with him when he says that first person shooter was good way to get the story of half-life across, because that's a fact. Everything else he says is like... what?

 

[Noodle]

A good artsy touch could work out the original story (and all the stuff around it) into a good graphic novel without explicitly showing Gordon. That would be ideal, since I still don't want Gordon talking at all.

Another goal would be for it to be declared canonical by Valve, but the chances of that happening are about as small as a flea's vagina.

 

[Polaris]

I would like to see one day some nice graphic novel set in the Half-Life universe.
Valve have some pretty good writers and even one great comic book artist, I don't see any problems with that.

Gordon Freeman is not awesome because he doesn't speak, he is awesome because is simply a cipher, a persona without motivation, agenda, ideology, or background. Thrust into a bewildering and deadly world, he ends up leading an army of revolutionaries not because he agrees with them or even knows what they are fighting against, but simply because it is the only way to stay alive.

Not true.
Also get some good graphic novel.

 

[Darkangel]

I'd enjoy a graphic novel if it were a side story or something, like about some rebels or citizens or something.

 

[ma252]

id write a graphic novel

 

[lefty]

ohh oh **** I laughed and facepalmed and gave myself a fat lip reading that.

 

[Noodle]

ma252... I am without the words to accurately describe this mix of laughter and sadness you are bringing down upon this forum...