//=time() ?>
1) Key villains in our comic are the HECU / military. Their leader, Long, runs New Franklin. In HALF-LIFE they were homicidal baddies; we extrapolated from there. For us the gas mask is a symbol of an alarming military fetishization that runs counter to HL's ethos.
Dreyfus faces off against the HECU remnants from Half-Life A Place in the West comic by @HalfLifeComic
We started APW on the foundation of a more standard post-apocalyptic story, in which the HECU had set up a miserable city incapable of accepting the post-BM world.
But it's all just groundwork to aggressively expand the cosmic scope of the HALF-LIFE universe.
In our comic, Long was the leader of the HECU & so a natural foil to Breen, despising the administrator utterly. But we wanted to draw many unconscious parallels between the two, suggesting they're the same kind of problem - two old white men making humanity's choices for them.
In setting APW in America, we knew the HECU would need to play a significant role in that--it opened up all kinds of avenues for us. The HECU came wrapped in the flag, and we seized upon the opportunity to expand their story as one of the series' many villains.
HECU squad of misfits buds
And a few shenanigan doodles I made to accompany it c:
ft. @MadeOfEyebrows @7thRanger @thekilinah @TheGentlebro @NoonsPosting and @Jinx_doodle
@igwoomy2 Huh, so it was.
Here's a pic of the default HECU soldier in the HL Alpha holding it.
Remakes of the HECU, Scientist and Black ops models by YukonC14. Some of these will feature in the next episode of the Half-Life SFM series Reinstated. They will also be released as a mod for @BlackMesaDevs in the future. https://t.co/klib9RVbB7