PHWOnline

Articleissues
cleanup=February 2008
coi=February 2008
tone=February 2008
unreferenced=June 2008

PHWOnline (Formerly PHWComics) is a website dedicated to making comics for the Half-Life 2 community, utilizing a popular modification called Garry's Mod for the PC game Half-Life 2.

History

PHWComics

PHWComics started out with Michael K. Clements, the creator of the site, making a simple sex pose in Garry's Mod. That one sex pose quickly turned into the first [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/phw/1/ "Public Health Warning"] . Michael proceeded to make several more comics, and created a website to host these comics on. Thus, PHWComics was born.

Wanting to improve the site, he went on to form a team of comic makers to post their works on PHWComics. Michael invited lajsiiwan, creator of "Roger, Todd and the Island", and Steinmann, creator of [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/gt/1/ "Geremy Tibbles"] . The team quickly expanded, inviting Clover, MonkeyMan, Sammo, and Waxx, creators of [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/jeff/1/ "Jeff"] , "Return of the Shepard", [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/jumbo/1/ "Jumbo the Clown"] , and [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/ra/1/ "Ravenholm Armory"] respectively.

Unfortunately, lajsiiwan had to leave the team due to personal reasons soon after, and MonkeyMan mysteriously disappeared. After the creation of BrashFink's popular comic [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/apostasy/1/ "Apostasy"] , Michael invited him to the team - but BrashFink declined his offer. As hype grew over "Apostasy", Michael approached BrashFink again, and this time, he agreed. Time went on, and John-Matrix and Major. Dump were later invited to the team, due to their works seen on the PHWComics forums. The final member to this generation's team was Lode, creator of [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/az/1/ "Afro Zombie"] .

Unfortunately, as yet more time past, Lode also left the PHWComics team, due to losing interest in the practice of producing comics, Sammo was kicked off the team for not producing enough content and John-Matrix left the team for a brief period, but then promptly returned . Major. Dump was then forced to give up his staff title on the assertion that he was not doing enough to further the website, although he was assisting in the production of "Apostasy". Major. Dump is now a Moderator on the forum, and his work with "Apostasy" remains unchanged.

In late 2006, Mjolnir82991 joined the staff team, bringing his popular series, [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/KtC/1/ "Kenny the Cop"] to the comics archive. A short while later, Waxx, one of the site's very first staff members, left the team, because of an argument between between himself and the site creator, Michael.

Recently, the comic creator Jeff Eastman, known by the community as Clover, resigned from comic-making [http://comics.phwonline.com/news/the_end_of_clover/] , and stated that he would lend his series, "Jeff" to another comic creator if they could provide good enough sample works. He never gave it to anybody and made one last comic. On January 30, more comic makers were introduced to the team, including Near Elite, Spaztique, Happydevil, and AJ Rimmer.

In October 2007, PHW "exploded", as most pages were removed. The site remains in this state, although a new design is being worked on.

The Site

PHWComics, as a whole, began to move away from the single object of comic making, or 'comicking', around the time Lode joined. They soon expanded into several new sites, including PHWRadio and PHWMovies. These two sites both became hits around the community, with PHWRadio offering a weekly internet radio, hosted and presented by Steinmann, and PHWMovies producing multiple successful machinima movies within Garry's Mod. These movies were generally produced and directed by both Michael and Steinmann, with additional help provided by Monkey-Junkie, the PHWMovies team, site and forum staff, and community members willing to help.

In time, the site's name was changed to PHWOnline, highlighting their move away from just comics, and to a general entertainment community. A third site design was created by PHW's graphic designer, StinkyJoe. The site's PHP backbone was created by JPhantom who replaced the previous system administrator, Morpheous.

The Forum

The PHWOnline forum has undergone many changes in its time, much like the site itself. While the forum's are controlled by the site staff members, they are also very much looked after by the dedicated team of forum Moderators. The current moderator lineup for the site is; Joseph 'Slick' Shea, Jelle 'Tomiro' van den Broek, Richele Gregory 'Zeem' van Waveren, and Richard 'MajorDump' Boisvert.

Previous Moderators for the PHWForum include the mysterious Jackson 'MonkeyMan' Wiese - after he suddenly and unexpectedly reappeared from an 8 month absence, in which many of the members had actually considered him as deceased.

The PHWOnline forums also offer a unique insight into PHWStaff life with the special Mayor of PHW event. This usually includes a group of members putting themselves forward as candidates for the Mayor position. After each of them campaigned for the title, the community will choose their favourites over a pre-determined voting period, with, at the end, the member with the most votes being announced as the winner, and having the honour of becoming the PHWMayor for an entire month. So far, there have been just 3 elected Mayors; Shazbot,Dav0r and Andres.

In late January, two titles made a comeback. These are the 'Approved Comic Maker' or ACM, (Good comic makers) and the 'Approved Custom Designer', or ACD for short. (Good skinners, modelers, etc)

Other forum titles available include 'Respected Member', 'PHWPlus' and even 'Banned' - for reasons you can presumably tell.

PHW introduced the Council, as suggested by Andres during his term as mayor. These members get a new title, "Council," and are able to suggest changes to the forums to the moderators, and in some cases, change things themselves. Current council members include: Kaka/Hyklema, Lt. Commander, Stellar, Sevensixty, Andres, Space-bar, Era, Mozza, and Sammo

Recently, the site "blew up," with dramatic changes to the forums. All titles were taken off, all of the mods except Joseph "Slick" Shea had been de-modded, and Michael had started banning more people. Slick managed to bring the various moderators back to their former status, but the ACM and ACD titles are still up in the air. Michael has stated that he will let the forums stay online. The PHW community helped pull the site back together, but the inability to post in many of the main gmod sections is a constant reminder of the near-shutdown of PHWOnline.

On November 30th, 'Combine_dumb' posted a thread summarizing previously raised suggestions, along with sharing some of his own views on the state of the community. Among the suggestions were for Michael to hand over ownership of the site, and give full administration privileges to a more active member. Immediately the community picked up on the debate, with some claiming Michael had performed inadequately with circumstances being what they were. Some members who donated to PHW, had their 'PHW Plus' status revoked until further notice by Michael for insubordination- along with the main forum being renamed to 'Michael's Playground' bestowing a picture of a baby on the frontpage. He has summarized his terms: Michael will allow the Main Page to directly link to the forums, if in exchange all the members he has previously banned are left untouched. Many believe that the latter of this ultimatum was aimed at [now] Admin/Head Moderator Slick, who had previously undone a series of high profile bans on the communities older, and more well known, members.

In mid-December, Michael had finally begun working on and fixing PHW. There is no homepage as of yet, but he announced that it will be forthcoming very soon.

In 2008, many changes have been made. A new "Unofficial Comics Team" has been created, comprising of Delirium, The Joker, Mythos, Nexus_Elite and FZE. This team has remained relatively inactive with some exceptions. Many of the team members haven't released a comic since being given the title. Two members have been made moderator, Nemi and Stellar. And Alex, an old friend of Michael's who has helped PHW out from the start, has been made Staff once more. A new page design is also being created by PHW's very own 'in-house' designer, Filipe! (known previously as StinkyJoe), who has also been promoted back up to his former Staff status.

Comics

* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/apr/1/ A Proper Round] " (Near_Elite)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/about/1/ About] " (Near_Elite)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/az/1/ Afro Zombie] " (Lode)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/apostasy/1/ Apostasy] " (BrashFink and as of Issue Five; Written by BrashFink, Posed by Major.Dump)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/single/28/ Ban Court] " (Clover and Waxx)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/single/30/ Ban Wars] " (Michael)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/bnp/1/ Brad & Phil] " (happydevil)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/single/44/ Clover Plays G-Mod] " (Clover)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/fs/1/ Freak Show] " (Lode)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/gt/1/ Geremy Tibbles] " (Steinmann)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/hdinc/1/ HD INC.] " (happydevil)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/jeff/1/ Jeff] " (Clover)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/jumbo/1/ Jumbo the Clown] " (sammo)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/JTM/1/ Justify The Means] " (AJ Rimmer)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/KtC/1/ Kenny the Cop] " (Mjolnir82991)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/milkdud/1/ Milkdud] (Lode)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/mlnir/1/ My Last Night in Ravenholm] " (Major. Dump)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/ocm/1/ Of Combine & Men] " (happydevil)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/phw/1/ Public Health Warning] " (Michael)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/raveman/1/ Rave Man] (Clover)"
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/ra/1/ Ravenholm Armory] " (Waxx)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/saw/1/ Secret Agent Whiskey] " (Clover)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/sketch/1/ SKETCH] " (Michael)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/single/1/ Single Comics] " (Various)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/st/1/ Spazterpiece Theatre] " (Spaztique)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/td/1/ That's Death] " (John-Matrix)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/TLW/1/ The Last War] " (Near_Elite)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/WTL/1/ Worse Than Life] " (AJ Rimmer)
* " [http://comics.phwonline.com/archive/single/21/ Vortigaunt Stories] " (John-Matrix)

More comics can be found in the PHW forums.

External links

* [http://www.phwonline.com/ PHWOnline homepage]
* [http://www.mine-dog.net/ Waxx's community]
* [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/14/comic_book_illustrat.html BoingBoing.net]
* [http://valve.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3143251 1up.com]
* [http://www.fileplanet.com/152294/150000/fileinfo/Half-Life-2---Apostasy-Comic-Issue- FilePlanet.com]
* [http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/17/1539254&tid=204 SlashDot.org]
* [http://www.ignitionmag.de/index_extra_test.php?special_extra_id=3 Ignitionmag.de]