Hey, guys! Metrocop (dot net) founder Mythos back again, taking a break from neglecting Metrocop (dot net) to celebrate the fact that Metrocop (dot net) turns 14 today!
That’s right, the Garry’s Mod comics website that just won’t quit is now old enough to grow pubic hair and start drinking behind its parents’ back*. Hundreds of archived comics (and dozens of brand new ones, at least 8 of which are mine), a few Half-Life-related articles that ran out of steam (pun very much intended) and a since-rebranded Discord server that keeps the legacy alive, even when GTA VI is currently blowing it out of the water with graphical fidelity the old Source engine could only ever dream of — and now this post is going to age terribly as well! (Yes, that’s an em dash; no, this is not written by AI, I just like em dashes)
To be fair, it wasn’t “.net” right away, though it didn’t take long for me to swoop in and buy the domain. In fact, let me take this chance to once again remind people the original website is still very much online, and you can even read the cringeworthy very first post I ever wrote there while everyone else was busy doing better things with their time.
Anyway, as great as it is to look back at nearly a decade and a half of piling up old JPEGs and getting some people to make a few new ones, I actually have some news to share for a change. Beginning with some pretty huge website news:
A brand new website is on its way
Yep, the current website—which itself is turning 4 years old today, how time flies—is getting way more than a facelift. I’ve been building a brand new website from scratch for a few months now, one that celebrates far more than the history of Metrocop. In fact, it’s a culmination of well over 20 years of GMod comics history, and I think you’re genuinely going to love it.
It’s still too early to show anything (and, given my penchant for big surprises, you’ll probably only ever publicly see it when it’s out), but it’s quite far in development already, with fully functioning features that even the current website doesn’t have—not to mention that it’s built on far newer web tech (Jamstack, for my fellow web dev geeks) than the current WordPress-based site.
Better yet, the plan is to open it up for more people to be able to directly publish on the website, meaning we can have a proper comics team running the place autonomously rather than depend on a couple of people with too much on their plate (hey, Jeff, it’s us!). In fact, if you’re wondering what the logic behind building yet another website (rather than, y’know, just making more comics) is, that’s pretty much it—make it more community-centric in general. Not as much as, say, our friends over at LambdaGeneration, but at least more than it is now.
By now, you’re probably expecting me to drop a deadline. Well, the bad news is, it’s not planned to come out this year… but the good news is, it’s planned for early 2027! Life willing, it won’t be too long a wait, and a little work holiday during the Summer gave me enough headstart to be comfortable even revealing the plans at this stage.
Plus, we’ll bring over the entire existing archive as well, so none of our 800+ comics get lost in the way. Hopefully the new site will get to the full 1K someday!
And if you think that’s all the news I’ve got for you today, brace yourself, because there’s more—and this time I’ve brought pictures! I’m pleased to announce that…
The Adventures of Hercule Cubbage is getting a remaster
My Half-Life 2 comic series, The Adventures of Hercule Cubbage, which not coincidentally also has a 12-year anniversary tomorrow, is pulling a ‘modern videogames industry’ and being remastered, just in time for the new site!
Now, if you’re wondering what a “remaster” of a Garry’s Mod comic entails, let me temper your expectations from the get-go: I’m not redoing the comic entirely, as reshooting every single shot would be too time-consuming. Which also means that, for better or worse, I’m not rewriting it either.
However, I do still have the original screenshots (or, in the case of chapters 1 and 2, at least the editable page files), so what I’m doing is re-editing the entire series from scratch, up to my 2026 standards—so, something like my April Fool’s comic, which was actually edited already with the new TAoHC style, but with the original screenshots.
Of course, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ve got a little something extra for you to compensate for my usual wordiness: a sneak peek of the remaster of The Adventures of Hercule Cubbage chapter 1. Here’s hoping you can tell the differences!
(Yes, that’s a new series logo too—bit more ‘adventurous’ and identifiable, but I like to think it still keeps that old Half-Life 2 charm.)
I’ve got even more good news for you: the remasters of chapters 1 and 2 are already complete and chapter 3 is halfway done! I actually started doing these a while ago, but got sidetracked with the whole “build a brand new website” thing. Therefore, I can also announce with no sweat that at least the remastered chapters 1 and 2 will launch alongside the new site—and, potentially, chapter 3 too if I get it done in time, but no promises!
Subsequent chapters will eventually get dropped when they’re each done; fun fact, I was originally planning on only releasing the remaster once all six original chapters were fully remade, but soon realized that’s silly. Much better to keep them coming and give people a reason to revisit the website from time to time.
That’s all I had for you today (not like you’re leaving empty-handed), but I invite you to join the Steam Powered Comics (formerly Metrocop) Discord, if you haven’t already, to keep the fire going for the community while we work behind the scenes to reinvent what a comics site can be once more. See you soon(-ish)!
*Metrocop.net does not condone underage drinking. That doesn’t mean, however, that we didn’t do it.↑
