1) Yes, that's really a daylight version of a Ravenholm map. No Photoshop effects. I used the bloom feature from Garry's Mod to make it look a bit more heavenly, though.

2) No, you can't have the map. I can't distribute it. Sorry! It's not that I wouldn't want to, and I'm not trying to be a wang about it. It's just that I can't. Again, sorry. If this changes at some point, I'll let everyone know.

3) No, I can't tell you who put a lot of time an effort into making the map a reality for me, as this person asked not to be named. I would, however, like to thank this person, because it was incredibly generous of this person to do this, and this person did a truly fantastic job. Thank you, this person! I really appreciate it.

Anyhoo. Ravenholm! Sheesh, it's about damn time. I honestly didn't think it would take seventy-eight comics to get here -- in fact, I didn't think I'd do more than a hundred comics for the entire series, but it looks like we're gonna shoot well past that now. At any rate, it's good to finally be in Ravenholm, because it's one of the first game chapters I thought of when I was planning the comic.

This is the most staging I've ever done for a single comic, I think. All the greenery comes courtesy of the Counter-Strike spawn menu. There's some really great stuff there, flowerpots, bales of hay, window boxes, clotheslines -- I should really dip into it more often.

For reference, if you happen to be reading the comic without ever having played the game, Ravenholm is the main horror portion of Half-Life 2. Here's what it really looks like when you arrive as Gordon Freeman. Nighttime, lots of monsters, lots of blood, things jumping out and scaring you. It's a lot like Oakland, only (thankfully) there aren't any Raiders fans.