Erfworld

Erfworld
Erfworld Logo
Author(s)	Rob Balder (writer) Xin Ye (pencil) Lauri Ahonen (ink and color)
Website	http://www.erfworld.com
Current status / schedule	Tuesday, Friday
Launch date	12-07-2006
Genre(s)	fantasy, comedy, parody

Erfworld is a story-driven fantasy/comedy webcomic about a master strategy gamer summoned into and stuck inside a wargame. The first book, The Battle for Gobwin Knob was written by Rob Balder and illustrated by Jamie Noguchi. Erfworld was recognized as one of the top 10 graphic novels of 2007 by Time Magazine. The second book, Love is a Battlefield was illustrated by Xin Ye. Before his departure, David Hahn was the artist for much of the third book, Hamsterdance versus the Charlie Foxtrot, which will be completed by Xin Ye with colors and inks by Lauri Ahonen. A portion of the webcomic series has been animated, Ken-Burns-style, with voice-over work by Arthur Chu.

Erfworld follows a graphic novel format, with a new page added with each update. The setting is Erfworld, a fantasy world that adheres to the rules of a fictional turn-based strategy wargame. The narrative focuses on a complex story about warring factions within this world, but most installments also contain humor, puns, and side-gags about strategy-fantasy video games, role-playing games, and references to history or popular culture. The webcomic's distinctive visual style counters the theme of unending violence with a twee, kawaii artistic sensibility (described by the creators as "cute") in which characters are drawn to look like dolls, or anime characters, or toys. Injuries draw no blood in Efworld, and damage is cured overnight. That same charming aesthetic follows in its lisping use of letter changes in frequently used names, particularly replacing "r" with "w" (spidews, dwagons, and twolls instead of spiders, dragons, and trolls). The comic was originally started as an attempt to bring all of author Rob Balder's fantasy-related strips from his other comic, PartiallyClips, into the same universe and tell a story with them.