Elf Life

Elf Life
Carson Fire
Fantasy
PG-13 (Because of partial nudity)

Elf Life is a comic that I have wanted to read through for years. I’ve run into the comic more than once, and have heard good things about it. Now that I have read through the archives, I honestly don’t know why I haven’t attached this comic to my favorites sooner. It might be because I’ve never really thought much of Keenspot comics. But that might be snobbery on my part.

Elf Life is about Baughb the elf, a hero of his people who was set adrift in time and managed to find home…about 1000 years in his future. He decides to stay in this time and make it his home. But his world is in danger and it is up to him, and the elves Filis and Airick, to save his people from extinction.

The comic is comedic for the most part. The first couple of storylines are downright silly. However, over time a fantasy epic has evolved with enough adventure and angst to please any fantasy buff. The world features fairies, trolls, goblins, ogres, well-endowed mermaids and humans. Fire has pulled from many elements of fantasy, picking up lore from Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, various mythologies, a few modern epic poems, and I believe the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. (I saw that stone troll police officer!)

Fire’s artwork has not really changed over the seven years he has published his comic, but he does waffle about the best way to present the comic; sometimes it is inked, sometimes there is soft shading, sometimes there is color. But the cross between the manga chibi art and the cartoony art works well, no matter how it is presented.

There are a few problems with the comic.

Sometimes Fire switches to text, either because of technical difficulties, or to move the story along. After having to absorb text and images for pages and pages, the switch to only text can disorient the senses a little. And Fire is a much better comic writer than prose writer.

The archives are a mess. Don’t even attempt to use them as a guide to where you left off. It is better to save the current page you are on to your favorites until you can come back later. Or write down the url if you aren’t using a home computer. I’m not sure why the author hasn’t made the switch to a calendar archive, like most Keenspot comics.

The last update of the comic was December 18, 2006. This doesn’t look good. The story is unfinished, and I am unsure when the next post will be. The plot is definitely dangling.

But the comic is a good enough fantasy read that I am willing to suspend my rules about archives and frequent posts for a while. I’ll check up on the comic in a few months and see if Fire has resumed posting. Until further notice, consider this comic worth reading.