Author(s) Launch date 1999-06-14 | Current status / schedule On hiatus Genre(s) Fantasy | |
Awards WCCA for Outstanding Fantasy Comic Similar Avalon, Bruno the Bandit, Bobbins, Chopping Block, You Damn Kid! | ||
Alfheim, formerly known as Elf Life, is a fantasy webcomic by Carson Fire (a pseudonym of Eric Gustafson) that is hosted on Keenspot. It debuted on 14 June 1999 and ran until 21 December 2004. Three spin-offs followed the original series: Elf Life: Babes in the Woods, Elf Life: Wedding Night and Sprite Life. In December 2005, the author put all of his Elf Life universe strips on hiatus to work on Winger, a webcomic with a political focus. The main Elf Life storyline, renamed Alfheim, resumed in late 2007.
Contents
The original series
Drawn in an economical, stylized cartoon style, Elf Life involves the love-hate relationship between the elves Baughb (pronounced Bob) and Filis (pronounced Phyllis). Some of the daily strips were occasionally replaced by prose chapters.
Baughb, short for Baughbberick Lindel, is well-meaning but infuriatingly eccentric. His mental confusion is compounded by the fact that he spent a long time traveling through time and trying to get home, and when he finally succeeded it was several generations after his original time.
Filis' ambition is to be a warrior. Over the course of the story various people kidnap and threaten Baughb, including an evil corporate executive version of himself from the future, and Filis finds herself reluctantly trying to save him. Eventually they become lovers, but — in the grand tradition of comedy — that does nothing to stop them from fighting.
Other characters in the story include Airek, Baughb and Filis's half-ogre friend, the multi-dimensional Sprite, the fairy Glynhial (Glee), who alternates bursts of violent insanity with periods of sickening sentimentality, and the buxom mermaid queen Leukothea.
The web site also incorporates "Biff Notes: Help for the lost, confused, and somewhat misguided" (a pun on CliffsNotes), which help to explain what is going on in each day's strip and how it relates to the story as a whole.
Elf Life: Babes in the Woods
Elf Life: Babes in the Woods is a full-color prequel to the original story. It began on 5 February 2005 after the original series had finished the previous December. Babes in the Woods follows Baughb's early adventures.
Gustafson has been working on paper comics, with each issue containing approximately 20 comics from the archives.
Elf Life: Wedding Night
Elf Life: Wedding Night is a full-color series that continues the primary storyline of the original series. It began on 21 October 2005.
After the Wedding
After the Wedding is a resumption of the main story at a point after the wedding has passed. While Carson has mentioned some spoilers in the forum, the main joke involves the use of the Sprite and cheap paper to good effect.
Sprite Life
Begun on 6 October 2005, Sprite Life features the character Sprite in a gag-a-day strip with simplified art. It does not share the universe or continuity with the other strips.
Awards
In 2001, Elf Life received the Web Cartoonist's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Comic, and was nominated for Best Comic, Best Male Character (Baughb), Best Female Character (Filis), Best Other Character (Sprite), and Best Serial Comic. In 2003, it received another nomination for Outstanding Fantasy Comic.