Erfworld

All material was written by Rob Balder.

• Book 0, Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower) is a largely text based prequel.
• Book 1, The Battle for Gobwin Knob was illustrated by Jamie Noguchi.{{Cite news |url=http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/books/blog/13074531/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-jamie-noguchi |title=Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Jamie Noguchi |last=Rhode |first=Mike |date=November 8, 2010 |work=Washington City Paper |access-date=July 13, 2016}}
• Book 2, Love is a Battlefield was illustrated by Xin Ye.
• Book 3, Hamsterdance versus the Charlie Foxtrot was illustrated by David Hahn and Xin Ye, with colors and inks by Lauri Ahonen and Lillian Chen.{{Cite web |url=http://secondarysource.tumblr.com/post/58821755119/david-hahn-is-the-new-artist-for-erfworld |title='David Hahn is the new artist for Erfworld' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215200303/http://secondarysource.tumblr.com/post/58821755119/david-hahn-is-the-new-artist-for-erfworld |archive-date=December 15, 2013 |access-date=August 20, 2013}}
• Book 4, Lies and Dolls was illustrated by Xin Ye.
• Book 5, Temple Tantrum was illustrated by Xin Ye, Lillian Chen, Connor Cercone, and Rob Balder. {{cite web| url = https://archives.erfworld.com/Book%205/2| title = Erfworld Archives - Book 5 - Prologue 2}}

Selections from the end of book 2 were animated, Ken-Burns-style, with voice-over work by Arthur Chu.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/11/what-can-you-really-do-with-a-degree-in-the-arts/382300/ |title=What Can You Really Do With a Degree in the Arts? |last=Berlatsky |first=Noah |date=November 6, 2014 |work=The Atlantic |access-date=July 13, 2016}}{{Cite news |url=http://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/people/articles/arthur-chu |title=People: Arthur Chu |last=Brill |first=Jason |date=April 18, 2014 |work=Cleveland Magazine |access-date=July 13, 2016}}

Erfworld's premise is that Earth strategy gamer Parson Gotti is summoned as the "perfect warlord" into Erfworld where he is to serve as chief warlord to the side Gobwin Knob. Throughout the first book Parson orchestrated the defense of a city atop an extinct volcano. The second book focused mainly on how the relationships of supporting characters affected the way Parson conducted his campaign, and ended with Parson forcing an uneasy occupation of a previously neutral territory. In the third book the histories and characters of other sides were developed, Parson's occupation was defeated through the machinations of an enemy side, and Parson was imprisoned by a third party. In the fourth book Parson engaged in diplomacy to negotiate his own release and events spiraled out of control.

The fifth book, left incomplete when Erfworld was discontinued, focused on a completely different side in another part of the setting, and did not address Parson's situation at all.

Erfworld was initially hosted at GiantITP, the platform for the fantasy webcomic The Order of the Stick. As planned, Erfworld moved to its own website after the conclusion of Book 1 on May 22, 2009. The change was announced on GiantITP a few weeks earlier, and Balder and Noguchi released a statement on the day. The dedicated website retained a banner link back to The Order of the Stick in gratitude to Burlew for hosting it originally.{{cite web |last1=Burlew |first1=Rich |title=News |url=https://www.giantitp.com/index3.html |access-date=29 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021003253/http://www.giantitp.com/index3.html |archive-date=21 October 2016}}

Following on the success of the Order of the Stick Kickstarter project, in February 2012, author Rob Balder launched the Erfworld "Year of the Dwagon" Kickstarter, seeking funding for a motion comic project. The Kickstarter was extremely successful, resulting in funding of almost $85,000, making it the fourth-largest comics category Kickstarter project as of May 2012.{{Cite web |url=http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/comics/most-funded |title=Kickstarter Most-Funded Projects in the Comics Category |access-date=2012-05-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525075243/http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/comics/most-funded |archive-date=2012-05-25 |url-status=dead }}

Erfworld was an early adopter of crowdfunding, featuring the Toolbox, a Patreon-like funding mechanism that was created specifically for the comic and its site. In 2017, amid advertising issues on the website, Balder attempted to crowdsource cryptomining to fund it. This was called "Mine4erf", and was first announced on February 18, 2018.{{cite web |last1=Balder |first1=Robert |title=Mine4erf beta test : Erfworld |url=https://erfworld.com/blog/view/58104/mine4erf-beta-test |website=web.archive.org |access-date=29 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221230621/https://erfworld.com/blog/view/58104/mine4erf-beta-test |archive-date=21 February 2018}}{{Cite web |url=http://fleen.com/2018/02/20/did-i-say-we-were-back-that-was-hubris/ |title=Did I Say We Were Back? That Was Hubris |last=Tyrrell |first=Gary |date=February 20, 2018 |work=Fleen}} Between the income from Toolbox and Crypto mining, they were able to remove all ads from the website that May.{{cite web |last1=Balder |first1=Robert |url=http://www.erfworld.com/blog/view/59449/ads-croaked |access-date=29 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609115554/http://www.erfworld.com/blog/view/59449/ads-croaked |archive-date=9 June 2018|title=Ads Croaked}}

The webcomic's publication schedule was intermittent at times as it grappled with artist exits and delivery issues, particularly during Book 5. In May 2019, Balder announced that the comic would switch to 3D modeling: The stated goal of this change was to allow Rob himself to more easily create the images needed for the comic and hopefully return to a more rapid update schedule. In the same news post Rob explained that an undisclosed personal tragedy had occurred and, as a result, Erfworld would not be updating again "for the foreseeable future, possibly the rest of the year." This new event was dubbed Horrible Thing II.{{Cite web |url=https://erfworld.com/blog/view/72857/believe-we%25E2%2580%2599d-have-a-legion |title=Believe we'd have a legion |last=Balder |first=Rob |authorlink=Rob Balder |date=15 May 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190516182314/https://erfworld.com/blog/view/72857/believe-we%25E2%2580%2599d-have-a-legion |archive-date=2019-05-16 |access-date=2019-06-25}} Nonetheless, updates did resume later in 2019.

On October 11, the website's front page was replaced with an announcement, signed by Rob and Linda, which announced the permanent end to Erfworld as a webcomic as a result of a string of personal tragedies.{{Cite web |url=https://erfworld.com/landing |title=(untitled) |date=October 11, 2019 |website=erfworld.com |access-date=2019-10-12}} The Erfworld updates previously published remain available in an [https://archives.erfworld.com/ online archive]. All former functionality of the site was restricted to users with "heartstrings" badges. A few days later, the original copy of Book 1 was taken down from the GiantITP website.{{Cite web |url=http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=24199806&postcount=1079 |title=View Single Post: Erfworld Thread XI: Finally, it's Hammer-Time! |website=www.giantitp.com |access-date=2019-11-12}}{{Cite web |title=What Happened to Erfworld? Why is the Fantasy Webcomic Over? |website=www.hitc.com |author1=Paul Fogarty |access-date=2020-02-25 |language=en-US|date=2019-10-15 |url=https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/10/15/what-happened-to-erfworld-why-is-the-fantasy-webcomic-over/}}

Erfworld was recognized as one of the top 10 graphic novels of 2007 by Time magazine{{Cite magazine |last=Grossman |first=Lev |author-link=Lev Grossman |date=2007-12-09 |title=Top 10 Everything of 2007 |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1686204_1686244_1692143,00.html |magazine=Time |issn=0040-781X}} and received positive reviews and promotion from webcomics authors,[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/2007/01/14/what-exactly-is-an-erf/ "What, exactly, is an “Erf?”"], Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary blog, January 14, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2007.[https://web.archive.org/web/20160826161957/http://www.applegeeks.com/blog/2006/12/07/erfworld-launched/ "Erfworld Launched"], Mohammed Hoque, Applegeeks blog, December 7, 2006. Retrieved June 29, 2007. and Time author/journalist Lev Grossman in his articles "Webcomics are the New Blogs"Grossman, Lev (January 31, 2007). [https://techland.time.com/2007/01/31/webcomics_are_the_new_blogs_th_1/ "Webcomics Are the New Blogs: The Order of the Stick"]. Time. Retrieved June 29, 2007. and "Erfworld: It's a Boopin' Good Webcomic!"Grossman, Lev (April 10, 2007). [https://techland.time.com/2007/04/10/erfworld_its_a_boopin_good_web/ "Erfworld: It's a Boopin' Good Webcomic!"]. Time. Retrieved June 29, 2007. The addition of Erfworld to GiantITP was noted in "First Watch", Dragon magazine's monthly section on new developments in gaming and entertainment."First Watch". Dragon, Issue #354 March 2007: 16. Additionally, Erfworld was reviewed by Webcomic Overlook, receiving four stars out of five, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090525045045/http://webcomicoverlook.com/2008/08/20/the-webcomic-overlook-52-erfworld/ "The Webcomic Overlook #52: Erfworld"], and was profiled by NPR.

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• [https://archives.erfworld.com/ Archives of Erfworld comics]

Category:2000s webcomics

Category:Fantasy webcomics

Category:Fantasy parodies

Category:Parody webcomics

Category:Creative Commons-licensed comics

Category:2006 webcomic debuts

Category:2010s webcomics

Category:American comedy webcomics

Category:Unfinished webcomics