Broken Frontier

Chosen by TIME Magazine as one of 2007’s Top Graphic Novels of the Year, the cult online hit Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob is soon coming to mobiles in a partnership with Robot Comics! Erfworld is a full-color fantasy epic about an obsessive strategy gamer who is summoned to lead a real war.  Originally published online under the Creative Commons license, Erfworld is today one of the most popular and heavily trafficked webcomic sites, supported by its own wiki consisting of 5000+ fan-created articles about the Erfworld universe, including a complete single panel annotated archive of the comic that would make a Grant Morrison fan proud.

Everything in Erfworld is clever — the dialogue, the sound effects, the complex relationships between the king and his underlings, and the strange mechanics of Erfworld, which are designed to tweak the clichés of strategy and fantasy gaming. Plus the art is oddly beautiful and very witty. If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a squadron of teddy bears fought a squadron of giant spiders, head straight for Erfworld.”  –Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine

Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob is a full-color graphic novel written by Rob Balder (PartiallyClips) and illustrated by Jamie Noguchi (Angry Zen Master).

Synopsis

Why did the Titans of Ark create Erfworld, a pretty but deadly world in a constant state of war?  And why would such careful craftsmen leave some of their tools behind?

Nobody knows.  But trying to collect these “Arkentools” has left Overlord Stanley the Plaid with a problem; everyone hates his guts.  His neighbors have wiped out his cities and his armies, and now they’re coming for him.

His long-suffering sorceress Wanda has a plan: they can buy a spell to summon the “perfect warlord,” a military genius to lead their last few forces in a final stand at the city of Gobwin Knob. Stanley is desperate enough to buy the spell. He just won’t pay for the support plan.

Enter Parson Gotti, an obsessive young gamer from Columbus, Ohio.  He’s beaten every strategy game he knows, and has started to design his own. Now Parson must stop playing general, and learn to be one. This war is all too real.  The game pieces are actual people.  Their lives are at stake, and so is his own.

Facing 25 to 1 odds, with nowhere to run or hide, Parson must come up with a way to win this battle.  He’s not sure how the strange, gamelike rules of Erfworld work.  He’s not even sure if any of this is really happening.  And he’s definitely not sure he’s working for the “good guys.”

Erfworld is funny and bizarre, full of surreal quirks, puns, and pop culture references.  But against this odd fantasy backdrop unfolds a deceptively subtle, intricate, and human story.  The characters wrestle with questions of conscience and universal meaning, even as they try to destroy one another.   “Erfworld: the Battle for Gobwin Knob” holds a funhouse mirror up to fantasy, gaming, and even war itself.

Preview

The original online series pages (click to enlarge):

About Robot Comics

Robot Comics publishes mobile comics for hand-helds such as Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, Google’s Android mobiles, Nintendo DSi and Amazon’s Kindle. It is one of first and few mobile comic publishers who offer titles specifically designed and formatted to be read on e-devices. For more information contact: contact@robotcomics.net