I remember when I first encountered Elf Life. The comic was running a crossover with Clan of the Cats and Alice with a delightful silliness that sadly enough went missing in later comics. What I truly remember however was the comic’s tagline: Our elves have lives. It was a definite shot across the bow of the over-the-top gloom and doom of Elf Quest (and ironically enough one that eventually could be used for EL itself as Carson Fire’s comic descended into an epic storyline hinted at with the comic’s start but which still caught me unawares).

Sadly, a combination of real life issues along with overreaching himself artistically with a wedding story resulted in Elf Life slipping into a hiatus-fueled coma. Carson Fire moved on to other projects that he felt he had the skills for, and in turn those likewise slipped into a coma of hiatus until finally Carson Fire slipped off my radar screen. There was a brief blip with a relaunch of Elf Life but I kept quiet and watched as the comic struggled and then fell back into hiatus.

Third time’s the charm, however. Elf Life has returned, jumping beyond its Wedding storyline (and using short recaps to explain what happened… much to Filis’s delight as she learns she is considered a hero now even as Baughb is to go into exile). While much of what’s going on is yet another manipulation of Baughb (who plays the part of bumbler quite well, yet is dangerously effective when he puts his mind to it), the inevitable blowup between Baughb and Filis (who share a love/hate relationship – Filis loves to hate Baughb) will be a delight to watch. If Carson Fire can keep up this work, he’ll definitely have won me back.