OMG ElfQuest online!

The entire ElfQuest series.

I'm having a major nostalgia attack right now - these were my absolute favorite comics ever as a kid.

I was quite the aspiring artist as a kid; I can remember being surrounded by art supplies in my little 'nest' in the loft of my parents booth at the renaissance festival (yup, my mom is an artisan/crafter, and we did shows as far back as I can remember).

When we first started doing that kind of show, my brother and I were far too young to be much more than trouble. Rather than allowing us to run wild on the grounds (a popular, yet honestly dangerous practice for many families), my folks set up a 'clubhouse' in the storage loft of our booth. What a brilliant, sneaky move. The only way up (unless you could fly) was a ladder built into the wall. My folks could keep an eye on us without having to constantly monitor our activity. We had a private, relatively quiet space all our own, where we could 'spy' on our parents and patrons coming into the booth, as well as a window to watch the shows and adventures that happened outside.

Our clubhouse was totally tricked out with pillows, blankets, snacks, toys, books, and whatever other weirdness that we could carry up the ladder.

One of the things that I did up there was tirelessly draw things. People walking by, critters out of my head, whatever struck my fancy. I did fairly accurate plants and animals at the time, but my human anatomy was influenced more by Warner Brothers than Da Vinci. When proudly displaying the fruits of my labor, a friend had asked if I was an ElfQuest fan.

I didn't know what it was, so he kindly lent my brother and I the first four graphic novels.

We were hooked. I can remember sneaking in my sleeping bag with the flashlight head half unscrewed to dim the bulb, so that my parents might not notice that I was up well past bed time.

Now the whole series has been scanned by its creators, and is available online for free. I'd love to know what you think of the series, if you're new, or share other memories of it if you discovered it long ago.

Space Case - A Visual guide of what NOT to do.

Space Ark

Wow. Just...wow. This is pretty much a textbook teaching tool of what NOT to do.

Check out that website design circa 1993. Difficult to read turquoise text. Funny shapes in the text, RAINBOW text...

And that's before you even get to the excerpt. I dare you to read past the first sentence. DARE you. Double dog stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole dare.

Demanding that agents pay $35.00 to read a copy is a nice touch, too. I'm not sure which is the best part of this, though the artwork is up there in caliber with the text, which is equal to the web design.

This is pure comedy gold, and made my evening.