Can Erfworld be read skipping the text-only-updates?

Question

Erfworld is a fair great web comic. I really enjoyed Book 1.

But after book 1 it suffered repeated misfortune with the artists. For various reasons the artists were unable to produce comics at regular intervals. This lead to the other author to publish "Text-Updates". Which don't have art, or only have single panel of art and then half a page or more of text.

It has been a while since I read any Erfworld and i have been thinking about trying to get up to date. I enjoy the panel comic much more than the text. But if i only read the panel comics, would I miss out on plot crucial information? Or is the stuff in the text updates only background stuff?

Answer 1

You can, up to a point

Early text-only updates were, as you say, to make up for lack of artists; they were used both to advance the story and to expand on Erfworld's setting with other Sides in distant lands and some characters' background.

Later on there are quite a few updates which are not in comic form and are central to the story.

You should be able to tell the difference at a glance.

I'll add that personally I really enjoyed the text-updates, they add a whole new dimension to the setting, and flesh out the way the Sides interact with each other.

Answer 2

This was covered on the official Erfworld website. In short, the author feels that the text updates are supplementary, rather than essential.

But a lot of readers actually said they would miss the density of information and richness of story that came with the texts. And I realized that I would, too. The comic medium is great for many things, but it makes certain storytelling things hard to do.

When I was looking at this page, which was scripted as two half-panels, I realized I wanted to do half-pages of text for each of them. I think that’s how I ought to tell Book 3. So expect to see some pages like this. To those of you who are put off by texts, I’ll try to keep to the rule that you can read comic pages only and still follow the story, and please enjoy David's illustration. Especially the two gwiffons on the ground with their feedbags on

Answer 3

I personally enjoy the text updates and would like to see more, as they provide a heap of more information, such as the thoughts and some explanation to the actions of the characters. I can get by much more by rereading text updates while waiting for the next page. That being said, my dream of a perfect Erworkd book would be two versions, one mainly text with occasional pictures and one mainly comic with occasional text.