The Isle of Elsi

In the Eisner Award-nominated series The Isle of Elsi, artist/writer Alec Longstreth displays an enormous talent for creating comics for young readers.  His style is simple, straightforward, and expressive.  When the situation calls for it, he crams an impressive amount of detail into the panels, which occasionally resemble a “Where’s Waldo” diagram. Longstreth’s style reminds me of the french master and creator of Tintin, Herge, though Longstreth doesn’t quite possess the same fitness (no one does!)

Starting out reading a Longstreth story, an adult reader is aware that these are children’s comics with simple plots and goofy humor.  But the narration is so straightforward and skillful that you find yourself being drawn in.  Longstreth is much more respectful of logic and reason than most so-called adult authors, and that quality really pays off when the plot is about a dragon destroying a town. The stories have a subtext of honoring education, learning, and books, and it gives us a warm feeling to see those values diseminated. The author also shows his compassion for the characters, whether it is a mother found weeping at her kitchen table, a family gathered around a doctor wrapping a girl’s broken arm, or two juvenile delinquents distraught at the harm they may have inflicted.

Longstreth has a good reason for publishing Isle of Elsi as a webcomics.  “When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike to the local drug store, where I could buy a wide variety of kids’ comics for seventy-five cents each.  These days, a kid’s comic book costs three or four bucks, if you can find one! And graphic novels for kids can cost ten, twenty, or even thirty dollars! A lot of kids can’t afford to buy these comics!  So I chose to make Isle of Elsi a free webcomic so that as many kids as possible can have access to it.”

We couldn’t agree more!