Rob Balder Information

Web Comic Creator / Musician
Erfworld
Richmond, VA

See also: PartiallyClips and The Funny Music Projec

Biography:
Rob Balder is the author of Erfworld, an online series of comics and illustrated prose. It tells the story of Parson Gotti, a strategy-obsessed gamer who is summoned into a gamelike fantasy universe and forced to command a real war.

Erfworld began in 2006 and comprises four books, two of which are ongoing. A fan-created wiki with more than 10,000 articles helps to catalog the details of this multifaceted fictional universe. Since 2011, Erfworld's fans have contributed half a million dollars in support of the series and its related creative projects, via various crowdfunding initiatives.

In 2015, Rob began volunteering as a member of SFWA, the Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He serves on the self-publishing committee, manages the SFWA curated Kickstarter page, and administers the Star Project program of distributed grants to worthy projects in genre publishing.

From 2005-2011, Rob was a comedy musician and filker. He was co-founder of the Funny Music Project and the Logan Awards for Excellence in Comedy Music. His songs are sometimes played on the Dr. Demento Show, including the #3 most requested song of 2009, "Gamer Funk." In 2007, his song "Rich Fantasy Lives" with Tom Smith won the Pegasus Award for Best Filk Song.

From 2001-2010 he wrote the comic strip PartiallyClips, which appeared in two dozen newspapers and other publications. In August 2010, he wrote and published "A Duel in the Somme", a collaborative project with 6-time Hugo award winner Ben Bova, illustrated by Bill Holbrook of Kevin and Kell.

Since 2002 he has been the Associate Editor of Nth Degree, a popular fanzine covering genre fiction, gaming, comics, fandom and more.