Elfquest

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ElfQuest is an approved fantasy comic strip written by Richard & Wendy Pini, which began in 1978 and is still running today. It's a low-fantasy setting based on a primeval, Stone Age world known only as "the world of two moons", due to it having two moons (there's a shocker). As its title implies, it revolves around the trials and adventures of a tribe of elves called the Wolfriders - short, pointy-eared humanoids who more closely resemble the gnomes of Dungeons & Dragons, who use telepathic bonds with wolves to aid them in surviving in the wilderness. For generations, they have fought against the local tribe of savage humans, who believe the elves to be demons and seek to sacrifice them in order to earn the blessing of their fictitious deity, Gotara, whilst intermittently trading with the trolls - squat, grumpy, ugly underground-dwellers resembling somewhere between a nasty dwarf and a goblin.

When the humans start a fire that burns down the Wolfriders' forest home, they flee into the tunnels of the trolls, where they are subsequently tricked into entering a vast desert that lies beyond those same tunnels. Here, they encounter the Sun Folk; a peaceful, agrarian village of elves they had never knew existed, and into whose society they ultimately meld. After years of peace, the Wolfrider chief Cutter becomes consumed by curiosity, and begins an epic quest to learn if there are other elves in the world, which ultimately leads to revelations about the true origin of elves.

Elfquest is actually a Science Fantasy setting; elfin "magic" is actually based on various forms of psionics, and the elves, trolls and fairy-like Preservers are all alien races stranded on this world when their time- and space-traveling ship crashed.

The ElfQuest series attracted a huge level of controversy for its blatant sexuality and sex-positive attitudes, with on-page nudity, sex and even birth, as well as canonical bisexual, homosexual and polyamorous relationships. The Wolfrider tribe are even revealed to all stem from the pups of one "High Elf" who became pregnant by a wolf, so there's bestiality and then incest in the mix too.

TSR had at least one team-member who enjoyed reading it; the splatbook "The Elves of Alfheim", one of the Known World Gazetteers, features a clan called the Long Runners, who are not-so-subtly based on the Wolfriders. To drive the point home, three of Clan Long Runner's most important members are amongst the elven NPCs statted in that book, and "Beasthunter", "Coolhands" and "Starwatcher" are clearly based on Cutter, Leetah and Skywise, the primary protagonists of the comics.

Cementing its place on this website, there's actually an official ElfQuest RPG. The corebook came out in 1984, with the Companion (errata, stats of canon characters, tips for designing characters and other miscellaneous lore) and the Sea Elves (a splatbook about an optionally canonical oceanic culture of elves bonded to dolphins, ala the Wolfriders or Go-Backs with their wolves and elks) following in 1985.