Elfquest
Cover art by Wendy Pini.
See image page for copyright details.
Elfquest (or ElfQuest) is a comic book property created by Wendy and Richard Pini in 1978. The basic premise is a fantasy story about a community of elves and related species who struggle to survive and coexist on a primitive Earth-like planet with two moons. A number of related works of prose fiction have also been published in the setting.
Story
Strictly speaking, the characters in question are not actually the creatures of folklore, but actually the descendents of highly advanced alien beings, known as the High Ones, who intended to explore the planet Abode (known to elves as the World of Two Moons) in search of others of their kind during the planet's medieval time period and assumed the form of the creatures for that purpose. However, a mishap disrupted the controls of their vessel and made them make a forced landing far earlier in time, in the paleolithic period. The inability to communicate quickly caused a catastrophic misunderstanding that brought on a massacre of the aliens and drove the survivors from their palace-shaped vessel. The elves were slaughtered by humans, and the destructive environment. To adapt to the environment, a female member of one group of elves shapeshifted into a wolf and mated with the native wolves to create stronger (part-)elves that were no longer immortal.
The main story begins 10.000 years later, when the elves and other beings have adapted with great difficulty to their home. The main characters are the Wolfriders, a tribe of elves who became the rough equivalent of the Iroquois Native American nation of ferocious hunter/warriors who are closely allied with wolves who serve as mounts, hunting partners, and friends. The Wolfriders also have some basic psychic powers like telepathy, healing and plant manipulation. The central storyline, beginning with the series known as the Grand Quest or Original Quest, focuses on the tribe during the leadership of their eleventh chief Cutter. At the start of the story, the Wolfriders' regular forest life - interspersed with intermittent conflict with superstitiously genocidal humans - is lost when the humans set fire to the forest in retaliation for a previous battle. The Wolfriders seek refuge in the underground caverns of their sullenly greedy, but cowardly trade partners, the trolls. Originally the High Ones' servants, the trolls' ancestors fled the crash site and became cave-dwellers.
The elves claim that the trolls owe them sanctuary, but the troll king, Greymung, feels humiliated and plots revenge. The elves are taken down a long tunnel toward what the trolls claim will be a land of bright promise, but is actually a trackless desert. Then their guide seals the tunnel behind them. Desperately inspired by the finding of a piece of "magic" lodestone, which inadvertently acts as a crude compass, they make an extremely ardous journey across the wasteland until they encounter an oasis called Sorrow's End, populated by a sedentary elfin tribe called the Sun Folk. After an initial misunderstanding, the two tribes quickly unite in smooth fashion with each side willing to adjust to their new companions to their mutual benefit. The Wolfriders enjoy the benefits of a more sophisticated culture with revealing knowledge about the past and elders who have more advanced psionic skills, while the Sun Folk benefit from a band of strong hunters and defenders of their desert refuge from humanity.
Due to a built in genetic effect from their "sending" (telepathy) ability, Cutter was there forced to deal with "recognition", a kind of psionic "matchmaking" effect that forces the elves to mate, in hopes of breeding children, and often results in a lifelong pair-bonding known as "lifemating" if the elves are compatible with one another in temperament. In Cutter's case, this resulted in a major conflict between him and the Sun Folk's chief hunter, Rayek, over the affections of Leetah, the healer of the village.
The sanctuary is eventually breached years later by a handful of starving humans who approach the oasis. Although they are sent on their way (probably to die of thirst), Cutter realizes that more could follow and decides to take action. He goes on a quest with his close companion, Skywise, to try to find other elf tribes to unite with to defend themselves against humanity. Later, Cutter's son, Suntop, receives a warning from the Sun Folk's elder Savah about an evil to be avoided, and the Wolfriders and Cutter's family set out to find the explorers.
What follows is a difficult but enlightening journey, in which the elves' most basic assumptions about the world are turned upside down as they meet humans who are more good than they ever hoped, elves more evil than they ever imagined, and trolls more aggressive than they ever feared. Throughout these adventures, Cutter and his companions learn about the world and themselves in profound ways that they can only begin to understand.
Series Theme - The Acceptance of Change
The series has been interpreted as having the theme that healthy individuals and societies must be willing to accept change in their lives and take advantage of it for the betterment of all.
For example, the more sympathetic elf communities, the Wolfriders and the Sun Folk, are the ones most willing to change their ways in the face of different circumstances and opportunities. By contrast, the less sympathetic elves, the Gliders and the Go-backs, are depicted as belonging to highly conservative cultures: the Gliders are obsessed with preserving their society from contamination from the outside, and the Go-backs are determined to return to an earlier ideal represented by the Palace, ancestral home to all the elves. However, in their fanatic conservatism, both the Gliders and the Go-backs have in fact changed even more than the sympathetic tribes, but in far less beneficial ways, whether it be the Gliders' decadence and inability to reproduce or the Go-backs' warlike savagery.
Publication
The first Elfquest story was published in the underground comic book "Fantasy Quarterly" in the spring of 1978. "Fantasy Quarterly" was published by IPS (Independent Publishers Syndicate) based in Lansing Michigan. Sandwiched between Elfquest's "Fire and Flight" parts one and two was a brief story written by T. Casey Brennan and illustrated by future Cerebus the Aardvark creator Dave Sim titled "Doorway to the Gods". Despite the obvious talent of the contributors, the quality of the publication was terribly disappointing to Wendy and Richard Pini. The cover was only slightly better than newsprint (the exterior was printed unglossed with a very limited color palette) and the paper used inside of the comic book appeared to be newspaper. The poor quality of this publication convinced the Pinis that they could produce a higher quality publication on their own. After borrowing money in order to start WaRP Graphics, the Pinis started publishing with "Elfquest #2" (published tabloid size with glossy full color covers and a character portrait print on the back cover by Wendy; a format that would continue throughout the series entire run). This story continued the Elfquest tale started in "Fantasy Quarterly". Later, the Pinis' company WaRP Graphics would reprint the story from “Fantasy Quarterly” as “Elfquest #1” with a new front cover and full color portrait print for the rear cover.
This series was one of the early successes that marked the establishment of a phase in underground comics at which a new market of alternative independent comic books emerged that were closer to the comics mainstream. Elfquest was also one of the first comic book series that had a prearranged conclusion, and that was highly praised for its innovative theme. The fact that a female artist/writer (Wendy Pini) was principally involved in the series was another notable element.
The original series ran for 21 issues (although the last issue consisted entirely of letters and behind-the-scenes material) and was followed by numerous sequels and spinoffs under the WaRP Graphics (later Warp Graphics) imprint. Some of the later stories introduced other artists and writers and also included some "alternative" stories and self-parodies. The sequels were the eight part series "Siege at Blue Mountain" and the nine part series "Kings of the Broken Wheel". The spinoffs were: "New Blood" (35 issues), "Hidden Years" (29 issues), "Two Spear" (5 issues), "Kahvi" (6 issues), "Shards" (16 issues), "WaveDancers" (old - 6 issues, new - 1 issue), "Blood of Ten Chiefs" (20 issues), "The Rebels" (12 issues), and "Jink" (12 issues). Following these spinoffs was an anthology series simply titled "Elfquest" (known to fans as "Elfquest 2" that ran for 33 issues.
The original series was re-edited into 32 installments with some additional pages, and published by Marvel Comics's Epic imprint. This gave the series some much-needed mass-market publicity, although none of the sequels followed suit. There have also been graphic novel collections in both color and black and white, as well as novelizations and original anthologies based on the series.
The series has also served as the basis for several novelizations and short story anthologies.
See image page for copyright details.
Recent developments
In March 2003 it was announced that after 25 years of self-publication the Pinis had licensed all publishing and merchandising rights in the series to DC Comics, although the Pinis retain creative control.
DC's publication of Elfquest material began in July 2003 with The Elfquest 25th Anniversary Special, reprinting the very first issue of Elfquest with brand new computer coloring and lettering by Wendy Pini, and two short interviews with the Pinis. This was a taster for The Elfquest Archives, which began in November 2003. When complete this series will reprint the first eight graphic novel collections in glossy format with new coloring and lettering. Fans have complained that the publication schedule is disappointingly slow. Volume 2 was originally scheduled to appear in fall 2004 but after some delays was finally released in March 2005, 16 months after Volume 1. Part of the reason for the delay is that Wendy Pini was undergoing hip replacement surgery [1].
Meanwhile, September 2003 saw the publication of Elfquest: Wolfrider Volume 1, beginning a series of bimonthly manga-sized black-and-white reprint collections which arrange the story into chronological order for the first time, beginning around 600 years before the events in the original series. Wolfrider Volume 2 is followed chronologically by Elfquest: The Grand Quest Volume 1, the first in a series reprinting the original storyline, including the additional art drawn for the Marvel version. In this series the original artwork has been rearranged into new panel layouts for clarity in the physically smaller manga format, which sometimes involves Wendy Pini adding extensions to the original artwork.
A newer book, Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword, beginning a new series of color EQ graphic novels, was published in July 2004. Critical reaction has generally been favorable; the major criticism leveled at the book is that it is overpriced for its size (96 pages).
The latest story is the four-issue comic series Elfquest: Discovery, published between January and July 2006.
Animated film project
An animated movie version has been in development, on and off, for at least 20 years. The official website has the latest details on the project.
Role Playing Games
A tabletop RPG was produced for Martin Elfquest, and from both that and the comics themselves have sprung a number of online games (mostly MUSHes). A listing of these is available from Fan Links on the Official Elfquest site.