Elfquest
Encyclopedia
Elfquest is a cult hit
comic book
property created by Wendy and Richard Pini in 1978. It is a fantasy
story about a community of elves
and other fictional species who struggle to survive and coexist on a primitive Earth
-like planet with two moons. Several published volumes of prose fiction also share the same setting. Over the years Elfquest has been self-published by the Pinis, then Marvel Comics
, then the Pinis again through their own company Warp Graphics
and more recently DC Comics
. All issues of Elfquest are available online for free at the official ElfQuest site.
-based IPS (Independent Publishers Syndicate). That company folded after publishing the first issue of Elfquest. (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".) 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 newsprint. 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. It was highly praised for its innovative themes. The fact that a female artist/writer (Wendy Pini) was the creative principal of the series was also notable.
The original series — generally referred to as "The Original Quest" or "OQ" — ran for 21 issues, with the last issue consisting entirely of letters and behind-the-scenes material. It 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 (five issues), Kahvi (six issues), Shards (16 issues), WaveDancers (old: six issues; new: one 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. The full-length novel ElfQuest: Journey to Sorrows End, which included both text and several black-and-white illustrated plates, was published by Playboy in November 1982, and Berkley in March 1984.
, although the Pinis retain creative control.
DC's publication of Elfquest material began in July 2003 with The Elfquest 25th Anniversary Special, reprinting the first issue of Elfquest with 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
.
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. Unfortunately, sections of the original artwork are not included, for example in "ElfQuest: The Grand Quest Volume 11" the story involving Tyleet and her adopted human son Little Patch is not in the volume though later in Volume 13 Tyleet mentions Little Patch constantly while discussing the dream she had while encased for 10,000 years by the Preservers.
A newer book, Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword 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.
DC Comics and Warp Graphics split in 2007, no new material has been published since.
In March 2008 Warp Graphics began uploading previously published stories to the elfquest.com website, for reading on the web. They intended to make the entire series available online over the course of 2008, but the number of issues proved too numerous to upload within the deadline. Uploading of all comics was completed on March 13, 2009.
, but has two moons instead of just one. The history and continents differ somewhat, but the development of human progress remains largely similar.
The elves of Elfquest are descended from highly advanced humanoid aliens
known as the High Ones, who had immense and quasi-magical psychic
powers and could not die of old age. When their homeworld's resources were depleted by overpopulation, several groups of High Ones went spacefaring to explore the wider universe and to find new planets to settle. They controlled their egg-shaped vessels by telekinesis and were able to adapt to any ecosystem by shifting their own shapes and metabolisms. As companions, they brought two of the last surviving animal species from their home, both of which gradually evolved during the journey (and subsequent events) into two more races of sapient near-immortals: the insectoid
Preservers and the simian
-descended Trolls.
The Preservers are sprite
-like winged humanoids genderless and seem unable to breed, but as they are immortal
and hardy survivors, their number is relatively constant. Both the trolls and the Preservers evolved from more animal-like ancestors, but because of the magic
in the palace they became immortal and gained the ability to speak and to think abstractly. Once on Abode, natural selection
caused the trolls to increase in both strength and size.
After journeying to many different worlds, one of these vessels came to Abode (known to its inhabitants as the World of Two Moons), where human civilization had reached a level comparable to Europe's medieval period on Earth. The humans' artwork and literature depicted angel
s, deities
, spirit
s and other ethereal being
s which suggested to the High Ones that others of their kind had previously visited that world. In order to facilitate contact with the humans and seek out more information about these previous visitors, before landing on the world the High Ones deliberately formed themselves like elves and reshaped their egg-vessel to resemble a beautiful floating castle that matched the native architectural idiom.
The palace itself consists of two main parts: the magical material of which it is made, and two magic scrolls that contain all the history of the High Ones. The palace is also where the souls of dead elves come together to spend the rest of their existence.
However, by this time the evolved simians (proto-Trolls) had become resentful of their subservient status. As the 'castle' began to descend, the simians violently rebelled, disrupting the telekinetic controls enough to hurl the entire vessel and its contents back through time
to Abode's paleolithic
era. Staggering out from the crash-landing, the High Ones found that their psychic powers were greatly weakened on Abode, leaving them unable to defend themselves from the prehistoric cave-dwelling humans who fearfully attacked them. Forcibly dispersed away from the massacre outside the palace
-shaped vessel, many of the initial elf survivors soon died, unable to adapt to the hostile environment; the others gradually gathered into several widely-scattered tribes. The High Ones' evolved-simian servants also fled, mainly into underground caverns where they became larger and established themselves as the subterranean race of Trolls, treasure-seeking miners and metalsmiths whose original links to the High Ones were forgotten.
The main story begins 10,000 years later, with elves and other beings having adapted with great difficulty to their home. Each tribe of elves has its own set of adaptations and traditions, and most of them are unaware that any of the other tribes even existed.
elves, a tribe of ferocious hunter/warriors closely allied with wolves who serve as mounts, hunting partners, and friends. Their culture is roughly comparable to the Iroquois
Native American
nation. Within their founder group, a female High One named Timmain had been the only member to retain her shape-shifting ability. When winter came, Timmain shape-shifted into a wolf to hunt food for the starving elves around her. She sank very deeply into her wolf-form and eventually forgot her original identity, even mating with a native wolf to produce a half-wolf chimeric
son whom she handed over to the Elves after teaching him as much as she could as a wolf. They gave him the name Timmorn Yellow-Eyes and he became the first Chief of the Wolfriders, bringing the wolf pack and the stranded elves together to form a close symbiotic alliance. This alliance breaks the Wolfriders of immortality. In addition to the close bonds with their wolves, 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 - intermittently interspersed by 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 sullen, greedy, cowardly trade partners, the trolls. The elves claim that the trolls owe them sanctuary because of all the ways the Wolfriders have helped them over the years, but the corrupt troll king, Greymung, feels humiliated for being held at knife point by an elf 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 a piece of "magic" lodestone
that acts as a crude compass
, they make an arduous journey across the wasteland until they encounter an oasis called Sorrow's End, populated by a tribe of sedentary, agrarian elves called the Sun Folk
.
Cutter's partner in Recognition is the Sun Folk's beautiful and powerful Healer, Leetah. She immediately rejects him as a savage barbarian, especially since she is already partnered to her village's haughty chief hunter, Rayek. The love triangle between Cutter, Leetah and Rayek is the main focus of much of the first part of the story. Cutter and Leetah eventually become lifemates; bested by Cutter in a ritual trial and displaced as sole hunter and protector by the Wolfriders, Rayek leaves the village.
Once this conflict is resolved, the two tribes quickly unite with each side willing to adjust to the other for their mutual benefit. The Wolfriders enjoy the benefits of a more sophisticated culture with greater knowledge, while the Sun Folk benefit from a band of strong hunters and defenders of their desert refuge from humanity.
Six years later, the oasis sanctuary of Sorrow's End is breached 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 soul-brother, Skywise, seeking other elf tribes as allies against humanity. Later, Cutter's son, Suntop, receives a warning from the Sun Folk's elder Savah, The Mother Of Memory about an evil which Cutter most avoid. (Savah, who is close to being a High One herself, possesses a magical ability known as "going out" where her spirit leaves her body in attempts to connect to other Elves. In this way she was also able to briefly contact Rayek after he left Sorrow's End.) The majority of the Wolfriders escort Leetah, Suntop and his twin sister Ember on their journey to deliver Savah's warning to Cutter and Skywise.
The Gliders claim to be original High Ones and are nominally led by an ancient elf named Lord Voll. wanted them to have a safe home, thus their rockshapers built a home inside Blue Mountain after the memories of the Palace of the High Ones. After Lord Voll's lover and confidant Winnowill created the Chosen Eight - a group of hunters that rode the Giant Hawks that nested in Blue Mountain - no one but those hunters left the mountain. They are a conservative community that has degenerated into insular decadence, dominated by the seductive, sinister Winnowill, who was once Voll's consort but who now has her own agenda.
Cut off from new impulses, the Gliders' culture turned in on itself. They created intricate art, such as the Egg of Six Spheres, which recorded the elves' history, but stopped growing. For millennia no children were born. Some of the rockshapers were put into permanent trance, and do nothing but fulfill a certain function. Winnowill manipulated Voll, so that his plans to leave Blue Mountain again never grew to fruition. Lord Voll came to believe that the elves were doomed to wither, and that there would never be any children born. Only the arrival of the Wolfriders with their children and the Preservers could wake him up. He was then determined to return to the Palace of the High Ones as soon as possible - but was killed before reaching it, leaving Winnowill as new Lord of the Gliders.
The Gliders rarely venture out of their mountain except for the "Chosen Eight", the tribe's hunters and (if need be) warriors. Although they have their own powers of psychic levitation, the Eight ride massive birds with whom they share a strong bond, similar to that of the Wolfriders and their wolves. As the Wolfriders search for Cutter and Skywise, Strongbow shoots down one of the massive birds for food. Enraged at the death of their mount, the Gliders attack the Wolfriders and imprison most of the tribe within Blue Mountain. Winnowill then tortures Strongbow for the death of the bird, while Leetah, Ember, and Suntop hide in the "Forbidden Grove" which is the home of the Preservers. Nightfall and Redlance also manage to escape imprisonment, and stumble upon Cutter and Skywise shortly after Cutter and his family are re-united. One-Eye, also not captured, lurks around the base of the mountain surviving on the humans' unknown generosity.
Dewshine, much to the dismay of her and her tribe, becomes Recognized by one of the Gliders named Tyldak. Tyldak has been reshaped by Winnowill to resemble a bird himself. Both fight the Recognition at first, but eventually give in and Dewshine becomes pregnant.
Winnowill put all Gliders but the Chosen Eight into deep sleep, and attempted to use their magic powers to shape Blue Mountain into a vessel to leave the World of Two Moons. This plan was foiled by the Wolfriders. The already re-shaped Blue Mountain shattered, and nearly all Gliders were killed - as a people or tribe, the Gliders do not exist anymore.
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.
as the Wolfriders do to Iroquois
and the Sun Folk to Mesoamericans (that is to say, mainly in costume). They are highly warlike and hardened, being locked in continual strife with the trolls who bar their way to the palace. They have a prejudice against "magic", but not to the extent of persecuting its users. The Go-Backs, so removed from magic, no longer rely on Recognition to procreate. They provided the bulk of the military strength that allowed the completion of the first quest, and lost half their numbers in doing so.
Later stories emphasized the conservatism, savagery, and selfishness of the Go-Backs, qualities which (aside from the first) were not especially obvious in their first appearance. Their artistic depiction changed over the years to make them appear more brutal and degenerate, consistent with the underlying political orientation of the authors.
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 outside contamination, 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' barren decadence or the Go-backs' warlike savagery.
Interestingly, almost all of the elfin cultures are led by females: the Sun Villagers follow Savah, the Go-Backs follow Kahvi, the Gliders follow Winnowill (even with Lord Voll is the figurehead), and the Wolfriders follow a shared chieftainship between Cutter and Leetah. Only the brutish, warlike and greedy trolls and humans have male leaders without female counterparts. In the Jink/The Rebels/FutureQuest series, the human government thinks that a male leader would be absurd, and the militant "Skyward" is dominated by female officers.
among the elves are seen as natural. There are no sexually transmitted diseases, no rape, no unwanted pregnancies, or any other negative aspects of the generally libertine attitude.
To survive and multiply despite their low numbers, both the elves and the trolls have had to sometimes breed with close relatives. The troll Picknose and his mate Oddbit founded their own endogamous kingdom by themselves, causing their children to breed with each other and result in a new society of trolls. According to Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini, all the Elfquest elves are omnisexual and lack a well-defined concept of inbreeding, because of their very long lifespans and because Recognition makes it irrelevant to them. While the story has elements of implied incest, it and the elves' overall attitudes toward sex are used to illustrate the facts that the elves aren't human, reinforcing one of the appeals of the series, namely the portrayal of a species that is truly alien in some ways.
The first five issues of the original Elfquest comic ("The Quest Begins") have some battle violence and no explicit sexuality. In addition to some intense battle scenes in issue #17 of the original "Grand Quest", there is a controversial orgy scene: controversial because many children had been following the comics and parents were not happy with the more explicit/adult content introduced later in the series.
in Marvel's X-Men #153 (Kitty Pryde
wears an Elfquest T-shirt throughout the issue, and a sprite
named "Pini" appears on p. 16), Elfquest has been adapted into a range of media.
While not an 'adaptation' in the strictest sense of the term, Piers Anthony's 13th Xanth novel Isle of View features a character named Jenny Elf, a Wolfrider who was magically brought to Xanth from Abode after a tragic accident. Jenny Elf, by the author's own admission, is a tribute to a young girl who was paralyzed by a drunk driver. Warp Graphics
published the first volume of a graphic novel adaptation of Isle of View entitled Return to Centaur.
in 1984, utilizing the Basic Role-Playing
system which had first appeared in the game Runequest
and some original illustrations by Wendy Pini, including the character sheets. Only 3 supplements were produced for the game, ElfQuest Companion – which included random character generation tables, and was included in the hardback second edition. Sea Elves – noteworthy for introducing information and art provided by the Pinis describing the Sea Elf tribe long before they appeared in any of the comics. Elf War – which contained several adventures outside of the comic-book continuity.
6 boxed sets of 25 mm white metal miniatures for the game were released by Ral Partha.
Both the role-playing game and the comics themselves have sprung a number of online games (mostly MUSH
es).
released A Wolfrider's Reflections: Songs of Elfquest, a collection of filk songs.
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
property created by Wendy and Richard Pini in 1978. It is a fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
story about a community of elves
Elves (Elfquest)
The comic book series Elfquest, created by Wendy and Richard Pini, features a race of elves on the World of Two Moons, searching for their origins and place in the world.-Origin:...
and other fictional species who struggle to survive and coexist on a primitive Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
-like planet with two moons. Several published volumes of prose fiction also share the same setting. Over the years Elfquest has been self-published by the Pinis, then Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, then the Pinis again through their own company Warp Graphics
WaRP Graphics
WaRP Graphics, later Warp Graphics, is an alternative comics publisher best known for creating and being the original publisher of the Elfquest comic book series. It was created and incorporated in 1977 by Wendy and Richard Pini. The company title is an acronym formed from the founding couple's...
and more recently DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. All issues of Elfquest are available online for free at the official ElfQuest site.
Publication history
The first Elfquest story was published in the spring of 1978, in the underground comic book Fantasy Quarterly, published by Lansing, MichiganLansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...
-based IPS (Independent Publishers Syndicate). That company folded after publishing the first issue of Elfquest. (Sandwiched between Elfquest's "Fire and Flight" parts one and two was a brief story written by T. Casey Brennan
T. Casey Brennan
Terrance Casey Brennan is an American comic book writer.During the 1970s, he wrote for Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics anthologies Creepy and Eerie, and Vampirella...
and illustrated by future Cerebus the Aardvark
Cerebus the Aardvark
Cerebus the Aardvark, or simply Cerebus , is an independent comic book, written and illustrated by Canadian artist Dave Sim, with backgrounds by fellow Canadian Gerhard. Cerebus ran for 300 issues from December 1977 to 2004, and was over 6000 pages long, the longest-running original...
creator Dave Sim
Dave Sim
David Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
titled "Doorway to the Gods".) 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 newsprint. 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
WaRP Graphics
WaRP Graphics, later Warp Graphics, is an alternative comics publisher best known for creating and being the original publisher of the Elfquest comic book series. It was created and incorporated in 1977 by Wendy and Richard Pini. The company title is an acronym formed from the founding couple's...
, 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
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
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. It was highly praised for its innovative themes. The fact that a female artist/writer (Wendy Pini) was the creative principal of the series was also notable.
The original series — generally referred to as "The Original Quest" or "OQ" — ran for 21 issues, with the last issue consisting entirely of letters and behind-the-scenes material. It was followed by numerous sequels and spinoffs under the WaRP Graphics
WaRP Graphics
WaRP Graphics, later Warp Graphics, is an alternative comics publisher best known for creating and being the original publisher of the Elfquest comic book series. It was created and incorporated in 1977 by Wendy and Richard Pini. The company title is an acronym formed from the founding couple's...
(later Warp Graphics
WaRP Graphics
WaRP Graphics, later Warp Graphics, is an alternative comics publisher best known for creating and being the original publisher of the Elfquest comic book series. It was created and incorporated in 1977 by Wendy and Richard Pini. The company title is an acronym formed from the founding couple's...
) 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 (five issues), Kahvi (six issues), Shards (16 issues), WaveDancers (old: six issues; new: one 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
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
'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
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
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. The full-length novel ElfQuest: Journey to Sorrows End, which included both text and several black-and-white illustrated plates, was published by Playboy in November 1982, and Berkley in March 1984.
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 ComicsDC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, although the Pinis retain creative control.
DC's publication of Elfquest material began in July 2003 with The Elfquest 25th Anniversary Special, reprinting the first issue of Elfquest with 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
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
.
Meanwhile, September 2003 saw the publication of Elfquest: Wolfrider Volume 1, beginning a series of bimonthly manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
-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. Unfortunately, sections of the original artwork are not included, for example in "ElfQuest: The Grand Quest Volume 11" the story involving Tyleet and her adopted human son Little Patch is not in the volume though later in Volume 13 Tyleet mentions Little Patch constantly while discussing the dream she had while encased for 10,000 years by the Preservers.
A newer book, Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword 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.
DC Comics and Warp Graphics split in 2007, no new material has been published since.
In March 2008 Warp Graphics began uploading previously published stories to the elfquest.com website, for reading on the web. They intended to make the entire series available online over the course of 2008, but the number of issues proved too numerous to upload within the deadline. Uploading of all comics was completed on March 13, 2009.
Background and Setting
The world where the series takes place is called Abode and has many similarities to EarthEarth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, but has two moons instead of just one. The history and continents differ somewhat, but the development of human progress remains largely similar.
The elves of Elfquest are descended from highly advanced humanoid aliens
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
known as the High Ones, who had immense and quasi-magical psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
powers and could not die of old age. When their homeworld's resources were depleted by overpopulation, several groups of High Ones went spacefaring to explore the wider universe and to find new planets to settle. They controlled their egg-shaped vessels by telekinesis and were able to adapt to any ecosystem by shifting their own shapes and metabolisms. As companions, they brought two of the last surviving animal species from their home, both of which gradually evolved during the journey (and subsequent events) into two more races of sapient near-immortals: the insectoid
Insectoid
Insectoid denotes any creature or object that shares a similar body or traits with common earth insects and arachnids. The term is a combination of "insect" and "-oid" . Compare "humanoid"....
Preservers and the simian
Simian
The simians are the "higher primates" familiar to most people: the Old World monkeys and apes, including humans, , and the New World monkeys or platyrrhines. Simians tend to be larger than the "lower primates" or prosimians.- Classification and evolution :The simians are split into three groups...
-descended Trolls.
The Preservers are sprite
Sprite (creature)
The term sprite is a broad term referring to a number of preternatural legendary creatures. The term is generally used in reference to elf-like creatures, including fairies, and similar beings , but can also signify various spiritual beings, including ghosts. In Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books,...
-like winged humanoids genderless and seem unable to breed, but as they are immortal
Immortality in fiction
Immortality is a popular subject in fiction, as it explores humanity's deep-seated fears and comprehension of its own mortality. Immortal beings and species abound in fiction, especially fantasy fiction, and the meaning of "immortal" tends to vary....
and hardy survivors, their number is relatively constant. Both the trolls and the Preservers evolved from more animal-like ancestors, but because of the magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
in the palace they became immortal and gained the ability to speak and to think abstractly. Once on Abode, natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
caused the trolls to increase in both strength and size.
After journeying to many different worlds, one of these vessels came to Abode (known to its inhabitants as the World of Two Moons), where human civilization had reached a level comparable to Europe's medieval period on Earth. The humans' artwork and literature depicted angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s, deities
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
, spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
s and other ethereal being
Ethereal being
Ethereal beings, according to some belief systems and occult theories, are mystic entities that usually are not made of ordinary matter. Despite the fact that they are believed to be essentially incorporeal, they do interact in physical shapes with the material universe and travel between the...
s which suggested to the High Ones that others of their kind had previously visited that world. In order to facilitate contact with the humans and seek out more information about these previous visitors, before landing on the world the High Ones deliberately formed themselves like elves and reshaped their egg-vessel to resemble a beautiful floating castle that matched the native architectural idiom.
The palace itself consists of two main parts: the magical material of which it is made, and two magic scrolls that contain all the history of the High Ones. The palace is also where the souls of dead elves come together to spend the rest of their existence.
However, by this time the evolved simians (proto-Trolls) had become resentful of their subservient status. As the 'castle' began to descend, the simians violently rebelled, disrupting the telekinetic controls enough to hurl the entire vessel and its contents back through time
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
to Abode's paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
era. Staggering out from the crash-landing, the High Ones found that their psychic powers were greatly weakened on Abode, leaving them unable to defend themselves from the prehistoric cave-dwelling humans who fearfully attacked them. Forcibly dispersed away from the massacre outside the palace
Palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills in Rome. In many parts of Europe, the...
-shaped vessel, many of the initial elf survivors soon died, unable to adapt to the hostile environment; the others gradually gathered into several widely-scattered tribes. The High Ones' evolved-simian servants also fled, mainly into underground caverns where they became larger and established themselves as the subterranean race of Trolls, treasure-seeking miners and metalsmiths whose original links to the High Ones were forgotten.
The main story begins 10,000 years later, with elves and other beings having adapted with great difficulty to their home. Each tribe of elves has its own set of adaptations and traditions, and most of them are unaware that any of the other tribes even existed.
The Wolfriders
The central characters are the WolfriderWolfrider
The Wolfriders are a tribe of elves on the World of Two Moons in the comic book Elfquest, created by Wendy and Richard Pini.Wolfrider is also the title of an Elfquest story featuring Bearclaw, in some respects the archetypal member of his tribe.-History:For many millennia the Wolfriders lived in a...
elves, a tribe of ferocious hunter/warriors closely allied with wolves who serve as mounts, hunting partners, and friends. Their culture is roughly comparable to the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
nation. Within their founder group, a female High One named Timmain had been the only member to retain her shape-shifting ability. When winter came, Timmain shape-shifted into a wolf to hunt food for the starving elves around her. She sank very deeply into her wolf-form and eventually forgot her original identity, even mating with a native wolf to produce a half-wolf chimeric
Chimera (mythology)
The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her...
son whom she handed over to the Elves after teaching him as much as she could as a wolf. They gave him the name Timmorn Yellow-Eyes and he became the first Chief of the Wolfriders, bringing the wolf pack and the stranded elves together to form a close symbiotic alliance. This alliance breaks the Wolfriders of immortality. In addition to the close bonds with their wolves, the Wolfriders also have some basic psychic
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
powers like telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, 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 - intermittently interspersed by 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 sullen, greedy, cowardly trade partners, the trolls. The elves claim that the trolls owe them sanctuary because of all the ways the Wolfriders have helped them over the years, but the corrupt troll king, Greymung, feels humiliated for being held at knife point by an elf 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
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
. Then their guide seals the tunnel behind them. Desperately inspired by a piece of "magic" lodestone
Lodestone
A lodestone or loadstone is a naturally magnetized piece of the mineral magnetite. They are naturally occurring magnets, that attract pieces of iron. Ancient people first discovered the property of magnetism in lodestone...
that acts as a crude compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
, they make an arduous journey across the wasteland until they encounter an oasis called Sorrow's End, populated by a tribe of sedentary, agrarian elves called the Sun Folk
Sun Folk
In the comic book Elfquest, created by Wendy and Richard Pini, the Sun Folk are a fictional tribe of elves on the World of Two Moons ....
.
The Sun Folk
Compared to the Wolfriders, the peaceful Sun Folk have retained more knowledge about the High Ones. However, there are some psychic phenomena which have remained more common among the Wolfriders than among the Sun Folk, such as "Sending" (telepathic communication), and "Recognition", a powerful involuntary compulsion to mate with another elf; this mating is guaranteed to produce offspring. This powerful impulse can be resisted with difficulty, but at the cost of great personal stress. If the two individuals are not temperamentally compatible, they may part ways again as soon as a child has been produced, but otherwise they may form a lifelong pair-bond as "lifemates."Cutter's partner in Recognition is the Sun Folk's beautiful and powerful Healer, Leetah. She immediately rejects him as a savage barbarian, especially since she is already partnered to her village's haughty chief hunter, Rayek. The love triangle between Cutter, Leetah and Rayek is the main focus of much of the first part of the story. Cutter and Leetah eventually become lifemates; bested by Cutter in a ritual trial and displaced as sole hunter and protector by the Wolfriders, Rayek leaves the village.
Once this conflict is resolved, the two tribes quickly unite with each side willing to adjust to the other for their mutual benefit. The Wolfriders enjoy the benefits of a more sophisticated culture with greater knowledge, while the Sun Folk benefit from a band of strong hunters and defenders of their desert refuge from humanity.
Six years later, the oasis sanctuary of Sorrow's End is breached 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
Quest
In mythology and literature, a quest, a journey towards a goal, serves as a plot device and as a symbol. Quests appear in the folklore of every nation and also figure prominently in non-national cultures. In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and...
with his soul-brother, Skywise, seeking other elf tribes as allies against humanity. Later, Cutter's son, Suntop, receives a warning from the Sun Folk's elder Savah, The Mother Of Memory about an evil which Cutter most avoid. (Savah, who is close to being a High One herself, possesses a magical ability known as "going out" where her spirit leaves her body in attempts to connect to other Elves. In this way she was also able to briefly contact Rayek after he left Sorrow's End.) The majority of the Wolfriders escort Leetah, Suntop and his twin sister Ember on their journey to deliver Savah's warning to Cutter and Skywise.
The Gliders
Continuing their quest, Cutter and Skywise learn of the existence of another elf tribe dwelling in a place called Blue Mountain. This previously unknown tribe, consisting of tall, thin, graceful elves, is known as the Gliders. They treated humans like any other prey, until a human shaman made her way near the peak of Blue Mountain and sang and talked to them. The Gliders then agreed not to hunt humans, if they in turn received offerings and worship. The humans then worshiped them as "spirit-gods".The Gliders claim to be original High Ones and are nominally led by an ancient elf named Lord Voll. wanted them to have a safe home, thus their rockshapers built a home inside Blue Mountain after the memories of the Palace of the High Ones. After Lord Voll's lover and confidant Winnowill created the Chosen Eight - a group of hunters that rode the Giant Hawks that nested in Blue Mountain - no one but those hunters left the mountain. They are a conservative community that has degenerated into insular decadence, dominated by the seductive, sinister Winnowill, who was once Voll's consort but who now has her own agenda.
Cut off from new impulses, the Gliders' culture turned in on itself. They created intricate art, such as the Egg of Six Spheres, which recorded the elves' history, but stopped growing. For millennia no children were born. Some of the rockshapers were put into permanent trance, and do nothing but fulfill a certain function. Winnowill manipulated Voll, so that his plans to leave Blue Mountain again never grew to fruition. Lord Voll came to believe that the elves were doomed to wither, and that there would never be any children born. Only the arrival of the Wolfriders with their children and the Preservers could wake him up. He was then determined to return to the Palace of the High Ones as soon as possible - but was killed before reaching it, leaving Winnowill as new Lord of the Gliders.
The Gliders rarely venture out of their mountain except for the "Chosen Eight", the tribe's hunters and (if need be) warriors. Although they have their own powers of psychic levitation, the Eight ride massive birds with whom they share a strong bond, similar to that of the Wolfriders and their wolves. As the Wolfriders search for Cutter and Skywise, Strongbow shoots down one of the massive birds for food. Enraged at the death of their mount, the Gliders attack the Wolfriders and imprison most of the tribe within Blue Mountain. Winnowill then tortures Strongbow for the death of the bird, while Leetah, Ember, and Suntop hide in the "Forbidden Grove" which is the home of the Preservers. Nightfall and Redlance also manage to escape imprisonment, and stumble upon Cutter and Skywise shortly after Cutter and his family are re-united. One-Eye, also not captured, lurks around the base of the mountain surviving on the humans' unknown generosity.
Dewshine, much to the dismay of her and her tribe, becomes Recognized by one of the Gliders named Tyldak. Tyldak has been reshaped by Winnowill to resemble a bird himself. Both fight the Recognition at first, but eventually give in and Dewshine becomes pregnant.
Winnowill put all Gliders but the Chosen Eight into deep sleep, and attempted to use their magic powers to shape Blue Mountain into a vessel to leave the World of Two Moons. This plan was foiled by the Wolfriders. The already re-shaped Blue Mountain shattered, and nearly all Gliders were killed - as a people or tribe, the Gliders do not exist anymore.
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
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
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.
The Go-Backs
The Go-Backs are the fourth and last Elf tribe encountered during the Original Quest. Originally a migrating tribe, the Go-Backs are named after a sudden desire to "go back" to the palace of the High Ones. The Palace has a strong pull on all elves once in range, and the Go-Backs were the first to stumble on it since the High Ones were driven away. First appearing to save Cutter and his followers from a war party of trolls in a snow-bound tundra, the Go-Backs are arctic-dwelling elk-herders, bearing about the same resemblance to SamiSami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
as the Wolfriders do to Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
and the Sun Folk to Mesoamericans (that is to say, mainly in costume). They are highly warlike and hardened, being locked in continual strife with the trolls who bar their way to the palace. They have a prejudice against "magic", but not to the extent of persecuting its users. The Go-Backs, so removed from magic, no longer rely on Recognition to procreate. They provided the bulk of the military strength that allowed the completion of the first quest, and lost half their numbers in doing so.
Later stories emphasized the conservatism, savagery, and selfishness of the Go-Backs, qualities which (aside from the first) were not especially obvious in their first appearance. Their artistic depiction changed over the years to make them appear more brutal and degenerate, consistent with the underlying political orientation of the authors.
Themes
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
Go-Back
The Go-Backs are a tribe of elves in the comic series Elfquest. They named themselves from their goal to return to the Palace of the High Ones....
, are depicted as belonging to highly conservative cultures: the Gliders are obsessed with preserving their society from outside contamination, 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' barren decadence or the Go-backs' warlike savagery.
Interestingly, almost all of the elfin cultures are led by females: the Sun Villagers follow Savah, the Go-Backs follow Kahvi, the Gliders follow Winnowill (even with Lord Voll is the figurehead), and the Wolfriders follow a shared chieftainship between Cutter and Leetah. Only the brutish, warlike and greedy trolls and humans have male leaders without female counterparts. In the Jink/The Rebels/FutureQuest series, the human government thinks that a male leader would be absurd, and the militant "Skyward" is dominated by female officers.
Sexuality
The attitude of the elves towards sex differs greatly from that of human cultures because of their biological differences. Intercourse for the elves is not an act of reproduction, which usually only happens as the result of Recognition. Some elves take more than one lifemate or lovemate, and having sex with someone besides your lifemate or lovemate is acceptable, though not something that would happen all the time. Sexuality and nudityNudity and sexuality
In most societies and cultures, human nudity is often associated with sexuality. Many people are sexually attracted to nudity, which they find to be erotic and sexually arousing...
among the elves are seen as natural. There are no sexually transmitted diseases, no rape, no unwanted pregnancies, or any other negative aspects of the generally libertine attitude.
To survive and multiply despite their low numbers, both the elves and the trolls have had to sometimes breed with close relatives. The troll Picknose and his mate Oddbit founded their own endogamous kingdom by themselves, causing their children to breed with each other and result in a new society of trolls. According to Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini, all the Elfquest elves are omnisexual and lack a well-defined concept of inbreeding, because of their very long lifespans and because Recognition makes it irrelevant to them. While the story has elements of implied incest, it and the elves' overall attitudes toward sex are used to illustrate the facts that the elves aren't human, reinforcing one of the appeals of the series, namely the portrayal of a species that is truly alien in some ways.
The first five issues of the original Elfquest comic ("The Quest Begins") have some battle violence and no explicit sexuality. In addition to some intense battle scenes in issue #17 of the original "Grand Quest", there is a controversial orgy scene: controversial because many children had been following the comics and parents were not happy with the more explicit/adult content introduced later in the series.
Adaptations
Besides an unofficial intercompany crossoverIntercompany crossover
In comic books, an intercompany crossover is a comic or series of comics where characters published by one company meet those published by another...
in Marvel's X-Men #153 (Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde
Katherine Anne "Kitty" Pryde is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 and was created by writer-artist John Byrne....
wears an Elfquest T-shirt throughout the issue, and a sprite
Sprite (creature)
The term sprite is a broad term referring to a number of preternatural legendary creatures. The term is generally used in reference to elf-like creatures, including fairies, and similar beings , but can also signify various spiritual beings, including ghosts. In Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books,...
named "Pini" appears on p. 16), Elfquest has been adapted into a range of media.
While not an 'adaptation' in the strictest sense of the term, Piers Anthony's 13th Xanth novel Isle of View features a character named Jenny Elf, a Wolfrider who was magically brought to Xanth from Abode after a tragic accident. Jenny Elf, by the author's own admission, is a tribute to a young girl who was paralyzed by a drunk driver. Warp Graphics
WaRP Graphics
WaRP Graphics, later Warp Graphics, is an alternative comics publisher best known for creating and being the original publisher of the Elfquest comic book series. It was created and incorporated in 1977 by Wendy and Richard Pini. The company title is an acronym formed from the founding couple's...
published the first volume of a graphic novel adaptation of Isle of View entitled Return to Centaur.
Film
In 2008, Warner Brothers announced its intention to bring the Elfquest saga to the big screen, with Rawson Thurber serving as writer and director. The format (live action, CGI, or traditional animation) is as of yet unknown.Animated video series
In the early 90s, an ad for a multi-volume animated adaptation of Elfquest appeared in the comic. A few issues later, the Pinis told readers they'd withdrawn from the deal, and that readers should ask for refunds. Those who didn't, eventually received a 50-minute VHS tape from Abby Lou Entertainment, copyright 1992. Covering the first volume of the book, it consists of color still images taken straight from the comic, some minor animation, and spoken dialogue.Web trailer
Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes produced a short web trailer of Elfquest. The Pinis donated original art for the fundraising campaign, and are lent an original dress to the production. it was released at www.ElfQuestFanTrailer.com in April 2011.Role playing games
A licensed tabletop Elfquest RPG was produced by ChaosiumChaosium
Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence. Founded by Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame, White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into Dragon Pass and its sequel, Nomad Gods...
in 1984, utilizing the Basic Role-Playing
Basic Role-Playing
Basic Role-Playing is a role-playing game system which originated in the fantasy-oriented RuneQuest role-playing game rules...
system which had first appeared in the game Runequest
RuneQuest
RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium, created by Steve Perrin and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. RuneQuest was notable for its original gaming system and for its verisimilitude in adhering to an original fantasy world...
and some original illustrations by Wendy Pini, including the character sheets. Only 3 supplements were produced for the game, ElfQuest Companion – which included random character generation tables, and was included in the hardback second edition. Sea Elves – noteworthy for introducing information and art provided by the Pinis describing the Sea Elf tribe long before they appeared in any of the comics. Elf War – which contained several adventures outside of the comic-book continuity.
6 boxed sets of 25 mm white metal miniatures for the game were released by Ral Partha.
Both the role-playing game and the comics themselves have sprung a number of online games (mostly MUSH
MUSH
In multiplayer online games, a MUSH is a text-based online social medium to which multiple users are connected at the same time...
es).
Toys
A brief action figure line was produced, featuring Cutter, Leetah (with a small Petalwing figurine), Picknose, and Tyldak. A proposed second series that would have included Skywise among others never reached production.Games
There exists an Elfquest board game which has the game play mechanic of tyle laying to build the board as the game proceeds. Players play one of four elf tribes as they try to find the elf homeland or the troll tribe that tries to prevent the elf players from finding the homeland long enough until they can 'build a dome' over it.Music
In 1987, Off Centaur PublicationsOff Centaur Publications
Off Centaur Publications was the first "commercial" filk label. It was founded in 1980 by Teri Lee, Jordin Kare, and Catherine Cook. For a short time, Off Centaur produced high quality recordings of some of filk's best performers, and changed the course of filk music.Like many other filk labels...
released A Wolfrider's Reflections: Songs of Elfquest, a collection of filk songs.
Awards and Honors
- 1979 Ed Aprill Award (New York Comic Art Convention) - Best Independent Comic
- 1979, 1980 Alley Award
- 1980 Small Press Writers and Artists Organization - Best Artist (Comics), Wendy Pini - Best Editor (Comics), Richard & Wendy Pini
- 1981 Phantasy Press Comic Art Awards (Woody Awards, in honor of Wally Wood) - Best Alternative Comic
- 1983 Small Press Writers and Artists Organization - Best Comic
- 1983 Heroes Award (Heroes Aren't Hard To Find) - Best Black and White Magazine
- 1984 New York State Jaycees Distinguished Service Award (Wendy & Richard Pini)
- 1985 Balrog Award (Sword and Shield Corp. of Denver, CO) - Best Artist (Wendy Pini)
- 1986 Fantasy Festival Comic Book Awards (El Paso Fantasy Festival) - Best Alternative Comic
- 1987, 1988 Skywise (Elfquest character) inducted into Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman class
- 1989 Golden Pen Award (Young Adult Advisory Committee, Spokane, WA)
See also
- Elves in ElfquestElves (Elfquest)The comic book series Elfquest, created by Wendy and Richard Pini, features a race of elves on the World of Two Moons, searching for their origins and place in the world.-Origin:...
- List of characters in Elfquest
- List of Elfquest publications