While we wait for letters on our first issue, and as part of our ongoing commitment to bring our creative teams closer to you, our readers, a few words from BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS story adaptor/ scripter, ANDY MANGELS...
I was a latecomer to ELFQUEST, but
not to the fantastic realm the elves and
trolls inhabit. The other side of the Holt
might be the Haunted Forest in the
sainted Land of Oz; with the help of
Windkin or the Gliders, or a little fairy
dust, one could soon be in Neverland;
the High Ones may have seen wondrous
battles a long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away. ELFQUEST is both a part of - and
separate from - these other worlds. It
shares their wonder and excitement, the
danger and the drama.
For those who are reading my work here for the first time, it's not my first comic work (not even my first ELFQUEST story). I wrote the CHILD'S PLAY and NIGHTMARES ON ELM STREET series and various spin-offs for Innovation Comics, plus issue #9 of QUANTUM LEAP - a very controversial story - for them. I did four issues of a gem called ANNIE SPRINKLE IS MISS TIMED for Rip Off Press (adults only, please!), and I just finished the JASON GOES TO HELL mini-series for Topps Comics. I edit GAY COMICS, and write a serialized story in most issues. I've had Hollywood-oriented columns in AMAZING HEROES magazine, Britain's FANTAZIA, MARVEL AGE, Italy's EDIZIONE STAR, and WIZARD THE GUIDE TO COMICS, and I now appear every month in HERO ILLUSTRATED magazine. And, I have my first Elfquest story in the 1993 ELFQUEST NEW BLOOD SUMMER SPECIAL!
Much of my past work has been aimed at older, "mature" readers. Though some upcoming comics are for all ages, it's always bothered me that I haven't been able to do more writing for the child - and the adult - in all of us. After one major disappointment on a five-year project (ask to see Craig Hamilton's pencil art on our PETER PAN & WENDY book sometime at a convention) I tried to interest publishers in a new LAND OF OZ series, drawn by ex-Child's Play artist Brandon McKinney. No Oz offers have been made to date, but we have been reunited on BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS. With this series, I have a comic I've written that I can give to my parents and nieces and nephews (11 kids in all), all from a Mormon background.
In writing ELFQUEST characters new and old, I'm learning that the elves are kin to Native Americans in spirit and flesh. Throughout BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS, the elves are facing an untamed world, learning and growing, living and dying, and ever going forward. Their history is told in oral form, myriad stories explaining that which they understand, and that which they do not, lionizing some and condemning others.
In the issues to come, you'll be introduced to dozens of elves you've never seen before, as the artists and I attempt to flesh out the Wolfrider tribes of the past. In doing so, we'll not only establish some definite continuity (I write my ELFQUEST stories squarely in the "it's the Real Thing" category), but we'll also open up a wide range of future possibilities. As a player on Team Elfquest, I'm going to support my fellow writers and artists, by providing backgrounds and springboards and characters from the past. Possibilities...
Being accepted into Team Elfquest was exciting, for ELFQUEST offers me a chance to write and help shape a world in discovery. When our own history became written, and knowledge became "fact," the world of possibilities changed. Still, we have our dreamers and our storytellers, who keep the possible alive in tales of places and times not ours to take, but to visit. Like Oz, Neverland, or the galaxy of Star Wars, the World of Two Moons is a place where dreams and stories and possibilities, belong.
* * * * *
Don't forget now - we're waiting to
hear from you on Warp's and Elfquest's
newest "cublication." See you in 60! - RP