[The following editorial appears in Shards #16, Hidden Years #29, and Kahvi #6. --MK]
This is it.
This is the end of the beginning, if you will. Or, if that sounds too melodramatic, then the edge at the broken part of the wheel.
From its very inception, ELFQUEST has been about circles, about the journey that ends back at the beginning. The original quest, told from 1978 through 1984, took Cutter and his Wolfriders all over their little part of the World of Two Moons in search of a safe home until they discovered that home and safety were within them all along. Later, in KINGS OF THE BROKEN WHEEL, time itself became the pathway as the elves used the magic of the Palace of the High Ones to travel to the very instant when their ill-fated ancestors arrived, only to watch helplessly as history repeated itself - for the first time. In stories yet to be told, the journeys of Cutter and Skywise will take each of them far from home and back again. ELFQUEST has always been about circles. About (buzzword alert) closure.
And now ELFQUEST itself is coming around in a grand spiralling sort of circle, one that on the surface seems driven by circumstance but which, underneath, is more than likely predestined. Wendy likes to say that there are no coincidences, that things happen when and as they're supposed to. This may sound like 1-900-PSYCHIC new age babble, but what it really means is that you only need be aware of your surroundings and you can't help but intuit when opportunities arise, or when the time is right to make a certain move. For us, for Warp, for ELFQUEST, that time is now.
If you're the kind of person who hates it when someone yaks in a movie theatre and gives away upcoming plot bits, then you need to stop reading this column right here. I'm going to talk a little about events in the comics that are scheduled for March release, and you may not have read all of them yet. I can wait. If, on the other hand, foreknowledge doesn't bother you, please, continue.
With this month's titles, all the tales that many talented people have been spinning come to conclusion. HIDDEN YEARS, SHARDS, NEW BLOOD, JINK, THE REBELS, KAHVI, TWO-SPEAR, BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS... all are done. The reason for this is a sense that I have had for many months, as a co-creator, an editor, and a publisher, that ELFQUEST has come to a very natural cusp in its evolution over eighteen years. The individual stories themselves were headed toward climax all at about the same time. The market into which Warp was publishing its comics was undergoing tremendous and in some cases mortal upheaval. And as someone who is about as intimately involved with the World of Two Moons as any five-finger can be, I felt that my own connection to the elves was becoming a bit fuzzy. Clearly, it was time for a metamorphosis.
METAMORPHOSIS happens next month, with previews of...
WILD HUNT - Ember has completed her quest to become the nucleus of a new tribe of Wolfriders - but what has been her cost? Teir is gone, and Mender, the lovemate of her youth, is no longer the gentler healer he once might have been. And in truth, are Winnowill's deadly creations gone from the world, or just driven into desperate hiding?
ROGUE'S CURSE - Winnowill's body may be dead, but her dark spirit lives on, trapped and held willingly by her erstwhile lovemate Rayek. But he can no longer lay any claim to the Palace of the High Ones, for the Black Snake would surely use its power to overcome her tortured prison and escape. Rayek's burden is to wander the world, still loving the one who only wishes him dead.
FIRE-EYE - In a bustling seaport town near the renewed Forevergreen, life is full but harsh under the rule of a new young leader who has appeared from out of the jungle. Children - especially those who cannot keep up with the rigors of daily life - can fall prey to abuse. But within the woods, there is a protector with blazing, beast-like eyes...
WAVEDANCERS - Human civilization on Abode spreads inexorably, year by year, decade by decade, and now the very seas are but avenues for human commerce and conquest. The elves of the land have, in different ways, removed themselves from sight of the encroaching human hordes - but how will the sea elves, pushed beyond their limits of endurance - deal with the "five-fingers"?
FUTUREQUEST - Jink and The Rebels - more unlikely companions you could not wish for, but for strange adventure, they make quite a team! They've gotten into and out of tight scrapes across all of the Abode system, but now they're faced with a new threat - an impossible crystalline ship from deep space...
This is METAMORPHOSIS, the intermediate stage by which one thing becomes another, and then in May begins ELFQUEST. Not ELFQUEST: SOMETHING. Simply ELFQUEST - as it used to be called. A single title that will ship to your comics shop the same time each month, that you'll always find in the same place (wherever in your local shop ELFQUEST is racked - either alphabetically or by genre). A compendium not only of graphic tales of the World of Two Moons, but also of fan/reader activities, news of what's going on in the World of One Moon, and other features. Much as we used to do, back in the old days.
Back at the beginning of the circle.
More next month, in METAMORPHOSIS itself.
Richard A Pini