This issue of ELFQUEST marks an ending and a beginning, a changing and a remaining the same, a moving and a standing still.
If you like to read these editorial pages before the actual story, then all that we'll tell you here is that in this issue one chapter in the saga of Cutter and Co. comes to an end. A five-issue prelude, now drawing to a close. But wait till you see what we start up in issue #6!
"Voice of the Sun" also marks an ending and a beginning for us personally, too. As of September 1, 1979 we'll be pulling up stakes and moving to a new town, a new job (for me - Richard speaking), and a house (my own studio, hee hee! - Wendy speaking). You can write us at: Wendy & Richard Pini, WaRP Graphics, 2 Reno Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 and we'll love to hear from you. Unfortunately we don't have the time to reply with long letters, but if you have questions about ELFQUEST that we can answer specifically and if you send a stamp or a postcard for reply, you'll get an answer. There are hundreds of people who write to us every issue - we wish we could answer or print every letter, good as they all are - but we thank you all for your support and encouragement, and will do our best to keep deserving it.
When we started this craziness we'd hoped, but didn't know that we'd touch as many people as we seem to have done. But you're telling us something and we're listening - and growing! At the Comic Art Conventions in New York and Philadelphia this past July we had the opportunity to try out some new ELFQUEST items - character buttons, T-shirts, posters, and even holographic 3-D pendants of Cutter - and the response was wonderful. Watch for announcements in upcoming issues. In addition, though, there are now other ELFQUEST projects in the works too, like new books, related stories to appear in other comics like Marvel's EPIC, and even the animated film, which is slowly but surely picking up steam!
ELFQUEST is indeed growing, but one thing won't change. We will never grow beyond our ability to keep producing the best fantasy tale possible. Every story we do, every product we sell, every project we undertake will contain just what you've come to expect from WaRP - a great quantity of heart. That's a promise.
ELFQUEST is just what I needed. A sword and sorcery sopa-opera with new age overtones. What a curious and unique creation! It blew me away to realize that what you have here is a tribe of mesolithic hunter-gatherer elves led by a military bureaucrat and his shaman advisor interacting with a tribe of neolithic agriculturists led by a standard issue Zoroastrian Sun Priest. Or is it perhaps a tribe of Marin County eco-freaks encountering a midwestern farm commune?
Loran Gayton
Denver, CO
*** This may be the best description of ELFQUEST we've seen yet!
The storyline is not only engaging, it takes
into account a realistic attitude toward magic
and its use - Morgana defend me against comic-
book wizards who expend oodles of thaumaturgic
power and never break into a sweat!
Ganesha-Dass
New York, NY
ELFQUEST is amazing. It's been likened to Tolkein,
I know, and some wise Mantlo mentioned
C.S. Lewis (far more appropriate). but for me
ELFQUEST brings to mind the name of James Thurber.
Thurber's fantasies, so rich in humanity
in an epic sense, fit ELFQUEST wonderfully, because
they're both so comfortable. Of course,
the fact that I grew up on Lauren Bacall's rendition
of THE THIRTEEN CLOCKS may have influenced
me. In any case, ELFQUEST is the stuff
of which comfortable evenings are made, snuggingly
warm by the roaring fire while the
winds whip snow by the Iiving room windows.
Kurt Busiek
Lexington, MA
While I liked the art very much, I am bothered
by the fact that all males and all females
have the same body, and nearly the same faces
except for length, "color," and style of hair,
clothes, etc. Everyone is perfectly symmetrical,
blemish and scar free, and the females
all have big breasts and wide hips. I know
this is standard conic-book procedure, but it
tends to rob the very good characters of individuality.
Wayne Cross
Chicago, IL
*** One-Eye? Dewshine? Savah? Comments?
The flashback in #4 settled a slight sense of
wrongness I'd felt about the Wolfriders. The
clan seemed to me to be too small to be convincingly
realistic. A tribe of less than 20 individuals
might be easier to keep track of for
story purposes, but it's just not large enough
to make a viable people. Your explanation of
how the tribe had been larger, and are still
recovering from their devastating encounter
with Madcoil, satisfyingly answers this inconsistency.
Fred Patten
Culver City, CA
The story-inside-story, beginning with the two
page spread of the horrific mutation-birth of
Madcoil, is your most powerful and unsparing
stuff yet. The distorted star-shape of the
monster's telepathic broadcast, a warp of the
elves' own, was a good touch. The mixture of
terror (the discoveries of the elf-skull and of
Bearclaw's mortally wounded body), grim starkness,
and warmth - Bearclaw's small smile of
pride in Cutter and his touch of farewell -
make this a genuinely moving retelling of a
classic theme. The sense of kinship with the
wolves is strongest here, too.
Paula O'Keefe
Kirksville, MO
Your elf-women are very good. You get six gold
stars in my book alone simply for never depicting
one of them clinging to the leg of one of
your male characters. Joyleaf Is surely the
most beautiful elf you've drawn yet.
Key Reynolds
Norfolk, VA
I've just finished ELFQUEST #4 and now that it's
"settled in" I thought I'd comment on your interesting
book. I don't share the dislike for
the "mainstream" comics companies evident in
some of the letters you've published; these
companies publish much fine work, of a certain
type. Your book is different, though, and I
have always felt that diversity within a field
is desirable almost in and of itself. But your
book is not just different, it is refreshingly
so. As you have mentioned, it is a "G-rated"
comic (and I hope it remains so) but you have
shown that a G-rated story does not have to be
self-righteous, maudlin, unrealistic (in a
human relations sense) or just plain boring as
so many such stories are, but that a tight and
meaningful presentation can be made within
these "limits." So often "G-rated" is taken
to mean "edited," "censored" or "diminished"
but your work shows that it can mean simply
"different" and "valid."
The Mad Maple
Toronto, Ontario
I have adopted your characters as though they
had been born in my own mind. They belong to
the part of my heart that is young, innocent,
wild, and willing to really live. I truly hope
you will keep publishing for many, many years.
Thanks for a very enjoyable interlude away from
our automated, hectic world.
Tamie Lusk
Richardson, TX
You have produced one of the most exciting epic
stories I have ever had the pleasure to experience.
I loved it so much I forced, under
threat of death and other atrocities, my wife
to read it. She too loved it and our sex life
has improved.
Karl Stansell
Lake Park, FL
*** With that we're going to argue?! Have fun, write, and we'll see you next issue.