By the way, the latest issue of SCIENCE DIGEST SPECIAL EDITION (Sept-Oct 1980) contains an article suggesting that scientists have come upon a possible explanation for certain types of extra-sensory perception ("sending"?), involving the susceptibility of some people to certain electromagnetic wavelengths. Do you know whet they call there wavelengths? ELF WAVES! Oh, they SAY that the letters stand for Extra-Low- Frequency waves. . . but WE know the truth, don't we?
Brian Caden
Cincinnati, OH
***** Oh my! Now, let's get this straight. This is FANTASY we're dolng here and ... will you guys please get those wires off our heads and put those meters away? We're trying to do a letter column here...
I don't think I have ever found a comic or
magazine that is more enchantingly beautiful
than ELFQUEST. I'm sure you've noticed that it
only needs one letter added to become "SELFQUEST."
Rather beautiful, isn't it?
Richard Male
Sydney, Australia
***** To be honest, we hadn't seen that alphabetic touch of revelation before, but you've hit the nail squarely on the head. When the elves complete THEIR quest, will we have finished OURS, we wonder.
NEWS FLASH! From the UPI wire service, dated
September 18, 1980.
Police in Laurel, Mississippi report receiving a call from a woman who told them she had been attacked by a band of elves. Investigating officers were dubious to begin with and the woman didn't help her credibility by pointing to a blank wall whenever she was talking about the window the alleged elves came through. When one of the officers pointed out that there was no window where the woman kept pointing, she reportedly told them the elves had taken it with them.
***** Honest to the High Ones, folks, that's exactly how it came out of the radio. Now c'mon, Pike, put the window back . . .
***** This letter came or a bombshell to us, and may have a similar effect on others, but we felt it deserved to be seen, and replied to.
Much as I love your comic, I do have a
complaint. It is about the cuteness. Your comic is
a bright, new idea and I love it well, but there are
times when the syrupy sweetness of some of the
scenes makes my teeth itch. For example, in
issue #7 you depict two battles between trolls.
Neither was convincing. If your trolls are the
greed-twisted fascists you portray them to be,
then they should have been flailing at each
other like bikers on speed. Instead, they were
about as gruesome as a touch football game
between overweight accountants.
Think of the damage you may be doing to young readers' minds. They may grow up thinking that fratricidal warfare is a romantic sport like an SCA tournament. Get serious! If you want people to be scared of fascism, you have to rub their noses in it. Cannibalism tastefully hinted at won't do it. If you need any ideas, try reading the reports from Amnesty International. They are truthful, detailed and graphic.
Another example is issue #5. After a long, multi-issue buildup, you delivered the big, heavy love-scene. What a letdown. After all that development, I expected some real soul-rattling Tantric lovemaking that would have made Aleister Crowley drool with envy. And what do I get? Rocks, that's what I get. Rocks. What's a comic book for if it ain't got pictures?
Who do you think you would shock? I'm a 29 year old boilermaker who eats mushrooms, counts his breaths, organizes anarchists and studies aboriginal shamanism! If Cutter wants to screw zwoots it is OK with me.
Now, I'm not asking you to start drawing a lot of heavy sex and violence. Grid knows, the rest of the sword-and-sorcery comic books are nothing but sweaty violence, neofascist rape fantasies and adolescent posturing by dim-witted thugs. Nor am I asking for realism. All I am asking for is a little balance.
You seem to have overreacted to the raw fury that currently dominates fantasy fiction. But too much sweetness and light can be a bad thing. Especially when it is combined with Victorian delicacy.
You are afraid to graphically represent the two things that remind us of our material nature. Sex and dying. The big taboos. Your characters have sex, but only behind rocks. Your characters die, but they do so tastefully and they never bleed too much. You are rejecting the material to embrace the spiritual. That's not a good idea. One does not exist without the other. In fact, your comic book is a good example of creeping dualism! All you need to balance the rag is to pay attention to the realities of earthly existence. Making love includes screwing. Disemboweled corpses smell bad. Fascists are evil as well as ridiculous.
Loran Gayton
Denver, CO
***** Where do we begin? For the record, and so that the writer can't accuse us of tampering behind the scenes with his words, we have edited his letter slightly. We have substituted "sex" and "making love" for some of the earthier colloquialisms originally used.
Why? Because, Mr. Gayton, ELFQUEST is not the "rag" you would seem to prefer. Because while we are certainly not Victorian (look it up in a dictionary before using it incorrectly next time-- as well as "fascism" and "dualism") in our outlook, we do feel a responsibility to those young readers (whose minds we are damaging, apparently) who will learn soon enough that the real world just isn't a nice place all the time. As you can see by events in this issue's story, the world of ELFQUEST is not always a gentle one either. But what purpose would even more "realistic" imagery serve? The power of understatement is, to us, essential to truthful fantasy. And fantasy MUST touch the heart with a deep and abiding truth or it is ultimately useless.
Why should we portray graphic sex in ELFQUEST? You can get all you want off the magazine rack at your local newsstand or in a combat-zone movie house. Why show wholesale bloodletting here when you can tune in the evening news? We seriously doubt we'd shock anyone by showing these things. We're all familiar with them. But we can do ELFQUEST the way we do because most of our readers have something called imagination. We don't HAVE to go behind the rocks, to cheapen Cutter's initiation into the full mystery of Recognition by making a spectator sport of it. We don't HAVE to lay out the steaming guts. We can spend the time on developing the more "spiritual" things we find so lacking in so many aspects of life today-- we ARE providing a balance. One has to avoid sitting in one of the balance-pans to see it, however.
As far as we are concerned, there may be a place for pornographic sex and ultragraphic violence in today's multi-media world. We're not prepared to say where that place is, but it isn't here.
ELFQUEST #8 was superb, but it seems that
Cutter's hate for humans has faded. Why? I hope
in upcoming issues Cutter shows more hate and
anger for humans. Also, in one of the near
upcoming issues, please have Skywise on the
back cover.
Craig Mazzara
Douglaston, NY
***** Well, looks like we were able to anticipate one of your wishes right here! But as for the other, certainly the Wolfriders have had reason to hate humans in the past, but don't you think it's a bad idea to hate ALL the time?
I got ELFQUEST #8 a week or so ago, and I
have one general comment of praise--the
further aspect of Leetah's character. Fantastic! I
love the character of Leetah. but she seemed a
BIT too well-adjusted. Her newly-revealed fear is
touching and realistic--it fits so well with her
personality. She hasn't lost any of her mystery
and charm, but has been revealed as an even
more realistic woman. Thank you!
Melody Rondeau
San Jose, CA
I want to argue with a letter you printed in
your last issue. I think Leetah's responsibilities as
village healer are plenty binding and a VERY
good reason to stay behind. "No one has died
here since my healing skill matured." Well I
should hope she would take pride in that! It's
something to be darn proud of! And while I too
would like to see Leetah save Cutter's pale hide
at some point, I like the idea of a woman's
career being as important to her as following
her lifemate. Our heroine isn't loyal little Yeoman
Rand who stands by her beloved Captain to the
end-she's Doctor McCoy and she'll stay in
Sickbay where she's needed!
Alice Willoughby
Palo Alto, CA
I am an English teacher at an alternative
school for Indian children on the Mille Lacs Lake
Indian Reservation In central Minnesota.
One day, in search of reading material, I introduced the first several issues of ELFQUEST to my junior high students. My classes haven't been the same since. I have never seen students respond with so much affection toward a story as they do with ELFQUEST. Then, my senior high students demanded I run the ELFQUEST for them. it's been a pleasure developing lesson plans and worksheets based on the series.
However ELFQUEST came into being, it seems endowed with the "heart" of storytelling that transcends any comic-book genre. In fact, storytelling at one time among the Chippewa Indians (who are native to this area) was an important tool in instructing the young with legends and moral-tales, and stories that brought out the "heart" of the listener. ELFQUEST encompasses these qualities simply and beautifully; the proof has been in seeing the light and smiles in the face of a student who has just finished reading an ELFQUEST issue. It still amazes me.
There are also many points in the storyline that reflect the American Indian "sense of life," or that of any culture that has similar concerns such as respect for nature, life, etc. As a student pointed out to me. "Maybe the Indians learned things from those elves long ago."
Matt Kegg
Onomia, MN
You definitely have a very professional
product that is far above anything else I have
seen recently. In fact, I don't like to talk of it as a
"comic book"--that doesn't seem to be the right
name for what you have, but neither does
anything else I've thought of. Now, I think it would
be really great if ELFQUEST was in color throughout,
but I don't want to wait a year or two between
issues just to have it in color...
SFC Jacquelyn Sykes
Fort Myer, VA
After three long years, the ELFQUEST color book is now a REALITY! Reprinting the first 5 issues in FULL process color, the book is being published by the Donning Co., who also did FRANK KELLY FREAS: THE ART OF SCIENCE FICTION and WONDERWORKS: THE ART OF MICHAEL WHELAN. The ELFQUEST book will be available in September or October for Christmas 1981. More next issue!
Richard & Wendy