Well, the Vegematic went pretty hungry, I'm happy to say, though it didn't quite starve. Here's what you had to say about HIDDEN YEARS #6...
Number 6 - verrrry interesting! I look forward -
no, eagerly anticipate - no - argh! Why is this a bi-monthly
series? Due to the peculiarities of college life
and local comic dealers, I'll have to wait until September
to get part 2. Never mind. I'll wait... patiently?
"How Shall I Keep From Singing," Part the First, was very good. I couldn't really tell until I read the "Matter of Opinion" that it wasn't Wendy drawing it.
Just a few comments and questions. Is it just me, or does Haken look an awful lot like Winnowill's view of Rayek as a High One? Even her vision of him as a Conehead has the same clothes. The easiest explanation I can think of is that Winnowill is Haken's daughter, possibly granddaughter. They even act the same - a desperate desire to get off the World of Two Moons. Do these things get passed down in the genes?
Not to mention the next issue's cover... Timmain versus Haken - just like the Wolfriders against Winnowill. Hmm - animosity through genes?
Love how the High Ones resemble the current crop of Wolfriders.
I hope I'll get some of the questions answered in Part Two. Can't wait, can't wait! Oh, and if you're going to let others do ELFQUEST proper, make them all as good as this crew!
Dawn Evenhouse
<<street address removed from archive>>
I just finished reading HIDDEN YEARS #6 and I
want to congratulate Sarah, Paul, Charles and Paty for
doing such a fantastic job! It must have been hard on
them to hear so many prejudices after Wendy and
Richard announced that others would draw ELFQUEST.
But they really proved everyone, who said ELFQUEST wouldn't be ELFQUEST without Wendy's drawings, wrong. Very wrong indeed.
ELFQUEST may have changed a little, but it is still ELFQUEST and don't let anybody tell you it's not. I especially liked page 15, on which Timmain expresses her grief over Adya's death by howling with a wolf at the moon. That was very emotional and beautiful as well.
So in the future, I hope you will keep up the good work (Wendy and Richard too, of course) and will give us many more stories of ELFQUEST!
Judith van der Klei
<<street address removed from archive>>
Just wait 'till you see what we've got planned for the rest of 1993! More HIDDEN YEARS, more NEW BLOOD, a new BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS series starting in July, and WAVEDANCERS powering up in December... Yow! Are we having fun yet!?
I am truly disappointed by HIDDEN YEARS #6. I
have collected ELFQUEST in graphic novel form for eight
years now, and I have never before had cause to
complain. Only with the advent of HIDDEN YEARS have
I started collecting in regular issue format, mainly
because I fell in love with the incredible inks and colors
which so majestically enlivened Wendy's already
incredible artwork. In issue #6, not only is that art
missing, so is the exquisitely subtle shading that
typified the previous HIDDEN YEARS issues and added to
the wonder I felt every time a new issue arrived at the
comic store. The new artists may be talented (in fact,
I found the quality of their work to be superior to that
of most others) but the comic loses something without
that "Pini touch."
As far as the story goes, I admit I'm looking forward to the next issue for that reason alone, although much of #6 was devoted to facts that most ELFQUEST fans already knew, for the most part.
For years, we readers have patiently awaited each irregularly-printed issue and have not been disappointed by the quality therein. If #6 is representative of the price we have to pay for regular publication, give me back season-long waits. If publication will still be irregular, well, we'll see.
Tom Maddox
<<street address removed from archive>>
Nothing for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Vegematics to complain about here! But it really frosts my behind to hear about "irregular publication" even now. Starting particularly with the HIDDEN YEARS series, a new issue has come out every two months like clockwork, within a week of the middle of the month of publication. if there are irregularities, they're in the pipeline that gets our comics from the distributors to your comics shops, or in the ordering and stocking practices of the shops themselves. We're shipping the books on time.
It's funny how, in your life, you can be cruising
along on smooth seas and then one winter you realize
that time hasn't just passed, it has passed away,
gone, forever, and there isn't anything to be done
about it. There are so many things you'll never be
able to do again, or be again, or look at in the same
way. The moon doesn't seem to glow any more, stars
don't seem as bright, sometimes the light hurts your
eyes, and the clock ticks too damn loud. Mortality
becomes a reality, flowers become more beautiful,
pain and sadness become sharper.
In the past I've never counted years as a measure of life. It's not only the mileage, it's also where you go. You and Wendy have gone quite a bit in the lifetime of ELFQUEST. For that you can be proud, as we are proud of you. Fifteen years is a long time. It's longer than your marriage (Actually, no - that's over 20 years, but who's counting, right? - RP), it's the length of my beloved nephew's life, it's half of my life. It's also time for you to delegate. It's not something that everyone is going to like. (Whoever does accept change easily and quickly?) I'm surprised that you two haven't done so already.
All change doesn't have to be bad; it will be different. (And it is. There is a decidedly more "comic book" look to this style rather than the soft style of Wendy's.) The important thing here is, that it is no different. Those of us that count have lived through changes before (look at the uproar the Great Bird of the Galaxy caused when he birthed his second child, Star Trek: The Next Generation - the same, yet so many changes!) and we will again.
Life is about changes, good or bad, happy or painful. Without them we would be as alike, as boring, as brown paper bags. You two were paramount in teaching us that. Diversity is the fruit of life; don't just stick to apples. Always sing!
Kelly Dwyer
<<street address removed from archive>>
I don't know if this was done on purpose, but I like how the colors of the High Ones as themselves are pale and faded like a memory, so distant as to be almost lost. Then on the World of Two Moons the color erupts, like a harsh reality. I think it pulled me even deeper into the story. The end, "To Be Continued," was rather like running full tilt into a brick wall. I'm practically holding my breath for issue #7.
I like it that you have pulled away a little from strictly Cutter and his family, giving fresh insight to the WoTM's many possibilities. To all the people who work on ELFQUEST, keep up the incredibly good work. I look forward to many more years of EQ. Shade and sweet water!
Laina Christner
<<street address removed from archive>>
About HIDDEN YEARS #6: All right, you party
poopers, I'll admit it. "it ain't Wendy."
So what?
Wendy hasn't "abandoned" ELFQUEST. she's still there, only now she's editing instead of writing and drawing. she's still got creative control! If she doesn't like it, it doesn't happen! And face it, people, the new team is good! Maybe it doesn't look quite like Wendy's work any more (though it comes damn close), but I think it's work that Wendy would be proud to do. It's not worse, it's just a little different. And I like it! I hope that Wendy decided to keep doing some work herself, maybe even a new comic, but I won't let my love for her work keep me from appreciating someone else's. Just one word of warning to the new team - if you don't manage to keep Skywise as sexy as Wendy made him, I'm going to be very pissed off at you! Grrr! But honestly, I think you're doing great - keep it up!
On to the comic. Do you have an unwritten law or something that says that powerful elves with long blue-black hair have to be the bad guys? Or is it that powerful bad guys have to have long blue-black hair? Winnowill, Rayek, and now Haken - this is becoming a habit. "Once is chance, twice is coincidence. Three times is conspiracy!"
Speaking of Winnowill and Rayek, they both look a lot like Haken. Hmmm... I can think of a few interesting possibilities here. If Haken gets driven off, or runs away, maybe he meets up with a different group of High Ones and fathers Winnowill? Am I close? Naah - his skin's too dark for that, unless Winnowill decided to bleach herself. Ooo! Ooo! Even better idea - Haken is Rayek's ancestor! Hey, for all I know, he could be related to them both!
Waitaminnit here... Haken's outfit is verrry familiar...
Oh, you sneaky beggars! Back in SIEGE AT BLUE MOUNTAIN #7, When Winnowill was showing Rayek what he could be like as a High One, THAT'S HAKEN!!! Same outfit and everything! You did that on purpose! So unless you just decided to see how many people would notice and freak out, Winnowill must have seen Haken when she was young. And that means he must have joined up with the group who later became the Gliders, or at least passed through. And that means that he could be Winnowill's father. And THAT would explain why she's so power-hungry, with him as an example!
This is excellent! Please, please, puhleeeze (I'm begging here, OK?) tell me if I'm right. Is Haken somehow related to Winnowill and/or Rayek or are Sarah & Co. just trying to play mind games with us poor unenlightened readers?
Even assuming you answer me, how am I supposed to wait two months to find out??
Melanie Harris
<<street address removed from archive>>
One day at a time, gentle reader, one day at a time. (And now I must exit quickly, stage left, before the angry mob arrives!) With respect to your questions, all I will say at this point is that "there are always possibilities." There could be relations among the named characters, and it's just as likely that the EQ creative crew is playing with your head. After all, it's not like we've never done that before, now, hmm? And have no fear at all, there are bunches of projects that we have in mind, for the near and far future, that involve both Wendy and me in our "old" roles, in addition to whatever else we're cooking. It's going to be an amazing next 15 years! (Heck, next 15 months!)
Not to sound like a fetishist, but I love the feet on page 1 of HIDDEN YEARS #6. Tell Abrams and Barnett they get this year's Emily Devenport Fine Footsie Award. It's the nuances that count.
Emily Devenport
<<street address removed from archive>>
Where would we be without the considered and scholarly reactions to our work...
Sputter, sputter, growl, growl...
A few words to the people who have caught the "It's not Wendy" virus:
"You are so set in your ways that you can't tell when you're wrong!" - Moonshade.
A peeved fan in Maine
no address on letter
You asked me what I thought of HIDDEN YEARS
#6. Well, I won't lie. The colors were not as "soft," so
to say, as in the previous "Starfall, Starrise." Neither
were the inks; everything was more defined.
Comparing the artwork of Timmain and Adya from
the earlier ELFQUEST, there is a slight difference in
appearance. I could tell that it was done by someone
other than Wendy, almost borderline with NEW BLOOD.
By the way, I noticed Paul Abrams and Charles
Barnett are doing both.
But I condemn nothing. I put all prejudice aside and love ELFQUEST for what it is, for the emotions it evokes, for the reality that peeks through the fantasy, for its entire being. I really enjoyed this issue as I have the others, and I give the new team my blessings, too.
I did notice that Haken looks identical to how Rayek pictures himself being a High One; they seem alike in more ways than one. Aerth reminds me of Leetah. The beautiful blonde in green reminds me of Joyleaf. On page 18, panel 4, the red-headed elf reminds me of Redlance. Of course the beautiful hair in the sparkling starry gown (Sefra?) must be an ancestor to Skywise. There is something that troubles me about her, though. On page 5, top panel of Elfquest Book 1 "Fire and Flight" the elf on the right wears a similar headpiece that Sefra does, but looks like a male. What happened? I could do with more names that match faces to learn who's who. I now understand what Rayek meant by "a love betrayed." And I understand Timmain's selflessness when she tried to remember. The Wolfriders should be proud.
Amira Safi
<<street address removed from archive>>
Consider that the figure to the right in the panel you mention is indeed Sefra, although a much older - or perhaps aged is a better term - one. The scene of the two High Ones looking frightened doesn't necessarily happen right after they are expelled from the Palace. It could be that they're still around, years later, still horrified by some example of human cruelty.
You're right! It's ain't Wendy, but it ain't bad!
I expect that as the new team's leathers get
well-worn, there will be some wonderful things
happening.
Cristy Strong
<<street address removed from archive>>
You bet! Thanks to all who wrote - and there were many! Keep those letters coming in and we'll keep reading every one of them. - RP