My name is Jenny Luzinsky and there is one feature I think you will find about me slightly interesting. I will be turning sixteen very soon. I was born on March 10, 1978. I believe that this is the day your first comic book of ELFQUEST appeared. Being that both of us will be turning sixteen soon, I was thinking perhaps you could do some sort of storyline with Cutter and the Wolfriders "borrowing" your car for their Sweet Sixteenth. I have enjoyed reading your stories for some time now and also enjoy NEW BLOOD and the other new stories coming out now.
Jenny Luznicky
(elf wanna-be)
<<street address removed from archive>>
Well, happy belated birthday, there! (Belated, because even though I'm typing these letters real close to your birthday, this issue won't be shipped from the printer until May 6.) For years, we've informally considered February 28 to be the date that the first - and only - issue of FANTASY QUARTERLY saw the light of day. Maybe we ought to make it official, eh? What does everyone out there think? (Either that, or take a note from the people who publish SUPERMAN and make it February 29, as his is. Naah. Then we could only celebrate ELFQUEST's birthday every four years - and I don't think 1978 was a leap year anyway!)
Hey! Haven't the Wolfriders suffered enough?!
I've just finished reading HIDDEN YEARS #11 and that last
paragraph has sent shivers down my spine. I mean, so
far they've lost two, count' em, two holts, One-Eye (I
still mourn him), Cutter's family (thank you, Rayek)
and now the Palace.
Aren't you folks being a tad mean now, to hint at a separation? There's gonna be enough trouble with Tyleet's and Scouter's (and probably a few more) Recognition! Oh, and Tyleet's showing herself to a human.
So please don't be hinting at another Two-Spear/Huntress Skyfire situation. The Wolfriders already have enough to deal with.
But aside from that, I think ELFQUEST is about the best thing around. (Ask the guy at my comics store; he tells me when the new EQ comics are in when I walk in the store!). And I can't wait for more BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS stories. Especially about Willowgreen and Windwhisper! Good work and thank you for it.
Corrine Wihela
<<street address removed from archive>>
Us? Mean?? Hey, I only mentioned a split "the likes of which" the Wolfriders haven't seen since those long-ago days. I never breathed a word of how it was going to happen. (I didn't get all those "A"s in Sneaky Foreshadowing 101 for nothing, you know - I had to pay the professor good money for them!)
Nooooooo!!! After all they've been through!
How could you! How could you destroy the Palace?
From the looks of things, it's going to take an army of Ekuars and Ahdris to fix this.
Well, Winnowill has certainly paid for what she's done. I hope the humans find her. But then, she could probably control them too. I could almost see her becoming "Eternal Lord Winnowill" of some human nation.
Just wait until she comes face to face with Timmain...
Man, Picknose has made quite a kingdom for himself. Are all of the trolls his descendants? Redlance is the only one who could untangle that family tree!
Thanks also for HIDDEN YEARS #9. I understand my ex-boyfriend a little better because of you. Now I just have to find the courage to tell him. I wonder how he'll like being compared to something as un-macho-like as an elf.
What is Tyleet doing with that human?
Aaargh! I hate waiting!
Jennifer Sigman
<<street address removed from archive>>
You'd never have survived the early years, when ELFQUEST was just the one title that came out every four months, that's for sure!
You guys have really done it now! Referring to
HIDDEN YEARS #11, that is. Maybe it's all my friends
who read EQ, but this little voice in me which has been
silently applauding the recent efforts of the Team, has
suddenly gotten a rude awakening, a kick in the a**
is more like it! It seems so bizarre that the center of all
elven life on Two Moons, the center of all quests, the
palace, is destroyed! This is teetering on the razor's
edge of sensationalism! The miracle creation of an
alien dream, shattered in an instant of shameful
hatred and all consuming greed. Shattered! Someone
revive me, I'm in shock!
Now, I've learned to deal with the new writers (you're all super!); I've learned to deal with NEW BLOOD, and I've even learned to deal with Trinket, but this is too much - sensory overload. I keep thinking that Rayek and Ekuar are going to run over there and "fix it all up new." What is Timmain going to say? Never stand in the way of a mother's rage!
So the big question is, when (notice, not "how" or "why" but "when") will the Palace be restored? (I suppose you can't answer that without divulging numerous details or spoiling the plot of a future quest.) Well, Winnowill certainly has run amuck, hasn't she? Leetah should just hunt her down and give Winnie her peace of mind.
The effect intended has sunk in, the Palace will not be the same. I can only hope for the best (and that you don't pull another one like that soon). "Please be careful, it's fragile."
Jason Cox
<<street address removed from archive>>
PS. Whatever happened to "JINK"?
PPS. Whatever happened to that poster thing?
PPPS. Whatever happened to "WAVEDANCERS"?
(It hasn't gotten to any comics stores here.)
PPPPS. That laser thing is a great idea, do
more!
Answer to PS: Jink is smack dab in the middle of development. We've had several creative meetings with John Ostrander and Kim Yale, two incredibly talented comics writers (you saw some of Kim's work in NEW BLOOD #9) who will work with us on this FutureWorld of Two Moons story. It's shaping up nicely.
PPS: That poster thing? Which poster thing? Any poster thing we've advertised, we've taken care of. ("Poster thing." Sounds like a bad horror title.)
PPPS: The first and second issues are already out, and by the time you read this, so will the third! If your comics shop isn't getting this great title, you should be having words with whoever does the ordering. Stern and confident words.
PPPPS: There it is again... "Laser thing." Maybe we should do a team up between "Laser thing" and "Poster thing." Glad you like it. The thing. You know.
And now for a couple of electronic letters from the online universe...
From: Yngvar Foelling <Yngvar@BBB.NO>
Subject: HIDDEN YEARS #11; Who drew the front
cover?
Well, I gritted my teeth and skipped all the messages with spoiler warnings. And on Thursday, I finally got HIDDEN YEARS #11, and breathed a sigh of relief. With all the capitals and exclamation marks, I was beginning to think that somebody had died or something.
I found something about the front cover a bit strange. On the inside, there was a credit listing:
McKINNEY & BARNETT - Cover illustration
But to the lower right of the drawing I can glimpse the letters "AB" and "BARN" (the rest has been chopped off). I can't believe that "AB" means anything but Paul Abrams, the penciller of both the front cover and the story in HY #10 (and many previous issues). At least there's no "AB" in Brandon McKinney.
So who did it?
I was a bit surprised to see the woodcutter from the end of KINGS included in the "Humans" centerspread in a previous issue (NEW BLOOD #10?). After all, he had only got a very short appearance in the last two pages. Could this mean that he would become a more important character later?
Paul Abrams did indeed do the pencils for the cover of HIDDEN YEARS #11 (and the fact was noted in the credits for HIDDEN YEARS #12). The technical term for that sort of occurance, at least within the pages of this magazine, is "screw-up." Never you mind what I call it in the privacy of my own office when it's pointed out to me after the deadline for corrections has passed.
From:Dorinda Hartmann
<dmhartma@STUDENTS.WISC.EDU>
Subject: Correcting my assumption, plus misc.
notes.
I was thumbing through my HY #11, and looked at the ad for the next issue again. I had written earlier that since the picture of the cover was drawn by Wendy, I assumed the issue would be, also. I neglected to pay attention to the blurb beneath the cover picture, which says, "From Wendy & Richard Pini, Brandon McKinney and Charles Barnett." McKinney and Barnett are the same penciller & inker who did HY #11, so it looks like I jumped to a big conclusion. The moral? A Pini cover doth not a Pini issue make.
Don't interpret that as being a problem for me, however. Whoever draws the next issue, Wendy or Brandon McKinney, I still can hardly wait for it. I'm not sure why I'm getting so excited about the turns HIDDEN YEARS is taking... The best way I've found to sum it up is actually from a panel in HY #11, the full page of Cutter holding the wolf cub and howling. Part of the text says:
"Cutter wonders why the shattering of the palace feels more like a beginning than an ending. Filled with a strange exhiliration -- he gives the moment full throat!"
To which I say: Yep, exactly. Yee-haaa! Onward!
And to that we heartily agree. See you all in 30 for the ante-penultimate split-up issue! - RP