From: d2wallac@sisko.sbcc.cc.ca.us
What's up? I have to say that JINK is so cool. Even if Wendy wouldn't draw me a picture of her when I met you all at Comics on Parade in Santa Barbara... just kidding. Seriously though, I really loved the storyline. And the new one seems very intense. Jerrod Anaken is one real bastard, and I can't wait to see Jink teach him a thing or two.
Even though JINK is set far in the future, it is still as captivating as SHARDS, and HIDDEN YEARS. I think it's great that you have created a new story that is as interesting as the original ELFQUEST, while standing on it's own - somewhat like Star Trek:TNG and the original Trek series.
Anyway, take it easy. Oh, I was wondering about the Jink story that Wendy told me about. You see, nobody can draw Jink the way Wendy does... Very sexy, but not in a sleazy way. More of a powerful, strong way. And the other artists usually seem to draw Jink either one way or the other, but not an even mix of both. So after five minutes of begging Wendy to draw Jink for me, she says, "Look. I'm not going to draw anything today, but I will tell you about a storyline that I'm planning for sometime next year... and I'm going to do the pencils for it." So she told me that it is set in what would be the 1800's of Earth, and that Two-Edge (or just his influence) causes a premature industrial revolution. It sounds interesting, in any case.
Well, I'm gonna go now. This is the first time I have ever sent E-mail, and I want to make sure that I get it right. I'm taking Computer Science at Santa Barbara City College, and we all have free accounts for the semester. Pretty cool, huh?
Andrew Wallace
What Wendy let slip about that new story that we're cooking up is only the very tip of the iceberg. Yes, it does take place in that "unknown" time period between SHARDS/HIDDEN YEARS/NEW BLOOD and JINK/THE REBELS, and while it may or may not involve our favorite elf/troll tinkerer, it will certainly take note of the effects he's had (will have had?) on Abode. But Two-Edge isn't the main character, oh no. We've got another poor soul slated for grief; don't ever doubt it. - RP
From: MSaaski@aol.com
Just finished reading JINK #6, and it's the best issue yet! It had drama, action, pathos, and that little touch of melancholy that makes ELFQUEST books so poignant. Jink's habit of mindwiping her romantic interests is sad but necessary. But on the other hand, wouldn't it be handy to start over -- really, truly over -- with a clean slate with a love gone awry? I have a feeling that Jerrod and Jink will meet again. There's a score to be settled here. I hope we find out more about the Neverending. Their quest is an interesting comparison to the elves' original Quest. Those little clues about Jink's origins (a childhood in space. Hmmmm) keep me on the edge of my chair. And I, for one, am happy to see an ELFQUEST title without What's-her-name as the leading bad gal. Please keep it that way.
Oh, yes, and please bring back WAVEDANCERS, with or without What's-her-name.
Margie Saaski
Look for a WAVEDANCERS Special early next
year- without What's-her-name. What's-her-name will
be making trouble somewhat later. - RP
Well, I haven't had much to say about JINK,
mostly because I was waiting for something to happen
that I truly understood. For the most part, I guess I just
didn't "get" JINK, but this issue (#6) has cleared up a
lot of questions.
Just as a matter of curiosity, when Jink explains to True Holder about her heritage, she shows the Palace flying through space in the shape of a palace, but as I recall from my early EQ, the High Ones' ships were more like organic Greenpeace Death Stars, only taking the form of a palace at the last moment in order to appeal to a human medieval culture. Right? Oh, and speaking of Jink's heritage, that was a nice curveball you threw. Everybody's been so concerned about whether or not she's Tim- main and Skywise's child of Recognition, but heck, she could be Timmain! (...urk!...)
Natalie Carter's letter (in the letters page) is a perfect case for the point I was trying to make in my Chot letter (printed in NEW BLOOD #28), illustrating what R. Anthony Phillips in the letters column of SHAMAN'S TEARS #5 called "the negative truth of bigotry." Natalie writes: They're deceitful and grotesque, but have a warped sense of reality and so find themselves self important and beautiful. The trolls... I mean, the Neverending! Sadly, Natalie Carter falls victim to her own warped sense of reality. Trolls and the Neverending are beautiful to each other, just as they are neither grotesque nor deceitful to each other. They are true to their own cultural codes, which is the only standard that matters. Where is it written that every culture must measure up to the standards we western humans apply, and who appointed us the arbiters of galactic beauty and behavior, anyway? I see this attitude on a local and global scale around me every day, and it's extremely frustrating. "I was ten years old... the first time I ever saw a (white man). At first I thought they all looked sick, and I was afraid they might just begin to fight us any time, but I got used to them."-- Black Elk.
But here's the kicker, and it's something I find both appalling and distressing: If I read Natalie correctly, and it's the elf/high one standard of beauty she holds as the norm, then by her own reasoning she herself, as a human, is incapable of achieving beauty in her own eyes. Can this be true? Are there readers out there who think themselves less than they are because they don't measure up to the drawings they see? On the one hand, Jink is only a book, f'r gosh sakes, in a larger sense it doesn't really matter. But on the other hand, books are among the most powerful tools of social commentary that exist, capable of exerting influence over the course of generations. It is a prime responsibility of the reader to maintain a sense of perspective and personal ethical consistency. I am the first to admit that certain books have changed my life (Hamlet and John Crowley's Little, Big come to mind), but I have never come away from a book feeling less than I am. How disturbing to think that there are those whose self-image can be lessened by a book, however insidious the change. I sincerely hope I'm reading more into that thought than is actually there, but what if I'm right? It would be just like the trolls to steal the High Ones' history and adapt it to fit themselves, making them seem like the important ones. You have to admit, it's EXACTLY like a troll to be that ugly and think itself beautiful...
Mari Hersh-Tudor
<<street address removed from archive>>
Food for thought. Keep those good letters
coming in, and we'll see you in 45! - RP