Elfquest: I think I can do this

Page 6 of The Final Quest: Prologue is published online-first for the first time here at Boing Boing. First time reader? You're a few issues behind.

• [Tavie]

  Strongbow/Treestump fistbump! Love it!

  Why you sad, Moonshade? Why you sad?

  • [Frances Ann Meade]

     Does Chitter look like Pike’s cub instead of Strongbow”s?

• [Margherita Tramontano]

  So the baby will be called Shupek? ^^ But why is Moonshade sad? Would she have another boy too?

• [Erika Westberg]

  Aw, Moonshade! She’s always been one of my absolute favourite characters, Now I want to know what’s up…

• [Tavie]

  Shiko? Ikona?

• [David Miz]

  Ha!  The first bump is awesome!  Wendy really captured that post-birth, exhausted motherly bliss in Shuna’s expression.  What is up with Moonshade?????

• [Zekiran Immortal]

  Strongbow Treestump fistbump :D

  And yes I wonder what Moonshade’s thinking. I hope she’s not more disgusted than worried, or angry. Perhaps she’s thinking on her own daughter Crescent?

• [Tavie]

  SOMETHING isn’t following The Way. That’s all Moonshade seems to get upset about so we know it’s got to be something about that.

  • [Keith Kogane]

    If it *IS* about The Way it’s interesting that meanwhile Strongbow has an absolutely adorable smile plastered to his face. :3

  • [Alison Madigan]

    I wouldn’t guess it’s about The Way…she looks less annoyed or irritated than pensive, thoughtful & yeah, I agree with others, a little sad.

    • [Michael Nosal]

      I believe that it has to do with Cresent, that she has taught Shuna her tanning skills lends the mother/daughter dicotomy. Watching Shuna during this time of joy must be hard for her. Part of the Way is staying in the “now” of wolf thought.

• [kantis]

  Aw. I’m so happy! I know it’s just a fictional baby, but still, it’s making me so happy! Not a scene you see in comics everyday.

• [Tavie]

  Maybe she has some sort of “you’ve got to stop inviting humans into our tribe, they’re just making more humans and soon the tribe will be overrun by humans and HUMANS HUMANS HUMANS ARGH” rant building up…

  • [Erin]

    Thats what I’m thinking…

• [Tavie]

  After all – wolfriders feared and hated humans for thousands of years, and now they’re fistbumping over one being born. Maybe that’s her problem. Or not, maybe I’m being really harsh to her… either way, Wendy is LOVING that we’re speculating ourselves crazy over this.

  • [Keith Kogane]

    She looks wistfully sad.  Maybe it’s one of those “I remember my firstborn, too.  The excitement… and look how it ended.”  Maybe she can’t let herself be happy because she knows one day the baby will age out and die.  That they’ll watch Shuna *AND* her baby age and die, no matter what they do.

    • [Erika Westberg]

       Maybe. For some reason, several of these new pages has made me think about how the elves and the world around them age and change – or not change.

    • [Michael Nosal]

       …and she is thinking “This is The Way”

  • [Michael Nosal]

    Moonshade looks more wistful than anything. There is a love for Shuna here. Moonshade taught Shuna her gift. I think what we are seeing here is a melting of this Elder.

• [Savanna Wilson]

  I think it’s because Shuna is leaving with the cub instead of staying,  AT LEAST that’s what i’m getting.  Shuna did talk about traveling and now that the baby is born and healthy, she’ll leave, and that’s not THE WAY.  Perhaps that’s what Moonshade is unhappy about?

  • [Michael Nosal]

    I think you might have hit close to home on this. Do you think Moonshade sees herself in Shuna? Seeing as how Mantricker could be her sire, we can only guess what Moonshade was like as a cub and how being a mother can change everything.

• [dbreid101]

  Maybe she is sad because she has to wait a whole ‘nother week for the next page. I know that’s why I’m sad.

• [Andreas Ganesha Spring]

  Oh, the suspense… we all to have to wait what it might be that is preoccupying Moonshade… I’m inclined towards the notion of her having wistful thoughts about the past and her late first-born daughter, too… Or is she feeling that it’s not quite The Way for Cutter to be apart from his son when his second grandson is going to be born?

• [Emby Quinn]

  Strongbow couldn’t look happier or prouder if HE were the sire of that baby…which I find deliciously amusing, considering his history with humans. Still, he’s always had a fondness for Shuna, especially since she saved his life during the Palace War.

  As for Moonshade…there’s no telling what’s going on inside that pretty head of hers. She definitely isn’t angry or irritated. She’s definitely wistful and sad about something. We’ll just have to wait until she tells us (or Strongbow) what it is.

• [Kristin Hunt]

  TReestump & Strongbow Sharing a first-bump? what is this?

  But OOOH Shuna’s little boy! He’s gotta have a tribe-name! Shuna has to bring him to visit and Bee too!

  The World of Abode is strange. Clans can be like the Hill-Hopper Clan and very low-tech (spears and bows), or like Djun’s people and more Medieval with metalurgy… its an interesting world.

  I never get tired of it!

  I wanna know whats wong with our Master Tanner, Moonshade. She is unhappy about something. Something making her ache.. I tell that much.

  I want to know what it is.

  • [kantis]

     I think Abode is an unusually realistic fantasy world precisely because not all the cultures are on the same technological level. There’s tribes with spears and bows on earth right now, as well as over two billion people with internet. The average Australian aborigine never even heard about the European middle ages while they were happening, so why would the culture of the Hill-hopper clan resemble that of Djunsland?

    I actually admired this quality way back reading the very first issues of EQ, where Wolfriders, humans, trolls and Sun Folk each had their own distinct culture ranging from hunting and gathering to farming, with metallurgy and weaving and without. I’m glad this has been kept up every time we meet a new civilization in Elfquest.

• [Julia Schuyler Patterson]

  MOONSHADE IS SAD. What a beautiful panel — wordless and still. It’s interesting that in the final panel, you see Moonshade’s own son, Dart, and her lifemate. Two very different families – Moonshade’s and Shuna’s. The old and the new. But still, why so SAD? Can’t wait for more!

• [Michael Nosal]

  Moonshade lost her first-born, Cresent. She would have taught her her skills of tanning, but that was never to happen. With Shuna, she was able to pass on this skill and thus made Shuna a surrogate for Cresent. Seeing this joyous occasions must make her wonder “What if..?”

• [Margherita Tramontano]

  For Treestump and Strongbow, a new cub is always a blessing- even a human cub.^^

• [Nico Sels]

  NOW I know what’s been bothering me about the art of futurequest until now.. it’s the difference in line width in every panel (and sometimes in the same panel) because wendy probably draws and then scales down and re-uses artwork here and there, to avoid having to redraw the same position. This leads to an incoherent line width. I understand this is to save time, but there are photoshop tricks to fix these  inconsistencies; Wendy if you read this, some friendly advice: look into some photoshop solutions to let the pages sparkle even more! ;-)

• [Jamonique J. Williams]

  Yes, why does moonshde look so sad?

• [Erin C Carver]

  Crescent was killed by humans… perhaps Moonshade has never fully reconciled herself to Shuna’s presence?

  Also I think Treestump and Strongbow had a bet about the baby’s gender. *grin*