Elfquest, one of the first breakout indie comics of the 1970s, is ending its 40-year-run with today's issue. There's a farewell signing with creators Wendy and Richard Pini tonight at Things From Another World in Portland -- if you can make it, tell them hi from me!
There'll be more Elfquest in future, the Pinis say, but this wraps up the tale for their towheaded Wolfrider chief Cutter and his family.
MILWAUKIE, Ore., (February 14, 2018) — All good things must come to an end. Today, Dark Horse Comics is both proud and sad to announce the end of “ElfQuest: The Final Quest.” After 40 years of genre bending and award-winning content, Wendy and Richard Pini are stepping away from their beloved series to take a well-deserved break and to focus on other projects and ventures.
“How simple, like the closing of a door, a 40-year labor of love comes to the conclusion we ordained so long ago,” explained artist Wendy Pini. “Richard and I can barely express our joy at the love we’re receiving from fans around the world. We return that love and look forward to our continued association with Dark Horse. Nothing’s more fun for us than being the guiding hands behind other creators’ interpretations of the elves.”
“I’ve followed ElfQuest since it’s very first publication. It took me several decades to finally bring Richard and Wendy’s wonderful creation to Dark Horse, and we’re proud they’ve chosen us to present the final chapters of their epic story,” said Mike Richardson, Dark Horse president and founder.
Read the rest
Wendy Pini is most famous for Elfquest (above), but her artistic career spans fifty years of pop culture history, from weird lowbrow surrealism to yaoi pastiche. Line of Beauty isn't just a stunning art book covering decades in and beyond epic fantasy, but a powerful yet curiously tentative biography, drawing together threads from a childhood in the Californian sticks to the poisoned promises of Hollywood.
That it's so mysterious and unjudgmental (of her, at least) is most remarkable for the fact it was written by her husband, Richard Pini. His book is a crafty invitation to the worlds implied by her work, a mythos that seems misty and intangible even as its details take shape.
Born 1951, Wendy was a talent from early childhood, and we learn of the tensions and inspirations that flowed through her to emerge as a personal Elfame: adoptive parents whose emotional abuses hover on the margins of trauma; childhood obsessions and contrasts; and encounters with what were then rare oddities in rural America—manga, weird cartoons, the deeper magics of European and Japanese folklore—which she consumed voraciously.
Richard's access to private artwork and private fact far exceeds what a researcher might get to, but flags his story right off as both authorized and intimate. But while uncritical, the narrative stops short of hagiography: there's much evidence of unexpected turns and some evidence of friction in its creation. The focus is on Wendy's deep fascination with Hogarthian serpentine structures and sequential art (hence the title), and her artistic motivation and development. Read the rest
Jenna Wortham wrote a fascinating article about the pros and cons of straight people identifying as queer. In the wild, this is often nothing more than an ugly appropriation. Ah, but the possibilities...
"Someday, maybe we’ll recognize that queer is actually the norm, and the notion of static sexual identities will be seen as austere and reductive. ... To the queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz, queerness was not a label people could claim but a complete reimagining of how people could be. “We may never touch queerness,” he wrote, in his 2009 book, “Cruising Utopia.” “But we can feel it as the warm illumination of a horizon imbued with potentiality.” The widespread acceptance and even appropriation of the word “queer” seem to move us both closer to and further from such a future. But the horizon is out there, and you can see it if you squint."
Read the rest
Matt Ritchie makes "slumps" — whimsical artwork of popular characters slumped over as if falling asleep or theatrically dejected by their latest mishap.
Up top are the heroes of Star Wars, who have perhaps just learned that Disney has no plans to remaster the original theatrical release. Here's the Justice League, reading reviews of the movies they appear in. Read the rest
Wendy Pini and Elfquest, the graphic novel series she creates with her husband, Richard, are among my favorite things in the world. So I immediately jumped on the chance to order a three-volume series of art books featuring her work on Kickstarter.
Welcome to our Art of Wendy Pini Kickstarter campaign. We are making available three different and amazing books that showcase the career of Wendy Pini. These three titles combined contain over 900 pages of material that comes direct from the Pini archives. Almost every piece has been scanned from the original artwork, meticulously preserved by the Pini’s since the 1970s.
The Art of Elfquest, Elfquest: The Art of the Story, and Line of Beauty: The Art of Wendy Pini together present an unprecedented look at a career that has spanned over 40 years and has warmed the hearts of generations of fans.
Hardcover trade editions and special deluxe limited editions are being offered. This Kickstarter campaign, if successful, will guarantee the creation of three gorgeous premium editions, plus give you terrific rewards.
I shall be reposting this at regular intervals until the "Elfquest coloring book" stretch goal is secured.
Art of Elfquest & Line of Beauty by Wendy and Richard Pini [Kickstarter] Read the rest
The Complete Elfquest is a mammoth graphic novel collecting the entire original series, as self-published by Wendy and Richard Pini from 1978-1985.
Rob Beschizza sums up what's so great about it.
Typographer Nate Piekos describes how he created a 21st-century typeface from a 1980 issue of Elfquest—just in time to begin lettering the comic series' conclusive installment.
Wherein Rob and Heather try their hand at
cosplay, the art of fandom-based costume design and performance.
Enjoy the latest page of
Elfquest. First time reader? Read
the entire saga, free online.
Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
The latest page 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. Read the rest
The latest page 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. Read the rest
Enjoy
the latest page of Elfquest. First time reader? Catch up at the comic's
official homepage.
