Favourite Comics Covers - 'Elfquest'

‘ElfQuest’ #1
(“ElfQuest art copyright Warp Graphics, Inc. ElfQuest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved.”)

This is the last in my series of favourite comics covers.

Written by the husband-and-wife team of Richard and Wendy Pini, with art by Wendy, ‘ElfQuest’ is a fantasy story about a tribe of elf-like characters struggling to survive alongside other species on a primitive planet similar to Earth except it has two moons.

After the first issue was published in 1978 in an underground comic, ‘Fantasy Quarterly’, the company that owned it closed.

The Pinis then borrowed money to publish their stories and started ‘WaRP Graphics’ (later renamed ‘Warp’), publishing their stories in a magazine-sized format with full-colour covers and character portraits on the back although the interior was printed in black-and-white.

They also eventually republished the ‘Fantasy Quarterly’ issue with a new front cover as seen above, and rear cover portrait.

Apart from the gorgeous art and the fact that wolves feature as the wolf-friends of the main tribe of Wolfriders, the strong story and compelling characters had me hooked from the start.

The Pinis wrote the original story, which ran for 20 magazine-sized issues, with a definite conclusion.

Another two series followed, featuring the original characters – ‘Siege at Blue Mountain’ and ‘Kings of the Broken Wheel’ – but these were published in the usual comic size and in black-and-white.

Other writers and artists have contributed more ongoing ‘ElfQuest’ stories, which I’m not familiar with; at the time, once the Pinis were no longer the chief creators, my interest waned.

Having said that, going through the comics again for this post has reignited my interest, and it would be nice to ‘catch up’.

Richard and Wendy Pini’s site, ‘ElfQuest’, has some, not all, the stories available to read, though nothing compares to having printed copies.

As for the original series, I’m so glad I collected those issues as they’re now out-of-print.

It goes without saying that I’d love to share all 20 covers as they’re all gorgeous, but they do point to plot points.

So, apart from a couple of front covers, I thought it would be nice to show the back cover character portraits of the main cast.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little series.

Due to a couple of ongoing projects, I won’t be posting on Fridays for the foreseeable future, but will continue with the Tuesday posts, hope to see you then.

In the meantime, enjoy Wendy Pini’s beautiful art.