Introducing the Elfquest Re-Read

[swan_tower]

Growing up, I never read that many comic books. I associated the medium with superhero stories, which didn’t much interest me; later on, when I knew there were lots of other kinds of stories out there, I still found myself bouncing off them for various reasons (didn’t like the art style, found the stories too thin to engage me, etc). These days there are some comic book series I love, but even now they’re few in number.

And then there’s Elfquest.

A friend of mine handed me the first graphic novel when I was about twelve, and I fell hard. She went out of town right after loaning me the third volume; I just about went mad waiting for her to come home and give me the fourth. I discovered there was an Elfquest roleplaying game, and I got my local bookstore to order it in. Had I ever played an RPG? Nope. Never got around to playing that one, either. But it was an Elfquest-related thing, so I had to have it.

I’ve decided, in the tradition of my Wheel of Time and Diana Wynne Jones Project, to re-read the series and blog as I go. I don’t have a terribly organized plan for this; I think I want to approach it more via topics than making one post per volume, but I’ll tackle those topics in narrative order, revisiting some of them as they become relevant again. Right now my intent is to stick only to the first eight graphic novels (up through the end of Kings of the Broken Wheel); nothing after that worked as well for me as the early stuff did. But possibly I’ll change my mind, especially as I’m still working my way through The Final Quest, and may want to revisit some of the middle volumes to remind myself of what’s going on there. If you want to read along, all the stuff I’m definitely going to post about is available for free on their website.

This post will serve as the index for the whole blog series, so I’ll update it as I go with links to the individual posts as I make them. Look for the first of those soon!

• Fire and Flight: Wolfriders vs. Sun Folk
• Fire and Flight: A Maiden’s Place
• Fire and Flight: Recognition
• The Forbidden Grove: The Ensemble
• The Forbidden Grove: Humans
• The Forbidden Grove: Archaeology
• Captives of Blue Mountain: Winnowill
• Captives of Blue Mountain: One Heart, One Mind

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[sovay]

Right now my intent is to stick only to the first eight graphic novels (up through the end of Kings of the Broken Wheel); nothing after that worked as well for me as the early stuff did.

I don't think I even read past that unless you count Hidden Years, which I do. [edit] Much later, I ran into some spoilers for later developments which my brain promptly filed away as NOPE NOT CANONICAL, so, eh.

I'm looking forward!

[swan_tower]

Which developments? (You can rot13 them if you'd prefer to spare other people's eyes.)

[sovay]

(You can rot13 them if you'd prefer to spare other people's eyes.)

Xnuiv nf Gjb-Fcrne'f qnhtugre? Abg rirelguvat arrqf gb gvr onpx gb gur Jbysevqref, ubyl oync!

(V jnf irel lbhat jura V ernq gurfr obbxf sbe gur svefg gvzr. V unir fgebat srryvatf nobhg Xnuiv.)

V unir inthr erpbyyrpgvbaf bs ernqvat nobhg Funeqf ng gur gvzr jura vg jnf choyvfurq naq fvqr-rlrvat fbzr bs gur fgbel be punenpgre qrpvfvbaf, ohg V pna'g chg zl zrzbel nal zber qrsvavgryl ba vg guna gung.

[swan_tower]

That's one of those details I tend to forget, because yeah, it's sort of out of left field and feels unnecessary. Or like it arises from the same impulse as my pet peeve, which is Jvaabjvyy nf gur tvsg gung xrrcf ba tvivat. Abg rirelguvat gung tbrf jebat va gur Jbeyq bs Gjb Zbbaf arrqf gb or ure qbvat, ubyl oync. :-P

Shards is where I started to check out, for a variety of reasons. I may continue on to it, just to see if I can pinpoint my issues better with my current ability for narrative analysis.

[sovay]

Jvaabjvyy nf gur tvsg gung xrrcf ba tvivat. Abg rirelguvat gung tbrf jebat va gur Jbeyq bs Gjb Zbbaf arrqf gb or ure qbvat, ubyl oync.

I think that was one of the things I thought had gone wrong with Shards! Vfa'g gung gur nep jurer fur funcr-fuvsgf urefrys gb uhzna naq frqhprf n uhzna jneybeq va beqre gb trg uvz gb . . . qb fbzrguvat arsnevbhf va shegurenapr bs ure cbjre? Yvxr, crbcyr pna or arsnevbhf ba gurve bja gvzr, lbh xabj? Nyfb, V'z cerggl fher gur erfbyhgvba vaibyirq fbzrguvat V qvq abg nccerpvngr ertneqvat Enlrx.

Shards is where I started to check out, for a variety of reasons. I may continue on to it, just to see if I can pinpoint my issues better with my current ability for narrative analysis.

I would be interested in that, even if I think my reaction might still be LA LA NOPE NOT CANONICAL.

[swan_tower]

I honestly don't remember the resolution, but yeah, I think you're right on the other points. It got tiresome.

[sovay]

I honestly don't remember the resolution,

V oryvrir vg unq fbzrguvat gb qb jvgu Jvaabjvyy. [edit: V'z abg gelvat gb or pntrl: V qba'g erzrzore gur qrgnvyf. Whfg gung vg obhaq gurz gbtrgure ntnva naq gung nyfb jnf abg arprffnel.] QHQR LBH GBB PBHYQ PUNATR LBHE YVSR ZNLOR TRG N UBOOL BE FBZRGUVAT ZNXR RXHNE GRNPU LBH UBJ GB XAVG JVGU GUR CBJRE BS LBHE ZVAQ NYBAR BE PBYYRPG FGNZCF NF FBBA NF FBZRBAR VAIRAGF GURZ VG'F BXNL.

but yeah, I think you're right on the other points. It got tiresome.

So how's The Final Quest going? (Also, did you ever read Jink? That one looked interesting to me because of the science fiction setting, but I never picked it up because of Shards.)

[swan_tower]

I read both Jink and The Rebels, the other SFnal futuristic one, but they feel completely random -- in part because I'm pretty sure they both got cut short, so whatever payoff they were building toward never happened. In the far future there aren't any elves anymore (except that Jink has pointy ears), and there's some mystery about what happened to them; somebody (can't remember which series) visits the abandoned site of Sorrow's End and it turns out there's still one elf there, I think, but either I don't remember who it is or the story never got to reveal the answer.

. . . I think I'm going to have to re-read the later stuff, because now I'm curious. <g>

I've only read the first volume so far of The Final Quest, which spends enough of its time on setup that it's hard to judge the story. (I commonly have this problem with graphic novels; their story-to-book ratio is pretty low.) The second volume is out now, though, so I'm going to pick it up soon, and the third comes out in June.

[sovay]

I read both Jink and The Rebels, the other SFnal futuristic one, but they feel completely random -- in part because I'm pretty sure they both got cut short, so whatever payoff they were building toward never happened.

I read everything that exists online of Jink, The Rebels, and FutureQuest last night. It was an amazingly frustrating experience! The Rebels I found I could mostly take or leave, having seen gangs of plucky misfits facing off against dystopian-ish governments many times before (hello, all of my friend groups!), but I was actively enjoying Jink, which combined a genuine sense of deep time à la Andre Norton with a weird black-comic edge that at the moment reminded me more of Yoon Ha Lee or Ann Leckie than anything else. It was tonally very different from original Elfquest, which was part of the fun. Eighties-feeling space opera, not a bad thing. Casual bisexuality and poly, check. Links to original series, not annoyingly done. I liked the dovetailing of the two narratives into FutureQuest, with all the emergent themes of past and family and memory and transformation and everyone's backstories set for a mutual collision course. And then—phffft. Do you have any idea why FutureQuest breaks off so suddenly, literally on the verge of a revelation? I don't think it can have been a dispute with the publishers, since the Pinis were essentially self-publishing at that point in the '90's. Finances? Circulation issues? Any clue? It was the worst possible place to break an open-ended story!

[swan_tower]

I don't know anything about why they got canceled. Definitely frustrating, though!

[mindstalk]

Gur jneybeq jnf cyragl arsnevbhf ba uvf bja, ohg fur qverpgrq uvz gbjneq jnecvat gur ehvaf bs gur cnynpr, juvpu ur jbhyqa'g unir orra noyr gb qb; fur nyfb tnir uvz zber zntvpny gbbyf, znxvat vg zber bs n svtug. Gjb Rqtr jnf gurer gbb.

[sovay]

Gur jneybeq jnf cyragl arsnevbhf ba uvf bja, ohg fur qverpgrq uvz gbjneq jnecvat gur ehvaf bs gur cnynpr, juvpu ur jbhyqa'g unir orra noyr gb qb; fur nyfb tnir uvz zber zntvpny gbbyf, znxvat vg zber bs n svtug. Gjb Rqtr jnf gurer gbb.

Thanks. Jung jnf Gjb-Rqtr qbvat gurer?

[mindstalk]

Orvat gur thl'f "znfgre ohvyqre" -- be hfvat uvz nf n gbby gb vzcyrzrag uvf qrfvtaf, qrcraqvat ba crefcrpgvir. Unatvat nebhaq uvf zbgure. Gelvat gb frg hc n "snve" svtug sbe gur ryirf, nf ur qbrf. Pehfuvat ba Iraxn.

[alatefeline]

\o/

Elfquest is very special to me too; for a long time it was the ONLY graphic novel / comic type of publication that I would read. I'm looking forward to this.

[swan_tower]

I don't think I picked up another one until college (Sandman).

[alatefeline]

Oh Sandman. <3

There are many good graphic novels out there. The ones I like tend to be weird in some way.

More recently, I enjoyed the graphic novel The Sculptor, by Scott McCloud; it's a tour de force and I think benefits from being gulped down in big chunks.

[king_touchy]

Here via umadoshi's post about the Elfquest re-read because I adore those graphic novels! I could use a trip to the World of Two Moons.

[finch]

Here from the same place, looking forward to this!

[swan_tower]

Then my thanks to umadoshi, and welcome to you both!

[swan_tower]

Now I'm trying to place your icon. Is that from the Hidden Years story where Strongbow gets really sick and feverish? (I could go check, but it's more fun to ask.)

[king_touchy]

Yes! At first I thought, "that was a million years ago, I don't rememb-- wait-a-minute, she's right!" It's from Hidden Years. Strongbow and his wolf-friend got rabies. Those memories, planted early, are deep!

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've heard of them for a long time, and knew various people I knew -- maybe including you -- were really into them -- but just started reading online a few weeks ago. Yeah, I got sucked in!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I'm always glad to proselytize these to people. :-D

[sholio]

Ohhhh man, if I could point to one single formative influence on my creative life, Elfquest was it. It was also the thing that got me into tabletop RPGs, since my parents, knowing I loved it enough that I couldn't shut up about it, got me the role-playing game as a birthday present -- for my 12th birthday, I'm pretty sure, though I had discovered the comics a few years earlier when an early issue of the Marvel reprints turned up in a box of superhero comics I was given.

I happened to hit the comics at the exact right age (for me). I already loved cartoons and comics, but I was just old enough to be getting bored and frustrated with their simplistic storylines and characters. Elfquest hit me like a ton of bricks straight to the creative centers of my brain. I taught myself to draw by copying it, and for several years I worked on juvenilia that was very obviously Elfquest-influenced (with notable passing influences by The Jungle Book, Clan of the Cave Bear, and other things I was reading at the time -- lots of girls raised by wolves, isolated tribes for which I spent hours drawing family trees, and so forth). But Elfquest was where it really all started.

So yeah, I've actually been thinking I'm due for a reread, and this would be a great excuse to start! I'm looking forward to following along with your posts.