ElfQuest
C2E2 | IDW, Dark Horse announce a metric ton of new stuff
Mars Attacks Judge Dredd
I think IDW and Dark Horse are having some sort of competition at C2E2 this weekend to see who can overwhelm my email box with the most press releases, or at least that’s what it seemed like last night when a ton of press releases pop up around the same time from both companies. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve heard from both of them at the show thus far …
• Both companies announced they’ve picked up some new licenses. As I noted yesterday, Dark Horse will publish Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest starting later this year, and they’ve also picked up the license for new Halo comics. IDW, meanwhile, has picked up the license to the Jay Ward characters, with plans for series Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Rocky & Bullwinkle next year. Also, two of IDW’s other licensed titles will meet up in Mars Attacks Judge Dredd by Al Ewing and John McCrea. The first issue arrives in September.
• Both companies are also reaching into comics’ past to bring back some titles we haven’t seen in awhile. IDW announced that they’ll release deluxe hardcovers of Christian Gossett’s The Red Star this fall. They’re also bringing back Zombie War by Kevin Eastman, Tom Skulan and Eric Talbot in October. The original series was published by FantaCo and Tundra back in 1993. Dark Horse is resurrecting Geof Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy, which was originally published by Burlyman Entertainment.
C2E2 | ‘Elfquest’ returns to print at Dark Horse
Dark Horse Comics announced at C2E2 this weekend that they’ve reached an agreement with creators Richard and Wendy Pini to bring the long-running cult hit Elfquest back to the printed page. The first release arrives in the fall and will be the prologue to Elfquest: The Final Quest, which is currently being serialized on BoingBoing. Following that, Dark Horse will release The Final Quest alongside all-new editions of previously published material.
“Dark Horse is a company I’ve admired ever since it sprang on the scene in the 1980s. Somehow, as large as they’ve grown, they’ve retained an independent spirit that Richard and I totally identify with. The quality of their offerings is legendary and I’m extremely happy that Elfquest is part of their lineup,” Wendy Pini said in a press release.
New ElfQuest shirts make their debut at Emerald City Comicon
It’s the 35th anniversary of Wendy and Richard Pini’s ElfQuest this year, and as part of the celebration they’ve teamed up with WeLoveFine.com to offer several new ElfQuest T-shirts.
“The announcement of our ElfQuest line was originally planned for a Saturday panel announcement as part of WaRP’s presence at Emerald City Comic Con, but some very enthusiastic and cyber-savvy fans sleuthed out the team-up early and shared the news, so we’re hitting the web sooner than planned,” said WeLoveFine’s Nicole Campos.
The shirts are available now both online and at WeLoveFine’s ECCC booth, #838-839. Check some of them out below. And don’t forget that a new ElfQuest story is currently running over at BoingBoing each week.
New Elfquest story to debut on Boing Boing
Thirty-five years after Elfquest was introduced, helping to usher in the black-and-white comics boom, Wendy and Richard Pini’s epic fantasy adventure will makes it online debut with a new story serialized on Boing Boing.
Called Elfquest: The Final Quest, the new tale begins Monday, with a new page appearing weekly. It marks the popular website’s first foray into comics.
“Wendy and I never set out, thirty-five years ago, to take the indie comics world by storm,” Richard Pini said in a statement. “But there the history is, in the sales and — more importantly — in the fandom that’s stayed with us. Now we get to relive those scary, heady days once again as Elfquest makes its online debut to fans old and new.”
Debuting in 1978, Elfquest follows the Wolfriders, a tribe of feral elves in search of a new refuge and of their cosmic origins. Along the way they come into conflict with humans and trolls, and encounter other elf tribes like the Sun Folk and the Gliders. Over the decades, the series has gained a devoted following, and boasts a large female audience.
“Elfquest‘s World of Two Moons—its landscapes, inhabitants, dangers—is familiar yet always unpredictable territory,” Wendy Pini said. “After five years’ hiatus, I’ve come home to the Holt and to my main characters, Cutter and the Wolfriders, only to wreak storytelling havoc on them as never before. In Elfquest: The Final Quest sturdy, stable characters will react in totally unexpected ways as they face devastating, unavoidable change. I’m scared and exhilarated by what’s going to happen!”
The entire 6,000-page story to date can be read on the Elfquest website.
Fans to make their own ElfQuest movie
Richard and Wendy Pini have long wanted to make a movie of their ElfQuest series, but for some reason it has moved at a glacial pace. Now, The New York Times tells us, a group of fans are taking matters into their own hands and making an ElfQuest fan film with an all-female cast—and the Pinis have given the project their blessing.
The film is really just a trailer for the ElfQuest franchise, but producers Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes are pulling out all the stops, using a cast of ” some of web video’s best-known actresses,” according to the Times.
Thorpe and Rhodes are producing and co-directing the project, with Galacticast‘s Rudy Jahchan committed to doing special effects and A Good Knight’s Quest director Brett Register editing. A prosthetics artist has been commissioned to create elf ears directly inspired by Wendy Pini’s art, a cost which makes up a significant portion of the budget, along with food and location expenses. The plan is to shoot for two days towards the end of November — before it gets too cold, as ElfQuest characters don’t wear a lot of clothing — creating a one-to-three minute trailer.
The producers are funding the project via IndieGoGo (similar to Kickstarter), and donations have surpassed their goal of $5,000.
Meanwhile, on the non-web film front, Pini reports that Warner Brothers still has their movie in “active development” and recently hired the design team that worked on concept art for Avatar to develop a look for the ElfQuest universe. And no, Pini is not worried about diluting the brand.
“Our thought is that the more buzz ElfQuest has in every possible arena, the better things are for the film,” Pini said. “You never know how Hollywood is going to react, but it can’t hurt.”
