PSA: Elfquest
Apr. 25th, 2008 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaEver thought about reading the independent graphic novel series Elfquest? It's now available free and legit online, as part of the Elfquest 30th Anniversary celebration.
It's hard to sum up Elfquest in a way that doesn't make it sound vaguely stupid, which it isn't. It's about elves who ride wolves, who are driven from their forest home and thereafter quest to find a new home and to reunite all the scattered tribes of elves. The main thing to know about it, though, is that it's gorgeous -- at least, the parts of it that are drawn by Weny Pini, the co-creator. Seriously, the major reason to read Elfquest is because it's beautiful, the second reason is because it has a ton of likeable and interesting characters (including Nightfall, who fits into my favored Ass-Kicking Female Character archetype, and Strongbow, who was an adolescent crush nearly as embarrassing now as my crush on Radu), and the third reason is because the plot is strong enough to be engaging.
I can wholeheartedly recommend the Original Quest, written by Richard and Wendy and drawn by Wendy Pini, which is conveniently also entirely uploaded. (The later series are being put up a few issues at a time over the course of this year.) If you read and like that, it's worth going on to Siege at Blue Mountain and Kings of the Broken Wheel, which are also written and drawn by the Pinis, and if you like those you can delve into the less-sure territory of stuff that's partly written or drawn by someone else. (If you get that far and want recs for what's worthwhile and what isn't, I can do that. Some of them are nearly as good as the original -- the first chunk of Hidden Years is excellent indeed -- and some, well, aren't.)
But basically, it's beautiful, it's worth reading, and at least for 2008, it's free. (And if you are familiar with EQ already, note that the Original Quest version on the website is the new, 'definitive' recolor, and very pretty indeed.)
It's hard to sum up Elfquest in a way that doesn't make it sound vaguely stupid, which it isn't. It's about elves who ride wolves, who are driven from their forest home and thereafter quest to find a new home and to reunite all the scattered tribes of elves. The main thing to know about it, though, is that it's gorgeous -- at least, the parts of it that are drawn by Weny Pini, the co-creator. Seriously, the major reason to read Elfquest is because it's beautiful, the second reason is because it has a ton of likeable and interesting characters (including Nightfall, who fits into my favored Ass-Kicking Female Character archetype, and Strongbow, who was an adolescent crush nearly as embarrassing now as my crush on Radu), and the third reason is because the plot is strong enough to be engaging.
I can wholeheartedly recommend the Original Quest, written by Richard and Wendy and drawn by Wendy Pini, which is conveniently also entirely uploaded. (The later series are being put up a few issues at a time over the course of this year.) If you read and like that, it's worth going on to Siege at Blue Mountain and Kings of the Broken Wheel, which are also written and drawn by the Pinis, and if you like those you can delve into the less-sure territory of stuff that's partly written or drawn by someone else. (If you get that far and want recs for what's worthwhile and what isn't, I can do that. Some of them are nearly as good as the original -- the first chunk of Hidden Years is excellent indeed -- and some, well, aren't.)
But basically, it's beautiful, it's worth reading, and at least for 2008, it's free. (And if you are familiar with EQ already, note that the Original Quest version on the website is the new, 'definitive' recolor, and very pretty indeed.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 07:44 pm (UTC)I had a lot of the collections, but never managed to get enough of them to be able to read the thing in order =P
no subject
Date: 2008-04-25 08:19 pm (UTC)