By: Wendy Pini, Richard Pini Publisher: Elfquest Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Elfquest Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 200 Publication Date: October 01, 2003 Release Date: October 01, 2003
For Godsakes, stick to one format!!! I've been following the Elfquest series since 1982. Once the extremely talented Wendy Pini started using different writers and artists, I stopped buying them by issues, instead waiting for compilations. The only problem is that while I keep waiting for 'coming soon' compilations, the damned formats of these various volumes keep changing. Sometimes the titles are different. Sometimes the art has been rearranged here and there. When a new version of an old compilation is released, it doesn't list the original publishing date, it lists the current publishing date. I'm getting frustrated and tired of buying issues that I believe are new stories only to find that, hey, I have this in a different format. In this case, I bought both 1 and 2 of this manga-like format. The format I already had, as it turned out, fit easily into one volume, but shrinking them down to manga-sized not only takes away from the artwork, but ends up spreading out into multiple volumes. I had backed away for a very long time on buying any more compilations because of the constant confusion of reprinting in different formats. Now it is going to take Wendy Pini handing me a collection personally before I even attempt to sort out what's new and what's not.
Buy it with caution This book has the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled into one and out of order. All in black and white, 3 or 4 comics have been taken apart and re-assembled in this little volume. Yes, it's manga style, but usually manga has consistent art and story, which this does not. Some of the stories thrown in here are just terrible, and those not familiar with EQ may be turned off forever. Those who have been with the series for almost 20 years already know to avoid the really rotten stuff that came out after the original artist stopped doing the series. Some of the new work is ok, but alot was just garbage. I am disappointed to see that they threw in the really lame stories alongside Wendy's superb stories and considered all of it true EQ, even the stuff that was just called 'what if?' by Richard when it came out in comic form 10 years ago. That was the only consolation in seeing the type of sub-par talent take over EQ for almost 10 years the way the way it has. Now Wendy has come back, but it may be too late -( see Searcher and the Sword). But in this book, for example, those who remember the heart wrenching tale of how Skywise's parents were killed, get to see that magnificent 30 page story is now broken up into scattered pieces, and you go from admiring the flawless rendering of Skywise when he was young and 'in love' to the blocky, off tilted drawing showing a robot/satellite laying waste to the Wolfrider tribe in which Skywise is barely recognizeable. This is actually part of one of the 'New Blood' tales done when the rules about continuity were largely ignored and the stories agonizingly hokey. Those new to these stories may be in for some confusion. The sudden transition from one fragment of a story with some guy's half-a**ed art to Wendy's superb flowing lines and subtlety is confusing. I'm not sure why the terrible is being mixed with the good here and all being considered EQ canon. Having said all that, if you are new to the series and just trying it out, maybe you'll like it, maybe just shrug and throw it out, whatever. The price isn't bad for what it is, but calling it manga is excessive - it's a poor copy and maybe not the best initiation into either manga or Elfquest
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
