Heads up, Elfquest fans

[annathepiper]

Why the hell didn't I know about Wendy Pini's new project Masque of the Red Death before?!

spazzkat found out about this tonight when he happened to stumble across the first print volume of the collector's edition, and I was "wait what new Wendy Pini WHERE?" So I looked it up online and discovered that it's actually an ongoing web comic. If you go to the site, you can go through it all panel by panel, or even let it play as a sort of very slow animation. The story summary is here. Chapters 1-4 are up and Chapter 5 is in progress; all of the major players have been introduced and things seem about to go splody very soon.

Style-wise, the art's akin to the more recent Elfquest releases since Wendy's been doing things more digitally lately; this means sadly that it's not nearly as complex as early Elfquest. But it's still obviously Wendy art, and it is rather pretty, and fairly Elfquest-y; I keep doing double takes that the characters aren't actually elves, especially given that most of them are built like Gliders.

I am massively amused that one of the two lead characters is a dead ringer for Strongbow, except for having too many fingers and the wrong shape of ears. The innocent young lad that's just shown up, too, looks suspiciously Cutter-like. The only way this could amuse me any more is if the other male lead looked like Rayek. ;D (Especially given that this is a "mature content" comic; unlike with Elfquest, there's on-camera sex.)

So yeah, this is fun; Elfquest fans on my Friends list, you might consider checking it out.

Comments

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. My drool pan just overflowed. Do you have a spare?

[annathepiper]

HAH!

I tell ya, I took one look at Anton Prosper and I was thinking "STRONGBOW". Enough that I am halfway envisioning this story as taking place on the High Ones' original homeworld long before they ever made it into space. (Not that I have a shred of evidence to actually make the connection, but it's amusing to think of him as an ancestor of sorts to Strongbow nonetheless. ;) )

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Yes. Strongbow was the first thing that came to my brain... followed quickly by: OMG, Wendy's drawing again!

...and yes, I was up until 2am 'catching up' with the story. Evil, evil wench. (Must buy hardcopies as available.)

[annathepiper]

*bows* Glad to be of service!

I gotta admit, even aside from the Prettyboy Smexxing, the story's interesting. I haven't read the original Poe story in a very long time, but I know enough to know this is all going to go horribly, HORRIBLY wrong. It should be intriguing to see how that plays out with Wendy's very pretty art style.

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

^_^

(Never one to turn down pretty boys doing prettier things, nope. Not me!)

I do want to go read the original once more, just to bring myself current to the base story.

[annathepiper]

Cool, looks like you can find it online on Project Gutenberg here. This should be fun. :)

[ravyngyngvar.livejournal.com]

Whatwhatwhat?

Meaning: You didn't know?

I'm sorry, I've known about it for many months. You could hardly have a look on the Elfquest web site and miss it, and it's been all over the Elfquest discussion forums. I didn't think that it would be necessary to tell you. Oh, well. No harm done. :)

Of course, in recent months the discussion has been overshadowed by movie talk. It seems like things are happening with the Elfquest movie again. Of course, we've heard that before, but this time it's Warners. No clear word on whether it'll be traditional animation, computer animation or what.

[annathepiper]

I haven't had a reason to look at elfquest.com in months, and I don't follow its forums--so nope! I totally missed it. :)

I did however hear about the movie possibly jumpstarting again. Here's hoping!

[janne.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Don't dare check out more than the front page from work, but that surely looks Strongbow'ish on the front page there :D Thanks for the heads up -- I still check out the elfquest site now and then, but missed this one!

[annathepiper]

OH my yes this is a totally NSFW storyline.

And yeah, Anton, male lead #1, is totally Strongbow. I don't have the slightest bit of evidence for this, but it amuses me to envision the world that this story's set on as the High Ones' original homeworld before the planet died, and this guy as an ancestor of Strongbow's, of sorts. ;)

Steffan, male lead #2, doesn't appear to have an Elfquest-y analog, but Daryel, the lad who shows up in Chapter 4, Dara says, is much less Cutter and more Woodlock. Which amuses me deeply too. He does have very Woodlock-y hair.

[janne.livejournal.com]

Reading through it now, and yes indeed these are the most glidery people I've ever seen with five fingers, possibly including 'human' Winnowill :D Very glider culture too, all decadent and turned inward -- I happened to click onto chapter five on my first try, the entry scene there felt very Blue Mountain. And playing 'match the Elfquest char' is amusing. (Madam Kabala or whatever she was called is distinctly Savah'ish.)

[annathepiper]

While I must defer to your superior Savah expertise, I'm pretty sure her hair was never, ever that scary. ;D

But yeah, Chapter 5? Totally Blue Mountain, although with a livelier color scheme. And while the Rainbow Suite is one of the things Wendy's lifting from Poe, that's very, very Blue-Mountain-y as well.

And I think I could buy Steffan as a young Voll.

[janne.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yes... Voll isn't half bad, if we're matching gliders! (And hey, maybe Savah always wore that giant headdress for a reason ;) Though I concur with Eveshka, Kabala is otherwise more Winnowill. And the ambiguously gendered party arranger is sort of preserverish -- I was amused at the interaction between them and 'Prince' About preserving Steffan as a statue =)

[annathepiper]

You parsed Bunchh as ambiguously gendered? Interesting! I totally read 'girl'. Possibly because Bunchh has very Nightfall-y hair. I'll have to go back and look again. What I wasn't sure about is whether Bunchh is supposed to be an alien species, or just a weird blue offshoot of humanity.

I see echoes of Tyleet in Fronda, too, although Fronda has much wilder hair. About the only major character I don't see echoes of somebody in Elfquest in is Fronda's father. (Whose name I have totally dropped now. Heh.)

*snerk* Imagining scary hair on Savah underneath that headdress is going to make going back and re-reading any of her scenes an entirely new experience.

[ellerisse.livejournal.com]

I could swear there were cues in the text - in the language - implying that Bunchh is either ambiguously gendered or has been (possibly perceived as/passing as) less female or more male in the past. However, without going back and rereading I'm not sure if I just saw 'preserver' and read that, itself, as a cue.

[annathepiper]

I completely missed any hint of confusion in the dialogue between the characters about Bunchh's gender. Now I'm going to go back and doublecheck just to be sure. ;)

But yeah, I can also totally buy any Elfquest fans getting "Preserver" and therefore "gender neutral" off of her. That's definitely a Preserver-blue going on there, not to mention a Preserver-like ebullience about her. And at any rate she seemed to be wearing more "female"-style clothes, as compared to the males in the cast.

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[annathepiper]

You're welcome!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I miss the old EQ art style. I liked it when the elves weren't *so* pretty. I mean, they were always pretty, but...

[annathepiper]

Yeah. I just keep thinking of the richness and complexity of the original edition graphic novels, and sniffle a bit.

I mean, I understand why Wendy went digital, I'm sure it's easier for her to produce art that way, but I do miss the stuff she used to do. :)

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

...wow. He really does look like Strongbow, doesn't he?

[annathepiper]

Seriously! Just as if Winnowill got a hold of him, made him taller and changed his ears and fingers, and gave him a different haircut. ;)

Also, solarbird has pointed out that the aforementioned innocent young lad that comes in to disrupt the Twu Wuv of the two leads does not look so much like Cutter as he does Woodlock, and I can totally buy that. He's got Woodlock hair.

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm thinking the younger of the leads looks, to me, more like a Skywise than a Cutter. Maybe it's the hair.

Haven't hit Woodlock yet. :)

[annathepiper]

The one I was parsing as Cutter-esque isn't Steffan, the guy with the silver hair. Who does indeed have Skywise hair, though his face is entirely wrong; overall I think I parse him as closest to maybe a young Voll for an Elfquest analog.

Nah, I was thinking Danyel, the boy who shows up in Chapter 4, as the Cutter-esque guy. The boy that Dara says quite correctly actually looks more like Woodlock. :)

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

Ahhha. I will letcha know when I get that far.

Steffan is Voll-ish, you're right.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Says "Woodlock" to me too, definitely.

[annathepiper]

I see Elfquest analogs all over this story!

Anton -> Strongbow.

Steffan -> Young Voll, although he has Skywise hair.

Danyel -> Woodlock.

Fronda -> Tyleet, at least in facial structure, although she has much wilder hair

Madame Kabala -> A deeply scary cross of Winnowill and Savah, whose hair alone is disturbing and never mind anything she actually does

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

...oops. I just realized that merely clicking the right-arrow does *not* start you at the beginning. D'oh.

[annathepiper]

HAR that got me, too. I came in on Chapter 5 and then only realized I wasn't actually at the beginning of the story. It seems to default to the last posted installment.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Oh *nifty*. Thanks for posting the link! I haven't paid attention to things ElfQuestish in many years, but this looks delightful.

[annathepiper]

You're welcome! I'm really quite delighted that Wendy's doing something new, even if everybody in the cast of this still looks suspiciously Elfquest-y. ;)

[ellerisse.livejournal.com]

Another 'I didn't think you could possibly not know' from me. Although - really, I don't think it's as well-put-together as Elfquest was, or as Elfquest has usually (not always) been, so I haven't exactly been raving about it to anyone, either. The storytelling is indulgent and predictable, the dialogue is occasionally wince-worthy, and the click-through comic form... I don't know, either it needs polish or I need to be less of an old fogey.

The art, however, is wonderful, and hey, I am all for Wendy doing whatever she enjoys and sharing it with the rest of us, so - is good.

[annathepiper]

Well, nobody's been talking about it on any of the parts of the Internet I usually follow, so I had no real reason to know about it. ;)

Eh, Wendy's basing this story on Poe, so I go in expecting florid and possibly wince-worthy out of the gate. Especially now that I just re-read the original Poe story. Hee.

You're right, though. The click-through interface is clunky for this day and age--though to be fair, I don't know if that's something Wendy herself is responsible for, or if that's something that's built by the hosting site. There is indeed a lot of pretty here, and I'll be sticking with it mostly to see how Wendy's generally pretty art will play off against the expected OHNOEZ progression of the plot.

And, FWIW, I did see the printed first volume in B&N this weekend, and the art was richer and more lush on the printed page than the online version. Which I can buy. I may eventually pick up the graphic novels just for that alone.