ElfQuest invented modern comics storytelling

We’re joined by artist and illustrator Elinore Edge to talk about the first two volumes of ElfQuest: Fire and Flight and Forbidden Grove. We talk about the epic series’ themes of home and belonging, Wendy Pini’s incredible art and how it stood out against a sea of “house style” art from the big two, and how ElfQuest was the first comic to follow what is now the standard storytelling structure for most comics, especially independent comics. That is to say, it was a long-form story with a planned ending split up into discrete story arcs to be reprinted in perfect-bound volumes. Or put another way, they appear to have invented the idea of telling a long-form comics story as both single issues and TPBs. TPBs and graphic novels existed before ElfQuest, and so did story arcs. But comics were either ongoing series with no planned ending that went on until they were canceled, or they were fairly short finite series. I didn’t think of this until after we recorded, but this is also the same model that prestige television now follows: episodes form seasons and seasons form a larger overarching work. Guest: Elinore Edge: https://elinorearts.com Music: krudler.bandcamp.com 00:00 Introduction & icebreaker 01:13 What is ElfQuest? 02:00 ElfQuest publishing history 05:10 Elinore’s connection to ElfQuest 08:01 Art, character design & representation 11:03 World-building and visual storytelling 15:10 Editions, reprints & artistic craft 15:38 Favorite characters & closing