The Final Quest

Wait. Now I'm a little confused. I've seen Kindredsoul posting on here. It was one of several lures! Are you Kindred?

(And just so we dont get completely off-track, I'm hoping we see more of that pony-rider! He was referred to as the "loneliest of the lonely" but it takes more than one person to make his gear, I'd say.)

*bouncybouncybouncy*

ENTS!!!!! WOOT!!! *giggle* I bet they're more "hasty" than Greybeard, though. But I swear... if one of them ends up called "Greybeard"... y'all are gonna hear me scream across the PLANET!

Right now I'm diluting ElfQuest with a LOT of other fandoms, so it's evening out, to an extent... *sigh*

*blinkblink*

"Loneliest of the lonely"...

*blinkblink*

I swear, y'all... if he's a healer who was raised by a human tribe that was then SLAUGHTERED by another human tribe because of fear of *him* and his magic...

Y'all are gonna hear my screaming all the way on ABODE!

manga wrote:

Wait. Now I'm a little confused. I've seen Kindredsoul posting on here. It was one of several lures! Are you Kindred?

Yep It is I... the *pony-tail* chieftain fangirl!!     So sorry for the confusion. I'm on the Admin account fixing some things with the site...

manga wrote:

(And just so we dont get completely off-track, I'm hoping we see more of that pony-rider! He was referred to as the "loneliest of the lonely" but it takes more than one person to make his gear, I'd say.)

I've only read the first 3 (maybe the 4th?) of FQ, and unfortunately I've had no desire to read more... and even I have to admit I miss him already

annnnddddd it's time to cut Grizz off of the Mt. Dew......

You think this is because of Mountain Dew? *laugh* This is punch-drunk from sheer continual exhaustion.

In that note... I think I'm gonna try to take a nap...

Hi Manga, glad to see you amongst the tribe.

Ents?  You got to be kidding me.  Sigh.  I wonder if Wendy's Ent's spontaneously self combust because they move so quickly.

I'll keep reading and then I can say I read the story from beginning to end.

G0lden, too? I must have found my way to EQ Fan Heaven.

Soooo what you're saying is I should sell off my collection now before the market is glutted?

Heck no. Save those suckers. Might be worth something to a relative that finds your stash at some distant point in the future.
Mine right now make a great doorstop. Mind you they are in a sealed container.

Heck no. Save those suckers. Might be worth something to a relative that finds your stash at some distant point in the future.
Mine right now make a great doorstop. Mind you they are in a sealed container.

RE: Ember's characterization, it kind of actually makes sense, in a roundabout way.

Going back to her first appearance, Cutter implicitly compares her to Bearclaw, something she clearly take pride in, and frankly, her characterization growing up follows through. She's bossy, opinionated, hot-tempered, not very creative(especially compared to her brother) and, other than a few shallow personality traits, not very much like her father or mother. She's most like Bearclaw, who was an unimaginative, reactionary, jerk.

Not to say she's a bad person, she just prefers to deal with things on a spear to spear(and that was such a huge part of her character, I can't believe it was just dropped) basis, without magic or miracles, unless she's specifically forced to do so. And that works when your enemy is a few humans scared of spirits in the woods, but not so much when facing a huge, well armed, technologically advanced force. Ember just doesn't have the kind of brain that understands that very well. She figured she'd beaten and evaded the djun before, she was going to do so again.

The problem is that that's mostly conjecture based on the past. No one got to see enough of HER characterization to actually confirm that.

Timmain wrote:

manga wrote:

Wait. Now I'm a little confused. I've seen Kindredsoul posting on here. It was one of several lures! Are you Kindred?

Yep It is I... the *pony-tail* chieftain fangirl!!     So sorry for the confusion. I'm on the Admin account fixing some things with the site...

Haha, you are?? I was about to write Kindredsoul a PM telling her/you not to worry about my last PM, because Timmain/you helped me with the nickname thing

About newest issue...I was going to wait this time, wait for the issue to get in the mail (it takes like 3 weeks ) not buy it online like the last times because it's getting expencive, but of course, the new facebook forum spoils everything, and I saw a picture of some amazing tree-elf-ent there, and now I HAVE TO READ IT!!

Very good points, Kathleen.  I agree.

Going back briefly to Wendy's more recent art, I have to agree with Lunakat too.  I don't like Wendy's computer art.  It's lacking something.  And she's cheating more. That image of Korafay floating and waving to someone has shown up so many times!  Clearly copy-and-paste is Wendy's new friend.  I'm not an artist myself so I don't know that I should complain but I do know I find it jarring.

As far as an example of what is lacking goes, the scene where Shenshen has asked Leetah to make her human is good.  Leetah's pose is very organic; I can practically see her foot stamping.  It's a literal example of "every line of her body" showing outrage.  But just a panel or two later, Shenshen's pose for running after Leetah is so stilted it almost looks like a panel from an Egyptian mural or other primitive, stylized form.

I'm re-reading the Original quest right now, and yes...I can really tell the difference, but...I can understand that her new way takes less time, and I remember asking Wendy once why she didn't use pastels more ( Hidden years is my favorite book, it's so pretty ) and she said she used almost a day per panel ( or maybe site ) so I do understand, and after all the waiting we already had for FQ, I'm glad we get it so often.

@Blackbird. I'm an artist, professionally. I use Photoshop for work most of the time. I've also used pastels- but only for personal projects. The imagery that Wendy created, using pastels, for Hidden Years was amazing. Of course that took her a year and a day per page. Pastels are hard to work with and that level of illustration can take a long time. It's not feasible for a regular comic series.

Her problem with Photoshop, I'm guessing based on experience and what I've seen her produce, isn't that it's faster- it's the exact opposite.  I will bet you 100% that she can draw faster with a pencil and ink faster with a pen. If it were the other way around, she wouldn't have more detail, expression and ease of drawing using traditional media. What Photoshop offers is convenience. It's easier to clean up and erase lines and change things in Photoshop. If you paint the page red, and you want it green instead- just color adjust. If you drew Skywise standing next to Cutter and you want to erase him... just turn off the level you drew him on. But it's obvious she can't draw as quickly- because she doesn't include the same level of detail.

I also saw her going through a very clear learning curve. She did a standard thing. Basically, when she first started illustrating in Photoshop, she used the clone brush really clunkily and a dozen standard pattern brushes. Also, she over-saturated like crazy when she revised Book 1. With Photoshop, you have every color in the rainbow and your disposal- and it was like she was on a quest to use them all! And she was also cutting a pasting poses a lot, in the more recent comics, without disguising that she was doing so.

Everyone makes these mistakes when they first start using Photoshop. It's so common. That's why it was so very clear what was going on. She was doing these things... right up until Final Quest- when she handed Sonny the color reigns.

By the Final Quest special, I was starting to really like her color choices. I don't like the ones Sonny picks, but they are okay. I think a lot of his colors are very dull- for example, look at Ekuar in this latest issue. But there is a consistent logic to it, which makes it work.

When working with traditional mediums (pen and ink, pastel, watercolor), Wendy had a great color sense. She worked well within those mediums. But traditional mediums restrict you as an artist. Photoshop doesn't really- so you have to restrict yourself. It took her several books to figure out how to do that. And it was too time consuming.

For what it's worth, these problems I'm pointing out with Wendy's use of PhotoShop are troubles I've also had- and mistakes I've also made- which is why they jump out at me. Like I said- everyone learning PhotoShop has these issues- which, unfortunately, means that, if you are publishing your work while going through this, any other artist in your field using this program is going to recognize what's up.

I just want to add, I have always been in awe of her skill as an artist. She captures expression and movement in an amazing way, when working traditionally. I can only hope to be as capable an artist as she is one day. So, whether her husband can structure an argument or not, or engage in a dialogue without spazzing out- and whether the Pinis shut down a forum abruptly without any warning to the 50+ people who use it, thus pissing them all off-- I still have a lot of respect for her talent. And Elfquest was still one of the most influential books I ever read as a kid.

Maybe she needs to try a different program. I have two on my tablet that I love, and they're a lot more like traditional media.

Oh my gosh! Hah- another typo! I swear- i misspelled every other word- but I thought I caught them all. I think I edited this three times- every time I looked at it I saw another mistake. Well, yeah...

Hey- they are after traditional media. They were trying to make it a film for the longest time!

I gave up on typos a long time ago.

TBH, I'm hoping those aren't the only new tribes we're going to see. I mean, I'm not an LOTR person, so I sort of liked the tree elves(in a grotesque kind of way), but it's been twenty thousand years or so since the elves came to the world. I was hoping for more variety.

I gotta say, though, what I miss most from the OQ? Clothing that looked practical, and elves that didn't look like they were starving! I mean, most of Moonshade's frustrations seem to come out in making clothes that no one could get in or out of without help. And the skinniness is getting really scary.

Ah, okey, I see what you mean ( I even asked my BF, who is skilled on photoshop, and he explained what you meant, and showed me ) and yeah, I can agree a little there, I'm old-school EQ, and liked the hand-drawed stuff best of course.

Oh, and you talked about details and little face expressions and things like that, re-reading OQ is so awesome, I notice little things everytime

I will buy a cake for the first person who can find - in the previously published, non-"jazzed-up" comics - the first time a Wolfrider (or other tribe elf) walked past an ent.

I'd definitely lose that one. I'm not observant at all

I do a yearly read of the Original Quest each December. This time, I continued on with the other series in a leisurely manner. Just finished Siege at Blue Mountain.

This is a charm to the Original Series -- especially the first five issues -- that's missing in the other stories. Wendy still does a smash-up job at faces throughout Siege; take for example Rayek's expression in Siege #4 when he notices Kahvi's flat stomach. It's a combination of "holy shit/OMG" and gobsmacked. It's very similar to the expression on my nephew's when he told me he had to run, his wife was going into labor.

The photoshop art is technically good. But there's little heart in it.

I don't even know it's there. I'm just kinda hoping.

I've been following Elfquest since the very early 80s so at this point I'm kind of invested in seeing it through. I just dissociate the comic from its creator.

I'm not sure yet what to make of the Ents...first impression was they were too LoTR, but to be fair we've only seen them in one panel so they might 'grow' on me. I agree with Kathleen - I'm hoping there will be other tribes they just didn't show in that panel.

Also, I was hoping for more people of colour elves. Which, again we have technicolor elves but not much brown.

So I found this link, and posted it in another section of the forum. It clarified for me why I found it disturbing that the Pinis would change the skin color of their only dark-skinned protagonists and lighten them.

Wendy flat out says, in the screen shot of comments here, that the SunFolk "were created so that anyone of color could relate to them." So what gives, then, with making them white like all the rest?

http://nerdfaceangst.tumblr.com/post/72171071161/elfquest-the-pinis-and-racism