Final Quest #22

Cover art is out:

http://elfquest.com/cover-art-of-final-quest-22-revealed/

Synopsis:
Only three issues left to go in the Final Quest story, and the peril ramps up to levels never before reached in ElfQuest. Out on the open waters, the Wavedancers renew their efforts to keep the seas free of human warships that carry deadly weapons. Yet even as the invaders press closer and closer to the sacred Father Tree, there is time for final farewells, for new lives beginning and old lives ending, as the Palace of the High Ones makes ready to depart the World of Two Moons . . . forever?

And so it continues, the threatliest threat of threatliness threatens the sacred ancient home of the Wolfriders, threatily. Meanwhile, the Wavedancers do somethng as well, maybe.
New lives begin, new relationship forms and old lives end, old relationships wither (yes, still the Strongbow-Moonshade thing)


edit: the issue you don't want to miss!

do you think, this is actually going to be the cover? Did Wendy get annoyed by the complaints about the copy/pasting and she is giving us the finger with a bloated panel from the comic?

Wendy, sweetheart (nope couldn't type that with a straight face) I know what you were going for with that cover but the blurry trees just look awful. It looks like there was some kind of horrific error while this in its finishing phase.

@Miss Gillespie wrote:

. . . forever?

Leave that godawful mudball of a prison-planet infested with fur-less, asshole bears already!

@Miss Gillespie wrote:

do you think, this is actually going to be the cover? Did Wendy get annoyed by the complaints about the copy/pasting and she is giving us the finger with a bloated panel from the comic?

Of course.

For fun's sake I re-read the old blurbs...
The blurbs start talking of Angrif's "massive assault" on the elves in #6, in #9 the fleet is "Cutter's greatest concern" and since #15 they are close to the Father Tree (already seven issues!).

Since #8 Suntop's call is out and we get repeated talks, how the elves are going to decide and to leave and to stay and, yeah, decisions again

Small wonder FiQu is so unsatisfying, it promises and promises and never delivers

'Listen I know we've been hyping all of this for -*checks number of issues*- about 22 issues but NOW IT'S ACTUALLY GOING TO HAPPEN!!'

Yeah, the tree is blurry, but it's colorful and beautiful and simplistic. I love it!

The blurbs suck. It would almost be better if they didn't have them. Or used the same one each time, just to give the overall series feel.

I saw that image and actually got kinda choked up. This is really it, y'all. It's gonna be over soon. At least half the elf population will leave Abode, and it might be too dangerous for 'em to come back. And then the mortal population left will just.... fade away.

Well at this rate, the Wolfriders aren't going, the Go-Backs aren't going, most of the Wavedancers and Ember's tribe aren't going, the Funguys aren't going. Those two elves in wrapstuff, presumably they have a tribe that aren't going. Whatever tribe Dr Dre is originally from don't seem to be going. So it looks like it might be just Skywise, Timmain, Moonshade, Venka, most of the Sun folk and the three elves who answered the call, and just a couple of Wavedancers. Most of the elf population seems to be staying.

Uhmm ... watercolors effect?

Guess the cover and the "blurred" effect will look better downscaled to a reasonable size ...


... would suit better in the thread, too. I breaks my screen and makes reading ridiculously hard ...(hopes for page 2 coming soon)

@Shadowpath wrote:

@Miss Gillespie wrote:

do you think, this is actually going to be the cover? Did Wendy get annoyed by the complaints about the copy/pasting and she is giving us the finger with a bloated panel from the comic?

Of course.

Geesh, I can no longer be surprised if this is actually the case.

Too bad, Wendy. You made a mark for yourself by creating characters with distinctive individual features, and now you do them and your fans continual disservice by using Photoshop like a badly-aimed flamethrower (including outright ignoring those features half the time!). The storytelling for this series-- another element you once set yourself up as a champion of-- quite frankly blows. Meanwhile, you and hubby conduct yourselves like overindulged ten-year-olds when interacting with fans (the ones who don't perpetually slop big wet kisses all over your butts, that is).

Subtlety is apparently off the table, too. Is the rainbow-colored image above yet more LGBTQ+ virtue signaling, by any chance? You could've handled that a lot better in this series; once upon a time, you would have.

The beautiful and unique total package that we fell in love with has morphed into worse than the mainstream pap out there. So, um yeah, we're gonna bitch about it! If that prompts you to start throwing tantrums, perhaps it's a good thing you're hanging it up after this final misbegotten series-- although, sadly for all concerned, it sure seems like you're getting out just a little bit too late.

It's a bit garish for my taste, but I suppose that's something you want to draw the eye on the bookseller's shelf (or I guess to make the thumbnail stand out on the webpage.)

The tree looks like something from Google Earth.

In my head I imagine Rayek crying "Wait for meeeeee!"

Now I have a whole scene of the Sunvillagers giggling as they ditch him and fly away in the palace.

@Embala: Hope that's better

@Outlier: I don't think, that a lot of people would be attracted to that kind of cover. Yes, it'd probably draw attention, but it would be attention as in "oh, that's garish" and then they'd skip over.

Sure, one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but for a comic the cover is extremely important and someone who does comics should know this.
Almost anyone with just the most basic grasps on watercolours could do the same "art", even more so when done in Photoshop. This cover is not pretty and it's extremely basic, and also sloppy (the elements are just thrown together).

The flying figure looks a bit too slender to be Rayek, but it's his hair.

Sooo, when will Door have his terrible assault on the palace?

By the way, where have the Preservers been all this time? We've seen wrapstuff and mention of Preserver webbing becoming silk, but where are the blasted cheeky bugs?

@Multi-Facets wrote:

By the way, where have the Preservers been all this time? We've seen wrapstuff and mention of Preserver webbing becoming silk, but where are the blasted cheeky bugs?

Wendy's mentioned they've been spending a lot of time in the palace, so my guess is they''re making a lot of outfits and currently working on a new fashion line coming out in the fall that they're calling Le Breedeet .

@Miss Gillespie wrote:

@Embala: Hope that's better

Oh thank you! So much better!


@Zadzi

@Miss Gillespie wrote:

And so it continues, the threatliest threat of threatliness threatens the sacred ancient home of the Wolfriders, threatily. Meanwhile, the Wavedancers do somethng as well, maybe.
New lives begin, new relationship forms and old lives end, old relationships wither (yes, still the Strongbow-Moonshade thing)


edit: the issue you don't want to miss!

The cover surely looks like a peril ramped up to a level never before reached in Elfquest.

That flying elf is Rayek I think?

I think it's Rayek, being left behind because who cares about Rayek, he's the character we give terrible treatment to since we're too lazy to give him development since we need more villains that aren't humans and the Winnowill thing isn't something we want to deal with in this new age lovefest.

Yeah I also got hints of Snakeskin in this but it wouldn't make sense, even though he's a healer and it would actually be interesting if it was him.

*Looks closer at the figure*
Why is he naked.

Um, I think this is something different for a change as a cover. And maybe the trees got a hint too much blue, but I like the colours. Could be Rayek flying there, but the figure is quite tiny to be sure.
The slight blury on the trees... well, maybe they intended to create something like a DOF effect, a bokeh or sorts of. The outer shape of the big tree looks either like ink on watery paper that slowly diffuses in the surrounding area or a Mandelbrot tree style computation. Well, I think it's quite okay for a cover.
I'm rather wondering what the contents will be...

@Zadzi wrote:

I think it's Rayek, being left behind because who cares about Rayek ...

I'm still hoping Rogue's Curse won't be considered canon.

It looks like the naked flying person is sending out a beam, or catching one. Rayek is the only one who can shoot stuff or something like that, right? I'm not sure I remember it correctly.

It's probably (a naked?) Rayek, but maybe, who knows, it's actually Door? Maybe Door has some wavy long under his scull cap (tucked in tight) and we see him in his 'noooooooooooo'-pose when the palace leaves without him