Cover: Wendy Pini

ElfQuest #1

Apr 1979 · WaRP Graphics · 1.00 USD

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“Fire and Flight”

★ 1st appearance — Skywise★ 1st appearance — Strongbow

About this Issue

ElfQuest #1 (WaRP Graphics, 1978/1979) delivered the debut of Cutter, Skywise, and the entire Wolfrider tribe to comics readers, marking the first appearance of one of independent publishing's most consequential fantasy universes. Written, penciled, inked, and lettered entirely by Wendy Pini — with Richard Pini as co-plotter and editor — it stood as the first ongoing American fantasy-adventure comic series created, written, and illustrated by a woman, drawing a readership that was, remarkably for the era, split evenly between men and women. The series became a touchstone of the emerging alternative-independent comics movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, demonstrating that creator-owned titles outside the Marvel/DC duopoly could generate sales that genuinely competed with the Big Two. When Marvel licensed the Original Quest for its Epic imprint in 1985, ElfQuest's newsstand reach exploded and helped establish the template — creators retaining ownership while partnering with larger publishers — that countless independent creators would follow.

writer, artist, inker, letterer Wendy Pini · writer Richard Pini · cover Wendy Pini

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $44

CGC 9.8 · 5 in census $1,621*

CGC 9.6 · 18 in census $510

CGC 9.4 · 29 in census $278

CGC 9.2 · 21 in census $184

CGC 9.0 · 13 in census $160*

CGC 8.5 · 6 in census $131*

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CGC 8.0 · 7 in census $119*

CGC 7.5 · 7 in census $58*

CGC 7.0 · 5 in census $49*

CGC 6.5 · 2 in census $44*

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $43*

CGC 5.5 · 2 in census $34*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

More listings for this title

VG $3.97 VERY GOOD $6.31 VF · 3rd print $29.99 CGC 4.5 · Signed · 3rd print $99.99 FN $205 CGC 9.2 $349.95 MINT $500 CGC 9.4 $590

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History

The story behind ElfQuest #1 is inseparable from a publishing disaster. The Wolfriders' first appearance actually occurred in Fantasy Quarterly #1 (February 1978), published by Lansing, Michigan-based Independent Publishers Syndicate; that company printed the story on cheap newsprint, attempted to abscond with Wendy Pini's original artwork, and then folded after a single issue. Rejected earlier by both Marvel (then under editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin) and DC, and unwilling to trust another outside publisher, the Pinis borrowed money from Richard's parents, incorporated WaRP Graphics — an acronym of 'Wendy and Richard Pini' — and began self-publishing, starting the ongoing series with issue #2 in 1978. The Fantasy Quarterly material was subsequently reprinted with a new painted cover and a full-color character portrait on the back cover as the official WaRP Graphics ElfQuest #1, giving the story a proper home in the magazine-sized, glossy-cover format the Pinis had established for the run.

Trivia · 8 facts

ElfQuest #1 contains the story 'Fire and Flight,' written by Wendy and Richard Pini with all interior art by Wendy Pini; the WaRP Graphics issue is a reprint of material originally published in Fantasy Quarterly #1 (February 1978) with a new front cover and full-color back-cover portrait.
First appearances in this issue include Cutter (Wolfrider chief), Skywise (his 'soul-brother' and the tribe's stargazer), Treestump, One-Eye, Scouter, Pike, Strongbow, Redlance, Nightfall, and Nightrunner (Cutter's wolf-friend), along with troll characters Greymung (Troll King), Picknose, and supporting Wolfriders Dart, Moonshade, Newstar, Oddbit, Pike, Rainsong, Scouter, Treestump, and Wing.
The plot of 'Fire and Flight' follows Cutter rescuing the captured Redlance from human sacrificers; enraged humans set the Wolfriders' forest home ablaze, forcing the tribe to seek refuge in the troll tunnels, where King Greymung betrays them and strands them in a vast desert.
WaRP stands for Wendy and Richard Pini; the company was founded specifically because Marvel Comics (under Archie Goodwin) and DC Comics both declined to publish ElfQuest, calling it 'too peculiar' for their lines.
The original 20-issue WaRP series ran from 1978 to 1984, published in magazine size as black-and-white interiors with glossy full-color painted covers, released approximately three times per year.
Marvel Comics reprinted the entire Original Quest as 32 color comic-book-size issues under its Epic imprint from August 1985 to March 1988, with additional bridging pages drawn by Wendy Pini; this newsstand distribution introduced ElfQuest to a vastly larger audience.
The series has been reprinted in graphic novel collections by Starblaze/Donning (early 1980s, watercolor), WaRP Graphics, DC Comics (Archives hardcovers, 2003), and Dark Horse Comics (Complete ElfQuest, 2010s), with Wendy Pini personally redigitizing the coloring for the DC and Dark Horse editions.
ElfQuest won the 1979 Ed Aprill Award for Best Independent Comic and the 1980 San Diego Comic-Con Inkpot Award; the Pinis were inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame in 2019. Columbia University acquired the complete Elfquest archives, including all original artwork from the 20-issue Original Quest, in 2013.