ElfQuest #10
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeElfQuest #10 (Marvel/Epic, May 1986) closes out the 'Forbidden Grove' arc — the second of four major story volumes in the Original Quest — marking a narrative turning point where Cutter and Skywise abandon the safety of Sorrow's End and commit fully to the dangerous quest to find and unite scattered elf tribes. As the final installment adapting WaRP Graphics issues #6–10 in Marvel's color reprint run, it capped a segment of the story that deepened the world of two moons considerably: the twins Suntop and Ember were born, humans reached Sorrow's End, and the Wolfriders' old Holt was discovered reduced to ashes. The Marvel/Epic run as a whole holds a distinct place in comics history because it brought ElfQuest — already a milestone as the first continuing fantasy/adventure series created, written, and illustrated by a woman — from specialty direct-market shops onto mainstream newsstands, exponentially widening its readership.
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The story content in Marvel #10 derives from the original black-and-white WaRP Graphics magazine series (1978–1985), specifically material from the tail end of the Original Quest's second story volume. Marvel's Epic imprint reprinted the completed 20-issue Original Quest across 32 color issues from August 1985 through March 1988; because Marvel's standard format ran approximately 22 pages of story versus the WaRP originals' 32, Wendy Pini created new bridging pages and panels for each installment to smooth the re-segmented narrative, material that was later incorporated into most subsequent collected editions and the official online reading room. Marvel's license covered only the already-completed Original Quest, so no sequel series followed through the Epic line.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 1986 by Marvel Comics under their Epic imprint (issue #10 of a 32-issue color reprint run that ran August 1985–March 1988).
- Story title: 'Return to the Holt.' Script by Richard Pini and Wendy Pini; art and cover by Wendy Pini.
- Plot: Cutter and Skywise leave Sorrow's End to seek out other elf tribes; journeying back to their original Holt, they discover only ashes and Trolls in its place.
- This issue is the final installment of the 'Forbidden Grove' arc (Marvel #6–10), adapting WaRP Graphics Original Quest issues #6–10, and closes the second of four major Original Quest story volumes.
- Earlier in the same arc (Marvel #9), the twin children of Cutter and Leetah — Suntop and Ember — were born, and humans arrived at Sorrow's End, events that set the stakes driving the quest in this issue.
- Wendy Pini produced original bridging pages for the entire Marvel/Epic run to accommodate the format change from WaRP's ~32-page story format to Marvel's ~22-page format; most of that material was later folded into all major collected editions.
- The story content collected across Marvel #6–10 was published in graphic novel form as ElfQuest Book 2: 'The Forbidden Grove' (Warp Graphics/Starblaze, 1988), later reissued in the Reader's Collection (1998), DC Archives hardcover (2005), and Dark Horse editions.
- ElfQuest holds the distinction of being the first continuing fantasy/adventure comic series in America created, written, and illustrated by a woman — Wendy Pini — a fact that gives each issue in this run cultural and historical weight beyond its story content.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints ElfQuest #6 (1980), ElfQuest #7 (1980)
Reprinted in The Complete ElfQuest #2 (1988), ElfQuest #2 (1994), ElfQuest: The Grand Quest #2 (2004), ElfQuest Archives #2 (2005), The Complete ElfQuest #1 (2014)
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