ElfQuest #20
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeElfQuest #20 is the concluding chapter of the Original Quest — the twenty-issue black-and-white magazine series that Wendy and Richard Pini launched entirely through their own WaRP Graphics imprint beginning in 1978, making it one of independent comics' most significant self-publishing success stories. The issue delivers the payoff the entire run had been building toward: the Wolfriders reach the Palace of the High Ones, the full origin history of the elfin race is finally revealed, and Timmain — an original High One who had shape-shifted into wolf form millennia earlier — is at last disclosed as a pivotal figure in elfin ancestry. As the planned, prearranged ending to a serialized fantasy epic, it was a rarity in American comics at the time, and it closed the loop on themes of identity, belonging, and the tension between past and future that had driven the story from the start. The series, with this issue as its capstone, helped establish that independent comics written and drawn by their creators — and concluded on their own terms — could sustain a devoted readership across years.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Wendy and Richard Pini produced the Original Quest entirely through their own company, WaRP Graphics (the name an acronym of Wendy and Richard Pini), which they incorporated in 1977 and used to self-publish the series in black-and-white magazine format. Issue #20, on sale August 30, 1984, was the final story installment; Richard Pini edited and contributed framing-material scripting while Wendy Pini wrote, pencilled, inked, and lettered the main story — the same arrangement that had defined the run throughout. Shortly after the series concluded, the Pinis placed the property on hiatus while Wendy recovered from hip replacement surgery, a pause that would shape WaRP's editorial direction for several years afterward.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Final issue of the Original Quest — the 20-issue black-and-white magazine series (1978–1984) published by WaRP Graphics; the series had a prearranged conclusion from the outset.
- Written, pencilled, inked, and lettered by Wendy Pini; edited by Richard Pini (who also scripted cover/framing material) — on-sale date August 30, 1984.
- Central story revelation: the Wolfriders discover the Palace of the High Ones and the full history of the High Ones is disclosed, resolving the series' core mystery about elfin origins on the World of Two Moons.
- Timmain, an original High One who had transformed into wolf form long before the story began, is revealed and plays a decisive role in the elves' victory over the trolls guarding the Palace.
- Character death of Mekda is recorded in this issue; Rayek remains behind as keeper of the Palace while Cutter leads the surviving elves forward.
- Immediately reprinted in color by the Donning/Starblaze Company as ElfQuest Book 4 (October 1984); subsequently reprinted in Marvel's Epic imprint color reissue (1985–1988, 32 installments), the WaRP Graphics Reader's Collection Vol. 4 'Quest's End' (1998), the DC ElfQuest Archives Vol. 4 (2008), and in ElfQuest: The Final Quest #8 (Dark Horse, March 2015).
- The issue assembles virtually the entire cast of the Original Quest — Wolfriders, Sun Folk, Go-Backs, Gliders, and trolls — making it by far the most character-dense single issue of the run.
- The Original Quest was one of the earliest American comic series created and controlled entirely by a female artist/writer (Wendy Pini) as creative principal, a distinction widely noted in the independent-comics community.
Cast · 40 characters
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Reprinted in ElfQuest #4 (1984), Abenteuer in der Elfenwelt #20 (1987), ElfQuest #31 (1988), ElfQuest #32 (1988), The Complete ElfQuest #4 (1989), Alvefolket #20 (1991), ElfQuest #4 (1994), ElfQuest Reader's Collection #4 (1998), ElfQuest Archives #4 (2008), The Complete ElfQuest #1 (2014), ElfQuest: The Final Quest #8 (2015), Abenteuer in der Elfenwelt #11, ElfQuest #20
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