Cover: Wendy Pini

ElfQuest #4

Apr 1979 · WaRP Graphics · 1.00 USD

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“Wolfsong”

★ 1st appearance — Joyleaf

About this Issue

ElfQuest #4 (copyright 1979) is the emotional and mythological cornerstone of the Original Quest, delivering the in-universe oral history known as the 'Song of the Wolf' — a formal accounting of every Wolfrider chief from the ancestral Timmorn Yellow-Eyes through Bearclaw. In a single issue, Wendy Pini introduces or fleshes out more than a dozen characters across generations entirely through flashback, a structurally ambitious device rare in American alternative comics of the era. The issue also presents the first full account of Madcoil — the chimeric monster born of corrupted elf magic whose rampage killed both of Cutter's parents and directly triggered his rise to chieftain — making it the essential origin story within the origin story. As part of the self-published WaRP Graphics run, it exemplified what Elfquest accomplished for independent comics: literary, character-driven fantasy storytelling helmed by a female creative principal, earning the series the 1979 Ed Aprill Award for Best Independent Comic.

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

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $0

Flagged key issue — estimate limited by sparse sales.

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

More listings for this title

VG $6 MINT $19.99

Related listings we couldn't confirm as this exact issue · 2 total · seen 9 days ago

Read it digitally

Amazon Kindle Buy the digital edition ▸ GlobalComix Indie & digital reader ▸

Opens a search on each platform — digital availability varies by title.

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

ElfQuest #4 was written by Wendy and Richard Pini (Wendy handling art and script, Richard co-plotting and editing), produced entirely by the husband-and-wife team at their self-founded WaRP Graphics — a company they created after the poor-quality Fantasy Quarterly printing of their debut story convinced them they could do better on their own. The issue carries a copyright date of 1979, published in WaRP's established magazine-sized, black-and-white interior format with a glossy full-color painted cover by Wendy, a production standard the Pinis maintained across the entire 20-issue Original Quest run. The letters page for this issue notably includes correspondence from Marvel writer Bill Mantlo, an early signal of the mainstream comics community's awareness of the series.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published by WaRP Graphics; copyright © 1979; part of the 20-issue Original Quest series (1978–1984) written and drawn by Wendy Pini, co-plotted and edited by Richard Pini.
The main story — sometimes called the 'Song of the Wolf' — has Treestump and Cutter recount the lineage of the ten Wolfrider chiefs for the assembled tribe (including the watching Leetah), introducing ancestral figures Timmorn Yellow-Eyes, Rahnee the She-Wolf, Two-Spear, Goodtree, Huntress Skyfire, Freefoot, Longbranch, Brownberry, and Man-Tricker in flashback for the first time.
First full account of Madcoil: the chimeric monster (fused from a giant serpent and a longtooth cat by a pool of stagnant elven magic) whose rampage killed Joyleaf and four other Wolfriders, and whose subsequent one-on-one battle with Bearclaw resulted in Bearclaw's death and the passing of the chieftainship — and the sword New Moon — to Cutter.
Foxfur, Joyleaf, Bearclaw, Brownberry, and Longbranch are all depicted dying in this issue's flashback sequences; Madcoil is also destroyed here (in flashback), killed by Cutter leading the tribe collectively rather than fighting alone.
The letters column for this issue includes a letter from Marvel Comics writer Bill Mantlo, demonstrating early recognition of ElfQuest among mainstream comics professionals.
The issue exists in at least four printings; the Grand Comics Database records three variant covers for this issue number alone.
The story material from this issue was reprinted across multiple formats: the Donning/Starblaze watercolor graphic novel (1981), the Marvel/Epic 32-issue color reprint series (beginning 1985), the WaRP Graphics Reader's Collection #1 'Fire and Flight' (1998), the DC Comics Archives hardcover vol. 1 (2003), and the Dark Horse Gallery Edition (2014).
ElfQuest as a series won the 1979 Ed Aprill Award (New York Comic Art Convention) for Best Independent Comic, with issue #4 falling squarely in the publication window that earned that recognition.