ElfQuest #7
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeElfQuest #7 (Marvel/Epic, February 1986) sits squarely in the middle of one of the most consequential reprint runs in American alternative comics history — the 32-issue Epic imprint series that brought Wendy and Richard Pini's self-published fantasy saga to a mass newsstand audience for the first time. The issue's chapter, "Voice of the Sun," delivers a narrative pivot in which the Wolfriders survive a Zwoot stampede while Leetah makes her defining romantic choice between Cutter and Rayek — a moment of character-driven storytelling built on themes of identity and free will that the Pinis embedded throughout the saga. As part of a reprint series praised for opening an independent fantasy comic to readers who would never have encountered it in specialty shops, ElfQuest #7 represents the broader series' role in demonstrating that creator-owned, genre-fantasy comics could succeed inside the mainstream distribution system.
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The original "Voice of the Sun" story was plotted and scripted by Wendy Pini, with Richard Pini contributing to the plot, and all interior art executed by Wendy Pini — the same creative configuration as the rest of the Original Quest. The Marvel/Epic run that produced this issue began in August 1985, when the completed 20-issue Warp Graphics magazine series (originally black-and-white) was licensed to Marvel's Epic imprint for color reprint; because Marvel's format ran to approximately 22 story pages versus the original Warp comics' 32 pages, Wendy Pini wrote new bridging pages for each installment to re-knit the narrative at its new break points. This issue represents the color-reprint adaptation of material originally published by WaRP Graphics and now reaching a far wider audience through both direct-market comic shops and traditional newsstands.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Issue title: "Voice of the Sun" — a reprint (with new color and Marvel-format bridging pages) of original WaRP Graphics source material by Wendy and Richard Pini.
- Published February 1986 by Marvel's Epic Comics imprint as issue #7 in the 32-issue reprint run (August 1985–March 1988).
- Story credits: script by Wendy Pini (plot and script) and Richard Pini (plot); art, pencils, inks, and cover by Wendy Pini.
- Central narrative beats: the Wolfriders confront a Zwoot stampede, and Leetah makes her pivotal choice between Cutter and Rayek — a key emotional turning point in the Original Quest arc.
- This Epic run converted the original black-and-white Warp Graphics magazine pages to full color and added Wendy Pini-drawn bridging pages to accommodate Marvel's shorter page format; most of that bridging material was later incorporated into subsequent reprint collections and the online edition.
- The Marvel/Epic license covered only the completed Original Quest; none of the ElfQuest sequel series were published by Marvel.
- The series as a whole was one of the most significant instances of a creator-owned independent comic being reprinted through mainstream mass-market distribution, reaching both comic shops and newsstands simultaneously.
- The material in this issue was later reprinted again in DC's ElfQuest Archives hardcovers (beginning 2003), in Dark Horse's The Complete ElfQuest (2014), and is available free online at the official ElfQuest website as part of the Pinis' policy of open digital access to pre-2014 material.
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints ElfQuest #4 (1979), ElfQuest #5 (1979)
Reprinted in The Complete ElfQuest #1 (1988), The Complete ElfQuest #2 (1988), ElfQuest #2 (1994), ElfQuest Archives #2 (2005), The Complete ElfQuest #1 (2014)
Key issues in ElfQuest
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