A Grand Celebration

by Wendy Pini

Elfquest art copyright 1999 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Artwork

The artwork on this page is a scene from the first Elfquest graphic novel, and appears on this web site with permission from Warp Graphics. I've enjoyed reading the Elfquest stories since 1982. If you enjoy fantasy stories illustrated with beautiful art, and you haven't discovered Elfquest yet, you're missing something special.

About the Artist

This beautiful artwork was created by Wendy Pini, creator of the popular Elfquest illustrated fantasy. Wendy was born Wendy Fletcher in Gilroy, California. From the very beginning her leanings were creative and she applied pencil and crayon to any convenient blank surface. Gilroy is known as "The Garlic Capital of the World" - an ambience guaranteed to foster escapism - so it is not surprising that the young Wendy's artistry turned in the direction of fantasy. With friends such as Shakespeare, Arthur Rackham, Rudyard Kipling, Walt Disney, Ozamu Tezuka, Chuck Jones, Doug Wildey and many others to learn from and keep her company, Wendy began to spin her own tales of elves and monkey-gods, aliens and sorcerers.

Wendy began exhibiting her artwork in fanzines and at science fiction conventions in the mid-1960s, garnering awards and recognition. In 1972 she married Richard Pini, and in 1974 she began her professional career as an illustrator for science fiction magazines such as "Galaxy", "Galileo" and "Worlds of If." She provided covers and interior art for three years, until a personal project called "Elfquest" beckoned in 1977. As the first continuing fantasy/adventure series to be created, written and illustrated by a woman, Elfquest became a phenomenon in the comics industry, appealing to comics and fantasy/science fiction readers alike, attracting an audience unique for its equal mix of male and female readers, and selling nearly three million copies of the collected graphic novel volumes to date.

While the "Elfquest" saga itself has been an ongoing work in many forms (comics, prose, calendars, children's books) for over two decades, it has not been the only focus of Wendy's creative talents. She has also done work for Marvel and DC Comics, co-wrote (with husband/editor Richard) and illustrated prose novelizations of "Elfquest"; supplied the text and illustrations for "Law and Chaos", an art book inspired by the writings of Michael Moorcock; and provided cover art for the Elfquest-related anthology series "Blood of Ten Chiefs". In 1989 and 1990 she applied her talent and considerable love to the writing and painting of "Portrait of Love" and "Night of Beauty", two graphic novels based on the popular television show "Beauty and the Beast." Most recently Wendy has turned nearly all her energies toward developing "Elfquest" for adaptation into an animated feature length film, a task not nearly so easy to do as to say, as it involves distilling literally thousands of pages of story into a package pleasing to both eye and heart, and no more than ninety minutes in length!

Some day, she says, she will finish her part in the telling of "Elfquest". What then? In addition to the continuing pursuit of her spiritual studies, one fondly expressed wish is to take a totally hedonistic amount of time to travel to warm and exotic places and devote an entire year to a single painting that has no deadline attached to it.

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