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ElfQuest Appreciation Thread
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89 posts in this topic

2022 Con appearances for the Pinis!  Link below has info on signature fees and Covid restrictions.

Feb 18-20 PensaCon (Pensacola, FL)
Apr 8-10 Fan Expo Philly (Philadelphia, PA)
May 27-29 Phoenix Fan Fusion (Phoenix, AZ)
Jul 15-17 ConnectiCon (Hartford, CT)
Aug 12-14 Fan Expo Boston (Boston, MA)
Sept 1-5 DragonCon (Altanta, GA)
Sept 22-24 FanX (Salt Lake City, UT)
Oct 28-30 Baltimore Comic Con (Baltimore, MD)

http://elfquest.com/appearances/

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On 4/16/2022 at 7:09 PM, Wolverinex said:
On 4/14/2022 at 3:25 PM, Jon Thor said:

I sent in  Warp Elfquest #1 and #2 (both $1.00 first prints)  to be graded.

I am hoping the label comes back as:

#1 - Fourth appearance of Elfquest

#2 - Second appearance of Elfquest

What are the chances of that?

@valiantman

Chances are low.

Elfquest #2 (1978) will probably say "1st appearance of Leetah" (or nothing noted on the label).

Elfquest #1 (4/1979) will probably say "Reprints Elfquest story from Fantasy Quarterly #1"

Edited by valiantman
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On 6/13/2022 at 9:41 PM, MisterX said:

Does anybody know what the print run was on FQ1?

It seems to be readily available?

Elfquest 2 was 10,000* copies, but I don't believe there's ever been an acknowledgement of how many FQ 1 were produced. I'd assume quite a bit less. Maybe 5k? 2500? I feel like they can't be that rare, because the paper quality is pretty much generic newsprint with a cover that's only slightly better, but there are nearly 400 CGC slabbed copies; if the print run was something like 500 or 1000, I would not have expected 400 survivors.

* To be fair, there is a book by Dan Gearino that reports this as 20k instead of 10k, but I'm inclined to believe the smaller number, which -- among other places -- was reported by Charlie Meyerson in "The Origins of Independent Comics", a historical research series that appeared alongside the comics content in First Comics books in 1983-84; Meyerson did his level best to do his homework and there's every indication that he got that figure from the Pinis.

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On 6/14/2022 at 1:11 PM, MisterX said:

That's interesting. I wonder why the hobby doesn't have a definite number after all these years. 

In general, specifically-known print runs are the exception, not the norm. There's generally little benefit to publishers or creators from advertising exact numbers except when they have to (or when they're making it a selling point), and even then, the realities of what actually got printed don't always match what's discussed.

However, I did some digging. There was a huge interview with the Pinis in Comic Book Creator #23 (Summer 2020) that I wasn't previous aware of. Per Richard (on page 62) the FQ print run was indeed 10,000 copies. With that in mind, it seems possible that Gearino was right and Meyerson wrong about the print run for ElfQuest #2. YMMV there.

Anyway, on the topic of FQ, it's sort of a miracle that ElfQuest happened at all. FQ's publisher, IPS, wasn't... a real publisher. It was run by Tim Donahoe, who had already launched -- and failed with -- a comic distribution company (Donahoe Brothers, out of Ann Arbor, also known as Comic Center Enterprises and Donahoe Brudders). That business lasted a bit more than a year; Donahoe had been reselling merchandise without paying the publishers for it, a scheme so brazen than it apparently attracted the personal attention and ire of Carmine Infantino himself. It's not clear that the Pinis were aware of Donahoe's history threeish years later when he offered to publish ElfQuest in FQ. After releasing that one single issue, printed nearly as cheaply as possible, IPS folded. Donahoe refused to pay the Pinis, and refused to return 60 pages of unpublished ElfQuest artwork to the Pinis. Richard made the trip from Boston to Lansing to successfully demand return of the art in person, but Donahoe never paid them directly. They did get their money later on -- after a fashion -- but only because Bud Plant and Phil Seuling wound up with money that was supposed to go to Donahoe from a separate project, but they agreed to take the Pinis' share out of it upfront to make them whole!

Edited by Qalyar
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Thanks for sharing that story. I should pick up that issue of CBC sometime.

Printing up 10,000 copies of an unknown B&W indie seems either bold or reckless. I wonder how many survived, either in collections, dealer's inventory, or boxed up in some warehouse. 

 

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On 6/15/2022 at 2:19 PM, MisterX said:

Thanks for sharing that story. I should pick up that issue of CBC sometime.

Printing up 10,000 copies of an unknown B&W indie seems either bold or reckless. I wonder how many survived, either in collections, dealer's inventory, or boxed up in some warehouse. 

 

Well, it's bold or reckless if you actually pay for it, which Donahoe almost certainly didn't. After all, that's how his previous business "worked". He ordered comics from DC, sold them, pocketed the cash, then just never got around to paying DC for the books. And when people caught on, folded the business and slinked off into the night.

With IPS, we know he tried to stiff the Pinis entirely (and steal their art); odds are good he didn't pay other people involved in production, either. After all, by Richard's account, that 10k run sold out in a few months, but IPS folded immediately without trying to publish anything further. It was basically just a scam operation that accidentally produced one of the most influential key indie books of all time.

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I know I should probably just buy the magazine where they're interviewed, but do the Pinis talk about gettng Elfquest adapted to the movies or T.V.? 

A property that's been around this long probably has had its share of development hell, no?

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On 6/17/2022 at 4:22 PM, OtherEric said:

Found at my LCS today.  I'm quite happy at $5 each, even with the corner crease on the #2.  The $1 cover price means they're all 1st prints, correct?

Yes, the $1.00 cover price indicates 1st prints. (thumbsu

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