You can find out a lot more at the official site http://www.elfquest.com/pubs/DecadesInPrint.html and at WaRP’s message board http://www.elfquest.com/forum/

Okey. I have written a letter to the company who publishes Elfquest in Norway, theyre called “Egmont publishing house”. They have published the books like you say in black and white prints, but only to vol. nr. 26 wich is called “The circle ends”. Heres the link to Egmont, so you can see all the elfquestbooks they have published:

http://www.serie.no/default.asp?ID=482&catID=213&productName=Alvefolket

Its a Norwegian page but I guess the frontcovers are the same everywhere:) I still havent found out how many books there are after vol. 26 “The circle ends”. But I have bougth a book called “Elfquest, the discovery” on a online store now, called comic.no. Its 4 books gathered in 1 book, and its about when cutter discovers the water-elfs, also calles the wawedancers!

When I found this book I knew that the quest has to go on after vol. 26, but I dont know where I can buy it. So if you or anyone else knows? Please send me a link so I can support Wendy and Richards hard work in the making of these books.

Hugs from Malin, Norway.

It’s true that traditional self-published comics aren’t all that prevalent these days. I think it’s a lot more common for self-publishers to skip floppies and go straight to TPBs — e.g. Carla’s Finder (which you mentioned) or people like Jane Irwin and Paul Sizer.

I think the web has a lot to do with that. There’s some really gorgeous stuff being done in webcomics nowadays, and for a brand-new self-publisher just starting out, I think it’s a lot more appealing than trying to scrape up money for a press run.

But yes, the Pinis have been doing business wisely along the way. They’ve never struck me as folks for whom self-publishing was some sort of moral position, just one that was a good choice for business at some points. ElfQuest did not start out self-published.

There really isn’t that much activity in the traditional-comics-format self-pub market these days (alas), and those who have made it through that route seem to have been willing to cut deals with publishers where it suits them. Bone went to Image, came back, and then had a reprint deal with Scholastic while continuing doing original material on a self-pub basis. Strangers In Paradise had some sort of reprint/art book with a mainstream publisher while continuing new material. And… well, really, what’s still going with any substantial background behind it? Supernatural Law, although it comes out quite slowly these days. I’m not quite sure if Jane’s World is still doing standard issues. Finder dropped the issues for web release, although still doing collection books.

Oh, thanks for the reminder, because I’d forgotten about that! Although Epic/Marvel was kind of its own thing, wasn’t it, an experiment in publishing creator-owned properties that Marvel tried and then gave up on?

But you know, that the Pinis have been doing it for so long and so successfully, as well as continuing to do their own stuff, makes it stand out even more. As far as I know, it’s really rare for self-publishers to do that, although maybe it’s just because so few self-publishers have a property that a big publisher would be interested in — and actually WANT enough to be willing to buy only some some of the rights.

I think this made an impression on me because I remember how many people made comments along the lines of, “Oh, this is the end of creator-owned Elfquest” when the Pinis made the DC deal. The usual they’re-selling-out spiel, in other words, except you know, that aspect of it is so often RIGHT, because so few creators actually go independent again with the same property after being signed with a publisher, especially a big one. But Elfquest is back to being creator-owned, and even though it IS certainly possible that DC booted them because of slow sales, it would still be interesting to see if this makes self-publishers a little more open to the idea of pursuing alternate venues for their work without quite so much of the “selling out” stigma.

[...] the end of May came word that Wendy and Richard Pini ended their deal for DC to publish Elfquest, their long-running fantasy series. PW found out why: “We wanted to get into DC’s camp [...]

[...] jump to the web (cf: here and here), what of the Pinis, pioneers of the self-publishing movement? From Johanna Draper Carlson: None of this means that Elfquest is going away, at least not yet. Pini has scripted the final arc, [...]

[...] to add: Another short, random observation! Over at ComicsWorthReading, Johanna caught wind of the news that Wendy & Richard Pini, creators of Elfquest, and DC [...]

If they had released full-sized, color albums (much like the original Donning and Warp albums) for 20.00 or 25.00 or possibly even 29.99, I could’ve sold the HELL out of them.

Duncan McGeary
Pegasus Books of Bend
Bend, Oregon

[...] Johanna Draper Carlson catches the fact that DC Comics’ deal with Wendy and Richard Pini to publish Elfquest books has come to an end, and ponders the ramifications of the news. [...]

For some reason, DC and Marvel just can’t get out of the periodical mindset very well.

Dark Horse just announced an ElfQuest statuette line.

it seems as though DC could have sold this to libraries rather easily for their graphic novel/manga collections. our local public library has a very wide selection of CMX manga — far more than their market share would indicate. So somewhere, DC is marketing to or making connections to the library market. Why Elfquest wasn’t hitched more to that wagon surprises me. As you said, it was already a proven quantity. publishers bring backlist into print for known authors all the time and resell older material again. but then again, asking a major comic publisher to act like a real publisher always seems to run into difficulties.

They released one original hardcover and a four issue miniseries, both of which didn’t seem to sell too well (in the direct market).

Their editor, Bob Greenberger, was let go halfway through as well. I’m sure that didn’t help with an eventual decision for DC to divest themselves of the property.