This month's HU column is up!

[telophase]

Right here! I squeeble a bit about my childhood experiences with Elfquest, and then recap and discuss issue #1.

And if you're skipping the posts on your f-list from the holidays, you really do want to go look at my Welcome to Texas post. Sometimes the stereotypes are true.

Comments

[torachan]

Elfquest! I really wanted to get into it back in the day, and I read a couple hardcover ones from the library as well as an Elfquest novel, but could never afford to actually buy the comics myself and thus read the whole thing.

I downloaded ALL the Elfquest earlier this year, so I'll probably give it a go at some point, though it came in a huge confusing mush, so I may end up deleting it all instead. D:

[telophase]

If you can read it online, www.elfquest.com has them all scanned and available for free. :)

[torachan]

I can read online, but I tend not to like most online readers.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

As I just commented over on the LJ side, the online versions (and presumably the newest print versions) have all been completely recolored, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how strongly you imprinted on the earlier version you read. Vol. 1 of the original Donning trades, for instance, has REALLY SHITTY coloring, washed-out and inconsistent: it looked good enough back in the day but the later volumes in even those first editions were much much nicer; the online editions for issues 1 - 5 are a big improvement over the color in the original trades, as is the recolored 10th anniversary edition of V. 1. Once you get past that first book, though, it's very much a matter of taste -- I kind of like the more cel-shaded simplicity of the earlier color editions vs. the bright-and-busy PS gradients of the new version.

[torachan]

Oh, interesting. I'll definitely have to take a look at them.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

You also may or may not want to stop when you hit issue 20, the end of the original four-volume series; I *adored* the original series and still reread them every few years, but never could manage to get into the sequels and spinoffs. Mileage May Vary, of course! I may give them another shot myself now that it's all readable online for free, but I bounced off 'em fairly hard when they first came out.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Elfquest, whee! I actually came to that a little bit older and a few years later than you, but it was a similarly formative comics experience for me. I'd imprinted on subbed anime (running on a local Japanese station) at a very early age, but without cable, VCRs, etc. didn't really have access to more of that cool stuff beyond whatever came over the broadcast airwaves; I'd flip through the occasional kiddy comic (Archie, Richie Rich, Casper, that sort of thing) at the doctor's office, but my mom always seemed so vaguely disapproving of comic books that I didn't dare ask her to buy me any, and like you the 70s/80s superhero art didn't appeal much to me anyway. I didn't really have access to any translated manga, beyond checking out Fred Schodt's Manga! Manga! from the library over and over, and I couldn't read the untranslated stuff taunting me from the shelves at Shirokiya and Hakubundo. So when I was in intermediate school and a friend handed me that first Donning compilation, it hit that perfect empty niche for me. I eventually tried looking for a few of the single issues, but they were only available in comic book stores that were out of the way and a little uncomfortable for me and faintly suspicious to my mom, so it was simpler for me to just wait for the trades since they looked like perfectly respectable "real books" and I could buy them in regular mall bookstores that she didn't object to.

after checking the color versions online, the tribe that oust the Wolfriders are pale-skinned, but the bestial, Neandertal-like humans in the flashback are dark-skinned in contrast with the ethereal, pale-skinned elves. Sigh.

I'd have to poke around to try to find it, but the late Skywardprodigal and I had an interesting conversation about skin color issues in EQ a couple years ago. It's all complicated because the series has been completely recolored at least twice, once by hand for the anniversary reprints and more recently in Photoshop. We both originally read the series in the full-color Donning trades, and the portrayal of skincolor there was so inconsistent at times that I'd wondered if V. 1 in particular showed signs of technical difficulties in working with the color medium in general, and specific problems of unfamiliarity in depicting deeper skin tones, particularly in unusual lighting conditions. (The coloring got much better and more consistent in the later volumes, but in V. 1 it's often washed out and inconsistent across the board, and the Sun Folk particularly suffer for it with splotchy complexions of inconsistent depth: sometimes they're very obviously dark-skinned and *brown*, while in other panels the same characters look like they've got light skin and a touch of badly-applied bronzer.) I've since found confirmation that they really didn't entirely know what they were doing with the coloring in V. 1 and Wendy was unhappy with it (http://www.elfquest.com/edits/WendyWords020228.html) -- there's a comparison panel there of the human shaman from the first issue, in all three coloring versions.) Reading it at the time, however, even inconsistent watercolor on nice shiny paper looked SO MUCH NICER than the average full-color comic book that I thought it looked just fine, and then when the later volumes came out it just got better and better. (And revisiting it now as a more critical adult reader, the "more primitive = darker" depiction of the humans is a bit problematic -- but as a young teen reading it for the first time, I didn't have much interest to spare on the humans: it was all ZOMG ELVES! AND WOLVES! AND SOME OF THE ELVES ARE *BROWN*! AND EVEN THE GIRLS GET TO DO STUFF! flailing squee.)

(Commenting here because HU seems to hate my CAPTCHA no matter what I try, bah!)

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Elfquest was my very first experience with a comic. I loved it to itty bitty pieces, too. I didn't have anyone to share it with, though. All my friends sorta wrinkled their brow and shook their heads.

The significant other just started reading it, though. He absolutely loves the art and can't believe he never picked it up before.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Eee, Scott McCloud (http://scottmccloud.com/2010/11/30/the-east-wind/) mentioned you!