Celebrating Dark Horse’s Women In Comics – Elfquest’s Wendy Pini Is Proud To Be A ‘Tough, Stubborn, Long-Surviving Woman Pioneer’

Since 1978, the world of Elfquest has inspired the minds and artistic bent of generations of readers, and the unstoppable trajectory of its ever-expanding world has moved through various platforms, displaying the full versatility of the comics medium, from mainstream publishing, to self-publication, webcomics, and now back to print in a new incarnation with Dark Horse in Elfquest: The Final Quest.
PiniArtist and co-creator of Elfquest with her husband Richard Pini, Wendy Pini has seen it all, experiencing the vicissitudes of the comics market and exploring some of the earliest reflexes of creator-owned comics. She’s not just one of the Women in Comics to be celebrated this month, but a true architect of comics history, and, as many have called her, a pioneer. Wendy Pini speaks with us here at Bleeding Cool with great frankness and wisdom about the lessons she learned in creating the world of Elfquest, the role of women in comics, and her observations about the comics industry over time.
But before we get started, have a look at this gem, the original “proposal” artwork which Wendy Pini showed DC and Marvel in 1977, a year before publication actually started in 1978:
1977proposal
Hannah Means-Shannon: Wendy, your perspective on comics is bound to be so vast that it’s hard to know where to start, so I’ll start at the beginning. Did it seem at all unusual to you or others in 1978 that you, as a female creator, wanted to make comics?
Wendy Pini: No, not to me. Because I had been drawing comics for my own amusement since childhood. I used to take a roll of paper towels and, with crayon or colored pencil, draw a comic that unrolled like a scroll – each segment of paper towel was a different scene. You see, I loved animated cartoons so much, always, and must’ve realized at a very young age that cartoons and comics were related. I discovered fandom in my mid-teens and met fellow fans like Gary Walker and Fred Patten who helped me get into the amateur comics publishing game via APA’s and fanzines. It was the world of purple ditto-master where I thought you had to draw every dot of your own zip-a-tone! LOL! And, yes, I was kind of a rare female beast in that world.
But by the time I became a professional sci-fi illustrator in the early 1970’s, I had met quite a few terrific pro and fan women fantasy artists and writers (Alicia Austin, Bjo Trimble, Lela Dowling, D.C. Fontana, Andre Norton and too many others who deserve mention) via sci-fi and fantasy conventions. I was one of many up-and-coming women creators. And that’s the mindset with which I entered indie comics publishing in 1978. Of course women can kick ass and get the job done in the entertainment field! I’d already seen it done!
True, there weren’t too many women writers, artists and editors in the mainstream comics industry at the time – and even fewer in the fledgling indie comics– but they were there (Marie Severin, Mary Jo Duffy, Louise Simonson, Jan Duurscema, et al). So I didn’t see myself as that unusual. And that’s good. Because, with all the hard work Richard and I had to do and the “deadly” deadlines I had to meet, it would’ve been a burden to be self-conscious of being some kind of role model.
When interviews and write-ups about Elfquest started to proliferate there was, indeed, focus on what was perceived as my unique status. I was held up as an example of a rare female artist/writer carving my own unique niche, with decidedly unusual fantasy material, in a male dominated, superhero-obsessed industry. Thirty-five years later, I’m still spoken and written of that way, when I’m spoken and written of. With the Elfquest series revival through Dark Horse Comics in 2013, we’ve noticed we’re getting more positive press than ever before. And we’re starting to see me referred to as an “indie comics pioneer.” That’s the label I love most, regardless of gender: “pioneer.” However, am I proud of being a tough, stubborn, long-surviving woman pioneer? You bet.
Since 1978, the world of Elfquest has inspired the minds and artistic bent of generations of readers, and the unstoppable trajectory of its ever-expanding world has moved through various platforms, displaying the full versatility of the comics medium, from mainstream publishing, to self-publication, webcomics, and now back to print in a new incarnation with Dark Horse in Elfquest: The Final Quest.

Artist and co-creator of Elfquest with her husband Richard Pini, Wendy Pini has seen it all, experiencing the vicissitudes of the comics market and exploring some of the earliest reflexes of creator-owned comics. She’s not just one of the Women in Comics to be celebrated this month, but a true architect of comics history, and, as many have called her, a pioneer. Wendy Pini speaks with us here at Bleeding Cool with great frankness and wisdom about the lessons she learned in creating the world of Elfquest, the role of women in comics, and her observations about the comics industry over time.

Hannah Means-Shannon: Wendy, your perspective on comics is bound to be so vast that it’s hard to know where to start, so I’ll start at the beginning. Did it seem at all unusual to you or others in 1978 that you, as a female creator, wanted to make comics?

Wendy Pini: No, not to me. Because I had been drawing comics for my own amusement since childhood. I used to take a roll of paper towels and, with crayon or colored pencil, draw a comic that unrolled like a scroll – each segment of paper towel was a different scene. You see, I loved animated cartoons so much, always, and must’ve realized at a very young age that cartoons and comics were related. I discovered fandom in my mid-teens and met fellow fans like Gary Walker and Fred Patten who helped me get into the amateur comics publishing game via APA’s and fanzines. It was the world of purple ditto-master where I thought you had to draw every dot of your own zip-a-tone! LOL! And, yes, I was kind of a rare female beast in that world.

But by the time I became a professional sci-fi illustrator in the early 1970’s, I had met quite a few terrific pro and fan women fantasy artists and writers (Alicia Austin, Bjo Trimble, Lela Dowling, D.C. Fontana, Andre Norton and too many others who deserve mention) via sci-fi and fantasy conventions. I was one of many up-and-coming women creators. And that’s the mindset with which I entered indie comics publishing in 1978. Of course women can kick ass and get the job done in the entertainment field! I’d already seen it done!

True, there weren’t too many women writers, artists and editors in the mainstream comics industry at the time – and even fewer in the fledgling indie comics– but they were there (Marie Severin, Mary Jo Duffy, Louise Simonson, Jan Duurscema, et al). So I didn’t see myself as that unusual. And that’s good. Because, with all the hard work Richard and I had to do and the “deadly” deadlines I had to meet, it would’ve been a burden to be self-conscious of being some kind of role model.

When interviews and write-ups about Elfquest started to proliferate there was, indeed, focus on what was perceived as my unique status. I was held up as an example of a rare female artist/writer carving my own unique niche, with decidedly unusual fantasy material, in a male dominated, superhero-obsessed industry. Thirty-five years later, I’m still spoken and written of that way, when I’m spoken and written of. With the Elfquest series revival through Dark Horse Comics in 2013, we’ve noticed we’re getting more positive press than ever before. And we’re starting to see me referred to as an “indie comics pioneer.” That’s the label I love most, regardless of gender: “pioneer.” However, am I proud of being a tough, stubborn, long-surviving woman pioneer? You bet.

Read the rest at Bleeding Cool!