Customer Reviews

Elfquest Reader's Collection #8b: In All But Blood

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the exquisite cover art to the outstanding stories contained in the graphic novel, this is one of the best EQ collections I've ever seen. The art is uniformly stunning -- EQ has finally found artists worthy of Wendy Pini's example. And the stories are well-written.

The collection covers the relationship between Cutter and Skywise, two male elves who consider themselves "brothers in all but blood". Different aspects of their relationship are revealed, including their "sort of Recognition", and Skywise's fear and loathing of the idea of Recognizing a mate. The tone of the stories varies from serious to playful (I think the image of a troll beauty shimmying out of her dress has permanently scarred my retinas). The stories are all black and white art, but one doesn't miss the colors with art and storytelling this lush.

The relationship between Cutter and Skywise, two male elves who are "brothers in all but blood," is explored in-depth in these marvelously written stories. The illustrations, though not by Wendy Pini herself, are at least decent, unlike some of the other recent ElfQuest books. I could not give higher praise to such a celebration of an aspect of relationships too rarely seen in modern culture.

First, this might sound bias because Elfquest is my favorite book series. I consider Wendy and Richard Pini to be one of the greatest story tellers of our time. I would say the first eight books are the best, and I've been reading Elfquest way back when the first graphic novels were released. "In All But Blood" is a great book, where the stories fall between or right after the first 8 books. If you're a fan of Elfquest, I would highly recommened this book. If you havn't read Elfquest, I suggest you do yourself a huge favor and order book 1, Fire and Flight. You won't be dissapointed.

Elfquest used to be fun. No, really. It was hokey at times, but it took itself seriously which gave the hokiness an endearing quality, it had lovely art, and it sometimes actually had something genuine to say.

Over the past years, ever more Elfquest books have come out, and while some of them have been OK, more have been increasingly bad, until this is the worst of all.

Yes, it's nice to see Pini-like art back (though in a careless and occasionally mutant-looking form), but the stories here are beyond saccharine. They're like eating a bag of sugar. The dialogue is unspeakably awful-- poor Strongbow is made to say "Scramble and ramble!" at one especially low point. It's as if the whole thing were a Highlander II -esque self-parody.

Gag. Avoid it.