r/ElfQuest • u/SethManhammer • 22d ago
Elfquest/Poison Elves beef?
So I was recently reminded that Poison Elves was a thing and I've been revisiting/discovering it all over again. I know Drew Hayes cited both Cerebus and Elfquest as big inspirations for Poison Elves but I'm now reading there may have been some beef between Hayes and the Pinis? It may be a load of hooey, as Hayes had a fake feud going on with Brian Michael Bendis while he was doing Jinx, but I figured I'd ask here.
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u/superflinch 22d ago
I'm not familiar with this particular beef, but I wouldn't be surprised based on their social media presence (very self-important and weirdly combative with the fan base at times) and their history with other independent creators (Colleen Doran).
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u/SethManhammer 22d ago
Okay, I'm out of the loop, can you give me a TLDR on what happened with Colleen Doran?
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u/superflinch 22d ago
Colleen Doran first launched A Distant Soul under WaRP Graphics back in the day with Richard Pini as a (co?)author, but the working relationship deteriorated. Allegedly when she first pulled away, WaRP wanted to retain all rights to the A Distant Soul IP even though this was her childhood brainchild, and it became a whole thing. She eventually won, but republished by re-doing most of everything from the ground up, or so is my understanding.
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u/superflinch 22d ago
I base most of my understanding of the situation on this paper, I love both Doran and the Pinis' work, and was oblivious to any behind the scenes drama back when it was happening.
https://hal.science/hal-03626412v1/file/Licari-Guillaume.pdf
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u/SethManhammer 22d ago
Holy shit! I did not know that! Appreciate the insight. Kinda colors the Pinis a bit differently for me now.
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u/Dian_Arcane 22d ago
I recently read Drew Hayes' book Deathreats, a collection of all his intro notes to Poison Elves, and there was never any feud, but Drew was worried that the Pinis felt he was honing in on their action and thought they didn't like him. They met at a con where he was so happy to discover that the Pinis didn't hate him, I think he even got a hug from Wendy? Then he went back to his own table and drew the short story about Cutter hunting a ravvit and presented it to them.
As far as I know, though, Drew wasn't inspired by Elfquest, but by Cerberus and a DnD campaign he had played. The characters Strider and Sapphire are apparently directly based on Drew and a friend's characters from this DnD campaign.
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u/SethManhammer 22d ago
I'm gonna have to get that book, thank you for dropping that story for me! Glad there was no legit issues.
Hayes does state in the intro to the Mulehide Collection book he was inspired by Cerebus and Elfquest and his D&D stuff; his wording there and a few comments I read online were what brought the question to my mind.
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u/Dian_Arcane 22d ago
Gosh you know what, I absolutely could be wrong about that! runs to check my Mulehide Years trade You were right! He read the original quest at age 12 and thought it was amazing. I must have skipped over the intro to get to the comics! That really put a smile on my face, thank you!
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u/beschizza 22d ago
Here's Drew's ElfQuest story "Hunters" from 1994: https://imgur.com/a/tTBxHzG
Recent interview with longtime publisher Robb Horan on working with Drew: https://www.tcj.com/he-led-a-big-life-discussing-the-legacy-of-drew-hayes-and-poison-elves-with-robb-horan/
Fourth collections of Poison Elves is on the way: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robbguy/poison-elves-book-four-hardcover/creator
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u/ChanticrowTwoPointOh 22d ago edited 22d ago
There was an advertisement for Poison Elves that said something like "No 'cute' elves allowed here." Elfquest fired back with an ad saying something like "We don't do 'cute'."
Sorry, I don't remember the specific wording and such now. It was more of a playful back and forth than an actual beef. Drew and the Pinis had a good relationship.
Edit to say Robb Horan has been running some incredible Kickstarters for the collected editions of Poison Elves. Someone else linked the campaign for the fourth book. All of these hardcovers are so well put together, and Robb's dedication to the series really shows. Highly recommended.