check out website: www.DCcomics.com and www.elfquest.com

It's hard to believe that I read the first 'ElfQuest' collection back in the early 80s. Apart from the difficulty in collecting the individual issues, it was an unusual interest for a die-hard SF reader to want to check out a comic about elves.

I think what struck me at the time was that 'ElfQuest' was internally consistent and they were using primitive science without really understanding why things worked that way. The best example of that being the lodestone carried by Skywise to find the direction in their travels. To them, it was a magic rock rather than a piece of magnetic ore.

With this book, we have a new adventure of the Wolfriders who now they are settled are having problems replacing their weaponry now that the tool-making trolls have left. They also have a human female, Shuna, living amongst them after she fled her abusing father and is now past adolescence and wants to encourage relations between the elves and humans. These twin plots intertwine through this graphic novel, illustrating things aren't as easy as you would imagine them to be.

Wendy Pini has turned from colouring with a brush to doing it by computer now having discovered how flexible the graphics software was with her line illustration with not a pixel in sight. It's a shame that the richness of the colours of the contents wasn't altogether caught on the cover but that's personal opinion and probably more an editorial decision.

Those of you familiar with Wendy Pini's art and text style will recognise she's remained consistent throughout her 'ElfQuest' books. I think it would help the novice reader discovering this book had there been some sort of glossary or identification of the major characters to know them better though. Although Wendy Pini does identify as she goes without getting bogged down with it, I can't guarantee that you can get into it cold.

Mind you, as DC also have 6 volumes of the other 'ElfQuest' books, you might well want to dig into these first to see where all these characters have come from.

Considering the 'ElfQuest' comics were produced independently by the Pinis and reprinted both by Marvel and DC should also indicate that they have a vast following who will no doubt be happy to buy this new adventure. Seeing Cutter and his Wolfrider Clan again after all these years has been fun and can't wait for the next one.

GF Willmetts