SANDERSON: To what extent did ElfQuest turn out at the end as you saw it at the beginning? Did the plot and characterizations change from what you had originally intended?

WENDY: Well, our formula for doing ElfQuest was initially to plot the whole thing out. Even before we did our first promo package back in 1977, we knew how it was going to end.

RICHARD: I have to jump in here with an amendment to that. The overall plot did not change. But you [Wendy] and I had a number of discussions on points. The whole of issue twenty, I think, was more vague in our minds at the beginning than it came out being, when we finally got around to putting that issue out.

WENDY: Well, we always knew that the elves were going to reach the castle and that they were going to discover their origins.

RICHARD: True, but I'm referring particularly to the whole idea of "what does death mean?" So we had to give some thought to make some decisions about what death and after-death are to these characters. We were faced with a little bit of a dilemma in that we didn't want to say in every case that first death happens and then this happens, because we wanted the readers to think about what things like life and death mean, not only to the characters, but to themselves as readers.

WENDY: I will readily admit that up until issue 19 we debated about whether One-Eye was really dead, or whether we would revive him. Richard loved him and wanted him back, and I felt for the integrity of the story he had to die. And during the course of our debates, we came upon the chilling third alternative, which is only doing justice to the nature of elves, which is not the same as the nature of humans. We established early on in the story that the elves have the capacity for astral projection, that is, the spirit existing outside the body. So why wouldn't it follow then, that the spirit would continue to be a force after the body has died? And as we began to talk about this more and realize that death, in our minds, probably isn't the same thing for elves as it might be for humans, we realized we had to deal with this as a story concept, and have the other characters deal with it. Clearbrook calls out to her mate's spirit; the spirit doesn't respond. Usually, in a fantasy story, when someone's love calls out to a spirit, the spirit returns, and everyone lives happily ever after. Why didn't this happen in ElfQuest? Because not only did we want the characters to think about it, but we also wanted the readers to think about it. Maybe dying isn't as bad as we've been led to believe. Maybe death is another state that you don't necessarily want to come back from.


RICHARD: And we weren't about to make that choice, certainly not for the readers. We didn't want to impose whatever feelings we had on them by saying, "The reason One-Eye does not answer Clearbrook is that he's out there in the Elysian Fields having a grand old time with all the other characters who have died." And so, by leaving it with a big question mark in that respect, I'd like to think about the concept of living, the concept of dying, the concept of spirit, the concepts of after-life and nonexistence.

WENDY: It is something that's not really focused on with any kind of consistency in superhero comics. Particularly in the Marvel Universe, resurrection is the rule of the day. If enough readers write in and say, "I miss that character," they'll find some way to bring him back. Therefore, the fans get this idea, "We have the power of life and death over the characters we like; therefore, we shouldn't really take death seriously when it happens in a story."

RICHARD: They want what they're used to. They don't want to think they have no power over One-Eye. At the World Science Fiction Convention someone said, "When are you going to bring One-Eye back?" And we looked at this person in the audience and said, "One-Eye's story is told. You have to relate to it however you want." And this person sort of sat in his chair and went "Ohhhh...." [Wendy explodes in laughter.] And that's the answer we had for them. They have no power over the characters, and therefore, they are getting a more truthful experience in the reading of the story.

SANDERSON: They are being forced to recognize the reality of death.

RICHARD: They've been forced all through ElfQuest to accept the reality of the various and sundry things we've put in there...