Artists of Sword & Sorcery: Wendy Pini (1951-)

Wendy Pini got her start doing covers for SF digests like Galileo and Galaxy. She also made a splash in 1973 dressing up as Red Sonja and doing promotional appearances with Frank Thorne.

But Wendy really began her career when she created Elfquest in 1978 along with her husband, Richard. The Elfquest comics ran in one versions or another from 1978 to 2018. The tales of the elves may have been inspired in part by Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings but Wendy made it her own, expanding the series over the decades. Elfquest was at times (through the thin 1990s) the only consistent S&S comic around. Marvel’s Conan, the oldest and biggest kind on the block, can’t even make that claim. Elfquest is the longest running heroic fantasy series ever. It appeared under Wendy’s own independent Warp Graphics as well as with Marvel, DC and Dark Horse Comics.

Another achievement these comics accomplished was to bring more female readers to heroic fantasy, a venue largely dominated by males. Wendy did two special Elfquest comics for Frank Frazetta’s short-lived magazine in 1999. Wendy attempted to bring both Elfquest and Elric’s Stormbringer to animated film though both attempts failed (so far).

Magazines

Original Elfquest

The Novel

From the RPG

“Rogue’s Curse”

“The Jury”

Elfquest Character Sketch for Film

There are those who would say Elfquest isn’t really Sword & Sorcery. Well, it is Heroic Fantasy anyway. What would you expect from an artist who spent her youth dressing up as Red Sonja? Below is a page from “The Red and Wizard Show” featuring Wendy Pini as Red. (She’d probably rather forget about the steel bikini days…) No matter what you call it (heroic fantasy or S&S) Wendy has been an innovator, exploring novels, role-playing games and films. She finished off the Elfquest saga with Elfquest: The Final Quest in 2018.

Red Sonja On the Mike Douglas Show

“The Wizard and Red Show”

I had a set of these back-in-the-day…