Wendy PininéeFletcher, and Richard Pini are the husband-and-wife team responsible for creating the well-known Elfquest series of comics, graphic novels and prose works. They are also known as WaRP.
Early life
Wendy Fletcher was born in San Francisco in 1951, and from an early age demonstrated the talents later to come to fruition as a professional illustrator, and eventually as the creator of Elfquest. Wendy's youthful interest in fantasy was inspired in part by such luminaries as Shakespeare and Kipling. She took artistic inspiration from Victorian illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, designers such as Walt Disney, Doug Wildey, and Erté, as well as comic book greats such as Jack Kirby and Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Richard Pini was born in 1950, in New Haven, Connecticut. After an exemplary academic performance at school, he was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for an astrophysics degree. Always a fan of science fiction, at college he found a new diversion in comic books. Wendy Fletcher and Richard Pini met when Pini read a letter of Fletcher's that had been published in issue #5 of the Silver Surfer comic book. A correspondence began, spanning a period of four years. The two eventually married in 1972, and Wendy embarked upon a career as an illustrator for sci-fi magazines. A degree in astronomy from MIT led Richard to a position at Boston's Charles Hayden Planetarium as lecturer, photographer, script writer and special effects technician. Later, he taught high school astronomy, then worked for IBM until Elfquest became a full-time occupation.
Career
Fletcher contributed several covers and illustrations to Galaxy Science Fiction and Galileo magazines in the mid-1970s. Prior to the widespread publication of Elfquest, Wendy was also known for dressing up at comic book conventions as Red Sonja.
Elfquest
Elfquest, a fantasy story about a community of elves, was launched in 1978 with art and co-writing by Wendy Pini. Richard Pini, who had been working for IBM, is credited as co-writer and editor on Elfquest, as well as handling all of the publishing and business aspects of Warp Graphics.
Stormbringer
Wendy Pini wrote a book documenting her attempt to make an animated film project of the Stormbringer series. Law and Chaos: The "Stormbringer" Animated Film Project was published by Father Tree Press in 1987. The book contains original artwork, information on the characters, an overview of the plot, and Wendy Pini's personal investment in the project. The film never reached completion. However, the full content of Law and Chaos may be found on the Masque of the Red Deathweb site.
"Masque of the Red Death"
In 2007, Wendy Pini turned her attention to a new project unrelated to Elfquest. Taking the Edgar Allan Poe short story "Masque of the Red Death" as a starting point, she adapted the tale into both graphic novel and web comic formats, giving it a futuristic, dystopic slant.
Other work
In addition to Elfquest, Wendy Pini also created two graphic novels based on the TV series Beauty and the Beast and has illustrated occasional stories for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. She wrote an introduction to the first volume of the Gargoylestrade paperback and mentions being a fan of the show.
Awards and honors
1979 Ed Aprill Award - Best Independent Comic
1979, 1980 Alley Award
1980 Small Press Writers and Artists Organization - Best Artist, Wendy Pini - Best Editor, Richard & Wendy Pini
Characters based on Richard and Wendy Pini appear in Ghost Ridervolume 1, #14, as well as issues #15, #17, #18, and #19, which were written by Tony Isabella. Richard is a special effects technician and props arranger for a Hollywood movie studio, and Wendy is a costume designer. Elfquest and Wendy Pini are both referenced in Marvel's Uncanny X-Men #153, "Kitty's Fairy Tale", written by Chris Claremont. In that issue, Kitty Pryde wears an Elfquest T-shirt throughout, while a sprite named "Pini" makes an appearance with "Bamf" on p. 16. In Fantastic Four #242, series writer/artist John Byrne portrays an Elfquest play staged at a theatre built over the site of the flophouse where the Human Torch found the amnesiac Namor in Fantastic Four #4. Richard Pini is caricatured as a mad scientist in Charlton Bullseye #10 in a Thunderbunny story written by Martin Greim.
