Interview: Wendy and Richard Pini
On Sunday, April 3rd, while attending WonderCon, I ran around to as many of my favorite kids comics creators as I could and asked them all the exact same questions. Keep in mind, conventions are crazy loud and crazy busy, so there is a lot of background noise. Let me know in the comments if you have trouble hearing anything and I’ll translate for you.
I was a latecomer to comics. Other than the occasional Archie or Jughead comic I’d read in the orthodontist’s office, the only comics I knew anything about were the ones in the Sunday newspaper. And then, in my early 20s, I found the Uncanny X-Men. And then I started talking about comics and discovered there were other women who read comics, too. And then one of them introduced me to ElfQuest. And that’s all she wrote. I was hooked. I read them all. I gave them to my dad. He read them all.
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For me, ElfQuest was a gateway to non-superhero comics and beyond. For Dad, it was a reminder of how much fun fiction could be. And for both of these things, I thank the Pinis. (Lest you think I’m alone in my love for this series, a week or so ago, a group of fans released ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining, a sort of imaginary trailer for the movie Warner Brothers may or may not make (the property was optioned years ago). For fellow fans, this short film is a real treat.)
Filed under: Interviews, Uncategorized
About Eva Volin
Eva Volin is the Supervising Children's Librarian for the Alameda Free Library in California. She has written about graphic novels for such publications as Booklist, Library Journal, ICv2, Graphic Novel Reporter, and Children & Libraries. She has served on several awards committees including the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. She served on YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee for three years and is currently serving on ALSC's Notable Books for Children committee.
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Eva, thank you so much for posting this! It was a wonderful interview. Elfquest was one of my gateways into comics as well–at age 10 when my best friend’s aunt gave us the first book. And it was wonderful hearing Wendy mention one of my gateways into manga: Rurouni Kenshin. Very interesting and so much fun for a Wednesday morning! Thank you!