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ElfQuest: Stargazer's Hunt Complete Edition
ElfQuest alumnus Sonny Strait returns at full force as artist and colorist, alongside storytellers Wendy and Richard Pini, with script, layouts, and an all new cover exclusive to this edition by Wendy Pini.
Longtime fans and new readers alike will not want to miss this special offering of Stargazer's Hunt , released just in time to celebrate ElfQuest’s 10-year-anniversary with Dark Horse Comics!
When The Final Quest concluded, it ended the hero’s journey of Cutter Kinseeker, chief of the Wolfriders. But that was only the start of a new adventure for Cutter’s “brother in all but blood,” Skywise.
Now the stargazer elf, who thought he knew everything about Cutter, discovers how mistaken he was. Skywise sets his sights on the cosmic horizon for answers, sending him on his own epic quest from the elves’ ancestral Star Home through uncharted space and back to the World of Two Moons. His star-spanning quest reveals interstellar majesty and the desolation of ruined worlds, but no answers to the gaps in his memory. Meanwhile Jink, the elf-daughter he left behind, returns to the ancestral home of the Wolfriders in the hope of finding a way to heal her father’s soul.
This special hardcover edition of Stargazer’s Hunt collects the entire miniseries in one volume, including brand new behind-the-scenes sketches and commentary.
Collects Stargazer’s Hunt volumes 1 and 2.
Longtime fans and new readers alike will not want to miss this special offering of Stargazer's Hunt , released just in time to celebrate ElfQuest’s 10-year-anniversary with Dark Horse Comics!
When The Final Quest concluded, it ended the hero’s journey of Cutter Kinseeker, chief of the Wolfriders. But that was only the start of a new adventure for Cutter’s “brother in all but blood,” Skywise.
Now the stargazer elf, who thought he knew everything about Cutter, discovers how mistaken he was. Skywise sets his sights on the cosmic horizon for answers, sending him on his own epic quest from the elves’ ancestral Star Home through uncharted space and back to the World of Two Moons. His star-spanning quest reveals interstellar majesty and the desolation of ruined worlds, but no answers to the gaps in his memory. Meanwhile Jink, the elf-daughter he left behind, returns to the ancestral home of the Wolfriders in the hope of finding a way to heal her father’s soul.
This special hardcover edition of Stargazer’s Hunt collects the entire miniseries in one volume, including brand new behind-the-scenes sketches and commentary.
Collects Stargazer’s Hunt volumes 1 and 2.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published November 21, 2023
9 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Pini
614 books395 followersWendy Pini is one-half of a husband and wife team with Richard Pini that created, most notably, the Elfquest series.
Wendy was born in California and adopted into the Fletcher Family in Santa Clara County. Early on, she developed as an artist and was the illustrator of her high school year book. She submitted samples of her artwork to Marvel Comics at 17 that were rejected.
Pini attended Pitzer College and received her B.A. in the Arts and joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society.
In 1972, she married Richard Pini and began illustrating science fiction magazines, including Galaxy, Galileo, and Worlds of If. In 1977, Richard and Wendy established a publishing company called Warp Graphics to publish their first Elfquest comic. Elfquest was self-published for 25 years and in 2003, licensed to DC Comics. The comic series has won several awards, including the Ed Aprill Award for Best Independent Comic, two Alley Awards, the Fantasy Festival Comic Book Awards for Best Alternative Comic, and the Golden Pen Award.
Wendy has illustrated other works, including Jonny Quest in 1986, Law and Chaos in 1987, and in 1989, two graphic novels of Beauty and the Beast. Recently in 2007, she completed a graphic novel entitled The Masque of Red Death.
Wendy has received several awards over the last four decades, including the San Diego Comic Convention Inkpot Award, the New York State Jaycees Distinguished Service Award, the Balrog Award for Best Artist, and was inducted into the Friends of Lulu Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2002.
Wendy and her husband currently reside in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Wendy was born in California and adopted into the Fletcher Family in Santa Clara County. Early on, she developed as an artist and was the illustrator of her high school year book. She submitted samples of her artwork to Marvel Comics at 17 that were rejected.
Pini attended Pitzer College and received her B.A. in the Arts and joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society.
In 1972, she married Richard Pini and began illustrating science fiction magazines, including Galaxy, Galileo, and Worlds of If. In 1977, Richard and Wendy established a publishing company called Warp Graphics to publish their first Elfquest comic. Elfquest was self-published for 25 years and in 2003, licensed to DC Comics. The comic series has won several awards, including the Ed Aprill Award for Best Independent Comic, two Alley Awards, the Fantasy Festival Comic Book Awards for Best Alternative Comic, and the Golden Pen Award.
Wendy has illustrated other works, including Jonny Quest in 1986, Law and Chaos in 1987, and in 1989, two graphic novels of Beauty and the Beast. Recently in 2007, she completed a graphic novel entitled The Masque of Red Death.
Wendy has received several awards over the last four decades, including the San Diego Comic Convention Inkpot Award, the New York State Jaycees Distinguished Service Award, the Balrog Award for Best Artist, and was inducted into the Friends of Lulu Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2002.
Wendy and her husband currently reside in Poughkeepsie, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 30, 2025
IT IS DONE. I have completed my Great ElfQuest Read of 2025.
This final tale, Stargazer's Hunt, made for a satisfying end to this endeavor. While Final Quest wrapped up the saga of Cutter Kinseeker and his epic quest to unite all the elves, this book answered some of the questions about "where do the elves go from here?" and also a few that were raised in the FutureQuest titles, Jink and Rebels. We finally officially, know who Jink is; we see the elves start to branch out into the stars; we find out how the little palace ended up back at Sarazen for the Rebels to find; we learn how humans developed psychic abilities and why Aurek returned to Blue Mountain.
For me, all of this was VERY exciting since Rebels is my absolute favorite of the side-series tales. I would gladly welcome any future additions to this future era of ElfQuest.
Having said that, the heart of this tale is Skywise coming to terms with a great sorrow, and it is really important and necessary. I think it was beautifully handled. His grief feels real. I love that he got to spend this book gallivanting around the stars with BOTH of his daughters. I think it's great that we get to find out what happened to another ship of High Ones - that's just what Skywise always wanted to do.
I was briefly disappointed to realize that Wendy didn't do the final art on this book, but Sonny Strait did a fantastic job. The lines are there, and the artwork is consistently excellent. All the characters retain the small details that make them look unique, and it looks and feels like ElfQuest.
This year's personal reading quest has reminded me how much I love this story. It's also, frankly, made me realize that I didn't miss much skipping a lot of the later side series (Forevergreen.... and Fire-eye..... ugh.....). It also made me really happy to get such a superior quality product at the end, for Final Quest and Stargazer's Hunt. Thank you to Wendy and Richard Pini, and Sonny Strait, for your gorgeous creation.
This final tale, Stargazer's Hunt, made for a satisfying end to this endeavor. While Final Quest wrapped up the saga of Cutter Kinseeker and his epic quest to unite all the elves, this book answered some of the questions about "where do the elves go from here?" and also a few that were raised in the FutureQuest titles, Jink and Rebels. We finally officially, know who Jink is; we see the elves start to branch out into the stars; we find out how the little palace ended up back at Sarazen for the Rebels to find; we learn how humans developed psychic abilities and why Aurek returned to Blue Mountain.
For me, all of this was VERY exciting since Rebels is my absolute favorite of the side-series tales. I would gladly welcome any future additions to this future era of ElfQuest.
Having said that, the heart of this tale is Skywise coming to terms with a great sorrow, and it is really important and necessary. I think it was beautifully handled. His grief feels real. I love that he got to spend this book gallivanting around the stars with BOTH of his daughters. I think it's great that we get to find out what happened to another ship of High Ones - that's just what Skywise always wanted to do.
I was briefly disappointed to realize that Wendy didn't do the final art on this book, but Sonny Strait did a fantastic job. The lines are there, and the artwork is consistently excellent. All the characters retain the small details that make them look unique, and it looks and feels like ElfQuest.
This year's personal reading quest has reminded me how much I love this story. It's also, frankly, made me realize that I didn't miss much skipping a lot of the later side series (Forevergreen.... and Fire-eye..... ugh.....). It also made me really happy to get such a superior quality product at the end, for Final Quest and Stargazer's Hunt. Thank you to Wendy and Richard Pini, and Sonny Strait, for your gorgeous creation.
November 16, 2023
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
The original Elfquest series was always about Cutter's 'hero journey'; hence, when that ended, most thought Elfquest was done. But as the Pinis note in the forward for this book, they want to also include stories from other characters. With this complete volume, we get an arc completely focused on Skywise and how he has to deal with the aftermath of Cutter's death. This takes place completely in the future and continues the stories of the characters well into the future. We also get extras in the form of: observations by the Pinis, ink drawings, illustration work, character designs, cover variations, and more.Story: Skywise has recognized with Timmain and together they have a precocious daughter, Jink. Jink can see how Skywise is hurting over the loss of his 'brother in all but blood' and as a young child she devises a plan to take away her father's pain - one that will have huge consequences to Skywise and all that he holds dear. Once she becomes an adult, Jink will set out on a quest to reverse the damage she's done, meeting with all the elf tribes in order to understand both her father and Cutter.
The joy of this series is to continue to see the different elves grow and change. Because there are large time jumps due to space travel, we will see great changes -from how the tribes separate, then merge, make more children, or deal with the humans on Two Moon. It's wonderful to see returning characters such as Strongbow, Ember, Venka, and Leetah mix in with new characters such as Leetah/Cutter's now grown son Goldruff. They will have their own stories of recognition, growth, loss, and growing older.
A frustration for a long time fan like myself (in the early 1980s, I would be calling my local comic book store 2-1/2 months after a release, hoping the next issue was coming in its regular 3 month installment) is perhaps the human and troll characters. They were always less interesting and especially the human side stories were flat and didn't add to the story. There is some of that here in the latter half of the book but fortunately not too much. Really, with this book we get mostly a tour de force updating us on what is happening with all the characters while also introducing new ones (such as Goldruff's lifemate).
The artwork is all Pini, fortunately. It's all you know and loved from all the original quest volumes and looking just as good as before. It was admittedly hard to read the non Wendy Pini art series in the past and I'm glad that she is able to take the time to get this done together with the expert help in other illustrators that know her style and can utilize it.
As a final note, I never really bonded with the whole 'Cutter goes crazy with Timmain's secret' thing and then we have to deal with it again with Skywise. I understand why the Pinis chose this direction but it is perhaps the one off note that always bothered me about the series. It's not enough to lower the rating on this latest Elfquest book, though.
In all, this is one that all fans should have in their library. It's great to revisit the characters and see what is happening with their lives now that some chose to return to the stars while others chose to remain on the planet. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
February 3, 2025
When I say 'this is a simple story,' what I mean is that this is a refreshing and uplifting personal journey to watch. We don't need universe-shattering villains to have a personal, engaging, "human" story.
There are a few difficult-to-write ideas going on here: that the High Ones live in a basically-conflict-free paradise and that child characters cause problems just from being naive.
I think this graphic novel handles both of those really well! Jink's childlike mistake and the way the adults around her discuss it with her so she realizes what she did all feels full of wisdom and patience even while we the audience still want to root for Jink to fix it and for Stargazer to heal. Child Jink never really felt IMO like an annoying sidekick character that's only here to Make the Plot Harder, I almost compared her to a character like Anya from Spy x Family where, yes, she's a naive child who causes issues, but you're rooting for her as a character instead of finding her annoying.
And if there's no conflict in paradise and everyone's happy all the time and just gets along swimmingly, what conflict can we write a story about? Well, I think Stargazer's grief journey is beautiful and wholesome!
Characters like Timmain are also a lot of fun. I like "godlike being wants to connect emotionally with the people" stories and this way that Timmain "attempts to see what it's like to have a mortal life" is both strange and also pretty sweet, the way she's "trying". It makes it feel like these "immortal godlike" characters are actually approachable and parts of the community.
Elegant stuff!
There are a few difficult-to-write ideas going on here: that the High Ones live in a basically-conflict-free paradise and that child characters cause problems just from being naive.
I think this graphic novel handles both of those really well! Jink's childlike mistake and the way the adults around her discuss it with her so she realizes what she did all feels full of wisdom and patience even while we the audience still want to root for Jink to fix it and for Stargazer to heal. Child Jink never really felt IMO like an annoying sidekick character that's only here to Make the Plot Harder, I almost compared her to a character like Anya from Spy x Family where, yes, she's a naive child who causes issues, but you're rooting for her as a character instead of finding her annoying.
And if there's no conflict in paradise and everyone's happy all the time and just gets along swimmingly, what conflict can we write a story about? Well, I think Stargazer's grief journey is beautiful and wholesome!
Characters like Timmain are also a lot of fun. I like "godlike being wants to connect emotionally with the people" stories and this way that Timmain "attempts to see what it's like to have a mortal life" is both strange and also pretty sweet, the way she's "trying". It makes it feel like these "immortal godlike" characters are actually approachable and parts of the community.
Elegant stuff!
July 16, 2025
The Final Quest did well enough that the Pini's created some more Elfquest. This is Stargazer's Hunt. A hunt is not a quest, right?
Also, this came out 40 years after the original issues of Elfquest. That's pretty impressive.
Another story that didn't need to happen. By that, I mean that a character makes a mistake and the story is just to recover something that they already had. Skywise is still mourning Cutter's loss years later on Starhome. His overpowered three-year-old daughter Jink doesn't want him to be sad and takes the memory away. So he sets out into the universe to find what he's missing. He spends a minute on a new world before Jink, now an adult, brings him to the World of Two Moons, where we see a bit about how things have developed there.
This book feels like setup as much as it does Skywise getting closure. I haven't read Jink yet, which was written 20 years before this. Maybe this bridges some gaps?
Also, this came out 40 years after the original issues of Elfquest. That's pretty impressive.
Another story that didn't need to happen. By that, I mean that a character makes a mistake and the story is just to recover something that they already had. Skywise is still mourning Cutter's loss years later on Starhome. His overpowered three-year-old daughter Jink doesn't want him to be sad and takes the memory away. So he sets out into the universe to find what he's missing. He spends a minute on a new world before Jink, now an adult, brings him to the World of Two Moons, where we see a bit about how things have developed there.
This book feels like setup as much as it does Skywise getting closure. I haven't read Jink yet, which was written 20 years before this. Maybe this bridges some gaps?
July 2, 2025
In many ways, this is an entirely bizarre book, first with the elves zipping around the universe in crystal pods, second with heavily captioned narration filling in gaps to create an extremely compressed story.
But the emotional story is compelling, and it's great to finally have a bridge between ElfQuest and FutureQuest. (Is it a good bridge? I dunno, it's been ages since I read FutureQuest, but I've now got V8 of the low-quality B&W reprints to remind me.) And it's great to have another story of not Skywise, but of Jink too.
But the emotional story is compelling, and it's great to finally have a bridge between ElfQuest and FutureQuest. (Is it a good bridge? I dunno, it's been ages since I read FutureQuest, but I've now got V8 of the low-quality B&W reprints to remind me.) And it's great to have another story of not Skywise, but of Jink too.
July 16, 2025
Nice to read more new-to-me Elfquest. This one at least made a try at tying the Jink series closer to the Wolfriders. Sure bits of this felt off. And there were too many new names - but really there needed to be. A bit more tying up of loose ends as well. And we got to see more than a hint of the original conehead's exploration. The characters didn't seem to have the depth of the past, but this book moved pretty quickly in time and space. 3.5 of 5
December 2, 2023
Hit. Hug. Same.
Love you, Fahr.
Love you, Fahr.
January 7, 2024
Ugh so good...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews