Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes To Develop ElfQuest

If you remember Stephanie Thorpe, we officially met at the CNN Party at this year’s Comic Con, but had been trying to get together for some time before then. At the CNN event, Stephanie granted me a 13-minute interview, of which I posted this shorter version:

At that time, Stephanie was at Comic Con to be celebrated as a “Comic Con Dangerous Woman,” which, when you boil it down, means she’s really a woman who’s doing amazing things. Like getting the right to develop ElfQuest.

ElfQuest was created by Wendy and Richard Pini in 1978 and has become a cult hit comic book business. It about a community of elves who struggle to survive and coexist on a primitive Earth-like planet with two moons.

While Warner Bros held the option on ElfQuest until the first quarter of 2012, the Pinis have since agreed to have Thorpe and Rhodes develop their series in order to put the ElfQuest story directly in the hands of its loyal fans. Previously, Thorpe and Rhodes produced the cyber-phenom “ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining,” a short live-action production.

Part of the generation that grew up with ElfQuest, Thorpe and Rhodes’ aim is to bring even wider exposure to the fantasy series, which has a healthy following already; ElfQuest.com, the property’s official website, generates 10 million views a month and continues to acquire new fans. The saga has also been published by both Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and has a global following in 12 countries.

Both Thorpe and Rhodes have developed and produced successful independent film and web productions while gaining loyal fan bases through unique content and original storytelling. Their most recent project is the crowd-sourced and fan-funded, “ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining”. The multi-award winning project has had panels at Comic-Con and WonderCon and has been featured in the New York Times as well as on CBS and G4’s Attack of the Show.

Here’s the ElfQuest reimagining video:

And here’s Stephanie and Paula talking about their work:

“Paula Rhodes and Stephanie Thorpe more than proved themselves to us with their award-winning “ElfQuest : A Fan Imagining”,” Wendy Pini said. “With their deep love and understanding of the property, they represent a new direction for ElfQuest.”

“We are thrilled to bring ElfQuest, a tale that has influenced our storytelling and imaginations, to life for new and existing fans,” said Thorpe, “The global fan support we’ve received has been amazing.”

Rhodes added, “When we discovered our shared lifelong love for this series we were spurred to action. ElfQuest gave us heroines we could aspire to be and its magic shaped us, ultimately leading us into the creative entertainment sphere. We owe it a lot!”

New pages of ElfQuest: The Final Quest are now being released weekly on Boing Boing and Elfquest.com, attracting nearly half a million hits on the first day.

Stay tuned.