An Elementals FAQ

In which we try to answer some of the most often asked questions about the Elementals comic book series, and trust you'll check back sometimes for updates.

Q: Will the old Elementals comics ever be collected, or republished in any way?

A: It’s doubtful. I’d even say it will never happen, which is how doubtful I am. The film for all of the elementals comic books has been lost. In fact, it was thrown out, in a bizarre series of intentional blunders, by the man who took over control of the series. I suppose yes, one could conceivably shoot from the comic books, but that wouldn’t look good, and besides, the man who has the rights to do that never will, because he can’t seem to get anything done.

Q: Will there ever be new Elementals comics?

A: Once again, it’s doubtful. If it’s ever done it won’t be done by the man who ostensibly owns the property, because he’s inept. He’s begun commissioning new Elementals stories many times, but the projects always fall apart because he has this nasty habit of not paying his artists, his writers, his printing bills, and his bills in general. Someone else may simply decide to publish their own Elementals comics, and dare that so-called property owner to sue them. This is a real possibility for two reasons. First, that so-called owner guy has done everything possible to lose the Elementals rights into the public domain. That happens from time to time when one doesn’t protect his copyrights and trademarks. Among too many failures to count, he’s allowed characters called Vortex, Morningstar, Monolith, Fathom, and Ratman (among others) to be used, without doing a thing to protect his rights. He lost the trademark to the Elementals name. And so on. The second thing is, even if he did threaten to sue someone, it’s unlikely he’d actually follow through, because he isn’t a follow through sort of fellow. In any case though, I’ve moved on from the Elementals long ago, so if someone does do more Elementals comic books, it won’t likely be me.

Q: Okay then, if I do decide to take the risk and publish my own Elementals comics, will you do a cover for it?

A: I won’t absolutely say no, because ‘never’ is one of those words that tempt the gods. But if it ever did happen it would be ridiculously expensive, and something the perspective publisher would have to to wait a long time to see.

Q: How did you lose the rights to the Elementals?

A: It’s a long story, and most of it is private. A very short version is, I agreed to sell the property to Comico (the publisher at the time) as a parting deal, when I decided to stop working for/with Comico. This was because of too, too many bad publishing decisions on their part, which they’d never warned us about. “Us” being those artists/writers/creators who actually do the work, before they made those bad decisions. Little did I know (because they were committing a ruse, a scam, a flim-flam) that the new partner brought in to help lift Comico from bad debts and bad decisions, was actually, secretly, the only partner. He was buying out all the others (for pennies on the dollar, or so I heard). That’s how he ended up owning Elementals by himself.

Q: Are you still in contact with the new owner?

A: Yes and no. He reappears from time to time, like a bad penny, to make wild offers to me on how rich he can make me if I’d come to work for him, in his next publishing venture (there’s always a new next venture). The offers are all nonsense. Mostly he makes these offers through unsolicited emails (which I ignore). Someday, just to irk him, I might publish those emails.

Q: Were the Elementals the first superheroes set in Seattle?

A: Yes. The Elementals debuted in 1983, in the back of Justice Machine Annual # 1. It was established in that story they lived in and operated out of Seattle, Washington. The next (and arguably more popular) superhero set in Seattle was DC Comic’s Green Arrow, in 1987, as penned by Mike Grell.