Artist Profile
Jeff Zugale
by Lithia Knopp and Ariel Wulff

Jeff Zugale was born in East Orange, NJ in November of 1965, and was drawing from the time he was able to hold a crayon. The first person to notice Jeff's artistic talent was his Grandpa Joe, who wasn't very happy about it. He discovered 2 year old Jeff scribbling out a mural on a newly painted pink wall with a green marker.

At the age of ten, Jeff moved to Maine with his mom. He likens it to leaving a concrete jungle for the beauty of the woods. Jeff had a positive early school experience - he was an A & B student who liked just about every subject except calculus. The enjoyment he derived from a class was directly proportional to the teacher's presentation of the material.

Jeff had an active afterschool life, too. He belonged to band, chorus, drama club and the computer club. He laughs when recalling the ultra-geekiness of the latter. "Little did those jock types realize," says Jeff, "that we nerds were setting ourselves up for gainful lifetime employment!"

Following Highschool, and at his parents' insistence, Jeff went on to college. He attended an Ivy League school where he majored in English. He didn't care for the school nor the experience, as at that time all he was really interested in doing was play the guitar. Although his family has always been supportive of him and whatever he does, when he tried to tackle the music business there was a bit of consternation over his choice. Jeff has been singing and playing the guitar for over 20 years and came close to making a career out of it. Fortunately for Elfquest fans, he decided to take a different route, and that was down the road to being an artist.

Jeff had always loved comics, and even some famous painters such as Picasso and Da Vinci had influences in his life. He didn't seriously consider taking ink to paper until about 1997, when his friend Chris Wichtendahl brought to him an idea for a comic called Mystic for Hire, which he wanted Jeff to illustrate. In fact, you could even say that it was this step that took Jeff into the World of Two Moons! Prior to his own comic, Jeff says he's been a distant Elfquest fan for quite some time. He has always liked the books and art and stories but he never followed the series closely until just recently. His first exposure to EQ was when he borrowed the paperback books one and two from his cousin. He loved them so much, that he hung onto them until his cousin actually had to beg him to return them!

After this exposure to EQ, Jeff says that his initial involvement with WARP was "right out of a storybook!" Jeff and Chris decided to have a table at last year's San Diego Comic Convention in order to promote "Mystic for Hire" and by handing out demo copies of the newly born comic. It happened that they strolled by the WARP booth, and caught a glimpse of Wendy Pini.

"Although we knew that WARP only published Elfquest, we decided to drop one [of our comics] off and express our appreciation of Elfquest to Wendy herself." Jeff says. Wendy opened up Jeff's comic on the spot and commentedon how good it looked, and then gave Jeff the proposition any fan of Elfquest would love to hear.

"Would you like to do an Elfquest story?"

Jeff, being the consumate professional he is, kept his cool and said, "Yeah, sure." (Meanwhile, his partner Chris stammered next to him!) Wendy encouraged Jeff to "bug" Richard and to show him more of his work. Letting the events of the day sink in, it wasn't until later on that day that the new comic cohorts realized what had happened.

"Chris goes, "Wendy just asked us if WE wanted to do an ElfQuest story!"" Jeff remembers. "AAAAGGGHHHH!" We both screamed (quietly) and ran back to our booth to tell Chris' wife."
Jeff submitted several story ideas, as well as a quick script (by Chris) and art page, and ended up meeting Wendy to talk about what she wanted him to do. The end result is "Wolfrider!", the story of one of the Wolfriders' most infamous chiefs, Bearclaw.

Jeff is also introspective in relation to his art for WARP. "Drawing this story had taken me back and given me some insights into my own upbringing," stated Jeff in a recent e-mail interview. "Since Wolfrider! is centered around Bearclaw, his [Cutter's] father, there's a lot of key insights on how Cutter has come to be the grown elf that we all know and love. "We all carry a big part of our parents in us," Jeff says. "So knowing our parents is a big part of learning to know ourselves. Another example of how one can't read or be involved with ElfQuest without it touching one's soul deeply. Amazing."

It seems that both Elfquest and WARP have become a very large part of Jeff's life. He says that it's wonderful to be working closely with Wendy. It is also important to him to do the best job he can artistically for ElfQuest. "Wendy has really set the standard very high and I want to do the story and characters justice. She has been the guiding hand, and has helped me know the characters better and totally immerse myself in the World of Two Moons."

Jeff continues, "And of course, her incredible artwork is just completely inspirational. I just hope I'm doing Elfquest the justice it so richly deserves."

If Jeff's previous installments are any indication, he is doing just fine! But, if you are truly interested in Jeff's art, check out not only his story "Wolfrider", available from elfquest.com in back issues, but also "Mystic for Hire" at http://www.pagancity.com.

Sendings Issue #8, June 1999

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