The first Elfquest story was published in the spring of 1978, in the underground comic book Fantasy Quarterly, published by Lansing-based IPS (Independent Publishers Syndicate). That company folded after publishing the first issue of Elfquest. (Sandwiched between Elfquest's "Fire and Flight" parts one and two was a brief story written by T. Casey Brennan and illustrated by future Cerebus the Aardvark creator Dave Sim titled "Doorway to the Gods".) The quality of the publication was terribly disappointing to Wendy and Richard Pini. The cover was only slightly better than newsprint (the exterior was printed unglossed with a very limited color palette) and the paper used inside of the comic book appeared to be newsprint.