The Coldest Spring Ever

It was a wet, cold day today. It was raining lightly, and icy cold wind continued to blow almost all day. About 11:50 AM, CST, I went to check the mailbox. There's the phone bill (which I need to call the phone company about to save over $45 on it...), something for my sister (who's moving to Kansas in two weeks), and the Spring 2007 Baum Bugle. Suddenly, I didn't mind the cold THAT much...

Here's what's up... The front cover reproduces the front cover of Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad. Then we head over to Oz and Ends... No mention of "Wonders," here... I should submit that... Okay, the Munchkins from the MGM Wizard of Oz finally have a star on the Walk of Fame, a word about the MacFarlane movie (I predict development HELL for it... fingers crossed...), Front Porch Classic's "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" board game, the Library of Congress's short flash-based Oz trivia game, the new Club pin (I need to get that!), a few Oz comics, Edward Einhorn's Unauthorized Magic in Oz on YouTube (it doesn't indicate that he uploaded it), translating the Magic Land books with BabelFish, W.W. Denslow's Humpty Dumpty now available from Applewood Books, and Baum's Tamawaca Folks now available from Lulu.com.

Oz Club president Angelica Shirley Carpenter looks behind the scenes of one of her favorite book series as a child, the Aunt Jane's Nieces series by Edith Van Dyne, to find traces of the real author, Oz creator L. Frank Baum.

H. Allen Pickrell examines the Boy Fortune Hunters series. (This one was weird. I've read 4 out of the 6 books, so much of it was familiar. Thanks, David Maxine! I'm looking forward to reading the other two!)

Bugle editor Sean P. Duffley examines Baum's (or Suzanne Metcalf's) Annabel and how Baum paid a tribute to Horatio Alger.

Next is L. Frank Baum's "The Orchestra," which he wrote for The Uplifters.

Then we go to the reviews! MultimediOz reviews Rankin/Bass' Return to Oz on DVD, and Injoy Game's Bejeweled-style game based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Oz Bookshelf reviews the English translation of Enrique Fernandez's French comic book adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Collected Short Stories of L. Frank Baum, Wildside Press' reprint of Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, Marcus Mebes' The Bashful Baker of Oz, Joshua Patrick Dudley's Lost in Oz, Scratch & Sketch "Wizard of Oz", and Roger S. Baum's Toto in Oz and the Surprise Party.

The Magic Picture reveals the Hollins Oz-Fest at Hollins University in Virginia.

Rounding out the issue are contemporary reviews of some of Baum's pseudonymous work, bibliographic entries on the Sam Steele books (later the Boy Fortune Hunters series, and the Oz Calendar.

The back cover is a surprise. It's a color plate by Eric Shanower for Hungry Tiger Press's deluxe edition of The Boy Fortune Hunters in Yucatan. It shows the charactes Ama, Paul, and Chaka from the story, all dressed in the clothig of the Tcha. At first, it was unrecognizable, but the description inside helped out.

Another excellent issue. (Where's Oz In The News, though?) If you're not in the Club yet, join!