Let's go back to Oz!

Hey, it's been awhile since I posted anything...

To be honest, after this year's Winkie Con, I kind of had trouble getting back to my routine. Even my sleeping schedule has suffered. (I was getting up pretty early, then I went to Winkies, and now I just get out of bed in time to get ready.) Also, I had some commitments for The Baum Bugle to rush out. But here we are, so let's get ready to go.

I'm still very excited about NBC's live version of The Wiz debuting December 3. Keep an eye open, because the last two musicals also had a "making of" special that aired a week or two before the production. (They've put these on the DVD as well.)

The entire main cast has been announced:

Dorothy - Shanice Williams

Aunt Em - Stephanie Mills

Addaperle (The Good Witch of the North) - Amber Riley

Scarecrow - Elijah Kelley

Tin Man - Ne-Yo

Cowardly Lion - David Alan Grier

Gatekeeper - Common

The Wiz - Queen Latifah

Evilene (The Wicked Witch of the West) - Mary J. Blige

Glinda - Uzo Aduba

Uncle Henry has not been announced, but he is usually a minor role as it is, and a friend informed me he usually doubles as Evilene's Lord High Underling. I'm looking into doing a special podcast about The Wiz musical in November, so we'll see how that turns out.

In smaller-time Oz news, but no less important, John Troutman revealed a conceptual version of the cover of his upcoming Oz comic Cryptozoology in Oz, which appears to be starting soon.

The comic will be available to read at Troutcave Comics, but John also lets those willing to drop some money get the entire comic ahead of time on Gumroad.

And to let you know what you're in for, John has also released a collection of his Lit Brick Oz strips on Gumroad.

(If anyone's wondering, that's the Tin Woodman's old head there.)

The strips appeared as part of the Lit Brick webcomic in 2013, around the time Oz the Great and Powerful was released in theaters. They cover Baum's fourteen Oz books, as well as The Sea Fairies, Sky Island and Little Wizard Stories of Oz. Note that Troutman doesn't shy away from irreverent humor. There's also a few new pages to make this a proper Lit Brick issue. And it's just $1.

Or, if you like Troutman's work, you could get all of his comics by contributing to his Patreon for $5 a month. You'll get access to all of his comic collections (including the hilarious Gospel of Carol) and be helping him out as well.

Oh, and tomorrow's Ozma's birthday. Cheers!