Bucketheads in Oz

Bucketheads in Oz has been a long-time project for Chris Dulabone. As one may gather from the title (if they know a little about Dulabone), it started when Dulabone was still issuing books under Buckethead Enterprises of Oz, but as it was, it came out under the Tails of the Cowardly Lion and Friends imprint.

One might expect the book to be a real mess since it's written not only by Dulabone, but also by Greg Gick, Melody Grandy, Greg Hunter, Phyllis Ann Karr, Chuck Sabatos, Deen Shumate, and Jim Vander Noot. (Shawn Maldonado took the job of illustrating the book.) The book largely tells a nice, cohesive story that only gets a little muddled in switching between plot lines between chapters. (My advice is alternate chapter by chapter.) Early on, there's a little bit of "Cliffhanger for the next writer to figure out!" but that quickly disappears.

The book is a classic travel, multi-plot thread Oz story. Most of the characters are original. Two of them—Kericot the Considerate Kalidah and Terrence Oldshell the Tortise—had previously appeared in Oziana and other books Dulabone published. However, since Kericot's introduction story is found in this book as a chapter, it appears she was created for this book, and the chapter published as a standalone short story in Oziana when the book was delayed.

The book finds several characters heading to get help from Zim Greenleaf, the Wizard of Munchkinland. There's a woman trapped in a ring they found, a strange river serpent that claims to be Professor Nowitall, transformed by Mombi, the Bubble Bird needs to be restored, Tekouri the troll accidentally resurrected Mombi, and on the journey... he ate a little girl...

The story is kind of slow-moving until the travelers meet Zim, who sends them to the Emerald City, where things really pick up! Unfortunately, then the book is over in just a few chapters...

This isn't a book for a newcomer to Dulabone's take on Oz. This is more of a celebration of about 25 years of wacky, humorous additions to the Oz mythos by fans who love it but aren't too serious about it.

You can order your copy here.

Oziana 2013 is out!

Well, the 2013 issue of Oziana is finally available from Lulu.com! And this is one lovely issue!

The theme of the issue is "Traditional Oz," meaning that these stories are meant to fit with the Oz you know from the tales of Baum, Thompson and the rest. Not that the imagination of the writers and artists felt trapped!

First up is "Foiled by the Iffin" by Phyllis Ann Karr, illustrated by Dennis Anfuso. The Computer Wizard is back with another scheme to cause trouble in Oz! How far will he go in his plan and when will our friends in Oz catch onto it?

Next is "The Harvest Ball" by Gina Wickwar, illustrated by Luciano Vecchio and Marcus Mebes. When the Scarecrow has a Harvest Ball, he has an idea to amuse everyone! It'll just require a little help from Glinda. But she's away... Will an overly helpful maid at Glinda's palace help the Scarecrow or make things go horribly wrong?

Then, to fit the time this issue finally came out, "Jinnicky Saves Christmas" by Nathan DeHoff, illustrated by Shawn Maldonado. One chilly Christmas Eve, Jinnicky helps to foil yet another plot to kidnap Santa Claus!

And in "The Love Bug of Oz" by newcomer Ed McCray, Mombi and Ruggedo raid the Wicked Witch of the West's old palace to see what they can find. What they do find is a lot of trouble for our friends in the Emerald City!

Next up is "The Way of a Lion" by Jared Davis (yours truly), illustrated by Sam Milazzo. Well, this story won the International Wizard of Oz Club's first place for fiction this year at the Winkie Convention Research Table. It is my own backstory for the Cowardly Lion, explaining why he believes he is a coward. Look carefully and you'll see a few things from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz explained, and maybe a couple cameos.

I wrote the story with the intent that the reader could read it and then begin re-reading Baum's Wizard and my story would complement the Lion's story in the original classic. Aside from mentions of Lurline, I decided to focus mainly on what we knew about Oz from the first book.

And Sam's pictures for the story are gorgeous. I'd asked him to illustrate almost as soon as I began writing the story, since I knew he enjoyed drawing lions. He showed me sketches at the 2012 Winkie Convention and then near finished pictures at this year's convention. He didn't always draw exactly what I'd written, but I didn't mind. It looked very cool. I suggested I alter the text to match the pictures, he told me not to. In the end, I'm very pleased with the finished version you can see in Oziana.

(Yes, I did just give three paragraphs to my story when I only gave everyone else a blurb. I wasn't in their creative process.)

Finally is "Witches of the West" by newcomer Darrell Spradlyn and Marcus Mebes. Set to tell more about Gloma, Thompson's Good Witch of the West, the story tells of days before the Wicked Witch of the West was destroyed, and not only reveals more about Gloma, but the Wicked Witch and Mombi, including a little bit of witch lore yours truly suggested to the writers. (It will be used again in an upcoming story.)

Art by Luciano Vecchio graces the front cover, while an excellent portrait of Gloma by Alejandro Garcia.

And Oziana is only $10 at Lulu. Everyone turned out some amazing work for this issue! If you ask me, that's well worth the price!

Winkie Reading 2013 Part 2

Now for the rest of the books I read on my trip. There's a few others I've read since, but we'll get on them soon.

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Fwiirp in Oz: An Anthology by Nate Barlow, Jeff Barstock, Ryan Gannaway, Greg Hunter, Phyllis Ann Karr, R. K. Lionel, Marcus Mebes, Hugh Pendexter III, and Chris Dulabone. Surprisingly, this is a collection of non-Oz stories. A freak accident happens in Oz due to some living paper going to the outside world and a poorly-researched Oz story being written on it, the true Oz altering to match it! Many Oz characters wind up outside of Oz, while Fwiirp (a skeezique) and his friends find stories in the Mys-Tree of Oz and have to discover what the stories are telling them to help restore Oz as Jellia Jamb and her friends work towards the same goal.

Seemingly, the book began as Nate Barlow's Jellia Jamb of Oz and the Mys-Tree plot was added to flesh out the book. The main plot is rather thin, but the short stories are rather fine, if a few take some odd turns: a teddy bear who comes to life after being buried with his boy and a vampire who finds religion. Overall, a fun book that shows off many of the writers' strengths by letting them work outside of Oz.

Get your copy here.

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A Foolish Fable from Oz by Chris Dulabone and Marin Xiques. Going back to the time when the Wicked Witches of the East and West were still in power, two elephants from the Isle of Kenra are helped by some Orks to get to Oz to find more sugar cane. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch of the East needs some ivory to finish a nasty spell, but someone has stolen her Silver Shoes! Can she and the Wicked Witch of the West (both sporting some very long names) recover them?

The cover shows photos of Chris and Marin goofing around with a large ceramic elephant who must have inspired the story. As you can guess, they also do not take a serious approach to this story, making for one of many of Chris and Marin's silly but fun Oz stories.

Get your copy here.

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The Haunted Castle of Oz by Marcus Mebes. A ghostly knight is spotted in the Emerald City's palace, and Dorothy and her friends investigate and discover Prince Terrence, his page Christian and a magician named Necronominus and a curse that's been placed over these three. Some surprising magic is at play here and our friends in Oz have to help save the day.

Marcus himself informed me that he isn't exactly proud of this book, but the story—though it makes rather a thin book—is very well-written. The pictures are very good as well.

Get your copy here.

Maybe the Miffin

I finally got to read this Oz story. It's a short story that's been published in booklet form, and only in very limited editions.

The copy I have is one of a kind and is from the new fourth edition with a very limited run of four copies. It's one of a kind because the color of the cover and spine are different on each copy. It was handbound by Marcus Mebes of Pumpernickel Pickle, and he is offering the remaining two copies for sale ($25 each) or trade. You can contact him at baringer@gmail.com.

The binding is very sturdy and should make a nice little collector's item.

Phyllis Ann Karr is the author of The Gardener's Boy of Oz and thirteen other books and many short stories. Maybe The Miffin was written for a proposed anthology of stories about griffins, and since Phyllis was an Oz fan, it was suggested she write about Snif the Iffin, the Griffin without his "Grr." Supposedly, they would have worked with the rights to the Thompson books, since Snif first appeared in the still-under-copyright book Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz. The anthology never materialized, and I assume having a great little Oz story was too much for Phyllis, so the story was printed in small runs and quietly released to allow people to just read the story, not to make money from it.

Thus, the cost of this fourth edition is mainly repaying Marcus for the hard work of hand-binding the book. (And take my word for it, it is hard work.)

The story finds Snif learning of the Miffin, a creature like himself, the only other type of Griffin in Oz. He decides to find her so he won't be lonely anymore. Along the way, he's joined by Kericot the Considerate Kalidah and Terrence Oldshell the Turtle. (Also creations of Miss Karr.)

Meanwhile, the Miffin herself has been traveling Oz, acquiring a stepladder she re-purposes as a bookcase and saving some doll people from destruction. But will the griffins ever find each other?

It's an enjoyable little story and quite worthwhile. It also proposes a solution to a problem anyone who's read a number of Oz books has noted: why are there so many little kingdoms and countries in Oz when it appears to be on a relatively small continent? The answer is that there is a magic affecting the surface area of all these "subkingdoms." They are literally bigger on the inside.

Who knows when Maybe the Miffin might be able to get a wider release? Don't miss a chance to get this wonderful little Oz story!