Ozbusters! What makes a Witch?

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the existence of witches is quickly established as Dorothy discovers she killed a Wicked Witch with her house and finds herself greeted by a self-identified Good Witch. Later, Dorothy is sent to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West, and in the final act of the story, undertakes a journey to find another Good Witch, Glinda.

Except, in later books, Glinda is not called a witch, but a sorceress.

"Well," fans might think, "they're just different terms for women who use magic, right?"

Well... Maybe not.

I was going to tackle this topic in an Oz story, but have decided to skip it and just tell a story.

In one of the notes in The Annotated Wizard of Oz, Michael Patrick Hearn points out that witches traditionally work for Satan, while sorceresses work for themselves. However, while Baum states in Wonderful Wizard that there is a power of Good and a power of Evil in his fantasy world, it does not appear he intended there to be a Devil.

The way Evil (or wickedness) comes about in Baum's world is that people "do not try to be good," or rather, as I've observed, that villains follow their selfish, self-serving goals rather than goals that will actually help people. That is what makes Wicked Witches different from any Good Witches. Good Witches work for the good of their people or the entire Land of Oz.

Okay, but what's the difference between witches and sorceresses?

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, we have two witches who use magic that we as the reader observe: the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West. We are only told they work magic or use a little chant before they turn their hat into a slate or make a bar of iron invisible. Nowhere are we told that they use tools, herbs, or extensive magic words to work their magic. Thus, it seems they actually have magic power.

In contrast is Glinda. A fun fact check is that nowhere in the first four Oz books does Glinda work magic. In The Marvelous Land of Oz, she uses magic tools, but these items are already magical and would presumably work for anyone who knew how to use them. She gives advice on how to use magic devices in Wizard and Ozma of Oz, but is absent in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. In The Road to Oz, we are told she makes a tree grow and bear fruit in a very short time, then makes it disappear. Baum does not tell us if she used tools or just made it happen. A similar case is in The Emerald City of Oz when she reveals she's created an invisible barrier around Oz, but we are not told how she accomplished this. Once again in Tik-Tok of Oz, we are told Glinda performs a "magical ceremony," but what this consists of, we have no idea.

The biggest revelations about Glinda's way of working magic happen in The Lost Princess of Oz and Glinda of Oz. When Ugu steals Glinda's magic tools, she is unable to work magic. Furthermore, she must use tools to try to save Dorothy and Ozma in the latter book. Thus, it seems, Glinda does not have magic power of her own, but she knows how to use magic tools and magic words to accomplish great feats.

I must also point out that Baum says that Mombi is only a sorceress (or "wizardess") in The Marvelous Land of Oz. However, he later states that she was the Wicked Witch of the North in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. This must mean that magic power can be stripped from a witch, presumably turning them into an otherwise harmless woman. (Mombi, we must assume, has learned every bit of magic she could find, so even without magic power, she's still capable of quite a lot.)

So, how do Witches get magic power? According to many old legends, they sacrifice youth and beauty for their wicked arts. I came up with another concept: they can turn in their names for magic power, which is why the Wicked Witches disposed of in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz had no names. (As far as Baum's writing is concerned.) The thing is, it's a bit more than becoming a nameless person. Giving up your name is beginning to give up your identity, and in the Wicked Witches' cases, their main concerns were becoming more powerful and holding dominion over their people.

So wait, what about the Good Witch of the North? According to Thompson, she is Queen Orin who Mombi had tried to transform into a Wicked Witch, but since Good is greater than Evil, Orin could not be turned into a Wicked Witch, and so became a Good Witch.

But as I'm not a fan of the Good Witch of the North being disposed of, I've come up with another suggestion, in that rather than sacrificing youth, beauty or identity, the Good Witch of the North was given her powers as a reward for previous selfless acts and tasked to help protect the people of Oz from her base in the Gillikin Country. She is not a fairy, but not a sorceress as she doesn't use tools, so the term "Witch" is closest to what she is, so she took it, identifying as a good witch. (The Good Witch of the North will be making a return in a short story I've written, keep your eyes open.)

Glinda is often mistakenly called a Good Witch, although she's actually just a sorceress, but she's not particular as long as people remember she's Good and on their side.

So, why do Mombi and Singra (the Wicked Witch of the South in Rachel Cosgrove Payes' The Wicked Witch of Oz) have their names? Perhaps these are aliases or they recognized the danger of losing their identities and decided not to go that far.

The King Rinkitink Contest!

Ahoy there, everyone! This is my first blog post here, and I'd like to extend an invitation out there to all you creative types. The Oz Club is hosting a contest for those interested to submit an alternate ending to L. Frank Baum's 10th Oz Book: Rinkitink in Oz. As you may know, Baum originally wrote King Rinkitink around the time he wrote Ozma of Oz... shelved it, and then pulled it out to fill in for an Oz book by rewriting his original ending to include Dorothy and the Wizard in a deus ex machina role.

Would Kaliko really have behaved in such a manner as the Nome King acted in the book? Certainly not!How would Inga and Rinkitink have escaped from Roquat? (Yes, we're dealing with Roquat, or Ruggedo if you wish, and not Kaliko.) Baum surely wrote something quite ingenious, and it's up to us to figure out what it was.

Entries will be published in the 2016 issue of Oziana, and the winning entry will be published in book form in a joint venture between the Oz Club and Oz published Pumpernickel Pickle.

Put your thinking caps on and get creative! Contact me at baringer@gmail.com if you have any questions!

Ozbusters! Why did publishers turn down Oz?

When you hear of how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published, you hear the claim that publishers were not interested in the book or didn't want to publish it. Many point to L. Frank Baum's text, claiming that there had been nothing like it. The movie The Dreamer of Oz even has a publisher reject "an American fairy tale" and then has Baum go into a rage over it.

However, I'm not sold on that.

L. Frank Baum had his name on a top-selling children's book from the previous year: Father Goose: His Book. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a good story, somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and Pilgrim's Progress. So, why would people reject it?

My thought is... they didn't reject the text.

What people tend to forget or not understand is that Baum and W.W. Denslow worked on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz together and split the copyright on it. Baum didn't just write a book then got someone to illustrate or let the publisher get someone to do it. That means the book's design was how both author and illustrator decided the book should look.

The book would be more costly to print than if it was just the text or the text and simple line art or even inserted plates. The book included color printing on the same pages as the text, creating artwork that would surround and be under the text. Today, this would be no problem to print because we can easily do that with today's imaging and printing technologies, but in 1900, this would mean that the pages would have to be printed twice: once with the color ink, and then again with the black ink for line art and text. This special tooling would increase the cost of publishing. In addition to this, you had the two-dozen color plates.

Thus, it wasn't the text, but the whole package of the design and illustrations with the text that had been turned down. And it wasn't until Baum and Denslow helped fund the production of the book that the publisher of Father Goose: His Book (who had previously had to be sold on that lavish picture book) decided to publish The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Does that make a little more sense than the book being flat-out rejected due to the text? I think so. You'll find that there were lots of books published during that period of time, because this was a major form of sharing stories. But not all of them stayed in print. Our trend of having books that may be enjoyable but aren't very good available alongside our major, memorable works has been going ever since publishing books became a business model, well over a century.

Baum and Denslow wanted something that would stand out, not something that would disappear after a few years, but in order to do that, this book would require extra care in its packaging, something that not everyone was willing to gamble on.

What do you think? Do you agree that the book was rejected by publishers because of how they wanted to publish it rather than just because of the story? Or do you think no, it was just the story? Or do you have another thought? Post your responses and theories in the comments. And what other topics that we might have the wrong idea about should be on Ozbusters?

The Movies of Oz: DiC's Wizard of Oz

Jared and Sam are joined by Garrett Kilgore in a very informative discussion of DiC's short-lived animated series based on MGM's The Wizard of Oz.



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The Strong Man in Oz

A friend named Jon Miranda wanted to try out a new character he'd created in an Oz story, so I helped him come up with this. He wrote as Theo, I wrote the Witch of Dreams and the classic Oz characters. Deciding we had a fairly decent little story, I asked him if it'd be all right if I posted it. I did some editing for better reading and clarity, so enjoy.

Theo was a beloved strong man in his traveling circus. He was always a crowd favorite, the children loved him, and the ladies and some of those odd gents even more.

He slicked his hair back and made sure his mustache was curled to perfection as he winked to himself in the mirror.

"Theo Saint James, you are a marvelous man," he chuckled as he stepped out of his trailer, but found he was not in the circus grounds. Instead he was in some strange stone room. "What this now?"

"Hello..." said a soft, stern voice.

Theo raised a brow. "Who are you?" he called, wearing only his leather pants and boots.

"Who I am is not important, but what you know is..."

Theo crossed his arms.

"This is not funny!" he shouted. "I have a show to put on!"

"I'm afraid it'll have to be cancelled. You're a very long way from home."

Theo looked around and raised a brow once more.

"I have never cancelled a show before! Now enough of this."

He puffed his chest out and marched up to the door.

"Yeah, that magic only works one way, I'm afraid."

A tall, stately woman walked toward him.

Theo raised a brow and laughed.

"Oh, I see. Listen miss, why don't we go back to the tent and enjoy the show?"

She opened the door, and revealed a bare storage room.

"Welcome to the Kingdom of Dreams," she said.

"Kingdom of dreams?" Theo walked in and looked around. "There is no way out..."

"There have been outsiders here before, but they've typically found a way out. Now, what do you know of the mighty Wizard of Oz?"

"Wizard of Oz? I don't know a thing." Theo crossed his arms and approached her. "And you are starting to make me angry! Now show me the way out or else."

A few little gremlin soldiers appeared behind the woman. They were tiny, fuzzy men with stocking caps who wore shimmering pastel-colored costumes.

"Really?" she asked, tilting her head. "Because he seems to dislike you a lot. In the Kingdom of Dreams, we can see into your dreams, into your heart, and in the heart of the Wizard, you are particularly loathed. Now stop lying. What do you know of him?"

He shook his head and backed up a bit. "I don't know anything about this Wizard of Oz! Honest!"

"Perhaps he knows the Wizard by another name!" suggested one of the gremlins.

Theo crossed his arms and shook his head. "Let me outta here!"

The woman crossed her arms.

"I shall have to keep you here, then," she said quietly. "Do not try to enter a dream or you will be but a hazy memory by morning."

"Where are these dreams!?" he demanded, looking around, puzzled.

"We do not monitor them here," she replied. "And I don't have to monitor them, the dream gremlins do that for me. And as I said, if you try to escape in someone's dream, you will become part of that dream."

"So where am I supposed to go?" Theo asked, flaring his nostrils.

"You will have to stay here with me," she said, grinning. "Whether you want to..." she then frowned. "...or not."

"Hmf," Theo grunted. "Well I think one of us is going to be very comfortable and the other one will not be. I don't want to have to fight a woman, but if I have to..."

"Gremlins!" called the woman. "Tie him up!"

The gremlins giggled and began swarming around Theo with ropes. Theo fought and struggled as he tried to get free.

"GET OFF OF ME YOU LITTLE BOOGERS!" he shouted as he was knocked down in a sitting position, his hands and upper chest already roped up tightly. "I THINK A GENTLEMAN'S BEATING WILL SHOW YOU ALL! LET ME GO!"

"This is no way to treat your host," said the woman, rolling her eyes. "You might as well forget about your show. You won't be making it. Gremlins, tie up his legs, and some of you, bring me a record of his dreams."

Theo growled a bit as some held him still and bound up his ankles as well.

"Yes ma'am!" one gremlin said as it ran off.

"Would you get off of me!" Theo huffed. "Just wait until I am free from this!"

One gremlin smirked and looked to the woman.

"He's all yours, Witch of Dreams!"

The gremlin who had left ran back in with a folder. The Witch of Dreams pulled a picture from it and showed it to Theo.

"Does this man look familiar?" she asked. "We found his face in a dream of yours."

Theo blinked a bit and looked it over. "That's Oscar! He was in our circus."

Theo remembered how he and his father traveled with a circus. His father worked as a lion tamer, and he had trained to be a strong man. Oscar had befriended and encouraged Theo, who in return became arrogant and soon started to make fun of his old friend.

"He is the Wizard of Oz!" the Witch laughed. "You did know him by another name! What can you tell us about him?"

Theo blinked and tilted his head.

"I don't know! I haven't talked to him since I was a child." This was a lie. Oscar had vanished for a time, but years later had suddenly returned and rejoined the circus. That was when Theo had made him a target for ridicule. "He was a foolish man, and then one day he disappeared."

"What was foolish about him?"

"He was always causing trouble and such..." he struggled against the ropes. "Just let me go!"

"Tell me. What kind of trouble?"

"He'd just... gamble, sleep around with women in town, stuff like that..."

"Gambling? Is that his weakness?"

"I guess you could say that. Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked. "Ozma of Oz has grown too powerful. It's time to take one of her allies out of the equation. Glinda is too strong, but the Wizard..."

"I don't know any of those people! Now, let me go!"

"I'm afraid you're in a bit of a pickle," she chuckled. "You see, I only lead this place and could only muster enough magic to bring you here. I don't know how to send you back. I suppose I could let you wander out there. If you're lucky, you might get eaten by a Rak and it'll be all over."

Theo thought fast.

"Err... don't you think that the Wizard would want to see me again? He would want to know that you had me captured! Maybe even get him to gamble for me and see what he does? I'm sure he would take it."

"I don't want the Emerald City. I just want the Wizard out of the way, so maybe you will be reunited after all."

"Yes, perhaps we will!" said a voice.

Theo huffed and struggled as the gremlins looked around to see where that voice came from. Wearing a bright blue coat, a red vest and yellow trousers, out of the shadows stepped Oscar Diggs.

"Hello, Theo, fancy meeting you here! Now, for some reason, the Witch of Dreams wants to bring chaos to the dreams of the people of Oz?"

"YES!" she snarled. "Their dreams are so ... happy! It's BORING!"

Theo raised a brow and looked over the man.

"Oscar!? What are you doing here?" He shouted as the gremlin gagged him and the two picked him up. The others started to charge at the Wizard.

"Protect the mistress!"

"Oh, ho, ho!" laughed the Wizard. "You're all needles and pins today!"

He waved his hands and all the gremlins turned into straight pins on the floor. The Wizard pulled some shears from his pocket and cut Theo's bonds. Theo took off his gag.

"Oscar, what is going on?" He muttered as he shoved the rope off of him.

"Well, son, you may have turned on me badly back when I got back with Bailum & Barney's, but that's in the past. Wouldn't think of leaving you here!"

Theo looked down. He felt awful about what he'd done to Oscar, but was too proud to admit it. "You...wouldn't?"

"You can't leave!" snarled the Witch. "I won't let you."

"You're barely even a sorceress!" the Wizard laughed. He waved his hand and he and Theo vanished as the pins turned back into gremlins.

Oscar and Theo were standing in the throne room of the Emerald City now, in front of the throne of Ozma of Oz. On one side of the throne sat the Cowardly Lion, on the other, the Hungry Tiger. Just below Ozma's throne sat Princess Dorothy on the steps.

"Welcome to Oz!" chuckled the Wizard.

Theo looked around and was still taking this all in.

"Where... where am I?" he asked as he stayed close to Oscar.

"Welcome to my palace," said Ozma, smiling. "You're in the Emerald City, capitol of the Land of Oz. Now, what did the Witch of Dreams want with you?"

Theo looked to her. "You? You are just a little girl."

She smiled at him, and he relaxed.

"She wanted information about the Wizard of Oz..."

"She wanted to get me out of the way to bring chaos to the dreams of our people," Oscar explained.

"All right," sighed Ozma, "so that's another person we shall have to keep an eye on."

"Theo is one of the last people in the Great Outside World who's still alive who knew me very well."

Theo crossed his arms. He was still holding his grudge at Oscar, although it seemed that Oscar was over it.

"Oh, what is this, Oscar? Another group of people you have conned?"

Dorothy chuckled. "Well... yes!"

Theo blinked. "What do you mean by 'yes,' little girl?" he asked, confused.

"The Wizard fooled us all by making us think he had magic," Dorothy explained, "but he was just an ordinary man who knew some tricks. But since I brought him back, he knows real magic."

"Thanks to Glinda," added the Wizard.

Theo huffed and looked around, scowling.

"Of course, everything works out for you so well."

The Wizard laughed. "Well, old boy, how is the circus working for you these days?"

Theo shook as he grabbed the Wizard by his jacket and pulled him up angrily.

"How dare you!"

"Whoa, whoa, relax!" the Wizard grunted.

In a flash, the Hungry Tiger had pinned down Theo.

"Do not abuse our Wizard!"

"N-no! Please don't eat me!" Theo shouted.

"My conscience wouldn't let me," the Tiger growled. "Besides, you're not a fat baby."

The Tiger backed away from Theo.

"I just wanted to know how you were..." the Wizard explained, softly, getting back up.

Theo sighed and dusted himself off.

"Well I was still with the circus," he said at last. "Everyone was wondering where you were! What happened to you?"

"My balloon descended in a crack in the ground during an earthquake and I made my way back to Oz," the Wizard explained. "I decided I'd stay this time."

"Of course," Theo huffed. "Everyone said you left town again. Why did you come and save me? I would have gotten out myself."

"And gone where?" asked the Wizard. "If you made it past the Raks, you probably would have wound up in the Scoodler Country and been made into soup."

"Me? Soup? HA!" Theo gave a hardy laugh as he shook his head. "Well, thank you for the help, now point me the way home."

"Dorothy, go get the Magic Belt," said Ozma, and the little girl scampered off.

"How is the circus these days?" the Wizard asked again.

Theo looked over at the Wizard. "Just fine, I guess, but... it's sort of falling apart. We got bought out recently."

The Wizard looked at him curiously. "And they're not holding it together well?"

"We're all looking for new work..." Theo muttered, shaking his head.

"Then I have an idea," the Wizard mused. "Not long ago, a clown named Notta Bit More and a boy named Bob Up came to Oz and started a circus. They could use some more acts. If you like, I could recommend you. You're the best strong man I know."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Theo curiously. "Being so nice to me?"

"You were unkind to me, but is that any reason why I should treat you the same way?"

"You were my hero when I was a kid," he muttered.

The Wizard patted him on the back. "So, should we tell Dorothy to put the belt back? It's what Ozma was going to use to send you back.

"You—want me to stay?"

"Well, would you like to?"

Theo smiled and nodded his head.

"I think I'd like to," he said. "I'd get to live in the palace right?"

"Well, you can visit," Ozma said. "But I was thinking of putting you up in a nice apartment near the gates. That's where Notta Bit More and Bob Up live."

Theo smiled and nodded his head.

"I'd love that!" He bowed to her as he took her hand and gave it a kiss. "Your highness."

The Wizard chuckled. "Well, then, how about I show you to your guest room?"

Big Finish's Wonderful Wizard of Oz — Review

Some Oz fans got rather excited when they heard Big Finish Productions would be releasing an audio version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz this September. Famous for their officially-licensed Doctor Who audio dramas (which gave many of the later classic Doctors a chance to further define their roles) and a great dramatization of The Picture of Dorian Grey, hopes were high for Oz, joining their new series of audio productions based on classic literature.

It must be noted that Big Finish is a British company, and any actors voicing American characters are usually British actors attempting American accents.

This is, of course, not the first time a full-scale audio dramatization of the story has happened. The BBC has twice offered audio productions, and in the US, Monterey Soundworks, Colonial Radio Theater and the Children's Museum of Los Angeles have also produced adaptations. (There's also been several for kiddie records and the "Classic Wizard of Oz" set.)

Seemingly, Big Finish is quite aware of this and decided to do something different in their adaptation. The production starts well enough with a male character narrating (it's unclear on if it's the Wizard, supposedly Baum, or someone else entirely) and the tornado striking Kansas, but when we get to Oz, our first scene is the Wicked Witch of the East asking the chipmunk-voiced Munchkins who stole her Golden Cap. During Dorothy's journey, we cut over to the Wicked Witch of the West hearing news about Dorothy and her journey. From the journey south to the end, the Good Witch of the North takes over as narrator.

While the Munchkins, the witches (good and wicked), Dorothy and the Wizard sound passably American, Dorothy's friends are clearly not attempting to sound American, the Lion even using the term "blighters."

There are several story changes. The Tin Woodman tells his backstory, but his girlfriend is absent from it. Instead, the Wicked Witch of the East enchanted him to cut himself to pieces because she didn't want him cutting down her trees. All the troubles on the yellow brick road are condensed into two episodes: facing the Kalidahs as they try to get across a bridge, which causes the Field Mice to pledge allegiance to them. Then, they encounter the poppy field, where the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman simply call the mice to rescue Dorothy, Toto and the Cowardly Lion. When they head west, the Monkeys automatically are sent out, and it's revealed the Wicked Witch is marshaling an army to attack the Emerald City, and has a thing for spiders. On the journey south, they find Dainty China Country invaded by the destructive Hammerheads, who they fight briefly before calling the monkeys to take the Hammerheads away, but this can't be done, so they are requested to take them to Glinda's air palace instead. At Glinda's palace, she's been trapped in there for months after the Wicked Witches stole her Silver Shoes and Golden Cap and set a giant spider to keep her captive.

The problem I had with the story changes were that in all the episodes, Dorothy's friends were pushed to the side as Dorothy was made the heroine. This felt as if the writer didn't understand how Baum had the characters function. Dorothy is yes, a heroine, but her friends—who feel their vulnerabilities strongly—are supposed to rise to the occasion. Having Dorothy work out how to solve all the problems takes away from their development. In addition, we know Baum's Glinda would never let herself be caught like that!

I suppose production values are very good, except they tried to make it sound like a kiddie fantasy. John Troutman—who is typically a fan of Big Finish productions—was very turned off by the high-pitched Munchkin voices. The Queen of the Field Mice also has a definitely increased pitch, which might actually be overdone. My thought is that if you want a character to sound small, increase pitch and lower the volume of their voice. Big Finish did not do the latter.

I can't recommend this for someone who wants a good audio dramatization of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I'd recommend Colonial Radio Theater or even the Los Angeles Children's Museum's way too long version over it. If you're a fan who wants to experience a lot of different versions of Oz, then go ahead and give it a shot, but know that this isn't a great example of Big Finish's offerings, either.

An MP3 version can be bought with and without a CD copy from Big Finish, or you can order a CD from Amazon.

The Royal Podcast of Oz — The Movies of Oz: Scarecrow of Oz

Jared and Sam briefly discuss the plot of Hash Inc's Scarecrow of Oz film and record audience critique at the 51st Winkie Con.



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The Royal Podcast of Oz: Winkies/Oz Con International 2015

Jared Davis reports from Winkie Con 51/Oz Con International 2015 in San Diego, featuring assistance from Aaron Pacentine, Sam Milazzo, Colin Ayres, Miriam Goldman, Rachel Anderson, and guest appearances by Eric Shanower and Emma Ridley.



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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!

The Magic Scroll of Oz

At Oz Con this year, I met Ray Kelley, who was handing out cards promoting his e-book, The Magic Scroll of Oz, which was available through Amazon's Kindle service for only $.99. At that price, I decided it was worth a shot and downloaded it the next time I was near a Wi-Fi friendly spot and began reading it on my trip home.

This is not a long book, and the author said he wanted to be faithful to Baum's world. However, opening the book reminded me of stories I'd read in Oz Reimagined. Yes, the book does cleverly stay in Baum's world, but it's not in the same style. Although it doesn't get excessively violent or explore mature themes, this is not an Oz book for young readers.

The book opens by revealing that Dorothy has tired of Emerald City life and now helps Jack Pumpkinhead on his farm. There also seems to be a rift between Dorothy and Ozma.

Glinda approaches Dorothy with a quest to recover the Royal Historian's magic scroll, which can alter the past, present and future of Oz. Dorothy uses a remaining scrap to create a live stick figure man named Stickler, who gives advice and points the way to the rest of the scroll.

Dorothy is joined by the Cowardly Lion and Sawhorse as she travels north towards the Land of Ev to recover the scroll and discover who was behind the theft.

The book is a fine adventure story and cleverly makes use of Baum's world, even making a visit to Merryland. However, its tone is very dour for an Oz book. Much of the theme seems to be Dorothy revisiting already trodden ground. There is almost no humor to the story. That, however, is the stylistic approach, not a flaw.

There are some continuity gaffes as well. Dorothy mentions facing the Scoodlers with the Wizard, when it was the Shaggy Man. There's a reference to Nome King's tunnel still being open, when The Emerald City of Oz says Ozma closed it. (But, to be fair, Jack Snow makes the same gaffe in The Shaggy Man of Oz.)  Tik-Tok is found in the Royal Palace of Ev and said to be the Royal Army, which is not in line with Baum's books. No explanation is made as to why Tik-Tok has returned to his country of origin. In addition, the rift between Dorothy and Ozma never feels as if it's properly addressed.

Altogether, it's a fine read and also sets up possibilities for what could be even better follow-ups. At the modest price, it's worth checking out.