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Friday, December 29, 2006

2006: A Good Year For Oz

Here's some really Ozzy things that happened during 2006.

  1. It was the 150th anniversary of L. Frank Baum's birth.
  2. It was the 50th anniversary of the first TV showing of MGM's The Wizard of Oz.
  3. Two animated Oz sequels were released to DVD: Return to Oz (from 1964 by Bankin-Rass), and Journey Back to Oz.
  4. Hungry Tiger Press released several wonderful books. They began The Pawprint Series, reprinting Baum's young adult books. Although their plans were to have several reprinted by the end of the year, they only reprinted Annabel, The Daring Twins as A Daring Twins Mystery: Secret of the Lost Fortune, and The Boy Fortune Hunters in China as Sam Steele's Adventures: The Scream of the Sacred Ape. Also printed Walt Spouse's comic strip adaptation of The Emerald City of Oz in a collected volume. Also, a brand new edition of Ruth Plumly Thompson's Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, her last "Famous Forty" book. They also planned on reprinting Baum's John Dough and the Cherub and Fate of A Crown, but were not able to. I hope they can next year.
  5. I joined the International Wizard of Oz Club (IWOC)!
  6. I bought lots of Oz stuff.
  7. Oz: The Manga released in a collected volume.
  8. I wrote first drafts of screenplays based on Baum's first three Oz novels.
  9. Lots of fun threads at the IWOC started!
  10. Disneyland Fourth Anniversary Show released on DVD, containing the preliminary show for the abandoned Rainbow Road to Oz.
  11. Eric Shanower's five Oz graphic novels reprinted in a collected volume, Adventures in Oz.
  12. Warner Brothers revealed to members of IWOC that they own the TV movie The Dreamer of Oz and are considering a DVD release!
  13. I saw Chapter 6 on March the 2nd and they performed their Wizard of Oz number. (Not very Ozzy, but still...)
  14. Illusive Arts Entertainment published Chapters 5 and 6 of their comic book Dorothy this year. (Added by Anna Warren Boersig of Illusive Arts.)

That's all I can think of now. If you can think of anything else, place a comment. (You can do it without registering with Blogger now, unlike the early days.)

2 comments:

  1. Well, commenting seems to be easy now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Shirley Temple LAND OF OZ (along with RELUCTANT DRAGON) was released as a sell alone DVD.

    ReplyDelete

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