Now, Neill was given the job as staff illustrator at Reilly & Britton, and The Marvelous Land of Oz was his first major title. As this was going to be the flagship title, it is not inconceivable that Neill may have picked up a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (or a later edition, like The New Wizard of Oz or The Wizard of Oz) and looked over Denslow's work to try to determine what was so great about it. We know he copied Denslow's Dorothy for The Road to Oz, so definitely, at some point, he did study Denslow's work.
Here are examples Sam pointed out:
Note the dishwashers... (Sorry about the Esperanto, but these were from those famous PDFs that were once online.)
Dorothy sits on a fence with Toto nearby, meeting a new friend.
Dorothy is carried by a feline-ish beast through an otherwise impassable situation.
The Tin Woodman raises his axe to make some progress.
Royal Processions.
I can't quite remember where I saw it (it was probably an old Bugle), but there was a picture that Neill drew of Oz characters watching a play of John Dough. This was before Ozma came out, and his drawings of Dorothy and the Lion looked more like the Denslow versions than what would eventually become standard for him.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why you mentioned japanese when apologizing for Esperanto. As an aspiring esperantist, I can tell you that they are quite different
ReplyDeleteHey, it's all Greek to me.
ReplyDeleteI edited it. Thanks. (Yes, Nathan is correct in that I am ignorant of the specifics of Esperanto.)
ReplyDelete