Nathan's Review of Marvel Comics' Ozma of Oz

Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, adapted by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young - The third of the Marvel Comics versions of the Oz books continues the trend of the first two, with a script quite faithful to the book, and drawings not much like John R. Neill's at all. Young's somewhat deformed style works pretty well on what Baum himself probably would have called "grotesques." When rendering a character who's said to be traditionally beautiful, however, the result is often somewhat odd. His Princess Langwidere bears an odd resemblance to Divine, which I can appreciate on its own level, but isn't much like the character is described in the book. I do quite like Young's Nome King, who really isn't that different from Neill's aside from having somewhat more cartoonish expressions, but his other Nomes didn't sit too well with me. If they weren't gray, I'd think they were supposed to be some sort of vegetable people. Other interesting touches are that the Nome King's Chief Steward is specifically identified as Kaliko, and that Omby Amby has his long green beard. I suppose these were done to somewhat ease the transition in between books, since Eric is coming at this project with the gift of hindsight that Baum obviously didn't have.