Shanowerthon! The Enchanted Apples of Oz

Well, the final illustrator of the FF+ who also wrote Oz stories is Eric Shanower. (Wait, what about Rob Roy MacVeigh? Did he write Oz stories? ... The Oz Project says "No." ... Wait, he did do a short story in Oziana 1989! I own that! ... We'll get to that soon.)

Shanower also has the distinction of being the only illustrator who's worked on the original illustrations for FF+ books who is still very much alive. (At least he looked like it when I met him at the Winkie Convention earlier this month.) But he is also the only one who wrote and illustrated Oz stories before his FF+ work.

Shanower is a cartoonist by trade, and studied at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, and has done many freelance projects for comic publishers. Even when it's not Oz, his drawings of lifelike people are simply amazing.

Shanower's first published Oz work was actually in the 1976 Oziana, and, he notes, heavily rewritten by the  editor. I don't have Oziana 1976 on hand, though... At any rate, his first big Oz publication was The Enchanted Apples of Oz in 1986. It had begun as an idea for an Oz-based comic book series for First Comics, and the original draft featured Trot and Cap'n Bill. However, at the time, Trot and Cap'n Bill's appearances were still protected by copyright. And anyway, Rick Oliver, editor at First Comics, wanted to do graphic novels instead.

Thus, a little series of five Oz graphic novels began, each one featuring Dorothy and the Scarecrow as lead characters. Throughout these graphic novels, and indeed, all of Shanower's Oz art done in his regular style, he used John R. Neill's designs first, and W.W. Denslow's if he had drawn a character Shanower was using that Neill hadn't drawn. Simply, when you take Neill's designs and Shanower's art style, it's an amazing piece of art. Oz fans have called Shanower's work the best since John R. Neill, that it's as good, or even suggesting it surpasses Neill. Shanower commented on this praise:

That's a very flattering statement, but I'm not sure it's actually the case. Neill, of course, is the man. He had a much better facility for illustration than I do. He ignored the rules of perspective quite often, and it's pretty obvious he got somewhat bored with Oz after a few books, but when he was doing his best work, Oz or otherwise, he was glorious. So being compared with Neill is very nice and a little uncomfortable for me.

On the other hand though, with Enchanted Apples, Shanower proved he could spin a tale. Now, keep in mind that this is the comics medium, Shanower's stories are more straightforward than some Oz books. He rarely had alternating plots like many Oz books, and didn't make use of the side-misadventures that help lengthen the page count of so many books.

I was very young when I first saw one of Shanower's graphic novels. It wasn't this one, but although I saw it listed on the back, I never tried to see if the library had it too, because I just found the library's catalog too daunting. Shortly after, my Oz collection was discarded and I lost interest, but when I got back into Oz a number of years later, I read all of Shanower's work the library had right alongside L. Frank Baum's Oz books. I didn't seek out to buy all the individual graphic novels, as when I started to build my collection, a collection of Shanower's graphic novels called Adventures in Oz had been announced. (More on that later.) However, thanks to PaperBackSwap.com, I do have the original version as well.

And now let's look at the story...

Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Billina are walking along the Yellow Brick Road, when suddenly a castle appears before them. They approach it and find it is the home of Valynn, a woman who tends the Enchanted Apple Tree of Oz. The Enchanted Apples must remain on the tree for Oz to maintain its magic. Up until now, she has been in Limbo for many years, because a man named Bortag threatened to steal the apples. Finally tiring of the loneliness of Limbo, she decided that Bortag is probably no longer a threat and returned to Oz.

Dorothy decides she and Valynn will go to the Emerald City to tell Ozma of Valynn's plight, and the Scarecrow and Billina are left to watch the tree. Unfortunately, while they are gone, Bortag arrives on a flying swordfish named Drox and steals several apples, along with Billina. (She was attempting to scare him away, but he threw her in a sack and let other apples hit her.)

In the Emerald City, Ozma, Valynn, and Dorothy check the Magic Picture to see the Enchanted Apple Tree. Valynn is horrified to see what has happened, and they watch Bortag fly far to the south of Oz, where he uses an apple to awaken the Wicked Witch of the South!

This is not Singra, the Wicked Witch of Rachel Cosgrove Payes' The Wicked Witch of Oz (which Shanower would illustrate later), but Shanower himself offered an explanation to there being two Wicked Witches of the South in an article in the Winter 2001 Baum Bugle.

Which one can rightfully claim the title of the Wicked Witch of the South?

My answer is simple: they both can. My idea is that they are sisters who practice the same occupation but who have hated each other for many years—along the lines of Ann Landers and Abby Van Buren. These two witches are rivals, each claiming to be the Wicked Witch of the South and hating each other so much that each denies the existence of the other.

The Wicked Witch heads right to the Enchanted Apple Tree, and using the Magic Belt, Ozma, Dorothy, and Valynn head back to the castle themselves.

Bortag begins to walk sullenly to the Deadly Desert, while Billina begins to scold him for letting the Witch go. She convinces Drox and Bortag to go back to the Enchanted Apple Tree to try to stop the Witch, while Bortag explains why he freed her. He's from a town called Glun where everyone is ugly, but he wasn't ugly enough to be accepted into their society, so he tried to learn magic to get revenge, but all his spells somehow resulted in the creation of a potato. (At least he didn't have to go hungry!) Finally, he gave up and went to the Deadly Desert to commit suicide by walking into it.

Near the Desert's edge, he found a hut where the Wicked Witch was in an enchanted sleep. Noting her ugliness, he thought she might prove a kindred spirit. This is what made him decide to get at least one Enchanted Apple to waken her with. So he sneaked into Valynn's palace, but she managed to catch him before he could pick one. After making false threats at Valynn, she goes to Limbo. Still, Bortag vowed that he would someday get an Enchanted Apple.

One day, Drox landed outside the hut, almost dried to death after having flown over the Deady Desert. Bortag nurses Drox back to health, and Drox says that without ocean water, he'll never be strong enough to return to the Nonestic Ocean.

After Bortag finishes his story, Billina suddenly can't speak anymore, and Bortag realizes that thanks to him, Oz really is losing its magic.

At Valynn's castle, Ozma, Dorothy, and Valynn arrive and hurry to the garden, where the Witch compels the Scarecrow to take the Magic Belt from Dorothy and give it to her. (The Belt, Ozma explained, is not affected by Oz magic, since it isn't from Oz.) As the Witch begins to pick a silver apple that ensures Valynn's guardianship of the tree, Valynn starts at her, but the Witch turns her into a statue. Ozma is soon turned into marble and Dorothy into wood.

Bortag arrives and has Drox hook the Magic Belt with his sword-like nose. While this gets the belt off the Witch, it carries her by her feet. The Witch turns Drox into a gray cloud, and she, Bortag, and the Magic Belt fall to earth on top of the Scarecrow, who just came out of his trance. Bortag manages to put on the Belt and turns the Witch into stone. He then uses the Belt to restore Drox, the Scarecrow, Ozma, Valynn, and Dorothy, but then leaves on Drox with the Belt.

Back in the Emerald City, things aren't going well. The Magic of Oz is still weakening, even with some of the apples on the tree. Suddenly, the Scarecrow loses his life and falls over. Just then, Omby Amby announces Bortag and Drox. Bortag is returning the Belt. He took it because he thought it could give him what he wanted, but all he wanted was a true friend, and that's what he already has in Drox.

Ozma uses the Magic Belt to return to Valynn and then uses it to restore the Apple Tree to how it was before Bortag stole the apples. This restores the Magic of Oz full force, and the Scarecrow and Billina instantly recover. Then, Ozma creates a barrier around the tree so that no one except Valynn may touch it. Finally, Ozma grants Bortag's request: to send Drox and himself to a home by the Nonestic Ocean.

As I said, the plot is very straightforward and not very long. Since the graphic novel was still an exciting new format for comics, Shanower didn't try to start up a story arc that would continue through other volumes. For the format, it works quite well. Shanower stays very true to Baum's characters and manages to develop  Valynn, Bortag and Drox very well. I just wish we could have found out more about that Wicked Witch.

Some people don't like the idea that the Magic of Oz is dependent on the safety of an apple tree. I suppose I'm all right with it. I guess it does bring to mind the story of Adam and Eve from the Bible, in which the first man and woman are told they may eat from any tree but one, and the forbidden fruit has since been depicted as an apple. Some Oz fans might not like the Biblical parallel, others might, and some just might not care. It's also worth noting that apples play a big role in mythology as well. If one wants to view Oz as a mythology, then Shanower's apples are not a far cry.

One thing you might notice in Shanower's stories are themes. Here, Ozma spells out one of them to Bortag at the end: "It doesn't matter how the world sees you—it's who you are inside that counts." As readers, we detest Bortag at the beginning, because we think he's the bad guy. Then, we feel sympathy for him when he explains his story. And finally, in his showdown with the Witch, we cheer him on! Another theme, also spelled out at the end by Ozma, is the recurring Ozian theme of contentedness: "I do know that when one's heart is content, true happiness is never far away."

Something I wasn't aware of was the dating of the story. In The Baum Bugle's review of Adventures in Oz, it says that Enchanted Apples occurs during the "several very happy weeks" Dorothy spends in Oz at the end of Ozma of Oz. However, in the revised version of Enchanted Apples in Adventures, that can no longer be the case.

"Revised?" Yes. Rather than do a straight reprint, IDW comics had Shanower on board for their new edition and he oversaw how the art would look in the new collected edition, sometimes changing it to how he wanted it to look, and sometimes revising the art. Thanks to advances in printing technology, the colors are much richer and vibrant in Adventures, while the original edition's colors look a bit faded, sometimes dark (this is most notable in skin tones). Comparing the art, there aren't major differences save one, which we'll show below.

Copyright Eric Shanower

Copyright Eric Shanower

In the original version, Omby Amby's beard is absent, while in Adventures, it's back. Small detail it may be, it actually changes the dating of the story. In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Omby Amby, going as the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, says, "I shall disguise myself by cutting off my lovely green whiskers." In Ozma of Oz, he has been given the position of private in Ozma's army and does not have his whiskers. At the end of the book, he is promoted. In Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, this exchange occurs:

"And the people will not willingly part with her," added a tall soldier in a Captain-General's uniform.


The Wizard turned to look at him.


"Did you not wear green whiskers at one time?" he asked.


"Yes," said the soldier; "but I shaved them off long ago, and since then I have risen from a private to be the Chief General of the Royal Armies."

Omby Amby's whiskers have not grown back until The Patchwork Girl of Oz, meaning the revised version of Enchanted Apples must take place shortly before or after the events of that book.

I wondered at this change and thought about asking Shanower about it at Winkies, but then a thought struck me: not all of Baum's Oz books were public domain in 1986. That accounts for the odd placement. I suppose Shanower didn't want to do that at first, and that is why he restored Omby Amby's beard in the revision.

The Enchanted Apples of Oz was received warmly by Oz fans, and First Comics, the publishers, would go on to print three more of Shanower's Oz graphic novels.

Buy The Enchanted Apples of Oz (original edition)
Buy Adventures in Oz (hardcover)
Buy Adventures in Oz (paperback)
Buy Little Adventures in Oz Vol. 1 (reduced size reprint)

Sam prepared other comparison pictures to show the differences between the original edition of The Enchanted Apples of Oz and the revised version in Adventures in Oz. All images are copyright of Eric Shanower and are used only for the purpose of review.

Because people keep assuming it...

... I will not be at the National Convention in Banner Elk. And, to my knowledge, neither will the rest of the blog team.

I'd love to be one of those people who can say, "Oz convention? THERE!" But I'm not. Not yet, anyway...

Oz Update

@MeganHiltyOL on Twitter shared an HD video of the Dorothy of Oz panel at Comic-Con in San Diego. Watch that here.

Perez Hilton has leaked a song that was previewed at the Dorothy of Oz panel. The song, "When the World Turns Upside Down", was played over a montage of clips from the film. You can listen to that here.

Oz: The Great and Powerful has officially begun filming in Detroit, Michigan. Read the press release from Walt Disney Pictures here.

BJ Entertainment is working on an indie movie based on Donald Abott's book, How the Wizard Came to Oz. Read a little more about that here.

L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz will be presenting footage from the film at the IWOC convention in Banner Elk, North Carolina. Check out the flyer for that here. If you're attending, I'd say that's definitely something you should check out.

Speaking of which, the Royal Blog of Oz will be debuting an exclusive still from the footage shown at Banner Elk! That should be coming up here in a week or two.

Jared will be interviewing Leigh Scott on the Royal Podcast of Oz next week about his upcoming film, The Witches of Oz. You can submit questions on the Podcast's new Twitter, @RoyalPodcastOz, or at the new FaceBook page.

In the next couple weeks, I will be sharing an interview with Sasha Jackson, who plays Ilsa in The Witches of Oz.

A lot of things to look forward to here on the blog!

Here we go again!

I already started my saving, and the 2012 Winkie Convention will be July 27-29! It's too early to book a flight, but better get in gear! Because considering we'll have a special focus on Sky Island, flying would be appropriate.

And I'm doing the standard quiz next year, and I've already started picking some good questions. It will be mainly Sky Island, but some knowledge of the Oz books will be called upon. For example, one points out that Sky Island features a ________ in which ______ are ______ to _____!

So, get a copy of Sky Island, or load a free e-text to your e-reader, or listen to an audio book, or watch the... oh, they didn't make a movie. (You probably wouldn't have gotten away with that much knowledge, anyway.)

Sam is not committing to return next year. Not yet, anyway... However, he did say that if he did, he probably wouldn't travel the same way that he did this year. I plan to use different transport as well, but we'll see how that works out.

Information about the 48th Annual Winkie Convention is still being decided on, but I'd advise you keep an eye on this page.

The Ozmapolitan of Oz

W.W. Denslow wrote Oz-ish stories, John R. Neill wrote four Oz books, Frank Kramer and Dirk Gringhuis just illustrated, and what of Dick Martin?

Dick Martin was born in the same city as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Chicago. He was a lifelong fan of Oz and inspired by John R. Neill's artwork, he went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. To say he was very active in the International Wizard of Oz Club is an understatement. He was the go-to guy for art, and we've already noted he illustrated Merry Go Round in Oz, Yankee in Oz, The Enchanted Island of Oz, and The Forbidden Fountain of Oz, as well as a wide variety of other books for the Club and other Oz-related publications. He also served as the Club's president, vice president, editor of The Baum Bugle, as well as serving in many, many other roles.

As for solo work, the Club published his An Oz Sketchbook and An Oz Picture Gallery. Dover Publications published his three Oz cut-and-make books, Cut and Assemble the Emerald City of Oz, Cut and Assemble the Wizard of Oz Toy Theater, and Cut and Make Wizard of Oz Masks. He also worked with James Hanff on creating the International Wizard of Oz Club's Oz map, which most fans consider the definitive map of Oz. He also co-authored The Oz Scrapbook with David Greene, a book that looked through the history of Oz in print, screen, and stage.

So, is it any wonder that he wrote an Oz book, too? The Ozmapolitan of Oz was published in 1986. That's right, it's as old as I am.

The story begins as Dorothy finds a boy named Septimius (or Tim) working at the Ozmapolitan, the royal newspaper of Oz, and a Mifket named Jinx who assists him as a "Printer's Devil." Tim is determined to "make good" on his own. To bring exciting news to the Ozmapolitan to get more subscribers, Tim, Jinx, Dorothy, and Eureka set out on an expedition.

Now begins a series of disjointed misadventures, reminding us of Thompson. Fortune cookies from Skipper Sally tell our adventurers to look for a fat chance, a blue moon, and a silent melody. Yeah, definitely a few shades of Thompson here...

A family of artists paint portraits of the expedition in "modern art," the problem being, they're impressionist painters and have a loose style, and their subjects become a match of their portraits, which is quite uncomfortable for our heroes. Fortunately, after that experience comes their fat chance: a man named Fat Chance who fixes them up with Muddle's Miracle Mixture, and also drops them off at the Tin Woodman's palace. However, the Tin Emperor is missing, along with the Scarecrow. Now there's a secondary plot!

At night, Eureka spies Tim telling off a crow that calls itself a royal watch bird. She declines to tell Dorothy about it, deciding to see if this will actually pose a threat to the group.

The next morning, Tim and Jinx have made a skiff they call The Princess Dorothy, which they use to travel down the same river the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow were boating on when last seen. Along their way they get caught in Game Preserve, where they are forced to play a giant board game until they break the spinner, and then they head into a cavern where they meet a very behind-the-times inventor who has just invented the Wheel. Further in the cavern, they find a Tyranicus Terrificus, a dinosaur-ish creature who gets fooled into thinking our heroes are no good to eat.

Further in the cavern, they find the Silent Melody: a river fairy named Melody who has been frozen in a block of ice. They manage to move her away from the rest of the frozen area, which thaws her.

Further down the way, Eureka finally tells Dorothy about what she saw Tim do, presuming Tim is a spy. Tim assures Dorothy that he has been telling her the truth, but he hasn't been at liberty to tell her everything. Shortly after this, they lose The Princess Dorothy, and Eureka sets off on her own in a basket. The rest follow the stream by foot, until they come to a place where it branches off into four ways. Luckily for them, Eureka has found the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and returns. And the boat the famous Ozian pair are riding in is named The Blue Moon.

Returning with them, Melody and the river fairies subdue the Tyranicus Terrificus by taking it to be frozen. Then the travelers visit Melody's Water Palace before returning to the Emerald City, where Ozma reveals Tim is Prince Septimius of Septentria, and he has proved himself UNfit to take the throne, simply because he doesn't want to! The King of Septentria doesn't do anything, but Tim wants to work and do something with himself. And he doesn't intend this expedition for The Ozmapolitan to be the last.

To be sure, The Ozmapolitan of Oz isn't the most exciting Oz story. In fact, I'd definitely say it owes a lot to Thompson rather than Baum. I see shades of The Purple Prince of Oz with Tim's story. But Martin's writing style is very different. The misadventures the travelers go through are tied closer to the plot than in Thompson's work, even though Martin writes in a perfectly good explanation for going all out in them. (Of course, considering he wanted to produce fewer illustrations for these Club-published books, that may be another factor.) And he has fun with wordplay and other concepts that make his story fun to read. (There's a scene where Tim tells a phony story to Dorothy that is simply hilarious.)

Anyway, The Ozmapolitan of Oz is definitely a good story and deserves to be read. It's one I'd recommend.

Chickfactor

I seem to be running out of ideas for Oz posts. Then again, I've thought that before, and was usually able to come up with something. I considered doing something about the Ice King, due to the similarity between his story and that of the Snow Queen, but it turns out I already did. Then I thought of John Dough and the Cherub, which I've addressed before, but I don't think I've said much about the titular cherub. When L. Frank Baum first started writing the story for serialization, the magazine editor insisted he add a child protagonist to accompany the gingerbread man, so he introduced Chick the Cherub. Chick is not actually a cherub, but is cherubic in the more modern sense. The child is famous for being the world's first Incubator Baby, and indeed speaks as if the incubator itself was its parent. The name Chick derives from the fact that incubators are typically used for...well, I think you can figure that one out yourself. The main gimmick with Chick, however, is that it's never stated whether the Cherub is a boy or a girl, and the white unisex pajamas and sandals the child wears don't provide any clue. When the book first came out, there was a contest to determine Chick's gender. I don't think the contest results exist anymore, but what I've heard is that there were two winners, one arguing that Chick was male and the other female. That sounds about right.

As far as the Incubator Baby's personality goes, it (yeah, I know it's awkward to call a human "it," but I can't think of any better way, and apparently neither could Baum) is quite laid back and easy-going, not really too concerned about where it is at any given time. Chick speaks in modern slang of the time, and when possible eats only oatmeal and cream. The child can also be sassy at times, however, and is the only one who has no fear of talking back to the Kinglet of Phreex. John Dough and the Cherub leave the Isle of Phreex in a flying machine to escape from Ali Dubh, who wants to eat the gingerbread man. After a series of adventures, they arrive in the twin kingdoms of Hiland and Loland, of which John becomes king. Chick promptly appoints itself Head Booleywag, which the Baby defines as "the one that rules the ruler." In Who's Who in Oz, Jack Snow further defines a Booleywag as sort of a cross between a prime minister and a court jester. At the end of the book, Baum explains what happens to the characters in later years, which was pretty typical of his non-Oz fantasies of the time. It's rather odd here, though, as much of the rest of the story implies that it takes place around the time it was written. The last sentence of the tale reads, "But, curiously enough, the Records fail to state whether the Head Booleywag was a man or a woman," implying Chick grew up. When the Incubator Baby reappears in The Road to Oz, however, it's still a child.

Mike's Intro and Review: The Undead World of Oz

Hello, Ozites! As Jared mention before heading off, I am Mike Conway, known on YouTube as Mikelo. I am an Oz fan. Seriously. I live and breathe Oz. I have read the books time and again and they never get old for me. When I started playing Dungeons & Dragons, my thoughts did turn to how to use such a medium with Oz. As of the time of my writing this, my RPG, Heroes of Oz, nears completion.

As Jared mentioned, I've always had "alternative" ideas about Oz, never being content to stay with the safe tried and true status quo that L. Frank Baum left behind when he died. I get a kick out of things that some Oz fans rail against, such as the Oz Squad comics. What can I say? I like shake-ups. This has, you can bet, gotten me in trouble with a few Oz fans.

That said, though, I am still a bit of a purist at heart. I don't like "remakes" or "new takes" or "new spins." I saw a comic once with Dorothy as an adult goth who hated her aunt and uncle. I never read past the first issue. When I read an Oz story, I want to see a story with Baum's Dorothy used as a foundation. If she's different in some way, I want to know why. If Oz is different, what happened to it?

I'd rather keep the same thing as what came before, but build on it, or just view it through a different lens. The book I'm going to review here, The Undead World of Oz, is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Zombies added to the mix. And yes, it is cool.

There has been a trend of late to add horror or sci-fi elements to classical (public domain) stories. It started with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It gave a fresh new perspective on the story, and new view through a different lens. It's the same story with the same characters and romance, but there is now zombies and martial arts in it.

This lead to an explosion of zombie-added value in classic fiction. Some good, some bad, as with everything. Heck, I pondered doing the same with Oz, but then Ryan C. Thomas beat me to it. I'm glad he did, too. I think he did a good job.

Undead World of Oz is the same story with the same Kansas and the same Oz, but it's been given a darker taint. Thomas starts from the get go by taking Kansas from the dull and gray place it was to a dry and cracked world of creepy. It's not that Dorothy and her family are poor. They are starving. Aunt Em may not be a zombie, but she does act a little like one, which creeps Dorothy out.

When the house gets lifted by the cyclone, and Dorothy looks through the trap door down, she sees a dead body that the cyclone unearthed  from a shallow grave. Yes, this sets the tone for this new and dangerous Oz.

Upon getting to Oz, we learn that the Wicked Witch of the East cast a spell over Oz to make sure that the Munchkins knew they were her slaves, not even being able to escape her in the grave. So the dead of Oz didn't stay dead long.

The story continues with the same plot as the original story, but there are times when the characters have to take on the undead. Dorothy is fortunately able to defend herself, as she is given a magic gun by a Munchkin farmer. This saves her bacon throughout the story, even against non-zombies.

This was something I thought was particularly interesting. Zombies aren't the only things Dorothy and company have to face. Apparently pulling from Tolkien and Rowling, Dorothy does battle with a giant spider twice in the story. While unnecessary, I thought it was a neat addition.

The fun thing is, by the end of the book, Dorothy is battle weary and, since she's packing heat, she just blows away one of the Oz monsters from the original book. I don't blame her. She's been through the wringer and now these stupid and ugly things want to mess with her? I actually cheered (and that wasn't a good idea, since I was at work).

I think that Ryan Thomas must really be an Oz fan, since there are nods to other parts of Oz fandom, especially the MGM movie. Fighting zombies, your shoes aren't going to stay clean, for instance.

Even though the book does retain its happy ending, there is a part that suggests that the horror may not be over for Dorothy. This is perfect in the tradition of horror storytelling. Never leave them entirely safe.

My only real problem with the story is that Thomas tries a little too hard to fit zombies into the story. The Tin Woodman wasn't cutting wood when he was paralyzed with rust, for instance. He was fighting zombies. I could see it, but it was a little much. There's also place where the beginning of a chapter wasn't modified properly from the original.

I was originally hoping for a continuation of the books. I'd love to see Ozma dealing with the undead in a land where death has no hold. Still, Undead World of Oz is a lot of fun and is definitely founded in the original story. It's not a retake or anything like that, but it's a new vision that's faithful to the original. I readily give it four-and-a-half stars out of five.

And now back to your regularly scheduled Oz. Blessings and brains. ;-)

I Smell a Rat

Cross-posted from here.

Now is as good a time as any to get around to Rachel Cosgrove's most prominent addition to the Oz canon, a character apparently considered by some to be the series' equivalent of Jar Jar Binks. Or maybe he's more like Poochie, what with his frequent usage of "cool" slang (early fifties slang, in his case, especially the term "kiddo"). I refer, of course, to that giant white rat Percy the Personality Kid, who makes his first appearance in The Hidden Valley of Oz.

Like other oversized animal characters in the Oz books, Percy has a history that involves a certain amount of magic. When Jonathan Manley, better known as Jam, plans to take an expedition using the kite he just built, he takes a few animals from his father's laboratory. When the wind blows him to Oz, he arrives there in the company of two guinea pigs and a white rat, all of whom begin talking in the fairyland. The guinea pigs are named Pinny and Gig, and have the annoying cartoon twin habit of finishing each others' sentences. They are written out pretty soon, as Jam leaves them with a Gillikin family. Percy the Rat, however, remains Jam's companion throughout his adventure, and a magic muffin from the Hidden Valley makes him grow to ten times his original size (although I would assume that's approximate, not exact). The rat is quite vocal and active, and often finds a way out of dangerous situations. Rachel, who had experience as a biologist, said she put in a rat character largely because they're intelligent animals, and Percy is indeed quite clever. I think it's more his attitude and speech patterns that make people dislike him.

When Eric Shanower illustrated Rachel's other Oz book, The Wicked Witch of Oz, he hit on another reason why people weren't too keen on Percy, which is the way Dirk Gringhuis drew him. In order to improve on this, Eric used a real rat as a model, and did indeed come up with a more attractive depiction. It also helps that there's a little more variety to Percy's slang in the text, so he comes across as a better character overall. Rachel also used him as the main character in her short story "Percy and the Shrinking Violet." For the most part, Percy doesn't appear in stories other than those written by Rachel herself, but Ray Powell apparently ignored the copyright and gave him a small but significant role in The Raggedys in Oz. In order to stir up some excitement, he frees Ruggedo from his enchantment, and is punished by being sent back to the United States to live as an ordinary rat. The version of Raggedys I read was a slightly edited one, in which Percy is forgiven, which really strikes me as more appropriate for an Oz story anyway. But the fact that Powell wanted to get rid of Percy in the first place just goes to show how unpopular he is with some Oz fans. On the other hand, he's fairly well-liked by others. I can't say I mind him, but he's not a favorite of mine either.

Oz rocks the Eisners again!

Last year, Eric Shanower and Skottie Young's adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz won "Best Publication for Kids" and "Best Limited Series" at the Eisner awards.

This year, their Marvelous Land of Oz adaptation was nominated for "Best Adaptation from Another Work" and Skottie Young received the "Best Penciller/Inker" nomination for the Eisners.

Last night, they won both.

Do I sense a trend emerging? Maybe their Ozma of Oz will rock next year's Eisner's awards.

To celebrate, I'm going to hit a comics shop to see if they have Ozma of Oz #8, because there are no other comics I want that would justify the cost of shipping! (Dang SLG, not putting Royal Historian of Oz #5 in a print copy...)

Den in (and out of) Oz

So, I went over John R. Neill's Oz stories last month. But guess what? His predecessor, W.W. Denslow also wrote Oz stories about the Oz characters. Quite simply, he and Baum had joint ownership over The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He had the legal right to use the characters, and Baum, while quite upset that he had made such an arrangement, could do nothing about it. (Thanks for the reminder, Eric.)

A series of newspaper stories, similar to Baum's Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, began in 1904, written by Denslow. It was entitled Denslow's Scarecrow and Tin-Man.

The first entry was somewhat promising. It was entitled "Dorothy's Christmas Tree." Set sometime during Dorothy's first visit to Oz (seemingly just after the Wizard left, or perhaps one of the days he refused to see them after destroying the Wicked Witch), it is Christmas, and Dorothy is sad not to be spending it at home in Kansas, so the Scarecrow and Tin Man decide to do what they can to ensure a merry Christmas for their friend. (I've already chosen this as the story for the Christmas 2011 podcast, so I won't say much more.)

Dorothy doesn't appear in the later stories, so we may presume Denslow set these after her return. Only the second tells of further merry misadventures in Oz (they go ice skating with the most disastrous results), while the third finds them wanting to visit Fifth Avenue, and so the merry misadventures go to plain old Earth in the remaining tales.

The fourth and fifth tales, "About Town" and "Recaptured" were collected into a picture book, The Scarecrow and Tin-Man. Taking a bit of a turn from the rest of the series, the Scarecrow and Tin Man run away from a theater. Yes, seemingly, we went from the characters in Oz to the characters in the Wizard of Oz musical extravaganza. They cause a lot of trouble and eventually are captured by the police and made to work in the theater again.

In later tales, which resume the story of the characters from Oz (including, to a lesser extent, the Cowardly Lion), the misadventures head to the Ocean, then Bermuda. Their ship is wrecked, and they wind up in Yucatan, after saving the crew. Then, they arrive in New Orleans and take a train out west, where they are captured by Indians and rescued by cowboys before they arrive at the Flower Festival in California, where the series ends.

In these stories, the characters from Oz are quite silly and seem to have trouble knowing right from wrong, and are often chased for wrongdoings. The stories are not that great, either. "Dorothy's Christmas Tree" has the strongest plot of the bunch, and then the complexity of plots began to decrease. In fact, the last five newspaper pages are mostly illustration. That's what Denslow did best, and his writing confirms it. While Baum often tried to be funny, most notably in The Marvelous Land of Oz, Denslow relies on forced jokes and slapstick humor. (A woman notes that the Tin Man has a "hard face.")

The series lay in obscurity for many years. Hungry Tiger Press reprinted most of the stories in Oz-Story Magazine, and later, the complete series as a single book edition. When Sunday Press published Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz, they also included all of Denslow's newspaper stories as well, allowing people to see them in their original form.

Thus, Denslow's small, silly, and very odd contribution to Oz is available today. Just don't expect too much from it!

Although he and Baum had parted ways, Denslow provided some new illustrations for later editions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He designed many of the sets and costumes for the Wizard of Oz musical extravaganza and later, designed a wallpaper frieze featuring characters from the musical accompanied by verses that told an erratic retelling of the musical's plot. (It's estimated to be from 1910, so the details were likely hazy in his mind.) Aside from the Oz characters sometimes appearing in his other work, that was the extent of his connection with Oz.

Denslow, although born the same year as Baum, did not share the same bittersweet happy ending that the Royal Historian of Oz had. His success as a children's writer was very brief and by no means reached the same significance of Baum's later work. All three of Denslow's marriages ended in divorces, and his career took a nosedive. He died of pneumonia in 1915.

It is thanks to Denslow's work on Oz that he is remembered and his work has been sought out. Sadly, it was because of his own ego (and Baum's) that he parted company with Baum, which seems to have been a great mistake on his part. Yet history flowed the way it did, and we cannot know what might have happened had the two creators of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz put their differences aside and focused on working together.