Aunt Jane's Nieces Collection Update!

So, how's that Edith Van Dyne collection coming? Ummm...

Nicely.

Up above are the first four books in the Aunt Jane's Nieces series. The first book and Abroad are Reilly & Lee editions. (And for those who don't know, Reilly & Britton changed their name to Reilly & Lee in 1919, meaning these are later editions.) Abroad has the standard features that the earlier ones did, the frontispiece matched the story and the cover still has the pictoral design. I'm completely satisfied with it.

Aunt Jane's Nieces, however, is one of the late Reilly & Lee editions. The pictoral cover design has been dropped, and instead of this frontispiece...

 ...this one appears.

Which doesn't match the story at all. It's actually from Aunt Jane's Nieces on the Ranch. And is it just me, or do those two guys back there look like they're about to have a passionate moment? At the last Winkie auction, while displaying an Aunt Jane's Nieces book, auctioneer Bill Thompson pointed out the simple cover design and incorrect frontispiece, explaining that in the series' later years, the publisher wasn't so particular. (See? You can learn so much at Winkies, even at the auction!) So, a frontispiece that didn't match the text is a common feature in late edition AJN books. In fact, I think other publishers wound up doing it with other series books.

Back to looking for one that will match the rest. (I consider my dustjacket Red Cross 1915 a very lucky find.) I was informed the first edition had six illustrations, including the frontispiece. I'd LOVE to find one of these, but it might be out of my price range (and where I've been looking, difficult to find), so I'll settle for one with the pictoral cover and original frontispiece.

Oh, and I'll have to find a 1918 or after Red Cross as well... And no, I haven't forgotten the Mary Louise books, but it's not like I can buy all the Oz stuff I want when I want. Anyway, if I could, I'd deplete my wishlist too fast and have nothing to look for.

The Wonderland of Oz

In 1932, Reilly & Lee attempted a new Oz publicity stunt: a comic strip. The Wonderland of Oz was serialized in newspapers through 1932 and 1933 and Reilly and Lee even offered a collector's album for children to put the comic strip. (If anyone has one of these albums, I'd love to see a photo of it.)

Now, these were not comic strips as we know them today, but pictures that told the story with text underneath. Here's an example:

You might note that it says "Based on the stories by L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson." Apparently there were some lofty plans for this series. However, these strips only adapted The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz and Tik-Tok of Oz. Walt Spouse did the artwork, modelling his designs very much on the illustrations of John R. Neill. It's unclear if he wrote the text himself or if a staff writer did so. As it is, there are some changes that were made to the stories that required new text not found in Baum.

After the series' end, some comics were reprinted in comic magazines like "The Funnies." This time, word balloons with newly written dialogue were sloppily added to the artwork. Example:

And aside from some mentions in The Baum Bugle, the strip languished in obscurity for years until Hungry Tiger Press' first issue of Oz-Story Magazine in 1995. That volume presented a new version the first half of Walt Spouse's The Land of Oz, this time presented as a regular comic. Each panel was carefully redone by Eric Shanower, sometimes adding extra bits of art and writing in new dialogue based closely on Baum's text. Word balloons were carefully placed so as not to interfere with Spouse's original art, which was treated as the actual star of the presentation.

In the remaining five annual issues of Oz-Story Magazine, the rest of The Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, and The Emerald City of Oz were serialized with identical treatment. The final issue announced the remaining stories would be presented in a collected edition of the entire series. Such a volume, however, has yet to emerge. (I think a contributing factor to this is that the guy who did the new adaptation and art restoration is extremely busy with things like Age of Bronze and now adapting the Oz books for a different comic series...)

In 2007, all three completed stories were released in single graphic novel formats with newly colored attractive covers. Since I'd already bought a complete set of Oz-Story Magazine, my interest wasn't too high since I didn't want a lot of duplicates of the same content in my collection, but I eventually picked them up at the Winkie Convention this year. (That anti-duplicate rule, I've given up on.)

Or maybe I'm a sucker for colorful Ozzy covers...

The stories are very faithfully based on Baum and would likely be a nice gift for children who've only begun to read. For experienced Baum and Neill fans, little is offered aside from the few changes (in these three) in the story and scenes that Neill never drew. As a bit of Oz history and quality comics, they're worth it. The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz contain examples of previous incarnations of the comic strip.

Now, about these changes and things that Neill didn't draw? Well, there's additional moments from the stories that Neill didn't draw, but as Spouse retold the story through drawings, these show up. I'll only mention the most notable below.

The Land of Oz

• Tip attempts to flee Mombi's house when she tells him she'll transform him into a marble statue. (Then why didn't she lock the door?)
• The home of the Queen of the Field Mice is shown.
• All of Mombi's transformations are illustrated. 

Ozma of Oz

• No real story changes, but we get a comical drawing of the Sawhorse kicking the Nome King!

The Emerald City of Oz

• The Shaggy Man does not exist in this version of Oz, so all of his scenes that really bear on the story are given to Uncle Henry or the Wizard.
• The trouble with the bank is made clear not through prose but by a visit by a man from the bank.
• Toto eats an elocution pill and sings from "The Barber of Seville"
• Unlike Neill's illustrations, we get to see the Phanfasms in their true forms.
• The creation of the barrier of invisibility is omitted. Shanower's text accompanying the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Jack Pumpkinhead walking home says, "Come see us soon, for we shall not have any more adventures for awhile." (Come on, Scarecrow, you live in the Land of Oz.)

So, would I recommend buying The Wonderland of Oz? Yes. It's an important part of Oz comics history and Oz art. In addition, if you read them alongside the new Marvel comics, it's fun to see Shanower's different adaptations of Baum's text in The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. And with Christmas coming up, if you have a kid on your Christmas shopping list who you'd like to introduce to Baum's Oz beyond The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, these would make a nice introduction! And they're not badly priced at $10 each.

You can order the graphic novel collections from Hungry Tiger Press with the links below:
The Land of Oz
Ozma of Oz
The Emerald City of Oz

Here's hoping we might finally get to see Spouse's The Patchwork Girl of Oz and Tik-Tok of Oz!

All images are from the Hungry Tiger Press editions of The Wonderland of Oz. Copyright Hungry Tiger Press.

Nuts!

If you've been enjoying my blogs about Oz books, movies, etc. here at the Royal Blog of Oz, I've got something on my non-Oz blog that may interest you.

It's no secret that Oz is considered the first American fairyland, but of course there were fantasy stories that featured children visiting magical lands that preceded it. Right off, Alice in Wonderland. But there was a little German fantasy story in 1816 that was largely neglected until the late 19th century when it was made into a ballet. I'm speaking, of course, of E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

Frankly, I've loved this story since I was a kid, and this year, prepared 18 blogs about various incarnations of the story throughout the years. They'll appear daily, early in the morning, Central Standard Time. And since they've been written early and will appear automatically, they won't take me away from writing for the Royal Blog of Oz at all.

If you're interested, go on over to my non-Oz blog and check them out, starting December 1st. There'll be a final blog on the 19th.

(Maybe next year I'll tackle another Christmas story that's been retold many ways...)

Mister Tinker in Oz - Sam's Retrospective

Two months ago Jared made a review about the Random House Oz Short Story "Mister Tinker in Oz" by James Howe, illustrated by David Rose. You can see his review of half the book here.

As Jared said before I have this book in my collection and would like to offer my perspective.

Everybody knew the story of "the Wizard of Oz", or at least knew the LOOK of the story (a girl, a dog, a Scarecrow, a tin man with an axe, a lion, all walking together down a road of yellow bricks, usually to or away from a city of emeralds). Of course we had the Ladybird story as an abridgement too (illustrated by Brian Price Thomas) at my primary school library, Daceyville, but surprisingly we also had a copy of this blog's book, the cover () of which has always stayed with me since, including some of its illustrations. Not everyday that you have an abridged Oz book that's by an author NOT Baum, Thompson, etc!

I was too young to really read the book, so like all little children I just looked through the book unless I saw a picture, which there is a good number of - but you can never have enough or too many pictures as a kid!

For many years I remembered a few of the images from the book: the colour cover having a girl with her long hair in braids standing at a fence as she watched a man in a black cloak coming down a ladder from the clouds/sky, Dorothy sitting with a group of babies surrounded by giant ants, Dorothy and the babies now with the man, Dorothy looking at a clock the man showed her in his hand and finally Dorothy resting in an armchair with Toto (and a book?) in front of a fireplace.

Only once did I go on the internet, find "the Oz Project" and come across the interesting title did I find the book I remembered only through pictures and not words. It would not be until July-August 2006 that I ordered the book, not from ebay, but an online secondhand-bookstore called BiblioQuest.

I loved the book soon as I got it. And, as is often the case with memories and time, I saw how the drawings were slightly different to what I imagined: Dorothy's hair wasn't as long as I thought it was, nor did Mister Tinker look like a Clown in a black cloak. And of course now that I had grown up, I could actually read the book and remember the story - there is also an extra character, an old lady named Astoria who I thought looked like the Good Witch of the North in her one illustration (before actually reading this time), who helps add to the story.

I don't need to tell you what happens as that was already explained in Jared's blog, but I can say how the best thing about this book is that there is adventure not just in getting to Oz but also after having arrived in the Emerald City. Most importantly Dorothy helps Mr Tinker to find there was nothing wrong with him throughout the story after all. A big cliche is the asking of "Will Dorothy get home again?" or "Will everything be alright?" and that is actually addressed here, in which the Emerald City ISN'T "alright" upon visiting, so that allows the story to go on a bit longer with Dorothy and Mr Tinker and their friends all helping Oz to become normal again.

A GOOD Short Oz story, with sketchy illustrations but still some nice drawings nonetheless, which brings a backstory character to the spotlight (Tik-Tok's creator) in a simple yet extremely fun adventure in Oz. I should like to see this book as a short film someday, if possible. And maybe try some new illustrations too.

I wonder though, if L. Frank Baum had remembered Tik-Tok's story of his creators back in "Ozma", would he have thought of a way to include the 1000 year warranty and its moon-based creator in "Tik-Tok", in the rewrite of the Ozma Musical?

Royal Explorers of Oz

Announcing Royal Explorers of Oz, a trilogy combining elements from the works of L. Frank Baum and the fantasies of Ruth Plumly Thompson.

Prince Bobo of Boboland is on a mighty quest: to unify the Nonestic nations against such threats as the Phanfasms and the Mimics! But with his ego, can he successfully carry it out?

Captain Salt is exploring the Nonestic Ocean once more with his faithful crew, Ato, Tandy, Roger the Read Bird, and Nikobo the hippopotamus. They soon gain a few extra members for their crew in Arko and Orpa the mer-folk couple, and Sally the Sea Fairy.

Little do any of them realize that they are setting out for an adventure that will change all of them forever.

ROYAL EXPLORERS OF OZ

The Voyage of the Crescent Moon

by Marcus Mebes, Jeff Rester, and Jared Davis

Illustrations by Alejandro Garcia and John Troutman

Coming early 2012

To be followed by

Crescent Moon Over Tarara

&

The Scourge of the Crescent Moon

(And for anyone wondering, all three books have had their first drafts completed.)

The Royal Podcast of Oz: A Chat With Ruth Berman

Jared talks with legendary Oz fan and International Wizard of Oz Club charter member Ruth Berman.

As always, you can download or listen at the podcast site or use the player below!

       

   
   
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More Baum Bugle Reading

Back in August, I blogged about reading some of the earliest material in The Baum Bugle. Well, despite a gap in my collection (1970-Spring 1971, which seems to be one of the rarest issues), I'm still reading and am up to 1984. (And no, I don't mean the George Orwell novel.)

There is seriously so much amazing information in these old issues. Just today, my respect for Ruth Plumly Thompson skyrocketed when I read her account of attending a party and being told by a librarian that the Oz books were not allowed in the library system. When she asked why, they said they'd explain when she accompanied them to lunch. Thompson demanded to be told right away. When she didn't get an answer when she asked for it, she skipped that lunch.

And in the same article ("Librarians, Editors, Critics, Children and Oz," Autumn 1984), she acknowledged that she and Baum were very different. It is these articles Thompson wrote (it was the third part of a long article she'd done) that finally let me see what kind of a person she was.

Not every article was quite informative. A couple that come to mind are by a Sonia Brown. The first was "Have We Found Oz?" which goes on about how she thought Oz might have been inspired by Australia. Another was about how she thought a famous stage magician was the basis of the Wizard. Speculation about Baum's inspiration is fine and all, but I felt it was too drawn out. I especially thought the one about Australia was a little far-fetched. It doesn't take the Deadly Desert of Oz into account, nor the fact that the borderlands are mostly bordered on ocean. Oz is landlocked, Australia is not.

Sometimes things I thought I knew were looked into more deeply. The fact that the Bugle doesn't do linear biographies helps a lot. For example, Baum's financial troubles about 1910 were pretty badly compounded, moreso than I'd previously summed up. Not only was he broke because of the Fairylogue and Radio Plays, but the company publishing his pre-Reilly & Britton books had rented the plates of his books to a big reprint house. What was bad was the fact that Baum was not making a single cent off of these reprints. He'd turned the royalties over to creditors in an attempt to pay them off (which worked, eventually). Even worse, cheap Baum books in the marketplace would rival with pricier new ones that he would profit from. It was really this that forced him back to Oz.

Also, it seems Reilly & Britton were interested in continuing the Trot books, but Baum just turned out Oz books and made Trot and Cap'n Bill part of Oz.

A lot of fun as I get through the older Bugles is all the names that I know (some of them from meeting them at Winkies) come up more often. Eric Gjovaag, Karyl Carlson, Eric Shanower, David Maxine, Judy Bieber, John Ebinger, Lee Speth and so many others.

A big problem with reading these old Bugles is seeing all the wonderful Oz-related works that have come out over the years. Now I'm itching to get my hands on more of it!

Fun with Fairies

The most popular conception of fairies is that of tiny people with wings, but not all fairy lore uses this idea. In fact, it appears to be a relatively recent development, with the more traditional take of fairies making them more like minor deities. They play such roles in many fairy tales, and L. Frank Baum adopted this general idea in his own books. Well, most of the time, anyway. His definition of the word "fairy" seems to vary considerably, sometimes even within the same volume. As I mentioned in this post, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus makes Fairies specifically the guardians of mankind, but it's used elsewhere in Baum's work to refer to any and all immortal beings. Sometimes it's used even more broadly than that, which I think reflected popular usage at the time. Even today, the category we call "fairy tales" includes a great many works (perhaps the majority, in fact) that don't include fairies at all. Similarly, "fairyland" often just means "magical land," not specifically a place where actual fairies live. I believe the first reference to the Land of Oz as a fairyland or fairy country appears in Ozma of Oz, but he must have had it in mind before, as one of the proposed titles for the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was From Kansas to Fairyland. The name seems to primarily separate such lands from non-magical civilized countries like our own. In Emerald City, Baum writes, "Oz being a fairy country, the people were, of course, fairy people; but that does not mean that all of them were very unlike the people of our own world." And in Road, Dorothy refers to the Tin Woodman as "a fairy prince." Baum was obviously not above using the term loosely, as the Tin Woodman is certainly not an immortal with magic powers. Ozma is eventually revealed to be a full-fledged fairy, but we don't actually see hints of this until Emerald City, and she doesn't display any real magic powers until Lost Princess. Tin Woodman tells us that Oz was enchanted by a fairy queen named Lurline, but this happens so late in Baum's books that it seems to be almost an afterthought on his part, although later authors did more with this.

One interesting character to examine in this light is Glinda, who largely plays the role of the fairy godmother, but is not a fairy herself. Or is she? In Lost Princess, the Wizard of Oz says, "Ozma is a fairy, and so is Glinda, so no power can kill or destroy them, but you girls are all mortals and so are Button-Bright and I, so we must watch out for ourselves." And in Jack Snow's Shaggy Man, the King of the Fairy Beavers insists, "Glinda is a fairy just as Ozma is." He goes on to say that "fairies...are creatures of the light and air," even though this is hardly always the case. The Nomes, for instance, are considered rock fairies, and they live underground. Anyway, despite these statements, I think most of the evidence points to Glinda being a human who has achieved a lot of magical power, rather than a magical being in and of herself. That said, it's certainly not impossible that she has some fairy blood.

"The Origins of Oz" coming soon

Jane Albright just announced on Facebook that the Smithsonian Channel will be airing "The Origins of Oz," the American version of the previously aired "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story" in the UK.

Eric Shanower, who appears on the documentary, told me he's seen the American version and believes it's a different cut than the version that aired on BBC Four.

"Origins of Oz" airs on December 11th. Check the site for more details.

What I might be collecting next...

I got this in the mail today.

It's a 1915 edition of Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross, with the dustjacket.

It's in really great shape, too. There's an inscription inside, but that's all the marking I've found so far.

Okay, there is annoyingly a sticker on the side of the dustjacket that I don't dare remove for fear of ruining the jacket. So I might as well tell you now that the seller I got it from had absolutely no idea what they selling. Their price for it was only $5.

Aunt Jane's Nieces was a series by "Edith Van Dyne." In the Red Cross was the last of the 10 volume series and was re-released in 1918 with a rewritten ending that more accurately depicted the effects of war.

The big secret of Edith Van Dyne was that she wasn't a she. It was, in fact, L. Frank Baum under a pseudonym. Those handy little things allowed Baum to branch out in his writing and write stories that were very different from his Oz books. While the late Jane Merrick's nieces might have found a benefactor in their Uncle John, he wasn't a fairy godfather.These stories were very much set in reality.

I'm now itching to pick up some more of the Aunt Jane's Nieces series as most of the "Edith Van Dyne" books are among the few Baum books I have left to get. (Also The Army Alphabet and The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors.) I have the International Wizard of Oz Club's reprint of the first book in the series, but that's all. The other books have been reprinted as their texts came online as cheaply done (yet bogglingly-priced) print on demand editions, and I haven't felt them to be worth my money. (Until this, I was seriously considering making my own omnibus reprint.)

So, what will I pick up as I attempt to piece together a collection of Edith Van Dyne books? Stay tuned!