Little present for you all

So, earlier I reviewed Capitol Records' Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz and fairly raved about it.

However, this title is hard to find, and even if you do find it, most versions are fragile shellac and should actually be handled carefully and kept safe.

But records were made to be listened to, and considering this production hasn't been made commercially available since about 1950, how can you get a copy to listen to?

... 1950? Wait... If it was done then, and if the copyright wasn't renewed, then there's a very high chance it's in the public domain now...

So, as a little service to Oz fans, I posted all six parts on my new Tumblr blog. Below, I've linked to each entry, where you can play the files.

However, you can also use the mp3 links below to download those six parts so you can put them on your MP3 player or computer or whatever. (You'll have to rename them, though. Tumblr changes the names to random letters and numbers.) And, once downloaded, you can see that I sweetened up the ID3 tags a bit. The cover image is embedded in the files, and each part (three record set, two sides, six parts) is named after a chapter of the book, except the last one.

Part 1: The Earthquake (MP3)
Part 2: The Mangaboos Prove Dangerous (MP3)
Part 3: They Meet The Wooden Gargoyles (MP3)
Part 4: The Den of the Dragonettes (MP3)
Part 5: Old Friends Are Reunited (MP3)
Part 6: Finale (MP3)

"The Oz Enigma" Pre-Release Review

 Note: This is a review of the pre-release edition of The Oz Engima. This version was available in paperback at the Chesterton, Indiana Wizard of Oz Festival, and the final edition of the book may be revised or altered to some extent. 

The Oz Enigma, written by Roger S. Baum, attempts to take Oz into the twenty-first century without losing the essence of the original stories written by Roger's great-grandfather. Roger has written several Oz books before, and I must say that I was very disappointed after reading this book.

In the story, Dorothy and her friends are joined by new characters like Mr. Yumkin on a journey into space to ultimately stop a witch named Maelstorm and her allies Blackheart, the newly-resurrected Witch of the East, and the Nome King from destroying the Emerald City. 

I think that it's a brilliant idea, but pretty poor execution. The villains in this book is definitely where some of the biggest issues with the story lie. For instance, we are told near the beginning of the book that the Wicked Witch of the East has somehow been resurrected (or perhaps she never died). No further explanation or development there. One of his more recent books The Oz Odyssey shared this same redundant plot device.

Another villain in the story is Maelstorm, who is the cousin of the Witches of the East and West. She's basically just an over-the-top, stereotypical witch. She even says something at one point along the lines of "I love being bad because I'm a witch!". I think it would have been better to just ditch the wicked witches all together, and instead have an original, new villain who isn't related to the original Wicked Witches.

Something that is evident in this book and in The Oz Odyssey is that it doesn't seem like Roger has even read any of his great-grandfather's books. And if he has, his stories do not fit anywhere in the timeline of the original books. Yes, you could say that Roger's stories take place in the present-day Oz, but that's not even possible as somehow the same Nome King is still evil and plotting to take over Oz with no explanation as to how he's turned evil again.

There are also strange and unexplained references to the MGM movie, such as farmhands back in Kansas named "Huck and Hank", mentions of the Wizard of Oz giving the Cowardly Lion a medallion of courage and the Scarecrow a diploma, and more that I can't recall off the top of my head. There are even inconsistencies in Roger's original material. For instance, there is a land that is sometimes referred to as Candy Country, Candy County, or Candy Land. Which is it?

I think it's obvious that this version of the book was either rushed or possibly just poorly proofread and edited, because there a ton of errors throughout the book, and really hurt the overall quality of the story. I'm not sure how different the final edition of The Oz Enigma will be, but I unfortunately have to say that I would not recommend this to an Oz fan in its current state.

The Royal Podcast of Oz: Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda

Jared and Sam discuss the stop-motion adaptation of Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda, Alexander Volkov's revision of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and its first two sequels.

You can see the series on YouTube here.

Download the episodes here. Search for the word "volshebnik."

You can listen and download at the podcast site or use the player below!
       

   
   
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My next Oz book

I'm working on a new Oz book. It's not really a sequel to Outsiders from Oz, but it does tie in.

Here follows a spoiler if you haven't yet read Outsiders from Oz!

Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage

This is the first time I've blogged about a Roger S. Baum book. It's the third Oz book of his I've read. Coincidentally, I also own only three of his books.

Roger, a great-grandson of L. Frank Baum, was approached by a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club to write more Oz books. His first book, Dorothy of Oz, was published in 1989 and has been adapted into an animated film which will be released next year.

Roger has produced twelve additional Oz books, the latest to be released next year. Dorothy of Oz met with warm reception, but subsequent books under Roger's name have had mixed reviews, generally due to the books practically ignoring L. Frank Baum's original continuity.

My first exposure to this story was its animated film adaptation, Lion of Oz, produced in 2000. Realizing we'd be covering it eventually in the Movies of Oz podcasts, I decided to get the book so I'd have a fuller appreciation of it.

Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage follows a young lion in Africa who is captured and brought to a circus where he is befriended by the balloonist, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, who gives him a badge of Courage.

In the first logic problem of the story, Oscar takes the Lion for a balloon ride, which happens to be the same fateful ride that hurls Oscar into the Land of Oz. So, it also hurls the Lion into Oz as well.

See, there was no need for this. Who takes a lion, regardless of how tame it is, for a balloon ride? Furthermore, why is it necessary that the Lion was not a native Ozian lion? In fact, the story could have been told easily with that premise.

The plot gets muddled at times but remains pretty easy to follow. The Wicked Witch of the East finds the Lion and tasks him to find the Flower of Oz, the source of all good in Oz. Lion meets and is joined by SillyOzBul Percival, a young girl named Wimsik, her toys Caroline and Captain Fitzgerald, and a baby dragon named Burt.

Along their journey, they come across a curious sign-man, mini-Munchkins, a whirlpool in the River of Flowers, a vanishing silver bridge, a seamstress who turns people into decorations for a dress for the Wicked Witch of the West, Burt's parents, and 4,999 SillyOzBuls.

Lion even meets the Wizard himself, though Roger explains that it's been so long that Lion no longer recognizes him. I guess Lion has a really short memory for faces, because his adventure seems to start almost as soon as he lands in Oz. Are we to assume he spends months before being joined by anyone? Not likely, as the text doesn't indicate that. If he forgets what Oscar looks like this easily, then why is making the Witch set him free (she lies that she has Oscar captive) such a big deal for him?

There is also a major logic problem in how the plot is resolved, but as I'm reviewing and not analyzing, I won't spoil that.

Not only does the plot suffer from critical logic problems, but the text could get downright dull to read.

Captain Fitzgerald looked at the lion, and said, "This lion must be brave. Look at his ribbon and Badge of Courage."

"Yes, he must be brave," repeated Caroline.

"We will leave in the morning," said Lion.

 Roger sounds as bored as his characters.

 There's some nasty errors. In a repeated case, "you're" is spelled "your." Very often, characters speak for more than one paragraph. Now, when this happens, there is supposed to be another quotation mark at the beginning of the next paragraph to indicate that it is dialogue, but this isn't done. And most of the time, there was no need to break into another paragraph.

Considering the publisher, Yellow Brick Road Publishers, Inc., was Roger's own company, I begin to suspect a decent editor wasn't on board. I recall Dorothy of Oz being much better than this, but that was published by Books of Wonder.

I even have to say the animated movie managed to revise and streamline the story into a better narrative, though some logic problems are still retained. Sam and I will cover that eventually in our Movies podcasts, and we've discussed bumping it up to tie in with the release of the Dorothy of Oz movie.

Unless you're a fan of Roger Baum's books, or just gotta have all of the published Oz fiction, I wouldn't recommend this one. There are much better prequel stories about the Wizard and the Lion out there.

Another Marathon Weekend

Two weeks ago, I showed the 1973-1974 miniseries based on Volshebnik Izumrudnovo Goroda. Not only is this series a classic, it's far from the only adaptation of the story in Russia.

Warning, this post contains some long videos!

In 1994, a film adaptation was produced. It appears it was shown in theaters, but it looks a lot like a television movie. (It seems to be listed on IMDB twice as 1994 and 1995.) Here it is:



EDIT: I have recently discovered more about Russian film-making of the sort. The above video is indeed a televised version of a play, called a "телеспектакль," or "telespektakl."

In 1999 and 2000, a fully animated series was produced, this time based a little more on the original L. Frank Baum stories. It adapted Baum's first two books, though there's a cameo by the Nome King, and it seems they planned to adapt Ozma of Oz as well, but the series was unable to be sold internationally, so it was scrapped. (It has since been re-dubbed and edited into a British film titled The Haunted Journey to Oz.)



Film has not been the only medium for the story by any means. Stage adaptations have been wide and varied, from this school production played by children...



... to this Christmas circus spectacular!



I don't expect anyone to watch all of these videos in one sitting, and maybe not even this weekend. Still, if you're interested in seeing more Russian takes on Oz, I hope you'll be back.

EDIT: Despite all these other versions, it really seems the stop-motion version is the most classic. As evidence...

Ladybird's the Wizard of Oz

"Every new generation of children is enthralled by the famous stories in our Well Loved Tales series. Younger ones love to have the story read to them. Older children will enjoy the exciting stories in an easy-to-read text." 

Ladybird books are known for making classic stories accessible to little children learning to read and "Wizard of Oz" is happily one of them. But it hasn't been told just once, nor twice . . . but three times!

I will be reviewing the one that is closest to the Baum/Denslow version, which is illustrated by Angus McBride and retold by Joan Collins. Out of the three versions of the book's retelling, this is definitely the best and most faithful version. But there are two different versions and naturally it comes down to what is condensed (visually and written) as well as the packaging, like so: (Left) At first, the story was printed under the aforementioned "Well Loved Tales" banner, printed on a smooth paper surface and retold the original story, with illustrations following the Denslow designs (while also looking new). It also has some chapter titles, the endpapers at both front and back show an elaborately-illustrated tree with other famous/classic fairy-tales, possibly in the same series. This edition also includes the above quote at the top of this Post. The pages are numbered 4-51 and the Chapters included (without numbers or new page settings):

1. THE GREAT WHIRLWIND (pg 4)
2. DOROTHY MEETS THE MUNCHKINS (6)
3. HOW DOROTHY SAVED THE SCARECROW (10)
4. THE RESCUE OF THE TIN WOODMAN (14)
5. THE COWARDLY LION (17)
6. THE JOURNEY TO SEE THE WIZARD (20)
7. OVER THE RIVER (22)
8. THE GUARDIAN OF THE GATE (23)
9. THE WONDERFUL EMERALD CITY OF OZ (26)
10. DOROTHY'S FRIENDS SEE THE WIZARD (30)
11. THE SEARCH FOR THE WICKED WITCH (32)
12. THE RETURN TO THE EMERALD CITY (39)
13. THE MAGIC HUMBUG KEEPS HIS PROMISE (43)
14. AWAY TO THE SOUTH (47)

The book includes much of the dialogue and occasionally some descriptions or phrases from the original novel, but it also states how the Good Witches are sisters (like The Wiz), it briefly mentions how the Tin Woodman came to be (the faster "magic" way), the Lion does carry them over the first ditch and they cross the second ditch by a chopped tree, but there are no Kalidahs. The Scarecrow does not get stuck on the pole as they cross the river and the whole Poppy Field scenario is left out (as well as the Green Family). Dorothy is given a green dress before meeting OZ and her friends see him the next day. The Wicked Witch of the West's wolves, crows and "fierce black" bees fail so the Winged Monkeys are given their final command, Lion is spared and Dorothy's magic kiss from the Good Witch of the North protects her and Toto. Naturally the origin of the Golden Cap is left out. After the Humbug's balloon accidentally leaves behind Dorothy, they have the Winged Monkeys take them to Glinda's palace, who does agree to help Dorothy but will also use the Golden Cap to return her friends to their kingdoms (the Lion who reveals "the Beasts of the Forest have asked me to be their King!" - but this is not established) and free the Winged Monkeys by giving them the Cap. There is no proper good-bye between friends, but the Silver Shoes do fall off and disappear when Dorothy and Toto have returned to Aunt Em.

(Right) When the book was reprinted under the actual "Ladybird" banner, it was even shorter. The pictures were reused, but now were printed on a glossier type of paper that showed the illustrations' detail more properly and better (even the tint or shade of the colour is a bit more vibrant). However, only HALF of the illustrations were reprinted and even a few of them were cropped (as you can see in the comparison scans). You can also see how on the cover Dorothy has been moved further ahead of her friends, or zoomed in on, while also some possible touch ups to Scarecrow's legs and where Toto would be barely glimpsed (it also unflatteringly exposes the detail in colouring Dorothy). The endpapers now have the red background with black polka dots (representing the ladybird bug) with a "belongs to" page and the retelling has now been done by Audrey Daly. No chapter titles, no page numbering.

The story has been simplified very much, especially by removing the details, dialogue, descriptions and such from before. After Lion appears and is scolded, the journey to the Emerald City is accomplished with nothing other than "soon they were all good friends" and the text, now being heavily abridged, seems to imply that Dorothy and Scarecrow meet an Unrested Tin Woodman, the Wolves were successful in capturing Dorothy (and that is the only illustration of WWW included, with her Wolves), OZ is a humbug but not from "near Kansas" (as mentioned before), NOR is there any scene involving the balloon or how the friends got to Glinda's. But they still say what will become of Dorothy's friends. Here the abridged DOES mention Dorothy saying good-bye "I will never forget you" to her friends, while the loss of the Shoes is shown visually. As mentioned before, half of the illustrations are reused here on nicer paper, but others are left out. Actually the pictures can be divided into three sections: * Reprinted in their entirety = * Reprinted but cropped in some form (e.g. removing background colouring) = * Abandoned/Left-Out = A few pictures, now printed on glossy paper, are also a bit brighter and can make out a few little details otherwise unnoticed before (like Toto's smile when Dorothy frees Scarecrow). The one pic of the friends tree-crossing the *second* ditch has been moved to their way to the West, another manipulative assumption. You can see the changes, both in print quality and editorial, below: (For the pictures where the background colouring has been removed but the characters are left intact, that is something called "Instant Alpha" which can be seen in things such as Preview (Select tool), iPhoto, etc. Nifty little appliance . . . )

Both books include the illustration of OZ giving Lion a spoonful of courage on the page before the story begins and, on the back, a listing of other books in the series (but even this has been given the "Instant alpha" effect)

So here we have an excellently abridged edition of the Baum/Denslow Oz book adapted into a Ladybird learning to read book, also condensed even more to a state that's a slight improvement in quality but takes steps back in quantity and storytelling. If you can find the "Well Loved" version on ebay (as I believe I did) get it while you can, as the other version is more available and therefore a slight step back. Will I review the other Ladybird Wizard of Oz books? I don't know yet . . . but if I get enough responses or requests . . . Maybe.

Permament Records

J.L. Bell recently wrote about Glinda's Great Book of Records, and I don't think I ever did a proper entry on this magical item, so I might as well say a bit about it now.

The Book, which is sometimes said to record everything that happens in the world, is first introduced in The Emerald City of Oz. Glinda tells Ozma and her companions, "As soon as an event takes place, anywhere in the world, it is immediately found printed in my Magic Book. So when I read its pages I am well informed."

The remarks made by Ozma and Dorothy suggest that they hadn't heard of this book any more than the readers had. So did she only obtain it shortly before that, or just prefer to keep it hidden? Either explanation is possible.

In Land, Glinda mentions a book that tells all about what the Wizard of Oz did while in the country, but credits the information to her spies rather than magic (not that the spies couldn't have been magical). Is this Glinda talking about the Book of Records without revealing its true extent, or is this other book a precursor to the more famous one? The Sorceress tends to reveal so little that we'll probably never know.

Exactly how the Book of Records works is never clear, which I suppose is often the case with magic. I believe it was Melody Grandy in Zim Greenleaf who suggested the tome might have some kind of consciousness. I think I've seen the volume credited to both Lurline and Tititi-Hoochoo, two of the most powerful known beings in the Ozian world. Glinda also might have made it herself, but if so I doubt it's a feat she could easily recreate.

How much does the book actually cover? Despite the mentions that it records everything in the world, I would say this would have to be an exaggeration of sorts. It does, however, record much more information than anyone could use, and often in cryptic passages. In Tik-Tok, we're told that "[t]he smallest things and the biggest things are all recorded in this book. If a child stamps its foot in anger, Glinda reads about it; if a city burns down, Glinda finds the fact noted in her book." The book might well include some references to children stamping their feet, but I doubt EVERY time a child does this would be recorded.

My take would be that the tome is selective in some ways, but that not even Glinda can understand what system it uses to determine what news is worthwhile. In Kabumpo, it's revealed that news about Oz appears in red, which would presumably help Glinda find information relevant to her own nation. And in Magic, Ruggedo claims that the Record Book doesn't record the doings of animals, although this is contradicted in both Rinktink and Cowardly Lion, at least.

Thrice Rendered

So, I was asked to contribute to Marcus Mebes' first issue of Oziana after he took over as the new editor. He helped me plot a quick short story about King Bud of Noland and Jinnicky, the Red Jinn of Ev.

The resulting story, Bud and the Red Jinn; or Never (Always) Look A Gift Horse (Goat) in the Mouth, was illustrated by Anna-Maria Cool, who'd done some earlier excellent work in Oz-Story for Hungry Tiger Press and illustrated The Hidden Prince of Oz and Toto of Oz by Gina Wickwar. She'd also done several covers for Marvel's Barbie comic book series, including a Nutcracker-themed issue I'd added to my collection. While I'm thrilled she illustrated my story, the stupor of "YOUR story is accompanied by HER art" has yet to sink in.

Marcus really liked my story introducing a sour Prince Bobo of Boboland, and incorporated the character into his own story for the same issue, thus making the two stories connect. Later, he had the idea of incorporating both stories into the first volume of what would become his Royal Explorers of Oz series. (And no, I did not invent the title.) I obliged.

However, we needed new illustrations for my story. While Marcus paid Anna-Maria a hefty sum for drawing the pictures, he only had permission to use it in Oziana. However, his friend Alejandro Garcia was brought in. Alex turned out a redrawing of Anna-Maria's picture.

While we love Alex's art, for some reason, this just didn't grab us. It was too similar to Anna-Maria's original and Jinnicky's thick legs didn't look right.

What Marcus decided to do was bring in an additional illustrator. This illustrator would properly illustrate the story, while Alex would produce pictures that would be from "Tandy's sketchbook." Since Tandy wasn't present in my little story, we dropped Alex's picture.

The illustrator for the first two books is John Troutman, web cartoonist for the strips Mary Elizabeth's Sock, Lit Brick, Sporkman, and the currently on-hold Delusionary State. This is what John turned out.

To find where to buy copies of Oziana 2008 and the Royal Explorers of Oz series, see this page.

Mary Louise Adopts A Soldier

And the final book. This is the final book in the series that Baum worked on before his death, and it was finished by someone else. While I've yet to find and read any books by Emma Speed Sampson, what I've read about her work leads me to suspect that she did not work on this book.

Katherine Rogers suggests in her Baum biography that Harry Neal Baum finished the book. A few tweets from a correspondent of Michael Patrick Hearn informed me that he believes L. Frank Baum's work in the book is only a small fragment. And that, I can believe!

The book opens with Mary Louise and Grandpa Jim going to greet the return of the Dorfield Regiment: a group of soldiers hailing from Dorfield and some soldiers from elsewhere who helped fill out their ranks. The two note that some soldiers might need a place to stay before getting back into society, so they consider "adopting" (a better term would be "hiring") a displaced soldier to help out at their home.

They decide to hire an odd, eccentric rambler named Danny Dexter who did quite well in the army. He takes some convincing, but eventually accepts the position.

And that, I believe, is about where L. Frank Baum's fragment ends. Because it seems he set up things about Danny that simply are not followed up on later in the book. Danny has a gash on his face that was plastered in mud that was healing it. This point seems to have been a point that Baum would have used later, but it's not used again. And also, Danny very quickly loses his quirks.

Also, a lot of the characters change. Josie comes back, but while Baum made her the primary detective in the story, she spends a lot of time off-screen and just doesn't feel like the character I've read about in the past four books. She's far too fond of Mary Louise this time around.

Mary Louise herself isn't the same. I've commented on her simplicity and often viewed this negatively (it does feel like a step back after Baum's other amazing female characters). She is more central to the plot this time, but she feels like a different character, the writer now giving her nuances and secrets, which she absolutely could not keep before. This might be seen as an improvement, but this is really a failure to maintain continuity.

A big, offensive change is in two characters I haven't mentioned before, though they've been in the background throughout the entire series: Uncle Eben and Aunt Sally. These two African-Americans are faithful servants to Grandpa Jim and Mary Louise, and they seem to have mutual respect. In Mary Louise in the Country, Mary Louise is buying dishes to replace ones Ingua broke so she won't get in trouble, and the shopkeeper wonders why she needs them, and suggests that they don't want their black servants sharing their dishes. Mary Louise refuses to reply to this.

Given how well these two are treated and how respectfully they act previously, it's a shock to have them being described as "trying to help and managing most successfully to be in everybody's way" and Aunt Sally suddenly yell, "Eben, you lazy old niggah, bring in de candied yams." They also now speak in some of the most painful phonetic spellings of dialect I've ever seen. Baum never depicted black supporting characters (not counting Father Goose's "Little Nigger Boy") this badly. Examples are in Nux and Bryonia of the Sam Steele/Boy Fortune Hunters series and Aunt Hyacinth in The Daring Twins. This tone is just decidedly different.

So, how does the story go? In the first two-thirds, Danny is made chauffeur of Mary Louise's car "Queenie." But one day, Danny and the car disappear. Inquiries are made, and the existence of Danny's criminal uncle Jim O'Hara is made known. The local police and Josie O'Gorman begin searching for the missing car and Danny.

One night, Mary Louise goes out being unable to sleep and finds "Queenie" back in the garage and a light on in Danny's room. Assuming he's returned, she goes to see him and finds his Uncle Jim, who takes her in "Queenie" to a crossroads where he goes off with someone else to catch a train to Santa Fe, intending to relocate to China. He passed several bad checks but Danny has vowed to pay them off. This makes Mary Louise find more respect for Danny.


Mary Louise and "Queenie" are found, and Danny has returned. Hearing that his uncle has jumped off the train near Albuquerque, Mary Louise decides to go try to find him before the authorities and Josie do.

And now, we reach the last third, revealing a whole new subplot of a German base hidden in Mexican America that Jim is tricked into helping with before he escapes and alerts the local authorities to, which suggests he may get a pardon. Oh, and he's splitting his oil wells with Danny.

And pretty much, Mary Louise has fallen in love with Danny.

So... Yeah. The part that I felt was not written by Baum felt loose and incompatible with the previous four books. Characterizations are off, and it feels like it was written in a rush to finish a book by someone else. I'm not sure how to feel about this. While it contains some work by Baum, it's very little. Do we count this as a Baum book?