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!

Weekly Update: R.I.P. Karl Slover

As many of you surely know, one of the last surviving Munchkins passed away this week. Karl Slover, who just appeared at an Oz event a little over a week ago, died at age 93 on November 15th, 2011. There are now three surviving cast members from the 1939 movie, and they're all Munchkins. Check out these videos of Karl singing his famous acapella rendition of "Off to See the Wizard".

In other news, ABC aired a brand-new episode of "The Middle" that had an Oz theme to it. In the episode, a community theater performance of "The Wizard of Oz" is doing auditions, and there's some jealousy over who gets what part. It was a very funny episode, and the costumes and sets in the production that were shown actually looked awesome I must say! Read more about the episode here.

 Actress Michelle Williams talked to The Los Angeles Times in an interview earlier today about her daughter's visit to the set of "Oz, the Great and Powerful". Read what she had to say about the experience her daughter had on set here.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend! 

Invisible Inzi of Oz

Now that we looked at the latest Oz book, let's look at one of the first (if not THE first) published Oz stories outside of the Famous Forty: Invisible Inzi of Oz.

Virginia and Robert Wauchope were 13 (or 14) and 9 respectively when they wrote this Oz book. They claim it was dictated to them by a Ouija Board, but I have my questions about that. Furthermore, since the story reappeared in the 1980s, it's been claimed the story was dictated by L. Frank Baum's ghost. And at that, I have to really suspend disbelief.

Their mother Elizabeth typed the manuscript a few years later, editing it as she went. This was sent to Maud Baum herself, who suggested it be submitted to A Child's Garden magazine. A Child's Garden accepted it and serialized it, beginning in October 1926.

Later, Fred Meyer wrote to Robert, after a friend had uncovered the story in the Library of Congress. Shortly after, the story was published in the Winter 1980 and Summer 1981 Baum Bugle. (Why there was a Summer Bugle that year is a story all in itself.) In 1993, a book edition by Buckethead Enterprises of Oz appeared, illustrated by Eric Shanower. (Someday, I shall have to ask how he came to do it.)

The story opens with Betsy telling Dorothy that Glinda's Books of Magic are gone. Glinda asks Ozma to get a recovery party together which consists of the Wizard, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and Scraps. After Musicton, Flattown, and a run-in with Kalidahs, they find the castle of Kuik Blackbab, who the Book of Records identified as the thief of Glinda's books. However, Kuik imprisons them. Ozma goes on a rescue mission herself (with a little long-distance aid from Glinda), but Dorothy's party finds another helping hand in a mysterious creature who remains invisible to them.

Overall, the story isn't too bad, but it's not very great, either. Not bad for a couple kids in the early 20th century, but there is definitely no mark of Baum. If a Ouija board did play a part in the writing, I'm sure its role was greatly expanded by the imagination of the kids telling about it later. After all, they did wait a few years in between writing and publication before their mother edited and typed it for them.

The major flaw is that Kuik gets no serious punishment. The Wizard steals the books back and Ozma warns that if Kuik does anymore magic, he'll be made to drink the Water of Oblivion. There's no real payoff to his villainy. Another is that the way the characters speak is a little stilted. It just sounds a little off.

The book is hard to find, adding some intrigue to the story, though I'm sure the Baum Bugles it was serialized in could be obtained with a bit of searching (I was able to get them just by looking on various book sale sites and asking around). I was amazed to find a copy on the Swap Meet Table at the Winkie Convention this year.

Eric Shanower's brilliant illustrations help the book look attractive. There are ten full page illustrations as well as the cover, and many little images of characters from the story, though most of them are of the classic Oz characters.

Aside from Shanower's illustrations and the history behind it, there isn't a lot to make me recommend Invisible Inzi of Oz above many other Oz books.

The Red Jinn in Oz

The Red Jinn in Oz, by Mildred L. Palmer - I'd heard about this book, which was written some time ago, but I'm not sure exactly when. I think it might have been in the fifties or so. Anyway, it remained unpublished for years, but I did a Google search on a whim a week or so ago, and it's actually available as a free download on Lulu. The copyright date on it is 2007, but I don't know how long it's been up there. Oddly, it doesn't appear in Lulu searches, supposedly because it's not "interesting content." Wait, Lulu, who decides that? Anyway, this was a traditional and quite fun Oz story, largely following up on The Purple Prince of Oz. In that book, Faleero took over Pumperdink, and Ozma punished her by turning her into a raven. In this book, she seeks revenge by transforming Ozma and taking her place, while her cohorts take the forms of Glinda, the Wizard of Oz, and Jellia Jamb. It's sort of like Magical Mimics in this respect, but not enough to seem repetitive. Besides, I'm not sure when this was written relative to Magical Mimics. Unfortunately for Faleero, she has trouble controlling her temper, and Dorothy soon realizes something is amiss. She and the Cowardly Lion seek the help of the Red Jinn, and the three of them return to set things to rights, after a stop in the sky kingdom of Cumuland to restore the rightful ruler. Everyone is in character, and it very much feels like an old-school Oz book, particularly one of Ruth Plumly Thompson's (not surprisingly, since it follows up on one of her plots). The bit about Guph having conquered the Nome Kingdom from Kaliko was never really developed, but maybe that's something that can be expanded on in a future story.

An interesting thing about Red Jinn is that Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion use the Nome King's tunnel under the Deadly Desert to get from Oz to Ev. The tunnel was also used as a plot device in Shaggy Man, but I don't know that Palmer had read that one. Regardless, it seems like both of them missed a relevant passage from Chapter 29 of Emerald City: "That day she watched her Magic Picture, and when it showed her that all the Nomes had returned through the tunnel to their underground caverns, Ozma used the Magic Belt to close up the tunnel, so that the earth underneath the desert sands became as solid as it was before the Nomes began to dig." So why would it still be intact several decades later? One possibility is that something went wrong, and the tunnel was never sealed, except for the two ends. If we want to accept both this passage and the plots that involve the tunnel, however, there must have been some kind of restoration. One idea that comes to mind is the idea in the Discworld books that it's easier to magically change someone or something if they can remember having had that form before. In Witches Abroad, the witches turn Nanny Ogg's cat Greebo into a human, and although he's later changed back, we learn in later books that he can take human form on his own in certain situations. So if that sort of magic is possible in Oz and its surrounding fairylands, perhaps the tunnel could be restored without too much trouble because it can remember having been there before. Or perhaps it was some sort of regression magic, which is something I wrote about in a multi-authored story called "The Ruby Ring of Oz" on the old Oz Club forums. Someone else had brought the Shaggy Man's brother back to the Metal Forest, and I explained this by introducing a wizard who could cast spells to restore someone's state and location from an earlier time. Neither of these explanations has any real basis in what we know about Oz, but hey, they're always possible, right?

And we are live!

And the new version of The Royal Website of Oz is live! If you were a user at the forum, then you already have an account.

So, what's new? Well, for one thing, you can log in and do stuff. You couldn't do that on any previous versions of the site. We merged the message board in (your bookmarks to it will still work, I was adamant we get that set up), and my concept of a fan fiction site has been implemented as the concept of a communal blog with tags. In addition, we have blogs and a chat box.

We were going to have image galleries or albums users could create, but all the modules we found caused problems with the rest of the site. Once we find something that will play nicely with others, we'll roll that out.

The library section has also not been launched, but it is underway.

The wiki is still online, unchanged. We were unable to find a way to link the site and wiki so you could use one login without making something not work. I had wanted that to be the case so users wouldn't feel they'd need to be bothered with a separate login to contribute information. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the two to link up and we also could not find an alternative.

Anyway, what's up is up. Enjoy!

http://dorothyandozma.com