It's taken longer than I anticipated, but I finally managed to finish off the 2024 edition of Oziana with "The Soldier with the Green Whiskers and the Guardian of the Gates" by J. L. Bell, with very Denslow-esque illustrations by Rob Lauer. This takes place shortly after the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in, as you might anticipate with those title characters, the Emerald City. On his morning patrol, the Soldier is surprised to see the Winged Monkeys taking apart the western part of the wall of the Emerald City! They fly off, and the Soldier finds the Guardian so that they can investigate what happened and why the Monkeys did it. The ease at which the Monkeys dismantled that part of the wall and the lack of mortar suggests only one thing: magic! Someone is helping the Monkeys, and they are bound and determined to find out who and why. But the problem is quickly solved when they return to the Palace and find that the Scarecrow has returned from seeing Dorothy head back to Kansas. The Scarecrow explains that it's all a part of a renovation plan and… No, I think I'll leave it there so that you can be surprised. But at least it turns out the Monkeys aren't bad. Mischievous and naughty, maybe, but not bad. It's a nice little story about what happened in the Emerald City right after The Wizard of Oz, and explains a few differences between Oz books. And the title pair make a nice double act.
Since this is the last story in this issue of Oziana, I must also mention the cover by Paul Miles Schneider (a panorama of Oz characters, drawn many many years ago before he ever became a noted Oz author); an illustration of Glinda by Suren Oganessian on Interim Editor Jane Albright's introduction page; and a poem, "Oz It Was" by David M. Perkins, with an illustration by Thomas and T Craft.
Finally, I must address the title of this post. I need to focus on my career for at least a little while, which means that I'm officially suspending the review of Oz short stories. Oh, I know, I haven't done much lately anyway, other than whatever comes along in each year's Oziana. And I do have more short stories I want to read and react to here. But they're just going to have to wait a little longer. I hope my time is more cleared out by the time the next Oziana comes out, and I will do my best to cover that, at least. Let's just say that continuing this series is one reward I hope to give myself in the not-too-distant future.
