More birthday blogs

I just couldn't get through this day without pointing out two more 152nd birthday blog posts. First up is Jared Davis's tribute, complete with two-year-old celebratory video. The second is Michael-sensei's newly discovered Oz comics in Japan post. (I have got to get that man a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz so that he can find out how the book differs from the movie!)

Baum birthday bash with Bully!

Today (well, tomorrow, as I type this), May 15, 2008, is the 152nd birthday of L. Frank Baum, the creator of Oz—and also the official 108th birthday of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, come to think of it. I have no post for you about it, however, so I'll just let my friend and fellow blogger, Bully, do the honors today. Go take a look at his post for today and enjoy. It makes me want to break out the Oz/Wonderland War trilogy and reread it myself. Why wasn't this included as part of the Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot collection?

Sunday evening Oz cartoon

It had to happen at some point: Family Guy has taken on so many other movies, but it didn't get around to The Wizard of Oz until just last week. I don't watch Family Guy myself, but an alert reader wrote in with this link. (Note: NOT safe for sensitive readers and purists, but otherwise it's probably mostly safe for family viewing.) Enjoy!

Today's classic Oz comic

You do know that Bloom County reruns are available, don't you? Well, if you didn't, you can start by checking out this classic strip from 1986 that has a good Oz twist — at least for as long as it's available (which should be for the next thirty days).

My latest Oz readings

Yup, a few more goodies to talk about. So let's jump right in:

• A Feast of Crime, a collection of mystery novellas all centered around food. The final entry in the collection, "Tori Miracle and the Turkey of Doom" by Valerie S. Malmont, takes place at an Oz convention at an isolated Pennsylvania resort. Lots of inside tidbits for Oz fans in this one, including mention of the International Wizard of Oz Club and the Munchkin Convention (back when it was still in nearby Harrisburg). Those annoyed at movie-only Oz references should be particularly pleased. It's a slight little tale, but a lot of fun for an Oz fan to read. The rest of the book is good, too, and some of the stories (including "Turkey of Doom") even include recipes.
  
• Dorothy of Oz, Volume 2, by Son Hee-Joon. This continuation of the Korean manwha series picks up with Mara-Shin still trying to figure out how she got from Seoul to Oz, and picking up some magic powers along the way. If you read volume 1 and were confused by it jumping in at the middle, you may want to try volume 2, as there's also a flashback to how it all began. It looks like that flashback will continue in volume 3, as this volume ends with Mara-Shin meeting the Huhsuabee (Scarecrow).
  
• The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin by Brian Attebery. I've known about this book for a long time — it came out in 1980 — but this was my first chance to actually read it. It's an interesting look at how fantasy has developed and evolved in American literature. While I got it mainly for the chapter on L. Frank Baum and Oz, the examination of what came before and influenced Baum, and how he in turn influenced others, puts it all in a much bigger and more complex picture. Besides, Washington Irving, Baum, and Ursula K. Le Guin, other big names touched upon include Lloyd Alexander, Peter Beagle, Ray Bradbury, Edward Eager, Nathaniel Hawthorne, H. P. Lovecraft, Herman Melville, Andre Norton, Edgar Allan Poe, Howard Pyle, and James Thurber.
  
• Journey to the Emerald City by Roger Connors and Tom Smith. I'm always amused at these kinds of books, that use The Wizard of Oz as a metaphor to explain whatever ideas the author wants to get across. This one is actually a sequel, to The Oz Principle, and uses Oz (vaguely) to explain how to implement a "culture of accountability" in the workplace. Not my field, but I did get a few good ideas out of it that I may use some of their ideas.
  
• Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie. Please heed this warning: If you are underage, offended by nudity or sexuality, or want your Oz to adhere to some sanitized standard, DO NOT GET THIS COLLECTION! Author Alan Moore is not kidding when he unapologetically calls this trilogy pornography. He is not kidding! Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy meet in an Austrian resort hotel on the eve of World War I, where they all share their stories. The classic stories we all know them for turn out to be metaphors for sexual awakening. Definitely not for the purist! But if you are open to such a different interpretation of The Wizard of Oz (and, for that matter, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan), you may enjoy this story, and Gebbie's rich artwork. But if you read this and are in the least bit offended, please don't blame me, as I believe I've given sufficient warning.
  

And that's it for this month. My pile of unread Oz books is actually starting to get short again, and I may have to stock up again soon.

Oz in Jeopardy!

I'm a little late with this one, for which I apologize. But this was a fun clue from last Monday's Jeopardy! show, in the first round category of Novel Characters, is a good one, presented by Neil Patrick Harris:



Drew, the challenger at the rightmost lectern, correctly responded with "What is The Wizard of Oz?" and received $600.

More Ozzy game show goodness

I think I have another game show to watch. I just caught an episode of Duel, a new-ish show on ABC, and I'm enjoying the strategy and trivia on it. In the first game of a new match with two new players, the question is:

Who is killed when Dorothy's house lands in Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz?

A) Wicked Witch of the North
B) Wicked Witch of the South
C) Wicked Witch of the East
D) Wicked Witch of the West

Since you can guess more than one answer, Tasha chose C and D, while Jimmy picked A, B, and C. Naturally, they both got it right. Tasha lost one of her chips for having one wrong answer, Jimmy two.

Oz in Jeopardy!

I don't think it's a surprise to anyone by now that I'm a big fan of the game show Jeopardy! And I have another Oz clue for you today. It doesn't come from the show today, however, but from this year's daily desk calendar. The April 11 clue is in the category Theater for $1200:

When this hit musical opened in 2003, we learned in a new way that it isn't easy being green.

Do I really need to tell you that the correct response is "What is Wicked?" Well, if I did, then I guess you now know.

Just a friendly warning

April Fool's Day is coming up on us very quickly.

Anything you read online that day, or dated April 1, should be taken with a very liberal pinch of salt. Be sure to check out all sources, and if you still have doubts, check out those sources again, then wait a couple of days and check yet again.

I mention this because quite a few people fell for last year's joke pretty hard, and believed it hook, line, and sinker, even though I linked to the "source" which was actually an April Fool's Day disclaimer. It even got so far as to get published in The Baum Bugle as a fact!

And this year, I have no joke. I'm taking the year off, after what happened last year. But be careful about 2009...

Today's Oz political cartoon

A sad statistic is punctuated by a famous Oz line in today's cartoon by Tom Toles.

Oz in Jeopardy!

Here's a fun clue from this past Thursday's show that doesn't have to do with the famous movie version. In the category Milking Cows, for $400:



Lisa, the challenger at the right lectern who eventually went on to win the game, got it right with a response of "Who is Dorothy?" I wonder which song that was?

Saturday morning Oz cartoon

I seem to have rin out of other Oz cartoons to show here. So I guess it will be all Tales of the Wizard of Oz from now on. That's cool. As there are 130 episodes, if they all get up somewhere I can run this for at least a couple more years. Here's today's bit of fun:

Oz the bull fighter
Uploaded by cartoon_playhouse

Belated cartoons

For the past couple of weekends, I've been too busy or moody or something to put up any cartoons. Nobody's asked, but I figure someone must miss them. So to make up for it, I present not one, but two episodes of Tales of the Wizard of Oz. By coincidence rather than design, they also both have to do with the Wizard's magic not working right. Enjoy!





By the way, for those of you who just can't wait, and want to see more, go check out the YouTube Channel for the Venerable Dr. Braino, the nice guy who's put most of the Tales up. He seems to have some other goodies as well.

Today's Oz comic

Well, okay, it's not terribly Ozzy — but on the other hand, today's Rhymes with Orange probably wouldn't have come about if it hadn't been for The Wizard of Oz. So go enjoy already, while it's still available.

More Oz comics!

Good grief, more Oz comics are coming! But the good news is, the latest announcement involves my long-time fellow Winkie, Eric Shanower. He's writing the adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for the Marvel Illustrated line. Looks promising. Take a look at this interview for all the creamy goodness.

My latest Oz readings, and a viewing!

Woo-hoo, another nice big block of Oz fun under my belt. So let's dive in, shall we?

• The Autumn 2007 issue of the magazine Paradox — or to be more specific, the story "The Wizard of Macatawa" by Tom Doyle. An interesting little tale of time getting tangled up on a Michigan beach, with a girl from the 1970s helping to influence L. Frank Baum as aliens invade. This one is not for those who want their Oz to be pure and just as Baum wrote it (not that he was too concerned with that himself).
  
• Dunkiton Press #16, Ruth Berman's latest reprint of vintage newspaper material by Oz-associated people. This one celebrates Thanksgiving, with poems and a story by Ruth Plumly Thompson and advertising art by W. W. Denslow.
  
• The Art of Reading, a collection celebrating the fortieth anniversary of RIF (Reading is Fundemental). Sure, I got this for Robert Sabuda's page on The Wizard of Oz, but the rest of it was pretty good, too, seeing what books have influenced famous artists. Some are obvious and well-known, while others are more obscure.
  
• Denslow's Humpty Dumpty by W. W. Denslow, of course. This is a paperback reprint from Applewood Books, and a lot of fun. Humpty Dumpty's son gets himself hard-boiled so as not to share his father's fate, and goes off and has all kinds of adventures. More, please, Applewood!
  
• The Mystery on the Stage by some anonymous author. This is book number forty-three in the Boxcar Children series. Some of the kids get involved with the local theater group's production of The Wizard of Oz, but someone is sabotaging the show to shut it down. Will the show go on? It's a sweet, slight little book, definitely a mystery for younger readers.
  
• Recipe for Change: The 2nd Edition Wicked Cookbook. Cast and crew from the Broadway production of Wicked contributed recipes for a charity cookbook, benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. It's a lot of fun (I particularly liked Edina Menzel's recipe for bagels, which is essentially call the local bagel shop to have some delivered), and I just wish it were still available, along with the first volume.
  
• Classic Fantasy Writers, edited by Harold Bloom. This is a collection of short biographies and critical excerpts on fourteen writers, some of whom I am familiar with and some I'd never heard of before. Of course I was most interested in the L. Frank Baum section, but some of the others were interesting as well.
  
• Adventures in Oz by Eric Shanower. Strictly speaking, this was not a new read for me, as I'd read these before when they were first printed as individual graphic novels. But it was great revisiting these stories, and the upgraded art and color look terrific. The extras in the hardcover edition were mostly new, and well worth the price for obsessive Oz collectors like myself. I've known Eric for almost thirty years now, and it's great having all this stuff in one collection.
  
• And on the DVD player, Veggie Tales: The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, a much-appreciated Christmas present from my sister-in-law. It's a charming little retelling/satire of The Wizard of Oz that also slips in the parable of the prodigal son (hey, it's Veggie Tales, they're going to adapt a Bible story). These guys clearly had a lot of fun creating this. As a bonus, there's also the Monkey song. Anyway, here's the trailer for the DVD:
  
  

I also — finally — started in on reading The Collected Short Stories of L. Frank Baum, which will be fun to dip into over the next few months as I tackle the rest of my readings as well.

"And now for a word from our sponsor..."

Jared over at The Royal Blog of Oz found this great old ad for the Mego Wizard of Oz toys and put it up. I just had to do the same! Enjoy.

Saturday morning Oz cartoon

I found this one, and couldn't resist, even though it's a little long. It's faithful to the book, and it was done by a ten year old! How cool is that?

Yesterday's Oz comic

Whoops, I forgot to post this one yesterday. Oh, well, you'll still have twenty-nine days to enjoy this edition of Heart of the City, one of my favorite comics that the local papers don't carry at all. And not only does this one include The Wizard of Oz, it also touches on another favorite topic: teaching math!

Saturday morning Oz cartoon

I have got to start keeping track of which of these I've put up, since it's gotten to the point where I have to see which ones are already up before I can choose a new one. And with 130 (!) episodes of Tales of the Wizard of Oz produced, it could get to be a pretty big task. Well, here's one that I'm pretty sure is new to this blog: