Dorothy of Oz Update

Dorothy of Oz #1, reviewed on my comic book blog here, is going into a second printing.

The book will be available through the Dorothy Website, and at comic shops all over starting in October.

The second printing will have a new cover (seen below).

If you'd like to pre-order the new printing at a local comic shop, the order code is AUG05 3008 (Previews Page #306), and the price is $5. That's all you need to order the book, it should be in shops by the end of October at the latest.

I'll cover this and any other Oz comics coming out in October in my upcoming Flipping Through Previews post, but here's a sneak peek at the cover, courtesy of Dorothy's Journal.

My latest Oz acquisition

In case you haven't seen it at your local ppost office, there's a new stamp honoring E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, the lyricist for The Wizard of Oz (the famous 1939 film version). Yes, he wrote the words to "Over the Rainbow" and all those other songs. In fact, here's what the stamp looks like:

I was at the post office the other day and wanted to buy a few, but they were out. So I went to their online store and found not only the stamps, but also a first day cover! (For those not familiar with philately, a first day cover is an envelope with the stamp and a special postmark commemorating the official issuance of a stamp, and is usually part of a ceremony at a particular post office.) It was relatively affordable, so of course I ordered it -- it came with a set of twenty of the stamps anyway -- and it arrived the other day. It looks good. So, if you want to order your own first day cover and set of stamps, just click here.

Oz is Everywhere

This is a picture I took during the 3-Day Walk in Seattle. The gentleman in the front of the image is wearing a Wizard of Oz cap, and I chatted with him a little during the opening ceremony. He said his wife is a BIG Oz fan/collector. I asked if she belonged to the International Wizard of Oz Club, and he said no. We weren't able to talk much more because the music was far too loud.

Amusing new link of the day

Someone on the Tik-Tok Talk mailing list pointed me to a "trailer" for the movie Babies of Oz. And now I'm passing it along to you. Take a look at http://www.grab.com/movies/spoofs/3 for the fun.

No time to talk about Oz...

...I'm too busy reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But the new issue of The Baum Bugle also came today, and I'll be posting my summation on my website's news page soon.

It's good to have your own website!

One of the perks about my website? Free Oz books! Today, I got a copy of The Emerald Wand of Oz by Sherwood Smith, the new book licensed by the Baum Trust (not that anyone needs that license to write an Oz book anymore). And all I have to do is read it (naturally) and post my review of it on my site's review page. Yeah, I think I can handle that!

Wicked Tour Trailer

Poking around online to update my site's news and events pages, I found something very cool: A trailer for the current tour of Wicked. Two formats, three sizes, and it shows a lot more of the show than just about any other source I've found so far. Take a look at http://www.universalpictures.com/promotions/wicked/trailer.html. Yes, it's coming to Seattle next fall, and I plan on being there. Oh, yeah, and the libretto is being published this fall. Here's a link to it on Amazon.

New DVDs of The Movie coming this fall

I just posted the news about the new DVD releases of The Movie on my website's news page (which you can take a look at by clicking here -- scroll down to July 11 if you're reading this after I've added new news -- you can't miss it, it's dominated by large versions of what may or may not be the cover art). I must say, I'm extremely impressed, and it all sounds extremely yummy. You know I'm going to get the three-disc set with all of the extra goodies. But I've got to wonder, where's the other silent Oz movie? Yup, they left one off! There was also a film version of The Patchwork Girl of Oz in 1914, yet it's not there. To be sure, maybe the press release I and every other news outlet took this from just left it off inadvertantly. But what if it's true? Why leave off Patchwork Girl but put on the awful 1925 veersion of The Wizard of Oz -- and newly restored, to boot? My suspicion is that there wasn't enough room on the disc, something had to go, and Patchwork Girl was considered to be the expendible one because of all the nitrate damage to the one known surviving copy. It's so bad, a crucial scene in the first reel is missing completely from every print I've ever seen.

Oh, well. If it truly isn't there, it can still be found on DVD for a very reasonable price as part of the new World of Oz set. If I need to, I'll get that to ensure having Patchwork Girl.

At long last, the Winkie Convention Costume Pictures!

Well, it's taken longer than I anticipated, but here they are. First off, just to get it out of the way, here's me as Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz:

And here's the group shot of characters from The Tin Woodman of Oz

From left to right: Chopfyt, Mrs. Yoop, Polychrome as a canary, the blue rabbit, Woot as a green monkey

And now for the prize winners. First, here are the Knutson kids in their Hogwarts robes, playing the twister (he's very good at spinning around) and the Wizard. They tied for best kid's costume.

Susan Hall's always wonderful Glinda costume, which I gather she's now going to retire. She won for best adult costume.

The extremely wonderful cosstume my co-conspiritor, Karyl Carlson, came up with as Miss Piggy as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, which won Honorable Mention.

And finally, the first ever Winkie Costume Best of Show, the Hollister family as Princess Langwidere and four of her extra heads.

As has been the case in recent years, the number of participants has been small, but creative and enthusiastic. Maybe next year we'll see a lot more good stuff!

Oz References

While it would be insane to attempt to note every reference to Oz in mass media, there are a couple of comic strips that just referred to Oz that I thought might be fun to note here.

First up is Rhymes with Orange, in the July 11th strip (Note, this link will only work for about a month).


The other reference was in One Big Happy, in the July 9th strip (this one will only be in the archives for about a week).


If you have a favorite Oz reference in any mass media, feel free to use the comments as an open thread to mention it.

More Reviews...

Elayne Riggs, well-known as a comic book reviewer back in the glory days of Usenet, has posted some reviews of recent fantasy comics, including a couple of Oz-related books.

I'm back

Made it back to Seattle, safe and sound. Too tired to say much else, or to use subjects in my sentences...

And so we come to the end of another Winkie Convention

It's Sunday morning, everything's done but lunch, so here's a quick rundown of what you missed (or, if you're reading this after you got back, saw) for the rest of the convention, after last night's awards.

The big event last night was Linda Sunshine's presentation on her involvement in Oz. She's the editor and/or author of 100 Years of Oz, I, Toto, and All Things Oz. She's an engaging speaker and has a lot of interesting things to say, but it's quite clear that she's not an Oz person -- which she readily admits. (Biggest problem I had was her repeated mispronunciation of "Baum." But that's a little thing I can overlook.) After a break, we had a panel present some of the pitfalls of buying Oz items online, particularly on eBay. The examination of forged L. Frank Baum signatures was particularly fascinating.

This morning, after the run-in with a ranger last year, there was no treasure hunt. (It seems that may be a one-time thing, and the new ranger will be more open to something next year. But whoever coordinates the treasure hunt may end up working more closely with the Asilomar staff. Anyway, to make a short story long, we instead met as a group to suggest ideas for next year's convention, which led to discussions and ideas on how to increase attendance and membership in the Club. Some good ideas were brought up, and unlike what's happened in the past, this time someone took notes, and it looks like the committee planning the convention may actually implement them. Already, the convention as a whole decided to open the dealers' room up early, before the auction. To Ozzy things up again, Karyl then told her version of the story "The Purple Dragon" from The Magical Monarch of Mo, Lynn Beltz got the Winkie vest as the chairman for next year's committee, and then we all said our good-byes.

So now all I have to do is check out, eat lunch, then I'm off to San Jose for my flight home. I'll talk to you later!

This year's Winkie award winners

Just a quick rundown on the winners announced tonight:

• The Winkie Award went to Margaret Koonts. Too bad she's now moved to New York, so she wasn't here to get it. Maybe she can collect it at the Munchkin Convention next month. (No doubt she'll win the Munchkin Award before too long, as well.)
  
• Madeline Knutson and her brother (whose name I've forgotten, I'm that worn out already) won the children's costume award as, respectively, the Wizard and the cyclone. (Both were dressed in Hogwarts robes, for some reason. I wonder what they'll be doing next Friday at midnight...)
  
• The adult costume contest winner was Susan Hall as Glinda.
  
• In an unprecedented move, two extra winners were announced. As Miss Piggy's Wicked Witch of the West from The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, Karyl Carlson was given an Honorable Mention Award.
  
• And as the Grand Prize winner, Melissa Hollister and some of her family won for their group costume of Princess Langwidere and four of her extra heads.
  
• Melissa Hollister also won the children's quiz, for the second year in a row. (She was also the only entrant for the second year in a row. To make things even more embarrassing, she hasn't read much Oz.)
  
• Susan Hall won the adult quiz, on Queen Zixi of Ix.
  

With the exception of Margaret's plaque, the prizes are yet to be determined...

The Winkie Convention (so far)...

So after the dramatics of trying to get here, so far the convention itself has been going pretty smooth, and has been a lot of fun (like it usually is). Last night, the evening program started off with Show and Tell, and I got to show off my new T-shirt that Lisa sent me from Kansas, plus a few recent interesting DVD acquisitions. Then came a new event, which I believe is now being retroactively called the Ragbag Raffle. An item is held up, and if you want a chance to get it, you throw a quarter into a basket (or, on some items, two or four quarters). Then, if your number is pulled out of the bag, you get the item. I put in a few quarters, but my main job was to pull the numbers out of the bag. After doing this for about thirty minutes, we got started with the more serious stuff as Peter Hanff gave a centennial talk on Queen Zixi of Ix, first published (as a book) in 1905. Then Angelica Carpenter presented a show on the connections between Oz and Wonderland. This was somewhat the reverse of a talk she gave earlier this year to the British Lewis Carroll Society, as there she was trying to explain Baum to Carroll fans; here, it was explaining Carroll to Oz fans.

Saturday morning brought out the costumed characters. While it was a small bunch, it was larger than we've had in recent years, and there were some great costumes. (Yes, I have pictures, but no, I haven't figured out how to post them here yet. I'm working on it, but I may not get to show them to you until after I get back to Seattle.) Karyl and I had a lot of fun, as she came as a terrific Miss Piggy as the Wicked Witch of the West from the recent Muppets' Wizard of Oz, while I got dressed up as Kermit the Frog as the Scarecrow. Meanwhile, we had a whole passle of characters from The Tin Woodman of Oz -- Polychrome as the canary, Woot as the green monkey, Mrs. Yoop, Chopfyt, and the Blue Rabbit. We also had Glinda the Good, and Princess Langwidere from Ozma of Oz -- complete with a set of her extra heads. (One of those heads needed a shave...).

Then a few Winkies braved the quizzes. For the second year in a row, Melissa Hollister was the only entrant in the children's division, so she was the winner. There was a little more competition in the adults' category, over Queen Zixi of Ix, and Susan Hall came out the winner. In the meantime, Peter Hanff and Bill Thompson moderated a panel about buying and collecting Oz and other books.

And now, it's the middle of the auction on Saturday afternoon, so I'm going to just mention that at the business meeting a few hours ago, we decided that we're going to come back to Asilomar, at least for the foreseeable future, next year's theme will be the 150th anniversary of L. Frank Baum's birth, and in 2007 it will be the Oz Club's fiftieth anniversary. Oh, yeah, and I offered to be part of the programming committee. (I was sort of on the edges this year anyway, so I thought I'd make it official.)

How NOT to get to an Oz convention

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. I thought that I had everything all planned out, and would get to the Winkie Convention very easily. But it all turned into a comedy of errors, and now I'm just glad I'm here.

It all started off just fine with my flight from Seattle to San Jose. No troubles at all (once I got through security), and there were so few people on the flight that I basically had the whole back of the plane to myself. Once I got to San Jose, I knew I had to wait a while for my ride, as Karyl was coming in from a later flight from Portland. So I dutifully waited around for a few hours, read some more of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (in anticipation of the film this winter), watched some videos on my laptop, and had a little breakfast. Finally, Karyl's flight arrived, and I dutifully waited by the gate for her to emerge. Before long, everyone was off -- but no Karyl. Hmm... Not sure what else to do, I waited around a while in baggage claim, to see if she'd turn up there, but still nothing. Since I didn't want to miss the convention, I decided to make other arrangements to get to Monterey, and took the shuttle. That went smoothly, fortunately -- one even turned up early, and I was able to get going sooner than I'd expected. And lo and behold, there was the bus I needed to take to get to the convention right there at the transit center.

But guess what? I didn't have the right change on me. So I went across the street to a grocery store, bought a little light lunch, and sat down to wait. A bus came along with the right number before too long, and I climbed on. Now, having been to this convention over twenty times now, I've sort of gotten to know the area pretty well, and so after a while I realized I was nowhere near the conference center, and I realized that I was on the wrong bus! Yes, it was not going well. However, the bus driver told me how to get the right bus pretty easily, and also told me that it was the bus I would have had to catch if I had waited in Monterey, so no real harm was done, and I got to see a part of the area I hadn't seen before.

Finally, several hours later, but at least before the convention proper began, I arrived at the registration center. And lo and behold, who should be almost the first person I saw there but Karyl? Turns out that her airline had changed the gate of her arrival, but I never went back to double check. Not only that, it was in a completley different terminal than I was in, so I wouldn't have been able to meet her at the gate. So next time we decide to do this, we're just going to agree to meet in baggage claim, and make sure we have each other's numbers so we can call, since we both have cell phones now.

I really should have snagged that bargain flight all the way into Monterey when I saw it last winter...

Another Dorothy Update

The Dorothy folks show us what Munchkins will look like in their version of Oz.

Update on Dorothy #4

The folks at Illusive have posted an update on the status of Dorothy #4 along with an intriguing question: "if you had your say as to what you would change about OZ what would it be?"

Happy birthday, John Dough

Many happy wishes today to King John Dough I of the twin kingdoms of Hiland and Loland. He's looking pretty good for a ninety-nine year old gingerbread man.

To find out more about John Dough, why today is his birthday, and how he got to be king, you might just want to click on the book cover above to go to the e-text of the book John Dough and the Cherub.

Joint Review - Dorothy of Oz

Hello! This is Eric and Laura (aka Tegan). We've got a request to review the comic book from Illusive Arts, Dorothy #3, but being contrary, we decided to review all three issues that have come out so far. Also, just to make things more interesting, we're going to make this a joint review. Yup, we're going to review them TOGETHER!

Tegan here... some words of explanation. Dorothy is a comic book that is done in the (for lack of a better term) fumetti style. Fumetti in this case is a combination of photographs and artwork. Thus, some of the characters in Dorothy are actual models. The role of Dorothy is played by Catie Fisher.

Eric here... Mmm, Catie... Here's a picture of her (with me) at Emerald City Comicon 2005:

In the book, however, Catie doesn't look like this at all. Imagine if Disney had made Return to Oz a few years later, but kept Fairuza Balk. That might give you an idea of how Catie looks in the comic.

Opening up issue one (Chapter One: The Cyclone) to peek through again, the first thing that strikes me is Dorothy... she's older and ... um ... Goth.

And a potty-mouth! This is not an Oz comic for the kids.

The book opens with Dorothy writing in her diary, which establishes the character nicely in just a couple of pages.

There is very little coloring in the Kansas scenes. Dorothy herself has color, as do her bag and the lights on the truck she hotwires.

Naughty girl!

It's a good way of showing the grey of Kansas (or the sepia from the Movie).

Much of the first part of the book is Dorothy trying to get away from the tornado in her truck. She's a good driver. But she doesn't quite make it. Else this would be a short book.

Oooh look! Traffic safety lessons! (As Dorothy is thrown around the truck in the tornado).

She really should have put on a seatbelt.

One thing I'm noticing here is her parents. It's only been five years since they died. We're getting much more about her parents than we usually get in an Oz adaptation, or even from the original books. She's old enough to remember them, which is not usually the case.

Yup, Kansas plate (on the truck).

The first real burst of color is when the truck finally hits the ground. Dorothy leapt from it just before it hit, and we see the explosion in the background.

The line after "I don't think this is Kansas" is "Maybe it's Colorado". Nice touch.

Sure doesn't look like Colorado to me, though. It's colorful.

And there's an extra planet in the sky.

It is nicely colored, by the way.

Yes, very lush, rich colors.

Here's our first tip that this is not quite the same Oz as we've seen before. The Wizard is missing. And someone is trying to take advantage of that. Could that be the Wicked Witch?

My first thought was Ozma, actually, based on the headgear.

So we're probably both wrong, and it's someone we either don't suspect or haven't heard of yet. And that's the end of issue one.

Issue two (Chapter Two: Lost) starts with younger Dorothy, right after her parents died, listening to Henry and Em arguing. These pages are in color, which is underlined when a thought balloon from Dorothy says "Five years ago... when my life started to go gray." I wonder if Oz could ever go gray in this Dorothy's eyes? End of flashback.

She's wearing very sensible shoes. None of these shoes made out of metal or jewels like in the book or movie.

She was also sensible enough to grab her backpack before leaping from the truck. This Dorothy is smart.

But she's wearing leather pants! That's gotta be hot!

Oh. Right.

Nice panorama. Dorothy gets her first good look at Oz on the title page to this issue.

She takes stock of the situation and looks at what's in her pack. That mace just might come in handy.

And a bottle of water. Not much, though.

Well she's got some smarts, even if she doesn't plan ahead so well. Still, that's a nice change from a little girl that just reacts to events.

She reminds me a little of Alice. She's very good at giving herself advice.

Oh, the monkeys showed up early!

That's one nasty flying monkey. Not something you'd want as a pet. At least she fights back.

Oh look, Dorothy's first friend!

I want one!

It looks like Cootie.

Ok, maybe not.

So, Toto's a robot in this version, huh?

"Affirmative, Master!"

Knock it off, K-9 (there's one for the Doctor Who fans out there).

Ok, who is this new character?

A witch?

Who can be revived with water? Doesn't quite follow the "rules" of Oz witches.

Back to the bad guys: Necklace, what necklace? But if she's in the Winkie Country, I bet that is the Wicked Witch of the West.

Who is this Gray Man?

And back to Dorothy and the odd witch... and there's yer necklace. And the witch dissolves into bubbles. Huh.

Yes, but at least we got some exposition now. And Dorothy has a quest.

She's never going to remember those directions.

Issue Three (Chapter Three: How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth...).

That's one gangly Scarecrow.

I was right. She forgot the directions.

The Scarecrow looks a little like Yul Brynner.

I thought it looks like the standard grey alien.

He's got a big vocabulary, doesn't he? And Dorothy messes with what little mind he has.

Naughty girl.

Wait, she leaves the Scarecrow behind? Now what? Ooh, an oasis.

Eating bugs? I don't think so.

This Dorothy might not do so well on Survivor.

Exploring caves = Bad idea.

You know, there are no caves in any version of The Wizard of Oz I know of.

There is now.

I'm just pointing out how different this Oz is, is all.

What about the Nome King? Didn't he live in a cave?

Yes, but that was later in the books. Oh look, more flashbacks!

She's dreaming. Not the best idea to fall asleep in a strange cave. You never know what you'll wake up to...

There wasn't a dragon in The Wizard of Oz either, so who's this guy?

Beats me. But maybe something in that backpack will come in handy, no? I almost feel like I'm playing a game of Zork. "Use backpack" "Use how?"

Yes, without the clumsy computer getting in the way.

Ouch, it bit her. First a scratch from a flying monkey, then she gets bit by a snake. Poor girl. I don't recall Dorothy ever getting this abused so soon into Oz.

No, she usually doesn't. But even this Dorothy's shirt is getting messed up.

Toto to the rescue!

And that's the end of the books. Thoughts?

I like Dorothy. She definitely has moxie. It's too early to tell just how "Ozzy" this book is going to end up being, though. It's definitely a different take on Oz, of course.

I like the changes. If it were a straight retelling, it would get predictable fast. But this one twists and turns just when you think you have a grasp of the storyline. I like it.

Well, it's definitely a very good looking book. And I don't just mean Catie.

Agreed. The artwork is fantastic, and the melding of the photos with the art is extremely well done. At points I cannot tell what is a studio model and what is just artwork. Very nice.

And very effective. It gives this book a more cinematic feel than a traditional comic book.

I can hardly wait to see their take on the Cowardly Lion.

The Tin Man ought to be interesting too.

So, two thumbs up?

Yeah, but isn't thumbs up those other guys?

Sure. Whatever.

Until next time, this has been a joint review from Eric and Laura (Tegan) Gjovaag. Hope you liked it!

In case you've missed this information...

If you don't have it on video or DVD, and you do have TCM on cable or satellite, they're showing The Wizard of Oz tonight. Yes, the classic 1939 version with Judy Garland as Dorothy. It's on at 8:00 and 11:00 tonight, and tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. (that's Eastern Daylight Time, so if you're in another time zone, or Indiana, you'd better double-check). This year, they're also showing their usual documentaries. The Angela Lansbury-hosted The Wizard of Oz: Fifty Years of Movie Magic, from 1990, is on tonight at 9:45, while Memories of Oz, a 2001 talking head-fest, will be shown tomorrow at 5:30. What's new this year, however, is the very first Oz movie ever, a 1910 short called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that TCM has shown before with other silent shorts, but this is the first time it's been shown in conjunction with the more famous 1939 version. I've seen it at convnetions, and it definitely shows its age. Remember, filmmaking wass still in its infancy in 1910, and this was definitely made on the cheap. (Hey, TCM, how about some day doing a complete silent Oz film festival, with the three Oz film company movies from 1914 and the 1925 version of The Wizard of Oz?)

Flipping Through Previews (Oz Edition)...

If you are a comic book geek, then you know about Previews Magazine, which comes out once a month. This thick book (well over 500 pages) includes all the comic books that you can order through your local comic book shop. Books listed in Previews generally come out two months later, although that depends entirely on the publisher's schedule and ability to put their books out on time. This post covers the July 2005 Previews, which lists books due out in September 2005.

Previews is divided into sections based on what is offered by the publisher/vendors in each section. The first section is generally the "Premier Comics" which include the four biggest publishers, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, and Marvel Comics. These four publishers put out the majority of new materials you will find in a comic shop each week. They are also the least likely to have really good Oz or Oz-related material, so I will usually be skipping them.

The second section is the section of the most interest to Oz fans, the "Comics & Graphic Novels" section. This includes every other comic book publisher distributed by Diamond Comics, and will usually be where I find neat Oz items of interest.

After this comes several shorter sections: "Magazines", "Books", "International" (Imports), "Trading Cards", "Apparel", "Toys & Models", "Games", and "Videos". As with the first section, if I find Oz or Oz-related materials in these sections I'll mention them, but usually I'll end up skipping them.

Ok. Now that I've explained what Previews is, this is what I plan on doing with it. Each month, I write a long post on my main blog called Flipping Through Previews... I plan on writing an Oz edition for this blog. I'm going to try to find every Oz item in Previews and list it here, as well as a list of non-Oz items that I think might be of interest to Oz fans. I'll start with the directly Oz stuff and finish up with the non-Oz stuff.

Final piece of introductory material: How do you get this stuff? There are two ways. Some of this can be ordered directly from the publisher at the website I list, everything else should be ordered through a comic book shop. I suspect that some of the folks reading this blog have no clue what a comic shop is, or how to order something through one. First off, a comic shop in the United States is a store that carries (you guessed it) comic books. You can find a local one using Diamond Comic's nifty Comic Shop Locator Service. Just type in your zip, and it'll show you the nearest shops. If there aren't any local shops you can get to, don't despair. You can also order comics through on-line services like Mail Order Comics or Westfield Comics. I don't endorse either, since I've never actually done business with them, but at least there are solutions out there.

Once you've found the company you want to order your comic books from, you need to contact them and ask how they want you to order your books. Some stores will ask you to prepay, even though you won't get your books for two months (or more) because they don't want to lose their money. Regardless, you should give them the order code and title. Good shops will be able to use just the title, but some will need the code as well. Whenever possible, I'll include the order code in my listing of an item to help you out when ordering it.

Whew. Let's get to the actual books, shall we?

Oz Books

Our first book in this category is Oz: The Manga from Antarctic Press. This series is a retelling of the Oz story in a Manga style by David Hutchison. There will be a total of eight issues in this first mini series. I've already gotten the first two issues, and I'm enjoying this series a lot. Because of the publisher, I'd be willing to bet my Aquaman heroclix that there will be a collection of this series, probably in Manga-sized digest form. However, it's probably not too late to re-order the first few issues if you want to get in on the originals.

• Oz: The Manga #4 - Order Code: JUL05 2615 - $2.99
  Previous Issues:
  
• Oz: The Manga #1 - Order Code: APR05 2602 - $2.99
  
• Oz: The Manga #2 - Order Code: MAY05 2477 - $2.99
  
• Oz: The Manga #3 - Order Code: JUN05 2744 - $2.99
  

Next up is a somewhat adult version of Oz. We've seen a lot of these "dark" versions of Oz come out recently, and this one looks to be a little different. This story focuses on Alice Liddell and Dorothy Gale as college students who have forgotten their respective childhood adventures, which is too bad, because their childhoods are about to catch up with them. The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles is from BuyMeToys.com, and you can get the Preview book directly through the website. Previews lists two new products in this series, including a poster.

• The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles #0 - Order Code: JUL05 2737 - $2.99
  
• The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles Poster - Order Code: JUL05 2736 - $7.99
  

This section would not be complete, or even started, without the amazing book from Illusive Productions. The book, Dorothy, is another retelling of the story of Oz in a graphically enhanced photo format that, for lack of a better term, I'm calling fumetti. This is also meant for older readers and is a bit darker than some Oz fans will appreciate. Eric and I have been enjoying this series immensely, though. This month they are soliciting their first collection, which should include the first four chapters. You can get the first three issues through their website.

• Dorothy Volume 1 - Order Code: JUL05 2960 - $14.95
  Previous Issues:
  
• Dorothy #2 - Order Code: JAN05 2840 - $5.00
  
• Dorothy #3 - Order Code: MAR05 2987 - $5.00
  
• Dorothy #4 - Order Code: MAY05 2838 - $5.00
  

Oz-Related Books

Coming out from Alias is a book called Lullaby. This book started with a mini series of four books from Image comics in which Alice (from Wonderland) goes on a quest to Oz and runs into Little Red Riding Hood, the Pied Piper, and some other fairy tale characters. I've got up to issue three of the original mini, and the group has not yet reached Oz, although we've seen some Munchkins. This is the first issue of what appears to be a continuing series.

• Lullaby #1 - Order Code: JUL05 2561 - $2.99
  Previous Issues:
  
• Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #1 - Order Code: DEC04 1535 - $2.95
  
• Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #2 - Order Code: JAN05 1606 - $2.95
  
• Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #3 - Order Code: FEB05 1594 - $2.95
  
• Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker #4 - Order Code: MAR05 1693 - $2.95
  
• Lullaby: Wisdom Seeker Vol 1 (collection) - Order Code: JUN05 2684 - $9.99

Non-Oz Books

First up in this category is a couple of collections from AiT/Planet Lar called Colonia about a boy named Jack who is transported into another world with his two rough-and-ready uncles... a world in which the Americas were never colonized and where magic seems to work. The second collection is being solicited for the first time, and the first collection is being offered again.

• Colonia Volume 1: Islands & Anomalies - Order Code: JUL05 2550 (STAR15096) - $12.95
  
• Colonia Volume 2: On Into The Great Lands - Order Code: JUL05 2552 - $12.95

This is not a particularly Ozzy book, but it does have a nice little nod to Oz in it, so I'm just going to mention it. The first volume of the new Hardy Boys graphic novels from NBM has a single visual Oz reference.

• The Hardy Boys Volume 1 - Order Code: JUL05 2999 - $7.95
  

Top Shelf puts out a book called Owly which will appeal to the younger Oz fans. Owly stories have no words, only icons, symbols, and expressions.

• Owly Volume 3: Flying Lessons - Order Code: JUL05 3175 - $10.00
  Previous Volumes:
  
• Owly Volume 1: The Way Home - Order Code: JUN05 3273 (JUL043246) - $10.00
  
• Owly Volume 2: Just A Little Blue - Order Code: JUN05 3274 (DEC042913) - $10.00
  

Whew. So that's it for this month's Flipping Through Previews (Oz Edition)... If you found something I missed, feel free to use the comments below to point it out. If you have any questions, also feel free to comment. I promise that next month's version will be shorter, since I'll leave out most of the introductory stuff.

The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles

In case you haven't heard, there's a neat little Oz-related book coming out from BuyMeToys.com that's called The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles. You can get a sneak peak at the book at The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles Message Boards, specifically right here. This is, as many of the more recent Oz-related comic books are, a little more aimed at an adult audience.

I have the coolest sister-in-law in the world!

My in-laws are on a cross-country road trip, and I should have known something was up when Lisa, my wife's twin kid sister (even though they're seven years apart in age, they are very similar looking, and have been mistaken for twins once or twice) left us a voice mail from just over the state line in Missouri, saying, "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more." Then she mentioned some mysterious package she was sending to us on her blog...

Well, the mystery package arrived to day. I t looks like they took a swing through Wamego, Kansas, and stopped at the Oz Museum -- because the mystery package was full of goodies from the museum! There's a flyer and a couple of postcards, one of those metal round things you hang in your window, and a "Kansas Graffiti" T-shirt. Lots of Ozzy little sayings on it, like "Hey, Lion, get some singing lessons!" and "Trained monkeys, will fly for food," as well as lots of quotes from The Movie. Guess which shirt I'll be wearing one day down at the Winkie Convention next weekend?