A bunch of quick hits

I've got a lot to cover and not a lot of time, so I'll just jump right in. The good news is, none of these items are Jeopardy! clues, and very few about comic strips.

• So let's get the comic strip stuff out of the way. Reader StevenR pointed out a commentary on an Oz-themed comic arc at http://planetcory.com/write/?p=270. I did a little investigating, and found the strip Watch Your Head, but didn't have time to look for the actual Oz-themed strips. Anyone care to take that on?
  
• Over at Oz and Ends, J. L. Bell has a pointer to another blog that has scans of Frederick Richardson's gorgeous artwork from Queen Zixi of Ix. Take a look at Golden Age Comic Book Stories for the whole suite.
  
• It's been a big week here at Chez Gjovaag for Oz comics. All arriving at one time were The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Sketchbook, as a preview of the upcoming comics adaptation by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young; Avengers Fairy Tales #4, featuring She-Hulk (!) in the role of Dorothy; and volume 4 of the Korean manhwa series Dorothy of Oz. This one ends on a cliffhanger, confirming my suspicion that the first four issues solicited were not all of them.
  
• Also big right now is news of Oz and Baum movies. John Boorman, who gave us the very tangentially Ozzy Zardoz back in the '70s, is a producer on a new computer animated version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that looks like it could be a pretty good adaptation. Check out the website at http://www.actionsynthese.com, then click on "Projects in Production" to start exploring. Also in the works is a computer animated version of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Both are scheduled to come out in 2010. And there seems to be a lot of progress now on the animated adaptation of Roger Baum's Dorothy of Oz. It even has a website now, at http://www.dorothyofozthemovie.com/. As with all Hollywood projects, I will not get my hopes up or speculate on what they may be like until I actually go see them in whatever form they are released — if ever.
  
• Speaking of movies, I'd like to squash this rumor before it spreads to the point where it can't be extinguished (unlike that @#%$*!! "hanging man" story): No, Elizabeth Taylor was not one of the dancers in the Lullaby League in the famous MGM movie version of The Wizard of Oz. She was already a contract player at MGM at the time (she and Judy Garland were classmates at the MGM school), so it's doubtful that she have been given such a small (pardon the expression) role. Also, it is very well known who those dancers were: Nita Krebs, Olga Nardone, and Yvonne Murray. Someone seemed to want to find out this information on my website, based on some of the searches someone used (yes, I get a list of what people are looking for). And yes, this will most likely make it into the next edition of the FAQ.
  
• A shoutout to the nice folks at OTRCAT.com the Old Time Radio Catalog. They have an impressive collection of all kinds of old radio shows from around the world. They were kind enough to send me a complimentary edition of their Wizard of Oz CD. If you already have the latest DVD release of The Movie, you have most of this, as it includes the Leo Is On the Air promo, the edition of the Maxwell House Good News show that publicized the release, and the Christmas 1950 Lux Radio Theater adaptation of The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland playing Dorothy. But if you don't have them already, they're a real treat. OTRCAT also has a radio interview with Margaret Hamilton from the 1960s, which I doubt you can get anywhere else, so that would be a good reason to get this even if you have the rest.
  
• And finally, here's an Oz-themed LOL Cat. Enjoy!