The latest Oz comics

The comics order came last week! Which meant new (for me — by the time I get them, some are as much as a month old) Oz comics! Here's what I got:

• First off, the bad news: No Ozma of Oz from Marvel this month. Sometimes, if the writer/artist/colorist/coffee boy gets a little behind, a title skips a month. That's okay, I don't mind. To make up for it, Marvel issued The Oz Primer, a behind-the-scenes look at the Oz comics so far. It consists of an interview with writer Eric Shanower (not much there I didn't already know — hey, I've known Eric for over thirty years now, of course I've learned a few things about him), another interview with artist Skottie Young (this one I did learn a few things), and a profile of colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu. It also has character profiles of the books so far. It was a pleasant little piece, with a couple of minor errors (the creator of Oz was referred to only once as Frank L. Baum, Aunt Em is mentioned as also being on the ship to Australia in Ozma of Oz), but overall it was a good way to fill the gap, and possibly get newer readers up to date.
  
• Fables #101 #102 sees Pinocchio assembling a strike team to take back the fablelands. So he picks his players for their special abilities — then decides to go one further and make it like the superteams he's read about in comic books! Can you imagine Ozma in a superhero costume? You won't have to if you get this book.
  
• And from Buy Me Toys.com, The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles: Jack and Cat Tales #2. I've made this complaint about the Oz/Wonderland Chronicles before, but I'll make it here again: They really need to rethink how they do this. It's bad enough that it's months between issues. What's worse is all the little side trips through miniseries and one-off specials that don't tie directly into the main title, since it's been so long since the last issue that we, the readers, don't even remember what's been going on. Which is too bad, because this has been a fun series. Either stick to the main story or speed up production. Having gotten that off my chest, this is the continuation of Jack Pumpkinhead and the Cheshire Cat's expedition to our world to find some of their missing comrades. They manage to make contact with the Wizard, locate the Patchwork Girl, and infiltrate the prison holding everybody. But their escape is cut off — and now we have to wait for issue #3! There's also a back-up tale of the Mad Hatter's encounters as well.
  

And that's all for now! We'll see what kinds of Ozzy goodness are in the next comics order...well, next month, of course.