The nice thing about running my own blog is that, if I get an insane idea like rereading all of Oziana a story a week and posting a reaction, at least I don't have to strictly go in the order the stories are published and arranged in the magazine. You saw that a few weeks ago when I posted winter and Christmas stories at more appropriate times than they would have gone out otherwise. So when I saw how long the first story in the 1988 issue was, I decided to put it off until next weekend, when I'm not only not as busy, I have a three day weekend. So, this issue's second story was "The Northeast Wind in Oz" by Wendy Roth, illustrated by Eric Shanower. While exploring the palace attic, Dorothy and Jellia Jamb disenchant a fairy who originally came from Ev. (Hey, it's Oz. These sorts of things happen.) Dorothy gets a wish from the fairy, Evarelle, but as Dorothy is a princess of Oz she doesn't really need anything, so she decides to pass it along to someone who needs a wish. Enter Nick, a nice boy from the Great Outside World that the Magic Belt brings to Oz. Since Nick doesn't know what to wish for, Dorothy shows him around the palace, where they encounter one of the still-living sofas that had once been part of the Gump. They then head to Glinda's, where they find that an immortal has walked into the Deadly Desert. Investigating, they meet up with Polychrome who is looking for her lost cousin, who is supposed to be crowned as the Northeast Wind that night. Of course she joins the group, and they head out into the Desert on the Magic Carpet and encounter a whole city of living sand people who have lost their memories of their former lives. It's then that Nick decides to use his wish! Of course everything gets untangled very neatly, and everyone is happy, except maybe the former King of Ev.
Roth manages to pack a lot into only four pages, and it turns out everything is connected, but nobody can spot that until Nick makes his wish. And it's a very Ozzy adventure, too.
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