This Week's Oz Short Story

The 2004 issue of Oziana, under new editor J. L. Bell, opens with "A Bungled Kidnapping in Oz" by David Hulan, with illustrations by John Mundt. Esq. (and a bonus illustration by Alexi Francis). A few weeks after the conclusion of The Lost Princess of Oz, someone tries to kidnap Ozma again! Fortunately, Bungle and Eureka see the kidnapper enter the palace and decide to do something about it. Eureka alerts other palace residents while Bungle goes into Ozma's room and thwarts things. The would-be princess-napper turns out to be one of Professor Nowitall's former students, whom Prof. Wogglebug recognizes as the bully nobody liked. Well, he thought he could do better than Ugu, but was clearly out of his depth. As a result of her role in foiling the kidnapping, Bungle is given any reward she wants, and asks to have her clear brains turned back to pink! Sure enough, this is one of those stories used to explain an inconsistency in the Oz books. The Glass Cat's pink brains were turned clear at the end of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, but when she next appeared in The Magic of Oz they had reverted to pink. Fortunately, even though this may have been the cause d'être of the story, it's only a small part of it, and it works perfectly fine on its own. Asd as so often happens at the end of these tales, the protagonist suffers suitably Ozzy consequences.