The final story from the 2013 issue of Oziana (my goodness, there were a lot in this year's volume!) is "Witches of the West" by Darrell Spradlyn and Marcus Mébès, with illustrations by Spradlyn. It's a little bit before Dorothy has arrived in Oz, as the Wizard is in power in the recently built Emerald City, and the Wicked Witch of the West is working to consolidate her power. She has the north and central parts of the Winkie Country in her grip, but the south is eluding her, thanks to one person: Gloma, the Good Witch of the West. Yes, this is Gloma's backstory, alluded to in The Wishing Horse of Oz. The Wicked Witch tries whatever she can to get into the Black Woods and confront Gloma, but the Black Witch is also powerful, and it is not easy. Nevertheless, the Wicked Witch finally gets in and tries her best to get Gloma on her side, but she is, naturally, unsuccessful. So the Wicked Witch and her nefarious ally (whose identity I will not reveal so as not to spoil it) do what they can to contain Gloma, and prevent her and her people from becoming part of the greater Oz community.
For such a major, influential character, we rarely see or hear much of the Wicked Witch of the West in the books. (She appears in only one chaper of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!) So getting a little backstory, and seeing her using her powers, is always a nice bonus. And the power struggle between her and Gloma practically crackles on the page. True, not a lot actually happens, and little we didn't expect, but the interaction of the characters makes up for that. Spradlyn also does terrific work with the illustrations, making the Black Forest look truly dark but beautiful in a way John R. Neill wasn't quite able to do with the printing technology of 1935. His Gloma is especially stunning—and it's so good that a color version is used for the back cover.
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