The second story from the 2018 issue of Oziana is a rare sequel, in this case to The Final Fate of the Frogman" from the 1990 issue. Even more unusual is that this sequel is not by the original author. "The Fabulous Frogman and the Faith of Freakish Friends" is by Joe Bongiorno and illustrated by Darrell Spradlyn, and it turns out to be a tale of friendship and rehabilitation. Against his own instincts, Woot reports on the events of "The Final Fate of the Frogman" when he next reaches the Emerald City, and naturally all of the Frogman's friends take it upon themselves to find him and help him out of his identity crisis. They also reach out to Cayke and the Big Lavender Bear, who naturally want to help as well. So a veritable crowd descends on the Truth Pond to try to convince the Frogman to come back to society. It takes some doing, and a lot of persuation that nothing he said (or, in the case of Professor Wogglebig, did) was unforgivable, and that his complete candor was not met with derision, but in many cases reflection, and caused his friends to rethink their actions and attitudes. In the end, the Frogman is convinced, Ozma whips up some new clothes for him, and he is welcomed back by his friends.
"The Final Fate of the Frogman" is a fine story, but it is very bleak, and not terribly nuanced, so I can see why someone would want to rehabilitate the Frogman and bring him back into the main cast of Oz characters. And the Oz characters would do just that, in pretty much the way shown here. "The Fabulous Frogman" is, ultimately, about how messy and complicated friendship can sometimes be because none of us is perfect, and recognizing that in oneself means we can more easily overlook imperfections in others. Both stories together show two sides of the same coin, and make an interesting study in the nature of truth and how it affects relationships.
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