The Latest Oz Reading

Following the second part of Pharaoh, I delved into Witches, the fourteenth collection of the Fables comic book. And now it's really starting to get Ozzy! Bufkin the flying monkey has a good deal to do, and even gets a chapter named for him in this volume's main storyline, about the latest maneuvering as the Fables face yet another powerful adversary. Bufkin even loses his wings in an accident! But the real star is Ozma, who is now acknowledged as being the little blonde witch in the coven. She's even on the cover. Ozma decides a change in leadership is needed, and moves to remove Frau Totenkinder as head. And Ozma proves to be very good in a leadership role, but that's partly because she knows when to call in help so as to make it look as if she's not involved. There's also a backup story about the problems when goblins try to go against their nature, all because of baseball. The whole series is pretty amazing, but if you only want to read it for the Oz content, and a single winged monkey isn't Ozzy enough, this is the collection you should start with, as Oz gets stamped hard onto the Fables brand here. And Ozma's role only gest bigger after this.

Today's Recent Oz Comics

A two-fer today, but neither one of them is new.

• This political cartoon by Dave Granlund is in response to the recent tornadoes in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.
• And while this vintage edition of The Far Side which ran today is probably not meant to be Ozzy, it could be the Scarecrow at a particular point from The Marvelous Land of Oz.

The Latest Oz Re-Reading

First, I'm rereading Pharaoh, Eloise Jarvis McGraw's only adult novel. It's been a while, and forgot just how long it is (over 500 pages)! Plus, my pleasure reading time is limited right now, so I didn't want to spend too long reading it before tackling some lighter, Ozzier fare. Since Pharaoh is divided into four parts, I'd take a break after each part. So, between parts 1 and 2, I reread Thorns and Private Files in Oz by Melody Grandy and Chris Dulabone, since it ties into the Seven Blue Mountains of Oz trilogy I recently wrapped up. Well, the ties are very loose as it turns out, and despite what some told me, Zim Greenleaf does not appear in this book. (It seems it ties into one of the stories in the third Seven Blue Mountains book, Zim Greenleaf of Oz, but I don't recall it now.) It does start off in Oogaboo, as one might expect from the title. Hank the Mule goes up there to visit Files and Ozga, and the three of them set off to explore a forest just south of Oogaboo, where they find a deserted castle overgrown with rosebushes. They find that the surrounding woods do not allow them to leave, and Ozga discovers new powers over plants. Eventually, they discover the with Nevou and why she enchanted everybody in Cerune. It was a pleasant little read, but as you may already be able to tell not terribly memorable (I finished it last weekend, and already most of it has faded.)

Today's Oz Comic

Today in Savage Chickens, it seems some common but appropriate aphorisms can have implications for others.

Yesterday's Oz Comic

I discovered this edition of Free Range very late last night, so I didn't have time to post anything about it. But yeah, I could totally see this happening if there were more than one witch in Oz with certain flying animals as pets.

Today's Oz Political Cartoon

The latest political figure to become Ozzified: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, of course, in this cartoon by Paul W. Berge.

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz: Cap'n Bill in "Going Nowhere Fast"

Okay, more characters from the books they're probably not going to get quite right. This time we'll see about Cap'n Bill, Trot, and Button-Bright. But first, Ozma's magic helps make spring cleaning a lot easier, if slightly more dangerous. (Didn't any of them see "The Sorcerer's Appretice" in Fantasia?) As everyone heads out for a post-tidy picnic, a flying sailboat crashes into the upper tower. The captain? None other than the legendary Bill Wheedles (yay!), a curly-haired boy with two intact legs (huh?). So how did he get there? Flashback to a scene on Sky Island (yay!) where the captains friends and first mates, Trot and Button-Bright (yay), a couple of tiny tots who sound like Dickensian street urchins (huh?) are runnig from the evil Boolooroo (yay—wait, no, that's not a yay!), a big burly fellow in a blue suit. (Huh? Okay, I'll stop with the editorializing now and just get on with it.) But Cap'n Bill is there to rescue them! The Boolooroo wants the secret to the Triple Rainbow, and stops Cap'n Bill and takes the tykes away on a purple dragon. (Yeah, definitely not the same Sky Island as the books. Whoops, sorry.) The Boolooroo orders a pair of raks to deal with Cap'n Bill, but he escapes to his ship, sails off, and vanquishes them. The damage to his ship, however, causes him to crash into Oz—and now we're caught up. Cap'n Bill needs to go back, defeat the Boolooroo, and rescue Trot and Button-Bright, but with a damaged ship and no crew, he has no chance. Of course Doroty and the boys pitch in to do both. One ship repair montage later, and they're heading to Sky Island! More raks attack, but some deft flying and magic cannons deal with them. The Boolooroo, not getting what he wants from the kids, decides to drop them off the edge of the island, where of course they land on the ship and into the Lion's arms. The Boolooroo didn't get what he wanted, so they sail off. Cap'n Bill offers Dorothy and her friends places in his crew, but they decide they'd rather headback to the Emerald City.

One of my all-time favorite scenes in the Oz books is the Crescent Moon flying over Oz in Pirates in Oz, so this reminded me a lot more of Captan Salt than Cap'n Bill. So while I appreciate the set-up of this story, I thought the ending was anticlimactic. There's a lot of saminess to the air battles, and the Boolooroo never gets his comeuppance. Too bad, with a stronger story this would have been much more satisfying.

And with that, we come to the end of the show's second season. There was a third, shorter season, that I hope to get to soon ("soon" being a relative term, seeing how long I keep taking between episodes), but it also has several two-parters, and it kicks off with an epic four-parter, so it may be a challenge to squeeze it all into the rest of my busy life. But I'm also going to try to be more proactive, and see if I can get this series finished within the next few months.

Today's Oz Comics

It's been another varied day of Oz comics.

• First up, yesterday's edition of Last Kiss (not discovered until this morning) gets a little wild with the c-Oz-play. (This is probably one to keep away from younger or more sensitive Oz fans.)
• It's not a terribly Ozzy reference, but today in Eek!, Tony Stark does not get called by his superhero name.
• And in today's vintage edition of Nest Heads, we get a comparison between New Year's Eve and The Wizard of Oz.

See? A little something for everyone!