Go There Now!

Quick! Go on over to Kickstarter right now! If you haven't already chipped in to get this awesome Oz tarot deck funded, and you want to see it, time is running out! As I type this, there are about two days to go! So stop reading this and go on over! (Follow up: It was close, but they made it!)

An Oz Project to Fund

Our friends over at Illogical Associates — they're the ones behind the old Dorothy of Oz photocomic, which they're working to bring back — have a new project that they're working on, and have asked for help funding it. Their Shadow of Oz tarot deck has art from all kinds of great artists, including Eric Shanower, and you can get all kinds of neat extras by buying it now. And if they don't make their goal, you won't be charged (but it looks like they'll make it). Go take a look at Kickstarter and see if this is something you'd be interested in. If you are, go ahead and throw some dollars into the kitty.

Happy birthday, Dorothy!

Would you believe that the Dorothy comic book is three years old today? Here's the link with the details. Now go on over to the store and buy yourself a present.

Oz sightings

Oh, there are a lot of them to report on today. So let's get cracking, shall we?

SIGHTING: Way back on February 15, The Daily Show with John Stewart had an interesting quote about the debate in the House of Representatives for a non-binding resolution on Iraq. This comes from Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah):

Yesterday I had the opportunity of going back to Baltimore and watching a play, Wicked. ("Go on," John Stewart theatrically interjects.) And in the play, the main character, the male lead, Fiyero is in love with Elphaba. And she tries to distance herself from him by saying, "Yeah, but you're thoughtless and shallow." And Fiyero says, "I know, but I'm a deep shallow." This resolution is a deep shallow.

"The only thing I can say," adds Stewart, "is good thing he didn't get tickets to..." Um, a play I probably shouldn't talk about in a family friendly blog like this. So here's a link to the show's website (WARNING: Not work safe, and don't leet the kids see this!) On a side note: Hey, with that testimony, Wicked is now in the Congressional Record!

SIGHTING: Okay, who's the Oz fan now writing for Jeopardy!? Laura and I were eagerly looking forward to seeing the show last night, because word was that all of the categories in the Double Jeopardy round had to do with the X-Men. Yes, they did. (For the record, the categories were Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Rogue, Colossus, and "X"-Men.) But before that, there was this $600 clue in the category Literary Baddies:



Sue, in the middle, rang in and asked, "Who is the Wicked Witch?" Alex prompted, "Of..." and Sue added, "...of the West?" Then, in Double Jeopardy, we got this $1600 clue in the category Storm, which is about storms in movies:



Defending champion Brad rang in immediately and got it right by asking, "What is 'Twister'?"

SIGHTING: Gili Bar-Hillel, Israel's biggest Oz fan, is in the news again, although yet again it's about her other job, translating the Harry Potter books into Hebrew. Man, it sounds like she's got some inside information that the rest of us will have to wait for until this summer. (Yes, I already have my copy on pre-order, and Laura's already on the wait list at the library.) So quit reading my stuff already and go read about her already. (UPDATE: Wow! This was even reported on in my local paper! Okay, yeah, it was a small blurb in the "Odds and Ends" section on page 2, two stories down from Britney Spears going back into rehab again, but still, I know her!)

SIGHTING: The folks at Illusive Arts putting together the Dorothy comic book seem to be following The Baum Bugle's publishing schedule, but at least they're kind enough to tell us. Yes, issue seven is coming out next week. Here's the press release.