Today's Oz Comics

Well it looks like, according to today's edition of The Argyle Sweater, Dorothy has found another good use for her magic slippers. Meanwhile, over at The Far Side, we have another classic favorite. (Bad dog, Toto!)

Today's Oz Comic

I seem to recall seeing today's edition of CowTown before. Someone on Facebook commented that the Hungry Tiger would really like some barbecue, and I added that he'd really like baby back ribs!

Today's New Oz Comic

Scary Gary is running for office. Fortunately, he has some experienced help with security issues.

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

Appearing in my comics feed today was this classic edition of Bloom County. Somehow, I don't think Senator Phipps is the only one who does that.

Today's Oz Political Cartoon

Joey Weatherford is a conservative political cartoonist who probably thinks he's being very original with this take on who controls the strings in Washington. But really, there have been accusations of someone controlling things from the opposition for years now. That could be just about any President since at least Wilson and it would still be current.

Today's Oz Comics

Yes, we have another two-fer for you today!

• In our "New Comics" division, it seems we are learning a little bit more about the Tin Woodman in today's edition of Bound and Gagged. (That is an odd coloring job on Nick's face, not at all unlike on some of the earliest movie posters when the rtist had no idea what the colors were actually supposed to be.
• In our "Classic Comics" division, this all-time classic showed up on the websiet for The Far Side today.

Today's Oz Comic

Over in Big Nate, Nate is looking forward to finally not having Mrs. Godfrey as his English teacher, as the summer staff shakeup has moved her up to eighth grade. Let's just say Nat has not taken it like a mature, rational kid! Yes, there may have been some gloating this week. The latest evidence can be seen—or more accuately heard—in . And no, before you ask, nobody has mentioned yet to Nate that he will becase an eighth grader in a very short while.

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

No attempts at clever commentary today, I'll just point out that Off the Mark ran this all-time classic today. The looks on both Dorothy and the Scarecrow are priceless!

Today's Oz Comic

According to today's edition of Yaffle, it appears that a popular show on HGTV may have been ported over for an Ozian renovation.

Today's Oz Comic

Hmm, it seems Lola and her friend have some disagreements as to what constitutes a classic movie. (Hint: Lola's wrong!)

The Latest Oz Reading

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, I got caught up on the comic book series The Zombieful World of Oz. Dorothy's grown up now, but is recruited by her old friends to fight the victims of a plague that is causing the dead to arise and wreak havoc. Thankfully, the people behind this tale know about the books, as evidenced by the zombie Wheeler on the cover of the ashcan edition! Other characters who show up include Jack Pumpkinhead, Mombi, and Languidere. The art in this one is crisp and sharp, and has a clear steampunk vibe to it. But wow, is their geneaology all off! Dorothy, as often happens in these kinds of retellings becomes a witch. But it turns out that's because she's the baby sister of the wicked witches! So somehow, Glinda is her aunt, and the Wizard and Mombi are her grandparents??? Yeah, this is definitely a reimagining.

Today's Oz Comic

Well, it looks like today's edition of Knight Life got a little mileage out of a Wizard of Oz reference. (But really, wouldn't Little Shop of Horrors make more sense? I've never seen dancing cornstalks in a production of The Wizard of Oz!)

Today's Oz Political Cartoon

According to this cartoon by John Cole, "cowardly" appears to be a synonym for "nittany". Yeah, this is an issue public universities have to deal with, as state legislatures hold their purse strings.

Today's Other Oz Comic

Wouldn't you know, another one turned up. My man in Japan, Michael-sensei, discovered today's edition of Andertoons, where things in Oz definitely take a pretty quick turn to the dark side. (By a wild coincidence, today's edition of Bizarro, while not Ozzy, has a similar theme.)

This Week's Oz Short Story

The final story in this year's edition of Oziana is "The Trunk in the Attic" by Robert A. Baum, and it's another little tale about the author's family's history. Here, young Bob finds a mysterious trunk in Grandmother Edna's attic, and inside are all kinds of treasures about his great-grandfather's life and career. The trouble is, it's a magic trunk that only lasts for a few minutes once its contents are exposed to light, and the race is on to get things out of it. But there is a cryptic clue to there being a second trunk!

This was a short, sweet tale of what could have been. I very much doubt there are a pair of magic trunks out there holding glass slides and costume pieces from The Maid of Arran, unproduced play scripts, cups Frank won for his flowers, and the like. But boy, if they were out there…

A few non-story items that need to be mentiond with this issue include the spectacular cover by Alejandro Garcia, entitled "Strolling Down Memory Lane". Since this is the fiftieth anniversary issue, it pays tribute to the art of W. W. Denslaw, John R. Neill, and Eric Shanower, as well as to The Movie. Also included is a reprint of the letter from the very first issue, written by Harvey Plotnick of the Henry Regnery Company, then the parent company of Reilly and Lee, giving the Club permission to use characters and incidents from the Oz books in Oziana.

And that will be it again for a while for the shart stories. I'll do these whenever there's a new issue of Oziana, but otherwise I'm going to have to hold off, as I have more pressing uses for my time right now. And I do have at least two other sources of short stories I want to tap at some point. Who knows, maybe by the time I get back to it there will be a new anthology or two as well. But for now, leaving it with Oziana just seems like the right place.

Today's Oz Comics

Two more for you today:

• First, today in Lio, this one is a (pardon the expression) no-brainer. Seeing how much Oz Mark Tatulli used to put into Heart of the City, I'm surprised it's taken him this long to do something like this in Lio, though.
• On the political side of the comics spectrum, John Deering has a few things to say about our current political discord, it seems.

What Ozzy Thing Am I Doing Now?

It has been a busy couple of weeks around here, as you'll see by the flurry of new blog posts you'll be seeing this week. But here are two of the biggies:

• Remember my mysterious other book I read, but couldn't tell you about yet? Well, here it is! I'm also a Doctor Who fan, and so I was very excited to hear about the new book The Wonderful Doctor of Oz by Jacqueline Rayner. Yes, it's a full-blown Wizard of Oz/Doctor Who crossover. And I get to tell you all about it because Laura and I were recruited to record an episode of the Trap One podcast about it! So, here it is!
  
• My other big recent Oz project involves the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award, the International Wizard of Oz Club's highest honor. It is decided on each year by the previous winners, which for some extraordinary reason has included me since 2013. Normally, we keep very tight-lipped about who won so that it comes as a complete surprise to everyone at the National Oz Convention when it's announced. But thanks to our current pandemic (get vaccinated and keep wearing your masks, everyone!), the last two years it has all been virtual, and the winners have been announced via a This Is Your Life-inspired video. Since this year's winner is someone I've known for over forty years, and I had all the contacts, I offered to put the video together. So, here is the announcement video for my long-time Oz friend, Lynn Beltz.
  

I think that's going to do it for big-time Oz projects for a while, since I start back to work tomorrow and that's going to keep me pretty busy. But you never know what this crazy hobby of mine will throw at you!

Today's Political Cartoon

Steve Breen has this to say about the current state of the pandemic.

This Week's Oz Short Story

The penultimate story I will be looking at in the 2021 issue of Oziana is "Christmas, Toys and Oz", another one by Nathan M. DeHoff, this time illustratedby Mitchell Moyle. In this one, De Hoff ties together all of various toy-base communities not only in Oz, but also in the non-Oz writings of both L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson. In the process, he also brings together all kinds of boats and other sailing vessels and every appearance of Santa Claus. Yes, he cleverly string together Dot and Tot of Merryland, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa, and even Thompson's advertising pamphlet, The Comical Cruises of Captain Cooky. But it all starts with the Big Lavender Bear wondering about his own origins. He goes to the Emerald City for answers, and decides to go with Captain Salt and his crew on the Crescent Moon to various toy-based communities to compare notes. They eventually leave Oz to tour Merryland, and then some sites in the Nonestic Ocean where they rescue Captain Santa and the Chimney Potand, eventually, beyond the sunset (as seen but not visited in The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa), where answers are found. The Big Lavender Bear gets his answers, and DeHoff manages to tie all kinds of previously unrelated adventures together. It still felt like it was just as much an exercise in slotting elements of disperate stories together, but it also comes to a satisfying conclusion.

This Week's Oz Political Cartoon

Clay Jones uses Oz to make a point about leadership. I don't know if I would tar Kars 4 Kids with the same brush as all the others, though.