Oz in Jeopardy!

On tonight's episode of Jeopardy!, this was the Final Jeopary! clue. Because of the dates, I knew it with only the first few words.

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

The Far Side is at it again today with this vintage favorite.

Today's Oz Comic

Today's edition of Mother Goose and Grimm makes me think of Buration in the Emerald City a Russian crossover between their versions of Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz. I wonder why?

Today's Oz Comics

It's a two-fer today, one classic and one new one.

• The website of The FarSide had this classic panel today.
• And Strange Brew had this new cartoon about a previously unknown witch.

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

The duck pulls an Ozzy fast one on Oscar in today's rerun of Liberty Meadows.

The Last (For Now) Oz Short Story

It's taken longer than I anticipated, but I finally managed to finish off the 2024 edition of Oziana with "The Soldier with the Green Whiskers and the Guardian of the Gates" by J. L. Bell, with very Denslow-esque illustrations by Rob Lauer. This takes place shortly after the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in, as you might anticipate with those title characters, the Emerald City. On his morning patrol, the Soldier is surprised to see the Winged Monkeys taking apart the western part of the wall of the Emerald City! They fly off, and the Soldier finds the Guardian so that they can investigate what happened and why the Monkeys did it. The ease at which the Monkeys dismantled that part of the wall and the lack of mortar suggests only one thing: magic! Someone is helping the Monkeys, and they are bound and determined to find out who and why. But the problem is quickly solved when they return to the Palace and find that the Scarecrow has returned from seeing Dorothy head back to Kansas. The Scarecrow explains that it's all a part of a renovation plan and… No, I think I'll leave it there so that you can be surprised. But at least it turns out the Monkeys aren't bad. Mischievous and naughty, maybe, but not bad. It's a nice little story about what happened in the Emerald City right after The Wizard of Oz, and explains a few differences between Oz books. And the title pair make a nice double act.

Since this is the last story in this issue of Oziana, I must also mention the cover by Paul Miles Schneider (a panorama of Oz characters, drawn many many years ago before he ever became a noted Oz author); an illustration of Glinda by Suren Oganessian on Interim Editor Jane Albright's introduction page; and a poem, "Oz It Was" by David M. Perkins, with an illustration by Thomas and T Craft.

Finally, I must address the title of this post. I need to focus on my career for at least a little while, which means that I'm officially suspending the review of Oz short stories. Oh, I know, I haven't done much lately anyway, other than whatever comes along in each year's Oziana. And I do have more short stories I want to read and react to here. But they're just going to have to wait a little longer. I hope my time is more cleared out by the time the next Oziana comes out, and I will do my best to cover that, at least. Let's just say that continuing this series is one reward I hope to give myself in the not-too-distant future.

Today's Oz Comics

Well, one definitely is Ozzy and the other is just Ozzish..

• Today in Mother Goose and Grimm, the Tin Woodman may be in over his head.
• And over in Rubes, it looks like Percy Vere, the Forgetful Poet from The Lost King of Oz, may have branched out into country music. (Yeah, this one's a stretch, but it is so much like something Percy would say.)

Today's Classic Oz Comic

Over on the dedicated website for The Far Side, this all-time classic was the very first one. I seem to recall using that on a Christmas card once, and inside it said, "'Tis the season for—um—giving."

Today's Oz Comic

It's not the greatest of Oz jokes, but they made it over in Close to Home today, which is a lot more than most of us have done with it, I'm sure.

The Latest Oz Short Story

Yes, it's time for another offering from the 2024 issue of Oziana, the annual literary journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club. This time around, it's "Straw and Magic" by Malcolm Niess, with illustrations by David Diket. This is a tale of the early days of the Scarecrow's reign in the Emerald City, not long after Dorothy first left Oz. The Scarecrow enters his throne room to find a surprise visitor one day — the Wizard of Oz! Not the Omaha circus balloonist who recently departed, but the actual, magical Wizard of Oz! It seems he's been laying low lately, and isn't interested in staying in Oz anyway. He makes a deal with the Scarecrow: In exchange for all of the humbug Wizard's equipment and supplies, he'll make the Emerald City actually emerald, which would mean that the citizens would no longer need the green glasses to see everything as green. The Scarecrow agrees, constructs a balloon to send everything up to the sky, and Oz performs his magic. It's a fun little story, and it does explain how the Emerald City actually lived up to its name in the later books. But it also raises a lot more questions, like why Oz is only appearing now, and how the (humbug) Wizard could find so much of his old equipment right where he left it at the end of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. But it's an Oz story, so it's all harmless fun.

Dee and Friends in Oz: The Movie

Last year, I switched my television provider from a satellite based one to an online streaming service. I'm getting a lot more variety at about the same price, so I'm not at all unhappy there. The two drawbacks are that I still can't get my regional sparts network (not witouh paying a lot more, anyway, which was also the case with the previous provider), and I had to send back the DVR with all the episodes of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz I hadn't watched. So I can't review season 3 until I have the income to buy it, or Max decides to show it in this country. But now I have Netflix, so I can watch another cartoon series, Dee and Friends in Oz. The series begins with an extended single-episode season 1 called Dee and Friends in Oz: The Movie. We first meet Dee Davis, a precocious seven-year-old from New Jersey who is staying with her grandmother for the summer. She is an avid reader, and wants to be the hero of a story. She gets her wish when a portal appears in her room and takes her to Oz. In this version of Oz, the good witch Miss Emerald wants to open a school of magic so that everyone can benefit from all the magic in the country. But her sister, Miss Ruby, is jealous and greedy and wants to keep all the magic for herself. Miss Ruby creates a machine to suck all the magic and color out of Oz, and locks Miss Emerald into a room in the Emerald City. But Miss Emerald has just enough power to send a message to Dee, tell her what's going on, and bring her to the Emerald City. Along the way, Dee meets Tin, Scarecrow, and Lion. Of course Miss Ruby and her minion, the flying teedy bear Stuffkins, try to stop them. But you know they're not going to succeed, right? Once Miss Ruby is dealt with, Miss Emerald invites Dee and her new friends to be the first students in her magic school.

First things first: I am a nearly sixty year old man. This show is not aimed at me! It it clearly aimed at preschoolers and other very young viewers. That's fine with me, I'm perfectly happy introducing people to Oz at any age and in any form. But this show may also be a little too cute and sweet for some viewers. Speaking as an Oz fan, I'm less happy that this version of Oz ignores most of the original version and many earlier offshoots. There is no Wizard, there are none of the usual witches (although Miss Emerald and Miss Ruby are good stand-ins), and Dorothy's three friends aren't seeking anything to improve themselves. I'm less unhappy that Tin and Scarecrow come from entire villages of people like them, as Tin Town and Straw Town are actually neat places. Dee makes for a great modern-day substitute for Dorothy, as she's clever and creative like any good kid visiting Oz should be. So I will have to see this as a version of Oz that's not so close to the books or most of the more well-known dramatizations, but I can live with it. And I look forward to watching the series.

Today's Oz Comic

Today's edition of Pearls Before Swine makes an interesting revelation about a character that ties in with a character first introduced in the Oz books in 1931. Which raises the question, has Pearls Before Swine actually been an Oz comic this whole time???

Today's Oz Comic

It's tax time again! And in today's Bizarro, we see how that affects one Oz character in particular.

The Latest Oz Short Story

One of the perks of being a teacher is the breaks. And since this is my spring break, I already read the next story from the 2024 edition of Oziana so I can share it with you early. "A Tenebrous Tower in Oz" is by D. J. Tyrer with illustrations by Chris Diket, and is about an adventure the Tin Woodman had not long after becoming the Emperor of the Winkies. Nick Chopper receives reports of a dark tower near the Oogaboo mountains that is freaking people out. He goes to investigate, and meets up with Zim Zalah, a wooden man who claims to be an explorer, along the way. They get there, and enter. They don't find much at first, but some mysterious three-legged creatures seem to be caretakers. Zim Zalah claims that the tower contains great power, and then claims it for himsolf and his creator, the Wicked Witch of the West! Zim believes he can use the towor's power to resurrect the Wicked Witch. Reluctantly, Nick uses his ax on Zim Zalah to stoop him. The tower dissipates, and all is right again. It's a nice little adventure, even if we don't get a clear picture of the nature of the tower, and it's unusual to see one of the Oz celebrities on a solo adventure. Zim Zalah is an interesting character who hides his true nature well before he reveals his true allegiance. A series of stories about the Tin Woodman cleaning up after the Wicked Witch in the early days of his reign might make for some interesting tales.

The Latest Oz Short Story

The next story from the 2024 edition of Oziana is "Hope Melts Eternal" by Suren Oganessian, with illustrations by Mel Vavaroutsos. This tells the story of a pivotal portion of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the point of view of Lan, the assistant to the ruler he calls the Wise Woman of the West, and he does not take at all kindly to anyone who calls her the Wicked Witch of the West! He and his brother, Arook, are two of the only Winkies who are actually loyal to her, and work for her of their own free will. So naturally, as soon as the Wizard and the Wicked Witch of the South, Glinda, send the assassin Dorothy into Winkie Country, things start to go wrong. Lan and Arook are two of the dozen soldiers who try to destroy Dorothy and her accomplices, but they are frightened off by the Lion. At one point, after she is captured, Lan interrogates Dorothy and tries to find out why she is the cunning mastermind that she is, and has his view of her shaken up. But after she liquidates the Wise Woman, he realizes that she is just a clever actress, and he and Arook decide it would be best to leve Winkie Country before any of the freed slaves realize where their loyalties actually lie — and that's where things end, although it's implied that both men would take up with other would-be conquerors of Oz later. That might make for an interesting series, seeing the operations of General Jinjur or Ugu the Shoemake from the inside. It makes sense that even someone like the Wicked Witch would have her followers, and their own point of view. If we've learned anything from Wicked, it's that the nature of good and evil is not so cut and dried.

Oz Comics Weekend Roundup

There were three this past weekend, one in the comics I least expected to ever post about here:

• Saturday, Strange Brew had this strakly simple one.
• Sunday had two. One was this episode of In the Bleachers, which just goes to show that you should always listen to your caddy.
• The big surprise was yesterday's edition of The Lockhorns, a comic that seems so far from Oz. Nevertheless, they snuck an Oz reference into the upper left panel.

Oz in Jeopardy!

All kinds of technical issues, plus just plain time, make this former regular series of posts here a challenge. But now that Jeopardy! is posting Final Jeopardy! on YouTube, I can revive it every once in a while when something like this happens:

The Latest Oz Short Story

Ooh, it's time for another tale from the 2024 edition of Oziana. This time it's "The Wicked Witch of the West" by Kathleen Murphey, illustrated with pictures by W. W. Denslow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It's a pretty simple, straightforward retelling of a portion of Dorothy's initial trip to Oz, told from her own point of view. It opens with her first meeting with the Wizard, as a giant head, and conclusdes with the immediate aftermath of the liquidation of the Wicked Witch of the West. There isn't a lot of variation from the book, although Murphey adds a few Winkie slaves who befriend and assist Dorothy in the Witch's castle. We also get new names for some of the other witches ("Nana North" for the Good Witch of the North, and "Elvira East" of the Wicked Witch of the East). This story doesn't really add much, but it is another perspective on familiar events.

Today's Oz Comic

Hmm, it kind of seems a waste to publish this particular installment of The Argyle Sweater on a Sunday, when you can use a lot more colors. But hey, it's a choice, I guess.

The Not-So-Latest Oz Comic

Reality Check is not one of my regular comics, so my thanks to my man in Japan, Michael-sensei, for discovering this episode of the comic which probably would have been more appropriate for Halloween than Pi Day.