Today's OTHER Oz Comic

I found this edition of Red and Rover in my local paper today (yes, some of us still get our paper delivered on real paper). As awesome as it is, Brian Bassett got it wrong! That quote is not by L. Frank Baum. It's from the screenplay of The Movie, so it was written by either Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, or Edgar Allan Woolf (or possibly one of the eight other ultimately uncredited screenwriters and retained by the other three), nearly twenty years after Baum died and forty years after the book was published. Sadly, I've seen this and many other lines from The Movie credited to Baum on many online sources. I don't get why this is so hard to check, but nobody seems to want to do it, or care.

Blogkeeping

Just a heads up, I have three draft blogs that have been sitting here for a long time, I don't know what they are, but I want to get rid of them, so I'm going to publish them. I suspect they're ones I've already published that somehow got stuck in the draft folder as well, so if they look familiar, that may be why. (I'm looking forward to seeing what's in these mystery posts myself!)

Today's NEW Oz Comic

Yup, Oz hits Six Chix today. And it's by Stephanie Piro, my favorite of the six.

Today's Recent Oz Comic

There are an awful lot of comic strips out there, and although I read a lot of them, I can't read them all! Good thing my friend Michael-sensei reads an awful lot of them as well and shares his discoveries. His most recent find is this installment of Warped from this past Thursday, in which we see the clash of two classic stories (I think, based on the subject of this blog, you can guess what one of them is).

This Week's Oz Short Story

I was really looking forward to rereading the final story from the 1979 edition of Oziana, "The Real Critics" by Geoffrey L. Gould, just because I remember the premise: The folks in the Emerald City find out that there was a movie made about Dorothy's original trip to Oz, released in 1939. So the Wizard and the Shaggy Man make arrangements to show it to the people who were originally there! (Meta, right?) Since this was right before the howe video revolution started, that involved bringing a film print and projectors to Oz, and generating power. The Wizard comes through on all counts, of course.

And what a way to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of The Movie! (What's scary is that we're now approaching the fortieth anniversary of this story!) The entire story takes place in the few minutes after the final scene is shown, and let's just say it got mixed reactions. Most of the characters were fine with how they were portrayed, even if the movie wasn't particularly accurate. Toto let's his role as the hero go to his head a bit, but the Glass Cat helps keep him in line. The Cowardly Lion, however, gets the worst of it. The Hungry Tiger is especially hard on him, teasing the Lion about how Bert Lahr portrayed him, and the Tiger does not let up! Finally, Dorothy encourages the Lion to tell the Tiger what really happened, and all is good again.

Next week I start wrapping up Oziana's first decade with the 1980 issue. Posting may be a little irregular over the next couple of weeks because of OzCon and other upcoming events, but I think I can maintain my once a week schedule.

This Week's Oz Short Story

The second story from the 1979 issue of Oziana is "Hank and the Scarecrow of Oz" by Robert R. Pattrick. It's a fun little slice-of-life story in which Hank the Mule, after a conversation with the Scarecrow, decides he needs an education, and so the two of them head out towards the Wogglebug's college. But they get lost along the way, and end up in a very different kind of school, where Hank learns some hard lessons. It's a fun tale, and we definitely see some personal growth in Hank. The two characters also work well together.

Today's Oz Comics

A double dose today—which I may have never discovered, as I completely spaced on reading my comics this morning! Thank goodness for the new Wizard of Oz Comics Facebook group, where I spotted them and realized I still had to read my comics! Anyway...

• In today's Brevity, the Tin Woodman gets an important lesson in what happens in a free medical market.
• Meanwhile, over in this morning's Strange Brew, we discover just how unfriendly the skies have become lately.

Oz in Jeopardy!

I know, I know, it has been a very long time since I've run one of these. I Have been busy, but I should be able to start getting caught up soon, and I may very well catch up by the time this year's season of Jeopardy! ends. But thanks to the Stanley Cup causing my local station to juggle their schedule, the DVR I use for my screen grabs didn't record this past Thursday's episode. So, I may as well do this one by hand.

Here's the set-up: In the Double Jeopardy! round, the first category was Prequels and Sequels. Hmm, I thought to myself, that's promising. And sure enough, the third clue uncovered in the round was for $1200, but it was the Daily Double, so defending champion Bala bet $2200. Then Alex read the clue:

THIS POPULAR 1995
GREGORY MAGUIRE
NOVEL
IS A PREQUEL
OF SORTS TO
THE "WIZARD OF OZ"
BOOKS

Of course he correctly answered, "What is Wicked?" and went from $3800 to $6000. He didn't quite make the game a runaway, but he did win, and went on to play the next day.

This Week's Oz Short Story

Wow, have I reached 1979 in my rereading of Oziana already? I guess I have! And the first story is "Journal of a Journey" by Mary Rakestraw. This is a very simple and (mostly) sweet tale of an unnamed Oz fan from Michigan wishing she could go on a walking tour of Oz—and then brought to Oz by Dorothy and the Wizard to do just that! She starts off in the Gillikin country, and has encounters with farmers, animals, and before too long some of the celebrities show up as well. The Shaggy Man takes her on a tour of one of Ozma's storehouses. A couple of winged monkeys take her to spend a night with Glinda. She talks horticulture and pumpkin tarts with Jack Pumpkinhead, and finds Zeb and Jim are caretakers of the Gales' farm when they're off in the Emerald City—where, appropriately, our protagonist unexpectedly finds herself at the end of her journey. There are no high stakes involved in this story, just a chance to see what Oz is really like. And Rakestraw does a very nice, evocative job of creating this version of Oz. It feels very real, and a good place to visit.

To make up for my lack of post last week, I'm also going to delve into the non-story extras in this issue:

• A handsome cover by my friend, the late Rob Roy MacVeigh, which I believe is his first contribution to the magazine.
• A very short poem by Ruth Berman about Gloma, the dark witch of the Winkie woods whom Dorothy met in The Wishing Horse of Oz.
• A quiz by Cathy Provo.
• And on the back cover, a cartoon by Dennis Anfuso entitled, "What If..." and Dorothy telling Aunt Em how lucky it was that she and Toto made it into the cyclone cellar as they watch their house whirl away.

Today's Oz Comic

Today in Adam @ Home, Adam and his son may have figured out the roots of Adam's astraphobia.

Today's Oz Comic

Today in Nothing Is Not Something, we get a brief glimpse into an Oz that never was. I suspect most of The Movie would have been pretty much the same, however.

Today's Oz Comic

In today's Brevity, I see that the Scarecrow has a new job. I'm not sure how well this is going to go over, however.

This Week's Lack of Oz Short Story

I'm going to have to take a week off here, everybody, as I'm grading finals and preparing my seniors' grades. (Darned real life getting in the way!) But to make up for it, I may very well read two stories some upcoming week.

The Dare

I have been double dog dared by an old college friend to watch this reedited edition of The Wizard of Oz. Challenge accepted! But it won't be soon, as I have school to finish first (in real life, I'm a teacher).

Are These Oz Comics?

Two comics presented themselves today that are not particularly Ozzy, but I'm posting them here anyway because of similarities of the lead characters, who may ro may not be the Wicked Witch of the West. submitted for your approval:

• First, The Flying McCoys. This witch sure looks like Margaret Hamilton or Idina Menzel to me. The brooms don't look much like the one used in The Movie or Wicked, but maybe she didn't end up buying any of those seen in this panel.
• Second is today's Rubes. I say this one is not Ozzy, since this witch has a much longer nose and chin, and the white hair just doesn't look right.

Any opinions? You know where the comments are!