Today's Oz Political Cartoon

Our current president is often portrayed as the Wicked Witch of the West. But what about Vice President Pence? After his trip to the Mayo Clinic, Adam Ziglis of the Buffalo News seems to have an answer to that.

Today's Oz Comic

Today in One Big Happy, characters confuse a modern day banking convenience with a character from The Wizard of Oz. (This is not the first time this has happened in this strip, I will add.)

Today's Oz Comic

The effects of stay-at-home orders have hit Oz in today's edition of Strange Brew.

Today's Oz Comic

Stephanie Piro is my favorite of the artists who collectively write and draw Six Chix. So naturally I am tickled that today she is visiting Oz, with a neat little twist ending to The Movie that might have been better than what we got. (Personally, however, I would have picked some place even less densely populated, like Tahiti or Samoa.) And, interestingly, I also discovered that it can also be laid out as a strip.

Today's Oz Political Cartoon

Okay, actually this came out yesterday, but of course it's still relevant. Clay Jones has something to say about all the shelter-in-place rollback demonstrations.

Yesterday's Oz Comic

Whoops, I missed yesterday's edition of Spectickles, where the Scarecrow figures out what he really needs, in today's crazy times, from the Wizard.

Today's Classic Oz Comic

It's been terrific revisiting The Far Side on its new dedicated website, thefarside.com. And this means the Oz-themed ones pop up, such as this classic clash-of-something-or-others.

Today's Oz Political Cartoon

Drew Sheneman gives us an intriguing but cringe-inducing mash-up between The Wizard of Oz and our current president. Sad!

Today's Oz Comic

Today in the always charming Thatababy, it appears the corona virus has reached Oz. But everyone is doing the right thing! But it doesn't work out so well for one citizen of Oz. (On a side note, I'd love to see Paul Trap illustrate an Oz graphic novel!)

Yesterday's Oz Political Cartoon

Okay, I'll be honest, I'm not sure I get the connection. But yesterday, Sean Delonas had some Oz content in his cartoon. Can I just say that Delonas is an incredible artist? That's a pretty good version of Oz there. The Cowardly Lion even looks like a lion!

Today's Oz Comic

Today in Grand Avenue, the old trope about modern-day witches riding vacuum cleaners gets updated even further, with an Ozzy twist!

The Short Stories Are On Hold

Despite having fewer work hours right now, my life is still crazy busy, so there won't be a short story this week. But it turns out that the 2012 issue of Oziana is all one story, so I'm going to approach this a little differently, and I hope to have an update next weekend or so. I just thought I'd let everyone know that I haven't forgotten. (Heck, considering how long I've been doing this, with pretty much a story a week, I think I would be due for a break anyway!)

Today's Oz Comic

Even in the midst of a pandemic like we're having now, real estate transactions take place, as you can see in today's Free Range. (Considering the damage that house must have taken when it was transported to its current location, I'm betting this is a fixer-upper!)

The Latest Oz Reading

Well, with spring break in the district I'm currently working in extended a few more weeks, I may as well catch up on not only my reading, but telling you about it.

• The Road to Oz: The Evolution, Creation, and Legacy of a Motion Picture Masterpiece by Jay Scarfone and William Stillman. This is the duo's latest book about the famous film version of The Wizard of Oz, and like all the others, it is well-researched and full of all kinds of information. Unlike their previous books, this one has not been licensed by Warner Bros., so they were able to tell the story they wanted to tell without any editorial interference by the current owners of The Movie. There was not a lot in here that was new to me, but I've been reading books on this topic for over forty years now. But that doesn't mean I was totally unsurprised. This book contains the first ever published picture of Hickory's wind machine, for example (cut from the final film), and has details about its early release that I had not heard before. Plus the background information leading up to the production of The Movie was terrific, such as Samuel Goldwyn's plans for a movie (before he ended up selling the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), or the fact that there were actually three radio shows in the 1930s (not the two I already knew about). This is always a good topic to revisit every once in a while, and I'm glad Scarfone and Stillman can still wring a lot of new information out of a movie that's now over eighty years old.
• That was a pretty long book, so I thought I'd temper it with a little one, and A Legend in Straw: The Spirit of My Uncle Ray Bolger by Christianna Rickard fit the bill nicely. This is not a biography of Bolger, although there are some biographical touches. It's much more a remembrance of Bolger by his niece, and what his example taught her, especially when Rickard has to deal with a rare form of cancer. (Spoiler alert: She survives, as I bought this book directly from her at OzCon International two years ago. Of course she was kind enough to sign it for me.) It has a clear, nondenominational spiritual bend to it, so in that it reminded me a lot of The Wisdom of Oz by Gita Dorothy Morena, another memoir by an Oz-related relative (for those who don't know, Morena is L. Frank Baum's great-granddaughter). It's not a crucial book for Oz fans to get, but for those who want to know more about Ray Bolger, this is a good introduction.

My website now has Infrequently Asked Questions

Yes, I am cautiously dipping my toe into the pool of April Fool's Day again, but this year I hope it is not as badly misinterpreted as my Happy Meal toy "joke". I decided, as a counterpoint to my website's FAQ, to put up a list of Infrequently asked questions, with not terribly serious answers. I was a little disappointed in the questions I got. I actually had many others, but they were either way too naughty for this little exercise, or I just couldn't think of a silly enough answer. I hope, however, to get more next year, and can expand the list every year. Anyway, here is my initial list of IAQs.