Emeraids Influences: Jellia Jamb

The official Royal Maid of the Emerald City is the original cute maid character! Jellia is first described in The Wizard Of Oz as a short girl with green hair and glasses. Despite the nearly infinite amount of maids in anime, there are a few that played a part in developing the Emeralds version of her. One is Lettuce Midorikawa from Tokyo Mew Mew, or as she was known in the American version(Mew Mew Power), Bridget Verdant. She's one of the Mew Mews, a group of Sailor Scout-ish magical girls who fight evil aliens. Lettuce can transform into a superhero with water powers. She appears to be your stereotypical anime girl with glasses(or "meganekko")who is shy but smart, however she has alot more to her than just being another Sailor Mercury clone. Another character that went into Jellia's development was Eina(or "Ena")from the mecha series Gravion/Gravion Zwei. She is part of a team of mecha pilots that form the giant robot, Gravion, although her cover is as a clutzy maid at a mansion with most of the other pilots. Similar to Jellia, she has short green hair and glasses. Later on she apparently dies, which turns out was an artificial body while her mind remained on the moon. Eina returns in her original form, but with pink hair and no glasses. Like Jellia, Eina is sweet and innocent, although she sometimes lets her naiveity get the better of her.

Wonders Of Oz online documentary

Wonders Of Oz is an online series by Royal Kido Of Oz documenting the Oz legacy and its impact on America. The series is as of now completed.

Emeralds First Look: Dorothy

Here's the first shot of Princess Dorothy as she appears in Emeralds. She's just come back from her training as the new Eastern Witch under Scarecrow, and "yes", she's still a princess.

Comic Review: The Wonderland Of Oz

Walt Spouse created a comic strip from 1932-1933 titled The Wonderland Of Oz(which had nothing to do with Alice In Wonderland)that ran in syndicated newspapers, and was later reprinted in The Funnies and Hi-Spot Comics. This was recently redone in black and white in three seperate graphic novels from Hungry Tiger Press. The story is a pretty accurate adaptation of the second, third, and sixth Oz books. It starts out with The Land Of Oz, followed by Ozma Of Oz, and then for some reason skips ahead to The Emerald Of Oz. I really liked Spouse's art style, which is remincient of the earlier Winsoe McCay's works like Little Nemo. I'd highly recommend picking these books up not only for Ozians, but those who appreciate the aesthetics of classic comic strips.

Little Adventures In Oz now out

Eric Shanower's new comic, Little Adventures Of Oz is now out from IDW Publishing. This collects two of the stories Shanower had previously printed in seperate volumes, then recently collected in the Adventures Of Oz novel. The new affordable manga-sized graphic novel contains The Enchanted Apples Of Oz and The Ice King Of Oz, along with bonus material previously only available in the hardcover edition of Adventures In Oz, plus a new original cover.

Emeralds Character Bios: Queen of the Field Mice

First seen in the original Wizard Of Oz, the Queen of the Field Mice is one of the rare group of animal royalty in Oz. She and her subjects helped drag Lion out of the poppies when he was to heavy for his friends to carry. She also assisted in Scarecrow's semi-failed attempt to retake the Emerald City from General Jinjur's army. In Emeralds, Queen Meadow has been granted the power to change into a human form at will by Ozma, and she has recently mated with Lion who has also gained the same ability. Meadow will be a very active member of the cast.

News on Todd McFarlane's Oz movie

About two years ago, Todd McFarlane(creator of Spawn)was working out a deal with Warner Bros. to do a movie based on his line of action figures, Twisted Land Of Oz. Lately, it was rumored that Dakota Fanning might be up for the role as Dorothy in it. The film was supposed to be in development with Warner and Thunder Road Pictures with Josh Olson who wrote the script for A History Of Violence to handle the screenplay. Although recently its been reported that Olsen was doing his own version for Warner titled Oz: The Return To The Emerald City where Dorothy's modern day granddaughter is sent to Oz to take on a new wicked witch. Whether this will meet up with what McFarlane had pitched with his darker version about a female arctic explorer that ends up in the magical realm of Oz is currently unknown.

Marvel to do Ozma Of Oz

Comic Shop News recently noted that Eric Shanower is adapting the upcoming Marvel Comics run of Ozma Of Oz. This will follow the series of Whe Wonderful Wizard Of Oz(now available in a collected hardcover)and The Marvelous Land Of Oz as drawn by Scottie Young. Ozma Of Oz is the third book in the Oz series written by L. Frank Baum where Dorothy finally returns to Oz to help her friends defeat the wicked Nome King. Expect the new series to be out later this year. This would be a first as the last time Marvel did their adaptations of the Oz books back in the 80s when they did the first two books as comics, but would've had to pay the licensing fees from the Baum Trust as the book wasn't in the public domain at the time.

Emeralds Influences: Ozma

When it came to making Emeralds, I've modeled or based some of the reimagining of certain Oz characters from various sources. For Ozma, who is now a little older than her usually girlish image, I was largely inspired by the character of Princess Rune Venus from the anime, El Hazard. In it, Rune is the princess of the kingdom of Roshtaria on the world of El-Hazard, in which people from Earth are sent there via a magic vortex(similar to Dorothy being sent to Oz). Rune is a very responsible ruler, but deeply cares for her friends and family. There are actually two different versions of this character. One is from the original OVA series, El Hazard: The Magnificent World, who is the head of an alliance of kingdoms, and user of an ancient weapon. She resembles Ozma in her regal appearance, as well as her garb, including her crown with ornamental flowers on the ends, although her outfit is more Arabesque. The other version of Rune is in the TV series remake of the OVA titled El Hazard: The Wanderers. In this one, Rune is the only heir to the throne, and slightly younger. She's a little more insecure than her OVA counterpart, and with curlier hair. She develops a relationship with the Earthling, Makoto, and goes on many adventures with him and their friends. This Rune is adorned in similar Arabic garments with a flowery headress. I was influenced by both Runes, both in the characters' nature and appearance. Another such character that has been Mera from DC Comics. She is the wife of Aquaman and the Queen of Atlantis. I more was inspired by the version of her that has appeared on the Justice League animated TV series where she wears a more elegant midriff-revealing outfit, even though she's still the warrior queen that's shown in the comics. In fact, Mera has become a central character in the Blackest Night crossover. Mera's strength and determination played a great part in what I have in mind for Ozma in the future.

Dorothy Of Oz movie news

The upcoming full-length CGI-animated movie, Dorothy Of Oz, is set for a 2011 release. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Roger S. Baum(L. Frank Baum's great-grandson)which was a direct sequal to the original Wizard Of Oz novel. In the book, Dorothy is sent back to Oz to team up with her old friends to stop the wicked Jester who has taken over. It will feature the voices of Dan Aykroyd as Scarecrow, Kelsey Grammer as Tin Man, Jim Belushi as Lion, and Martin Short as the Jester. The production is being handled by Alpine Pictures and Box Office Productions III. Also the movie website has recently been given a new makeover.

Oz characters in Fables

Vertigo Comics comic book series of Fables is about several fairy tale characters from an enchanted world where all of them lived together, and have secretly moved to New York City because an evil monarch called the Adversary had taken over their dimension. Oz is one of the lands in this world, and in it the Nome King allied himself with the Advesary to take over Oz. Also, flying monkeys are employed into the secret society that the fairy tale characters have set up in our world known as the Mundane, one such monkey is Bufkin who works for the adminstrator Snow White along with Boy Blue. Meanwhile, Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion were imprisioned in a fake retirement village, but later freed by Jack Horner. Ozma has recently taken center stage as a major player in the comic. She's one of a group of witches first led by the witch Frau Totenkinder, and is chosen to lead the magic-users of the Fables world after Totenkinder goes missing.

Emeralds First Look: The Emerald City

Here's a quick look at the Emerald City in Emeralds. Not alot has changed here over the years as Oz has had an age of peace for some time. BTW, that's the Sawhorse that someone is riding on.