Comic Review: The Wizard Of Oz (Sterling Graphics)

Sterling Graphics recently did a one-shot graphic novel adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz as part of their All-Action Classics line by Ben Caldwell. This line up also includes Tom Sawyer, Dracula, and The Odyssey. It's a little hard to think of WOZ as an "action" story, but Caldwell does give a good go at it.

It is slightly faithful to the original L. Frank Baum story, although there are some major differences. One is just before the twister shows up, Dorothy and Em are recollecting a circus show featuring "The Great Humbug", complete with a poster on their wall, who Dorothy recognizes later on as the Wizard. Another is the Witch of the North after meeting Dorothy refers to Glinda as a "mostly" good witch, thus acknowledging her existence earlier than she was supposed to. That, and the Witch of the North showing up after the Wizard leaves and telling Dorothy that she had the power to return home on her own, pretty much copy-pasting the ending to the MGM movie but with the actual Witch of the North. Tin Woodman appears to be more French-like with a beret, and the Wicked Witch of the West looks like Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

This would make for a fine gift for kids, even though Caldwell's artwork seems a bit estranged from the normal look of the Oz characters, but will enjoy his work more on his original series of The Dare Detectives. Oz purists might not agree with the changes in the story even though they are slightly minor, aside from leaving out the entire last quarter of the book on the quest to Glinda's castle. Either way, the kids should like it.

Oz Video Of The Month: Oz the Great and Powerful (new trailer!)

Here's the latest trailer for the upcoming Oz, The Great And Powerful movie from Disney due out Mar. 8, 2013.

Comic Review: No Place Like Home (Volume 1)

Image Comics' recent mini-series of No Place Like Home has concluded its first edition. This 5-issue mini-series is supposed to be the beginning of an ongoing series(or series of mini-series), and given how fast most of the issues sold out, chances are it will be back in force. Written by Angelo Tirotto and drawn by Richard Jordan, this is a dark horror movie approach to Wizard Of Oz set in modern day.

The rebellious Dee returns to her hometown in Kansas to attend her parents' funeral who were killed by a freak twister. She is reunited with her friend Lizzie, although the local drunk Thomas seems to know something more about her parents untimely demise than the Sheriff Frank is leading on about. Thomas is suspected of the murder of two workers at a diner, and goes on the run, but holds Dee and Liz at gunpoint to get them to dig up Dee's parents to see what really happened to them. They find their corpses which look like they were mangled to death. This seems to be related to a series of animal attacks throughout the county. Liz is then abducted by a flying monkey, and Dee and Frank set out to rescue her. The flying monkey takes Liz to an underground cavern where a portal has opened where several flying monkeys await on the other side. On their way, Dee and Frank witness a monkey attacking a school bus beheading an old woman, which leads Dee to figure out where they are hiding. They trace them to a old farmhouse and smash into the basement to find Liz fighting the monkeys. Liz grabs some glowing marbles which opens a portal that she gets sucked in with the rest of the monkeys, leaving Dee behind. Liz is flown to a tall castle where she is confronted by a fashionable green lady welcoming her to Oz.

This is so far turning out to be a decent series, even though it finished its first volume a few months late. Although I have to stress that this is not a comic for younger readers. There are several scenes of gore and violence, and plenty of cursing(if that's a problem for you). This, and it only has a small opening into the world of Oz, just with the flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West after five issues. It seems more if like Steven King was doing an adaptation of Wizard Of Oz, with not enough emphasis about Oz itself. Hopefully this might get resolved by the next volume.

Oz: The Great And Powerful posters

A series of posters for the upcoming Oz: The Great And Powerful have just been revealed. This shows the new movie versions of the Wicked Witch of the West, flying monkeys, and Munchkins.

Happy Wicked Day

Hope everyone has a great Wicked Day, and don't get "carried off by any twisters"!

Comic Review: Halloween Eve

This one just came out in time for Halloween. Written by Brandon Montclare and drawn by Amy Reeder, this one-shot was release recently through Image Comics(also available at (Comixology. Its a somewhat supernatural romantic comedy, but there is a strong Wizard Of Oz presence in it.

Eve is a girl working in a costume shop, but she hates dressing up in costume! The store employees are required to dress up on Halloween, and Eve gets stuck cleaning up on the night before, but strange things begin to happen as she tries on a sexy witch costume. She is sent to Halloween Land, and tormented by the devil, and talking pumpkins. Eve then wakes up back in the store wearing a fitting Dorothy costume, and referring to her co-workers like Dorothy did the farmhands in her dream from the Wizard Of Oz movie. She finally gets over her "cosplay-phobia", and admits her feelings for this cute guy she works with.

Halloween Eve is a pretty good one-shot, and brings a fair take to the whole concept of a girl getting sent to a magical world. The comic is padded out a little with bios of the background characters and a sketch gallery, when this could've been a 32-page book instead of 40, but you might wanna check this out to get in the Trick or Treat mood.

The Wonderful Pundits Of Oz

Frank Conniff, many will know from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Cinematic Titanic, recently put together a new musical comedy version of Wizard Of Oz free on iTunes called The Wonderful Pundits Of Oz. This is part of a new anthology series he's doing titled Podhouse 90.

Oz Video Of The Month: Wicked at the Tonys

This was a performance featuring the original Broadway cast from Wicked at the 2004 Tony Awards doing Defying Gravity.

Dorothy Of Oz official trailer

The first full-length trailer for the upcoming Dorothy Of Oz animated movie has been postd.

Oz Mythbusters: Sister Act

Alot of people are under the impression that both the Wicked Witches were actually sisters, but the fact of it was in the original Oz books, L. Frank Baum didn't have them being related at all. Both the East and West witches were in cohoots together, but they weren't sisters.

The Wizard Of Oz movie from 1939 was the first to tie in both of the characters as being sisters, possibly to give the Wicked Witch of the West a little more motivation and so that she'd show up in the story earlier than when Dorothy goes to her castle. From this, alot of other adaptaions of Oz included this as being official canon. Journey Back To Oz mentiones that the witches were sisters, as well as Mombi being their sister. The Oz comic book series from Caliber Press had the witches as sisters, who were later combined into a single entity called The Wickedest Witch. Oz: The Manga from Antarctic Press also featured them as sisters, as well as the OZF5: Gale Force one-shot.

But one of the most "popular" adaptations of this are from the Wicked book series by Gregory Macguire, and the Wicked musical where the West Witch was Elphaba, a child who was born unnaturally green, and her sister Nessarose. Nessa, was born with no arms in the original books, but in the musical was instead born with legs that wouldn't move, at least not without the help of some special slippers. Elphaba and Nessa had an on-and-off relationship, although they went on to lead very seperate lives throughout the course of the story, in both the books and musical.

Oz Video Of The Month: Return To Oz documentary

This was the first part of a full-length documentary of Return To Oz that came out about 5 years ago.

Oz in Fable Quest

Clockstop Entertainment recently released the first volume of their hardcover graphic novel series, Fairy Quest, by Humberto Ramos and Paul Jenkins. This is apparently connected to a previous comics anthology titled Fablewood where fairytale characters live in a single world controlled by the tyrannical Mr. Grimm. He causes the people to relive their stories the same way everyday, and if they don't he uses the Mind Eraser to redo their memories. Red Riding Hood is breaking the standard by actually befriending her the Big Bad Wolf. They run off while being chased by Grimm's Think Police, and seek help from Peter Pan in Neverland. After getting some information from the captured Capt. Hook, Red and Wolf seek a map maker to find their way to the mythical land of "Realworld". The first volume ends with them about to enter the area known as the Dark Forest.

Future editions are planning on having more of the characters from Oz in it, including a more heartful version of the Wicked Witch, plus Dorothy and her regular running crew. Volume #1 did have a character in the background who might have been Jack Pumpkinhead, but nothing confirms that or any other Oz locals.