32 Emerald Neil Bw
From Golden Age Comic Book Stories illustrator John R. Neill at the peak of his Oz powers for The Emerald City of Oz, which included his scary, manic rendition of the Nome King.
40 Emerald Neil Bw

1 COMMENT

  1. Actually, that’s not the Nome King, that’s General Guph of the Nome Army. The creature on the left is the First and Foremost of the Phanfasms, ruler of a scary race of shape-changers.

    The lower illustration is Dorothy, Toto, and Billina the Yellow Hen in the pun-based Oz kingdom of Utensia.

  2. One of my favorite Oz stories and one of the few that really scared me as a kid. (I know that one of Baum’s goals was writing fairy tales for kids that weren’t scary [a la Hansel and Gretel], but hey! it worked for me!)

    Neill remains probably my favorite illustrator. As an adult, I can now appreciate Denslow (illustrator for the actual Wizard of Oz) but Neill’s work is a source of eternal fascination for me. His style of course changed CONSIDERABLY over the many years of mainline Oz, but I love his early style (as in the illos shown) and his later work equally.

    John R Neill rules!