Oz-o-phile Eric Shanower has created this nice variant cover for the first issue of Marvel’s ROAD TO OZ adaptation, which he’s also writing. The insides are drawn by Skottie Young, so it’s win all around.
You may recall that this is the first proper sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ, written by L. Frank Baum, and finds Dorothy returning to Oz and confronting rising tensions with rising third world countries and issues of gender and identity. And I’m not even kidding.
Oz was always as much a political metaphor as Swift’s Gulliver:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz
Shaggy Man!
Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah…
Full title:
The Road to Oz: In Which Is Related How Dorothy Gale of Kansas, The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome the Rainbow’s Daughter Met on an Enchanted Road and Followed it All the Way to the Marvelous Land of Oz
Books of Wonder has published a facsimile edition of the original book, complete with colored pages:
http://www.booksofwonder.com/prodinfo.asp?number=101322
I wonder if Skottie Young repeated Neill’s in-joke regarding the Woodsman’s garden?
Oh, Marvel… you couldn’t push the publication date up from September 5 to August 22 to celebrate Ozma’s birthday? (As stated in this book.)
By the way, this might be the first example of a crossover in popular fiction… Baum used character cameos from his other fantasies to increase sales of those other titles.
God that’s pretty! Oh, and I think you’re wrong about it being the first proper sequel to the first book. Marvelous Land of Oz was the 2nd book–and not a proper sequel to many because there was no Dorothy (though it does take place after the first book, so really it’s a sequel). But Dorothy shows up in the next book, Ozma of Oz. Or are you saying it’s the first proper sequel cuz the Wizard’s in it? Anyway, Button Bright and Shaggy Man rule!
Mr, Duffy, and the Beat, the book in the series that immediately precedes this has both Dorothy and the Wizard in it, it’s called Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Road to Oz is book 5, so I wonder how it’s labeled as the first proper sequel. It’s worth noting the Shanower is a longtime Chronicler of Oz, and has been writing the adaptations for all these marvel OZ comics.
OKay okay I messed up. I need to brush up on my Oz Lore! All my books are in Maine. Guess I know what I’m doing on my next vacation.
Monopole, L. Frank Baum didn’t write the Oz books as political metaphors. Many people have thrust their own interpretations onto The Wizard of Oz and that’s fine for them if they want to play that way. But those things are what readers bring, not what the author intended.
Torsten, Books of Wonder’s Oz reprints are some of the best of the many editions recently in print. The current edition of Road offered by the Bradford Exchange also features colored stock like the original edition, but the printing of the illustrations is muddy. I prefer Books of Wonder’s.
Chris Duffy, The Marvelous Land of Oz was certainly a sequel, whether or not Dorothy was a featured character rather than merely being mentioned a couple times. Dorothy takes her second trip to Oz in the third Oz book, Ozma of Oz. The Wizard returns to Oz in the fourth Oz book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. The Road to Oz is the fifth Oz book. And the fifth I’m writing for Marvel. There are forty books in the “official” series, but who knows at this point whether Marvel will adapt them all?
Matt Jeske, you’re right that I’ve written all the current Oz comic adaptations for Marvel. Skottie Young has been the artist for all of them, and our colorist has been Jean-Francois Beaulieu and our letterer Jeff Eckleberry. I’m fortunate to be part of this great team. I have, indeed, worked on one Oz project or another, drawing or writing or both, for the entirety of my professional career. It’s been very gratifying to have this current Marvel series win awards and become a bestseller. My Forgotten Forest of Oz just came out in a treasury edition from IDW. I’ve also drawn covers for IDW’s current Dorothy of Oz Prequel series. And just this past weekend at Winkie Con 2012 I won the Research Table Non-fiction prize for my essay “The Elephants of Oz.” It doesn’t look like I’ll ever get out of Oz altogether.
The Beat Herself, one of the first things you said to me back when we met face-to-face for the first time back in 19mumblemumble was “Udge, budge, go to Mudge.” Impressive.
I’m just looking forward to the Oz-Age of Bronze crossover. That’ll be something!
Just so you all know how incredibly awesome Historian Shanower’s Oz comics are…
IDW collected his First Comics albums into the giant (342 pages) “Adventures in Oz” album, my Barnes & Noble stocked a paperback copy in graphic novels. I didn’t promote, just placed it on the oversized shelf with the other general GNs (where the good stuff usually ended up… everything not Marvel, DC, manga, or reference).
To my surprise, that $40 paperback SOLD. Continuously.
Also, that IDW edition is the THIRD publication of those stories. The second edition was published by Dark Horse back in 1992.
Aw space monkeys! The treasury edition has no EAN… guess I’ll order a copy from Hungry Tiger…
http://www.shop.hungrytigerpress.com/The-Forgotten-Forest-of-Oz-Treasury-Edition-FF-treasury.htm?categoryId=-1
Or do I wait for the Artist’s Edition?
“Third world countries”?
Do we even use such antiquated ignorant terms like this anymore?
Ed Catto, maybe as a Mad Magazine-style spoof–yeah, that could work.
Torsten, thanks for the props. A minor correction, however: Adventures in Oz from IDW wasn’t the third publication of my Oz graphic novel series. I wrote and drew 5 Oz GNs published by First Comics, 1986-1988. They were new stories founded on the Oz characters and concepts created by L. Frank Baum. When First Comics ceased publication, Dark Horse picked up my fifth Oz GN, The Blue Witch of Oz, and published it in 1992.
All five were officially out of print for years when IDW contracted with me to print a compilation of them, Adventures in Oz, in 2006. The hardcover of Adventures in Oz had 70 pages of extra art, much of it previously unpublished.
Since then, IDW has repackaged them into two small volumes, Little Adventures in Oz. And last spring they released the Treasury Edition I mentioned above, The Forgotten Forest of Oz. All these IDW editions have new covers and the Treasury Edition has some previously unpublished art inside.
Just to be clear, this Oz GN series is a separate one from the Marvel series, which is adapting the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum.
Richard H, who is “we”?