The Ever-Changing Wizard

 In 1956, the copyright on The Wizard of Oz expired. This gave Reilly & Lee, the publishers of the rest of the Oz series, their first opportunity to publish their own version of the book. But over the next ten years, their book would change repeatedly!

To start, a new edition of the book was set up with new illustrations by Dale Ulrey. This was a more elaborate Oz book than the publishers had produced in a while. Two-color illustrations, in rust and black, were printed throughout, and the front endpapers sported a full color map of Oz. This map had previously been featured in the 1954 Who’s Who in Oz, but in a slightly different form - and not in color! The book also had a dust jacket designed by Ulrey, featuring the Wizard himself. But by 1959, this jacket was replaced with a new design drawn by Roland Roycraft, who designed jackets for a handful of other Oz titles as well.

Perhaps the wizard wasn’t grabbing enough attention? The new design was quite bright with a hot pink curtain and cartoon-like images of Dorothy and her three friends. The endpaper map was gone, but the color work was still inside - my copy has the same rust and black color scheme of the earlier version. Then, in 1960 the jacket changed again, this time to a design by Dick Martin.

Martin’s Wizard jacket is a clever concept. Not quite as childlike as the Roycraft jacket, this time we have a wraparound design showing Dorothy and friends on the cover - with the same image, shown from behind, on the rear cover. The interior of the book still features Ulrey’s two-color illustrations, but they have now been given four different secondary colors - blue, green, yellow and red - to tie in with the story (more or less), in the same way that the illustrations did in the original 1900 book.

But this cover wasn’t destined to last either - in 1964 the entire book was given another overhaul, and most of the original illustrations by W. W. Denslow (printed in two colors) were restored. Dick Martin was responsible for the redesign, and this time the cover image was printed directly on the cloth of the book, in full color. The design chosen was based on a rare poster by Denslow, advertising the original edition, and a dust jacket was no longer part of the book. (Edit - according to Michael Hearn, the earliest copies of this book were issued with a glassine dust jacket.)

And then a year later the cover changed again! This time it was based on a Denslow drawing of Dorothy being carried from the deadly poppy field, with a white background and spine. The rest of the Baum titles were given new covers as well, creating what’s now known as the “white spine” edition. This final version was the last design used on the book by Reilly & Lee, and remained in use for the next ten years.

Dale Ulrey

In looking back, I've found I never posted this drawing by Dale Ulrey for Reilly & Lee's unpublished version of Ozma of Oz. It's an interesting piece, particularly due to the changes that were made to it.

This illustration is of Ozma and friends coming across the Giant with the Hammer, a mechanical creation by the firm Smith & Tinker, the same craftsmen who created Tik-Tok. Illustration art is often adapted, or changed, or corrected before being published - unfortunately, this isn't always done with long term results in mind. There are drawings that print beautifully, but in person have had so much reworking done that they aren't very attractive. In the case of this piece, it was clear that an entire background had been thickly whited out, and the covering was flaking. I decided to have it removed to see what the original version of the drawing was, and this was the result. Not only was there a whole mountain range, but the tail of the Hungry Tiger appeared as well.

On the left, I've digitally removed the background that was hidden, as well as some browning near the Giant, to show the final intent of the drawing. In this form the image is more dynamic, with a strong diagonal thrust. The drawing could be returned to this state, but I think it makes an interesting example of the changes that illustrations go through. Also, since graphic editing is so simple to do by computer, there's no real need to physically cover the unwanted parts of the image.

Dorothy

After mentioning the Dale Ulrey-illustrated Tin Woodman of Oz in my last post, I realized I hadn't shown this drawing of Dorothy in the Nome King's ornament room, from Ozma of Oz. This drawing is interesting to me for a couple reasons.

Ulrey seemed to be trying two different styles in this series of drawings for Ozma - some are straight-forward line drawings, and others are in a more atmospheric ink wash. This piece is an ink wash drawing, similar to the version of the Scarecrow and Nome King that I showed a while back. The drawing of Dorothy looks much more finished to me than the Nome King drawing. I do wonder which direction the artist was thinking of going, line or wash?

The Dorothy in this drawing also seems to be a departure from Ulrey's depictions of her in The Wizard of Oz, and Tin Woodman of Oz. In both of those books she has short curly hair, and always struck me as more of a tomboy - here she looks a little more ladylike.

The Nome King

The Nome King is the great Oz villain. He continually re-appears with plans to conquer the Land of Oz, and enslave the Oz people. Of course, he never succeeds although he does manage to get pretty close sometimes.

This character is first introduced in Ozma of Oz, the 3rd book in the series. Here I have two variants of an illustration by Dale Ulrey for the previously mentioned 1950's edition with new illustrations, which was never published.

The first is what I consider the finished drawing, showing the Scarecrow's attack on the Nome King. The second is interesting, as it is a moodier piece done of the same subject, but with an ink wash and more atmosphere, showing more of the setting. The Nome King is a bit different too, looking more like one of Snow White's dwarves. In the upper drawing, he's very much the same Nome King that John R. Neill drew.

Dale Conner Ulrey was a comic artist, who worked as an assistant on the strip Apple Mary. She took over the strip in 1938, when the name was changed to Mary Worth's Family, and drew it until 1942. This strip is still running today as Mary Worth. Her first Oz-related work was illustrating Jaglon and the Tiger Fairies in 1953.

Ozma

Ozma of Oz, from 1907, was the 3rd Oz book by L Frank Baum, and re-introduced Dorothy Gale to the series. Ozma has one of my favorite covers from the Oz series, very bold and colorful. The original dustjacket had a completely different image, similar to a poster for the book. At left is a first edition of the book, and above are a first Canadian edition (the first Oz book published in Canada), a copy from 1913 with a partial dustjacket and a 1923 copy in dustjacket. When Reilly & Britton became Reilly & Lee in 1919, the stamped cover of the book was replaced with a paper label repeating the dustjacket design.

I do not know of any artwork surviving from this title, however I do have several pieces from a 1950's edition that never happened. Reilly and Lee were working on updating the Oz series, and started to issue the books with new illustrations by Dale Ulrey. The Tin Woodman of Oz was the first to get this treatment, followed by the first Reilly & Lee printing of The Wizard of Oz. Some illustrations were drawn by Ulrey for Ozma of Oz, but it was never put into publication. At left is a drawing of Ozma and friends before the Nome King.