Marvel

The Marvel Comics edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has been high on the New York Times list of graphic novel bestsellers for a few weeks now. The adaption by Eric Shanower, drawn by Skottie Young, is very enjoyable, including many incidents from the original book that would be unfamiliar to fans who only know the MGM film.




The original artwork for this series of graphic novels has been available for sale online for a while, and I finally purchased a couple pieces. With so many pages available, I couldn't decide what I wanted - but as the pages I was interested in kept disappearing, I had to make a decision! In the end, I chose two pieces that deal with the Wicked Witch of the West.

The artwork by Skottie Young is very fun, and takes a fresh approach to the characters. On the original art, the initial sketching is done with blue pencil, which adds nice movement and shading to the finished piece. (See comments below concerning the blue "pencil"). It's also fascinating to see the choices made by the artist as to which lines to ink or ignore. The drawing on the left shows the Witch wearing the Golden Cap and summoning the Winged Monkeys.


There's quite a contrast between the drawing, and the printed image which has been colored. The color adds a lot of depth and atmosphere to the scene, but after seeing the original, I think a lot of Young's lovely line work gets lost.


The second drawing shows the events leading to the melting of the witch. Both drawings have a nice darkness to them, in contrast to some of the lighter, cheerier images in other parts of the story. But I have to admit, I can't help thinking of Sam Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes when I look at Dorothy's face in the final panel!

The Book Collectors Guide to L. Frank Baum & Oz

Earlier this year I men- tioned my excitement and anticipation for this new guide to the works of L. Frank Baum and later Oz authors. Having written a review for the Baum Bugle, I decided to wait a bit before reviewing the book on my blog; but now that the Bugle review has been published, I'll post a capsule review.

In a nutshell, it's a lovely book filled with all kinds of information concerning the works of Baum, his successors, and book publishing of the period. Every title is shown in full color, as well as significant binding changes, and the information for identifying editions and states is clearly presented. A number of rarities are shown, certainly a number of things I've never seen before, and there are essays throughout that juxtaposition Baum's life with his books. The portions dealing with non-Oz books by Baum are particularly handy, as this information hasn't been available in a single source before.

Paul Bienvenue and Robert Schmidt have done a fine job in assembling this book - anyone interested in Oz, Baum's writing, or collecting Oz and related books will find this a very enjoyable resource. It's as entertaining as it is informative, which isn't something that can be said for a lot of bibliographies!

Judy

In honor of the 70th anniversary of MGM's Wizard of Oz, here's a wood engraving by Barry Moser of Judy Garland as Dorothy. I'm afraid this is a little late for all the 70th anniversary hoopla that was held a couple weeks ago! This portrait was commissioned by Books of Wonder in 1987, prior to the 50th anniversary of the film. 600 prints were produced from the original woodblock.

Moser illustrated The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with a suite of wood engravings in 1984. In the book, he included a portrait of Judy Garland as the China Milkmaid in the Dainty China Country.

Wonderful People of Oz

Today I'm showing the newspaper page which was a preview to the Queer Visitors From the Marvelous Land of Oz comic series. This was published on August 28th, 1904, a week before the comics began. Quick summaries of the various characters are presented, to familiarize the readers and prepare them for the stories ahead. Illustrations by John R. Neill from The Marvelous Land of Oz were used, even though the comic page characters would be drawn by Walt McDougall.

The story summary given is interesting, as it seems to imply that the comic adventures take place during the time of the character's escape from the Emerald City in the Gump. Of course, this doesn't make sense in terms of story continuity, as Tip is not included in the comic pages. I don't know if this page was written by Baum - I suppose it may be. References are made to the stage show of The Wizard of Oz, and the siege of the Emerald City is compared to the Russians at Port Arthur!

Oz Hats

Earlier in my blog (here) I mentioned that I once had two hats from the 1981 Children's Theater Company production of The Marvelous Land of Oz. I worked at the theater while I was in college at the time, and after the show was filmed for video some of the costume pieces were tossed. These hats were disposed of, and I latched on to them.

I passed them on to my nieces, and assumed that they had long since fallen apart and disappeared. However! My sister recently visited, and as proof that she reads my blog, she delivered the two hats. I should have realized that they would still be lingering somewhere in her house. Here they are - 28 years later, somewhat worse for wear but still recognizable. The question is, what do I do with them now?

Nomes

The other new piece of Oz artwork by John R. Neill that I've recently added to my collection is this fantastic copyright page from Tik-Tok of Oz. Tik-Tok is one of the few Oz books with the majority of its artwork surviving, and many of the Oz pieces I have are from this book.

As always, the scale of Neill's artwork is wonderful, and in the case of this drawing, the characters are quite large. I have a weakness for drawings that include lettering, and I love the fact that L. Frank Baum's name is included in the drawing. Unfortunately, it's not also signed by Neill — but most of his Oz drawings from this period were unsigned. These same two nomes pop up again at the end of the book, toting a gun over the caption "The End".

The back of this drawing has a very rough simple sketch of a fireplace. Neill was frugal with his illustration boards and often used the backs for sketches, but this particular piece doesn't seem to bear any reference to an Oz drawing. The other marking on the back is a penciled price of $20 — I assume this is from an early Oz Convention, when apparently it was possible to buy original art for that price. How things have changed!

Mary and her Lamb

W. W. Denslow illustrated the rhyme of Mary and her lamb in 1901, as part of Denslow's Mother Goose. In 1903 - 1904, he published a series of 18 picture books, some of which were also based on Mother Goose rhymes. On the left is a copy of Mary Had a Little Lamb from this series - this is a later printing, as first printings of this book had a blue background on the cover.

In the illustrations for this book, Denslow clearly used the same Mary and lamb that he had created for the 1901 Mother Goose, shown on the right. The picture book gave him an opportunity to use an expanded version of the rhyme, with more illustrations. Although Mary and her lamb are the same, Mary's teacher is a woman in the picture book - in Mother Goose, Mary was taught by a man. Looking closer, the woman seems to be the same teacher used by Denslow for the rhyme "A Diller A Dollar" in Denslow's Mother Goose - maybe Mary changed classes!

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.

New Neill Art

It's always an exciting time when new pieces of Oz art by John R. Neill come into the collection. Due to scarcity and expense, this doesn't happen too often! Today I'm showing a piece that I first saw 6 years ago, and have finally managed to obtain. This drawing is from page 63 of Tik-Tok of Oz, and is the illustration of Ozga, the Rose Princess, being exiled from her kingdom due to the other rose's desire for a King. As always, Neill's line work is amazing and his ability to suggest detail through apparently random pen strokes floors me. There is also a nice contrast between fine lines and bold brushstrokes, creating a sense of depth in the drawing.

Tik-Tok involves a lot of character displacement in the course of the story line; Shaggy Man has left home on a quest to find his brother who is missing, Betsy, Hank and Polychrome have been left to wander through shipwreck and accident, Queen Ann and her army have left home and been magically misplaced, and the Rose Princess and Nome King are both exiled from their kingdoms. Even though Tik-Tok is in many ways a rewritten version of Ozma of Oz, I think it's an important book in the Oz series due to this last point — this is when the Nome King becomes the disgruntled wanderer who figures in so many other Oz books.

The roses of the Rose Kingdom are a result of L. Frank Baum's theatrical interests, and are direct de- scendants of the chorus girl Poppies from the stage show of The Wizard of Oz. Tik-Tok of Oz was based upon another venture in the theater, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, and the success of the Poppies in the earlier show must have influenced the creation of the Roses. Baum's second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, was also written with an eye to the stage. This time the magic flowers were enchanted sunflowers with girls faces. When this book became the stage show The Wogglebug, these turned up on stage as a chorus of Chrysanthemums!

Leonard Weisgard

When I was a kid I belonged to the Junior Deluxe Edition book club. One of the titles I received through the club was this version of The Wizard of Oz, with illustrations by Leonard Weisgard. It's a pretty common book that turns up regularly on eBay, and I always liked it. The illustrations are simple black and white drawings, but there is a lovely color frontispiece of the main characters in the poppy field.

Weisgard was a prolific illustrator, as well as an author, working from the 1930s up to around 1989. He worked with a number of authors, particularly Margaret Wise Brown, and won a Caldecott medal in 1947. Since his death in 2000, his family has placed his archives with the Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. For more information on Weisgard, visit his family's webpage at leonardweisgard.com.

The illustrations are copyrighted 1955, and I've always wondered whether there was an earlier, different printing of this book with these illustrations. I do have another copy of the book, this time published by Bobbs-Merrill, the longtime publishers of The Wizard of Oz. This copy has the same illustrations but a different, plainer binding and uses the Bobbs-Merrill imprint on spine and title page.

The colorful dust jacket used for both versions of the book is credited to Dick Umnitz, and manages to incorporate quite a few details from the story into one image. The stamped cover of the Junior Deluxe edition is by an uncredited artist, but they were clearly influenced by the original W. W. Denslow illustrations.

Rawle Prints

A week or two ago I acquired two of the large prints (the Kalidahs and the Attack of the Fighting Trees) that were used in the local exhibition of Graham Rawle's artwork for The Wizard of Oz. This is the largest that these images have been printed so far, and they are a great deal of fun at this size (approximately 24" x 28") - the attention to detail is impressive, as the details are more easily seen!

In the scene with the fighting tree, Dorothy is wearing her Emerald City dress, which is white since leaving the city. She has the whistle around her neck for summoning the field mice, as well as a bracelet on her wrist which was a gift from the Winkies for destroying the Wicked Witch. Toto and the Lion are both wearing gold collars, gifts from the Winkies, and the Tin Man's ax handle is now gold - another Winkie gift. His jeweled oil-can can't be seen, and neither can the Scarecrow's gold topped walking stick, but the golden cap is lying on the ground where it has fallen during the excitement. You can even see the pins and needles of the Scarecrow's new brains poking out of the top of his head!

I just think the kalidah image is a riot and a clever solution for showing bears with the heads of tigers. I laugh every time I see it.

On Rawle's website, there is a fun blog entry from last April (here) showing his supposed screen tests for the doll to play Dorothy. The variety of hopefuls is pretty humorous!

Paintings

What would summer be without an Oz project to work on? Lately I've been having fun playing with a series of small (12" x 12") paintings based on characters drawn by John R. Neill. These are colorful, purely decorative and simply a lot of fun to do!




The three I'm showing are roses taken from an illustration in Tik-Tok of Oz. I utilized some of these same images back when I painted Neill characters on my dining room walls - they make a fun subject. It's another craft endeavor using an Oz theme - I do enjoy seeing what I can come up with!

Dodd

In 1897, Rand McNally published an edition of The Evolution of Dodd with a W. W. Denslow cover. This book is a rather moralizing chastisement on the state of public education of the time, particularly in rural areas. It's interesting to see how some problems (ratio of students to teacher, etc.) never seem to change! The copy I'm showing is worn, and bears traces of a library label on the spine, but with any luck I'll run across a better copy some day.

These Rand McNally titles can prove to be surprisingly elusive, and the variations that exist for some of the covers can add to the difficulties. In the case of this title, there is a later edition which uses Denslow's lettering on the cover and spine but no image.

This title is very similar to another published in 1897, The Romance of a Child. I've shown that book before, but here it is again for the sake of comparison. The fabric and ink colors, as well as the layout of the spine are the same, and the imagery of the figures on the spine are very closely related. I can't help wondering if Denslow was working on both of these at the same time!

Chicago 1933

Since L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Chicago, and the Oz books were published there, it seems only appropriate that the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair would make use of Oz characters in the children's area called The Enchanted Island. This was basically an amusement park, and among the attractions were over-sized statues of favorite children's book characters, including the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.

Here are a pair of postcards, the one above showing the entire park and the one on the left featuring the Scarecrow statue (or Strawman as he was called on the back of the card). In the lower left of the color card, the figures of the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow can be made out - both statues are in different poses than the finished structures. These statues were unique enough to be featured on a souvenir key sold at the fair - the Scarecrow can be seen standing on the left among the figures.

During the run of the fair, a puppet show written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and titled The Magical Land of Oz was performed by the Jean Gros marionettes - for more on Gros, see this blog entry: November 8, 2008. The Spring 1997 Baum Bugle contains an article about Oz at the fair by William Stillman, with additional images.

San-Kro-Mura

I've just picked up a vintage wallpaper catalog for San-Kro- Mura brand wallpapers. I'm guessing the name San-Kro-Mura refers to sanitary, chromatic and mural - colorful mural papers with a sanitary surface (easy to wipe clean). Anyway, the catalog is interesting because it includes an image of one of the panels from the Wizard of Oz paper designed by W. W. Denslow. The catalog only shows a small picture in black & white, but it's a fun reminder of the popularity of the story in the early 20th century - long before the MGM film! In this case, there was a set of six panels, featuring characters drawn by Denslow, relating to the 1903 Broadway musical. A set of verses beneath the drawings sum up the show. This paper was probably designed around the time of that success, although this catalog is from considerably later - it refers to the artist as the "late W. W. Denzlow" (mispelling his name with a Z). Denslow died in 1915, but this catalog could be from as late as the 1920's - there is no date indicated.

The other papers shown in the catalog are also interesting. Among the nursery designs on the same page as the Oz paper are two examples taken from The Rhyme of a Run, a children's book written and illustrated by Florence Harrison, and published in 1907. The Oz paper was probably intended to be used as a frieze around a room, or as individually framed panels. I suppose the individual characters could also have been cut out and used as appliques over another paper.

Artistic wallpapering of the period seems to have involved a lot of steps, dealing with multiple borders and hand cutting details and appliques out of larger sheets to get effects like a pergola with blooming vines, or a tapestry hung on the wall. In order to apply appliques to the first layer of paper, the book recommends adding a cup of black molasses to the wallpaper paste! Having never dealt with wallpaper, I think I'll stick to paint.

Alice

This is a bit off topic as it has nothing to do with Oz, but I found it fascinating. Last night I went to an exhibit of paintings by William Holman Hunt (Victorian Pre-Raphaelite painter) and others of his circle, at the Institute of Arts. Among the paintings on display was a small panel by Arthur Hughes called Lady with the Lilacs, which had originally been in the collection of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).

I was immediately struck by how similar the girl in the painting was to Dodgson's own illustrations for Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the precursor to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I remember having once read that the author had a painting by Hughes in his collection that he possibly referred to when preparing his illustrations, but it was very fun to see the piece in question in person!

The painting was received in October, 1863, and Dodgson finished his illustrations in September, 1864. He didn't base his drawings of Alice on Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the book, but it certainly looks like he may have based them on this painting.

Along the Bosphorus

Last weekend was our local annual book fair. This was the 19th year, and I've attended every one - and I've managed to find a number of items over the years. There was a good amount of Oz related material this year, particularly a number of later reprints in dust jackets.

Here I'm showing a copy of Along the Bosphorus, which is yet another example of a Rand McNally cover design by W. W. Denslow. This is a much more delicate design than some of his other covers, and really gives an excellent sense of moonlight on the water. This copy doesn't bear his seahorse signature. The book is a collection of pieces written by Susan Wallace, the wife of Lew Wallace; he was a general in the Civil War, and the author of Ben-Hur. He was also U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire in the 1880s. Susan Wallace was an author of a few books as well, and several of the pieces in this book relate to this time period.

It's interesting to compare this cover to another title from 1898, A Cruise Along the Crescent. Both are set in exotic locales, and the covers have many similarities. Along the Bosphorus is more refined, but the same crescent moon and turrets can be seen in both examples. I think the exotic architecture brings to mind Denslow's illustrations of the Emerald City.

Shifting Sands

Shifting Sands, by Frederic Burton, is another novel published by Rand McNally in 1898 with a cover design by W. W. Denslow. The title feels prophetic, as the Shifting Sands became the name of one of the deserts surrounding the Land of Oz. I doubt that there is any connection between the two, but it's always fun to run across a coincidence of this sort. Tradition has it that L. Frank Baum's final words were "Now we can cross the Shifting Sands".

This is another example of Denslow designing a wrap-around cover. The image carries across the spine to the back, where a small couple stands looking out to sea. Denslow's ubiquitous seahorse signature is at the lower right on the front cover.

Queer Visitors

Sunday Press has produced an impressive volume of the Queer Visitors from the Land of Oz comic pages from 1904-1905. The pages are presented in full color at their original size, which really helps capture the vitality of the vintage pieces. I've always been amazed at the tiny size of the type used for L. Frank Baum's stories, but of course that left more room for the illustrations! These are some of the most ephemeral of Oz items, and it's great to have a sturdy version that will hold up to some handling - antique newsprint is delicate! The inclusion of additional material, like the full run of W. W. Denslow's Scarecrow and the Tinman comic page, is a welcome bonus. http://www.sundaypressbooks.com/index.htm

An interesting point on the original comic pages is the way they were presented by different newspapers. Decorative headers and additional borders were sometimes used, adding to the overall appeal of the pages. The Philadelphia North American was the originator of the page, and their presentation was quite simple, with the addition of an illustrated header. Apparently different papers did different things, resulting in different appearances.