Michael Herring's exciting cover for the Del Rey edition of The Hungry Tiger of Oz features the Hungry Tiger and friends traveling down a firefall. This would be along the same lines as a waterfall, only different... I have to admit, this painting makes me think of a circus poster - it must be something about the tiger.On the back of the tiger we have Betsy Bobbin, Prince Reddy of Rash, and the interesting fellow on the end is Carter Green, the Vegetable Man - the flames make his ears (of corn) pop. Yet another example of the puns scattered throughout the Oz books!
John R. Neill provided a color plate of this same incident for the original book. He provides a more fanciful vision of this event, with the travelers engulfed in the flames. The super-realistic style employed by Herring does remove some of the magic of the moment, but I think part of the fun of his paintings is the chance to see impossible events presented in a straightforward way. It provides an interesting contrast to Neill's images, which for me will always be the true representation of events.
The printed version of this painting crops quite a bit of the image. As usual, we are focused more closely on the characters.
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1 comment:
WOW! I love this one. Absolutely love it. I find it more striking than the others because when cropped down to the cover image, it actually changes the composition enough to alter it significantly. Uncropped, it poses a more striking and dramatic scene.
Thanks for posting this, and the others Bill!!!
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