Del Rey Jack Pumpkinhead

Here we have Jack Pumpkinhead crossing a chasm by means of a magic beard. This painting by Michael Herring for the Del Rey edition of Jack Pumpkinhead in Oz, gives us another exciting scene of Oz antics.

In this case, Herring isn't following the text as closely as possible - the beard should be wrapped around a tree, and Jack should be pulling himself across. John R. Neill illustrated a couple variations of this scene in the original book.

One of the things I really enjoy in Herring's paintings are the skies. I may have mentioned this before, but they really do add to the sense of enchantment in the images - particularly when they are presented in such Ozzy colors as this. In this case, the pink/lavender sky would be appropriate for either the northern Gilliken country, or for the southern Quadling country where this incident takes place.