Classics Illustrated Jr: The Wizard of Oz

[ozaline]

Picked this up at last year's Ozcon... and it makes some interesting choices in adaptation.

8/28








Ah the green glasses, those aren't often included, well they have a pretty good pay off when the Wizard's humbugery is revealed, right?

Speaking of the Wizard...



Not gonna hide behind any fantastic apparitions? Just meet them yourself... okay.




Huh, we're gonna have the Silver Shoes show up here?

So they come back and meet the Wizard he's not really revealed to be a fraud, and they don't take the glasses off and realize the city isn't green.

Comments

[ozaline]

Having the wizard actually be the one to resolve Dorothy's issue ruins one of the key themes of the book. I guess they ran out of room to include Glinda (I wouldn't expect them to keep the victory lap journey to Glinda's that's a bit much to ask for a single issue retelling)...

But why include the glasses if you're not going to have them come off? That space could have gone to Glinda. That's my big issue here.

[jaybee3]

One of the issues I've always had with Oz adaptations print or film/tv (apart from the lack of Ozma) is the way Glinda is presented. MGM literally conflated her with the Good Witch of the North (Locasta/Tattypoo - a minor, rarely seen character) while Glinda herself was made to be some ethereal Bille Burke. Glinda is probably the most powerful person in Oz, she rules 1/4 of it in her own right, she has her own all-female army, she has played the Kingmaker (putting Ozma on the throne) when she feels like it. She is probably extremely old, yet she looks extremely young. The last book Baum ever wrote was named after her. And yet the rare time we see her outside of the Billie Burke she is either an antagonist (to the villain protagonist) of Wicked or the quasi-love interest (which is gross if you are a book fan) in the James Franco Wizard of Oz movie "prequel" where he saves the day (ignoring the fact that in the books the Wizard actually in the end had to learn real magic from Glinda and it's made very clear who is the most important person of the two). Glinda really deserves better as a character. Even comics that reference Oz (like Fables) ignore her existence.

[ozaline]

That's one the things that the Marvel Treasury edition comics got right inspite of using the MGM likenesses, the first issue was an adaptation of the MGM movie for Glinda looked like Burke, but in the second issue inspite of the MGM likenesses used for the Tin Woodman and Scarecrow, Glinda was based on the artwork of John R Neil (and they explained if they ever had cause to show the Witch of the North she'd resemble Billie Burke). Of course the third issue was never published though it was completed cause Ozma was not in the Public domain like Marvel mistakenly thought it was.

I'm actually not opposed to the idea of Glinda, and the Wizard being a couple it was done quite well in the video game Emerald City Confidential, but yeah the Wizard is hardly a leading man type in the books.

My main problem with Oz TGAP is that Glinda was essentially combined with Ozma; she's Pastoria's daughter so at the end why is she not sitting on the throne of the Emerald City, protecting it with her very real magic, rather than the Wizard ruling with his slight of hand? I know the answer is because that's the situation in the book and MGM movie but then don't make Glinda the heir apparent of Oz.

That's ignoring earlier drafts of the script where the kiss of a witch would literally kill a mortal, because powerful women have to be desexed (so glad that was dropped for the final film). That same draft of the script even had Glinda claim that, "At the end of the day the Wizard will be sitting on my father's throne..." WHY?

There are bits I like about TGAP, but it dropped the ball in a lot of ways.

I'd also love to post the treasury comics cause in addition to being interesting on their own the first one was actually the first Marvel/DC joint venture... but they don't fit in my scanner.

[jaybee3]

Maybe it's just because these writers don't want to be bothered reading the books (I'm not a huge fan of Wicked but its clear that Maguire has done his research at least) but there seems to be an aversion to depicting Ozma for some reason (the closest we've come is Return to Oz, which is nothing like book!Ozma and explains very little about her).

Disney doesn't own the rights to the MGM movie, I have no idea why they tried to ape that and didn't focus on the Baum books (which Walt himself purchased the rights to back in the day with an idea to making them and are now in the public domain). With a company that has a billion-dollar cash cow "Disney Princess" franchise to just ignore the potential of Ozma (princess of Oz) and Dorothy (also a princess of Oz) merchandise etc. while using book material they don't have to pay rights for, in favor of making a "prequel" that makes a hero out of a male humbug (in a very pro-woman franchise) and that takes its cues from source material Disney doesn't own (so they could only wink at it) is just...puzzling from a business point of view.

I still think Ozma, in all her transgender glory (and her friendship with Dorothy) is still a story out there for a good movie or TV series. The comics (both Marvel's adaptations and Eric Shanower's own original graphic novels) have caught up to the potential but...the rest of media? I don't get it.

[ozaline]

-deleted the old post, because I realized I said something I wasn't quite ready to share-

I think the trans theme has a LOT to do with it. Comics like Oz Squad don't shy to sharply away with it, with Dorothy becoming pregnant with Ozma's child at the end. but a lot of adaptations just introduce Ozma without explaning her backstory or change it.

Thanksgiving int the Land of Oz/AKA Dorothy in the Land of Oz... Ozma's already on the throne, Dorothy dosen't meet her till the end of the story.

Chick Fil'A adapted Wizard and Ozma for it's Essential Values series but skipped Marvelous Land.

When Shirley Temple played the role of Ozma she was transformed into Tip as an adult rather than in infancy.

An early draft of Liza Minelli's Journey Back to Oz included a King Tip before dropping the character all together.

We get Mirror Ozma from Return...

there's a direct to video Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz where she claims the Wizard left her in charge of Oz.

I have mixed thoughts about the Wicked Years but I thought Tip/Ozma's relationship to Rain in Out of Oz put in some real thought, especially with Rain reflecting that she always knew on some level that Ozma was a girl.

I'm working on my own comic (nearing the scripting phase) that won't shy away from addressing Ozma's past, it's a pretty important aspect for me.

[jaybee3]

It is ironic that "Marvelous Land" get the shaft (perhaps because people don't know how to deal with it - even stuff like the Gump's attitude or the Wizard's off-stage villainy - before Baum's retcons - or Jinjur's all-girl army which was a satire on suffragettes) because I think IS JUST AS GOOD a book as the first one and yet almost nobody knows it (even Return to Oz is a cobbled together version of "Ozma of Oz" with some names and factoids from "Marvelous Land" thrown in). Later, when Baum was going through the motions and almost all his books became travelogues, he never really reached those heights again.

[ozaline]

Yeah but the Shirley Temple and Liza Minelli adaptations are Marvelous Land just with the the trans themes dulled or removed outright, so it's not just a reluctance to tackle that book because of it's lack of Dorothy.

To be fair there are some exceptions there's a stage musical version of Marvelous Land of Oz... and a faithful though horrible film adaption. Plus there's the anime TV series dubbed by Cinar (actually there's a lot of Japanese storybook adaptations A LOT!) There's also a faithful Russian adaptation though it mixes in a bit of Volkov.

I guess the Army of Revolt is a bit tricky, especially if you don't know Baum was in favour of woman's suffrage, it really is more a satire of the hysteria against women in politics. The women will stop cooking, and then were will the men be???

Two or three waves of feminism later, and it's a harder sell but still you can mix up those elements pretty easily.

[ozaline]

Oh yeah then there's the magic of the Meglin Kiddies Land of Oz adaptation from before the MGM movie. I was lucky enough to see it at a previous Ozcon (though the sound is missing from the last 1/3rd). It has Tip, no Ozma and everyone escapes Mombi on a rocket powered flying Tin Woodman at the end!

[lissa_quon]

On the topic of Oz adaptions, did MacGuire ever do anything with Tip/ Ozma in the Wicked books? I recall a cameo mention of Tip in the second book but couldn't be bothered to continue the series to see if that ever came up. I mean he might have handled it [i]interestingly[/i].

[ozaline]

Yes... Tip is a major character in the final book: Out of Oz.

Would you like to know more?

[lissa_quon]

Yea - I'm genuinely curious but probably not going to go down that weird Oz rabbit hole again.

[ozaline]

Okay.

Well Out of Oz basically is Maguire's take on Magical Land, with a bit of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz thrown in. Dorothy returns to Oz, Jinjur an Mombi overthrow Emperor Turtleshell.

And Tip who unknowingly has been kept in perpetual childhood by Mombi runs away, and gets into a relationship with Elphaba's granddaughter. When the spell is broken and Tip is revealed to be Ozma it's rather uncomfortable for Rain (the granddaughter), though she admits on some level she always knew Tip was a girl. Being Maguire it ends on a rather ambiguous and pretty sad note.

[lissa_quon]

Ah okay - interesting. Thanks!