Original Art Sundays No. 181: An Oz Sketchbook

TheBack in the saddle again. I picked up a cheap scanner. It will serve.
Today's offering: more sketchbook work. In 1998, I toyed with the idea of an Oz alphabet book for children. I was discouraged from pursuing it by peers who foresaw copyright problems, but did complete a handful of preliminary work.

loose sketch done while watching 1939 film

As a former resident of Judy Garland's home town, Oz has always been near and dear to my heart. My Mother had an old edition (but not a first printing) of Ozma of Oz, and the John Neill illustrations fascinated me. although it has my sister's name in it, the booke ended up in my library- quel suprise!
Somewhere along the way, Mother  also got an older edition of Rinkitink in Oz, which further inspired my young mind and heart. John Neill has remained a primal artistic influence. The grace of his line, couple with the energy of his figures, was quite a shock.
It does need to be said that the 1939 film was my first exposure to Oz on film. As has been documented elsewhere, it is far from faithful to the Baum book in many ways- plot lines dropped out, characters omitted, the silver slippers exchanged for ruby, and so on. Despite this, the film also had a profound effect on me, though I didn't see it in color until I was in college- we only had a black and white TV set!

A more successful sketch
from the same session

I was never a huge fan of Denslow's work on Oz, compared to Neill (and later to Eric Shanower and Skottie Young). I found Denslow's stylization odd and distracting, though it has grown on me, as evidenced by the sketch on the left. I think the Lion's expression works very well here. I also like the "big sleeve" design of the Tin Woodsman.
Really, more a playful take on a rather menacing moment from the film than anything else.
Over the years, I became more invested in Oz lore (not as much as some, but it remains a significant fascination). While my Oz library is incomplete, it does include such curiosities as Roy Krenkel's illustrated version of the first novel, Philip Jose´ Farmer's A Barnstormer In Oz, the Shanower collection of First graphic novels, and the oversize Marvel adaptation of The Land of Oz.
In planning the aforementioned Oz alphabet book, I completed a few roughs. Here they are.

Layout rough, proportions clearly need work!

The most successful pieces in this lot are the Glass Cat pages, one of which appears here. When I dig it up, I'll post the Photoshop and Illustrator created version of the Glass Cat page!

Another layout rough
of a favorite character

A sketchbook piece, more successful than its digital successor!

I love the Glass Cat's attitude! I wrote text to accompany these pages, long gone (aside from the digital version of the Glass Cat page, wherever that is now in my mountain of old work).

I completed a mockup for a pirate alphabet as an alternative to the Oz project. This was also in 1998, five years before the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. There have been quite a few pirate books for children since then. So though the project was ahead of its time, it's now dated. Go figure.

Next: back to the Surrealist Cowgirls!

Best comics of 2010: No. 8 (tie): Royal Historian of Oz

I'm from Judy Garland's home town.
When I was very young, my Mother had a 19430s Ozma of Oz with Jon Neill plates. She also had the Wizard of Oz paperback with the Krenkel illustrations.
I ended up with both books when Mother passed, and added them to my modest Oz library. Most of the Krenkel illustrations can be found at this Golden Age Comics blogpost.  Some great Jon Neill works follow it in the link.
Oz has been a big part of my life.
I'll do a separate post on Oz in comics after I'm done with this Best of 2010 run. Suffice to say that there have been some magnificent comics based on Oz, and some dreadful ones.
So when I saw this book, I was skeptical.
Many creators conflate Baum's melancholy and irony with cynicism. For some reason, there are many-far too many- "new, dark and gritty" versions of Oz. It's so tiresome. Remember the SFTV mini-series Tin Man? I believe they even used the phrase "dark and gritty" in their promos. So sad, so wrong. The worst offender in comics may be Caliber's OZ book from 1994.

 

It's powerful, sleek art. But in terms of Oz, it's just wrong, at least to my lights.
But The Royal Historian of Oz is something rare, a fresh take on a classic. It reinterprets the source material and expands on it without soiling it. As a reviewer on Guttergeek complained, "This is the sort of book that pisses me off because, like any writer, I am sick with jealousy that I did not come up with this great idea."idea.

Note the cover price! Slave Labor is to be commended for jumping on the first issue loss leader bandwagon that has served Vertigo fairly well in the last couple years.
In another growing trend, creator Scott Kovac put up a promo trailer for issue 1. Since this was also Slave Labor's contribution to 2010's Free Comic Book Day, that may have been in part an imperative from the publisher. It is one of the better trailers for I comic I've seen, and it nicely sums up some key plot points.



Here's a spread from issue 1, to give a sense of the impressive, energetic art and design.

Kovac's other comic work hasn't grabbed me. It's not bad work by any stretch, just not to my taste, but this resonates with me. It's partially due to the subject matter, of course. But I also enjoy his handling of fandom- the description of Oz fans as "a bunch of gay old men with dogs named Toto" shows an understanding of the non-fan's perception of fannish activity, as well as implying the risks of obsessive fandom.
There's also an implicit understanding of the maturing of a father-son bond as the son wakes up to what the father has really experienced, and what the father really has to offer him.
And the fantasy aspects of it are pure fun, handled with ample ingenuity.
This is only scheduled to run five issues. I hope Kovac decides he has more stories to tell in this arena, and they they all live up to the realized potential of these early issues.

Tomorrow: Best of 2010 No. 7, and issues of service.