The Wonder City of Oz

1940, undated but I think 1990s Books of Wonder edition
Written and illustrated by John R. Neill
The Wonder City of Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Good condition paperback
D+


When Thompson bowed out, Reilly & Lee chose the Imperial Illustrator for the next Royal Historian.  It made sense in a way, since he'd been creating the visual image of Oz for 35 years.  In his "Dear Boys and Girls" message, he says even he can't tell which came first, the story or the pictures.  I'll tell you what I think came first:  a concussion or an LSD trip.


Taking these in no particular order, since gosh knows the book has little order, here is some of the WTF-ness of this book:
1.  Houses that fight with each other
2.  Houses that sneeze
3.  An Ozcalator invented by Oz. C. Later, which takes the entire population of each quadrant home
4.  Citizens having the skin color of their quadrant, so that there are blue-skinned Munchkins
5.  Not only red-skinned Quadlings, but fire in'jins
6.  A Jersey girl named Jenny Jump, who becomes half-fairy because a leprechaun steals her pepper-cheese
7.  An Ozlection between Jenny and Ozma, in which shoes count as votes until the (ward) Heelers try to steal the votes
8.  The Ozlection revised to count poundage of the Oz inhabitants
9.  Jack Pumpkinhead forming a Glee Club with Ozma's shoe-votes
10.  Scraps being besties with Jack, and spending most of the book in an 8-year-old boy's swimsuit
11.  The turn-style, which creates new outfits for Jenny's customers
12.  A cameo by Polychrome in which she gets snubbed
13.  "Ojo, the elephant boy"
14.  The Wizard of Oz trying to go around incognito
15.  The Wizard of Oz performing sort of a lobotomy on Jenny, to "put her in her place"
16.  The Wizard of Oz (or was it Siko Pompus the leprechaun?) de-aging Jenny from a hard-working 15-year-old to a fun-loving 11-year-old
17.  Jenny's 12-year-old shop boy, whose entire family has specific ages they stop aging at, basically falling in love with his Boss
18.  Said shop boy being named Number Nine, since he and his siblings are numbered one through fourteen
19.  Number Nine (number nine number nine, sorry, had a Beatles moment there) being renamed Whistlebreeches, due to an outfit Jenny makes him to stop his lollygagging
20.  Scraps, Jack, and Jenny flying "last year's model" of the Ozoplane to a planet where they're thrown behind chocolate bars
21.  Whistlebreeches rescuing them via a device of the Wizard's that seems like a fancier version of the Magic Picture
22.  The inhabitants of the invaded planet invading the Wonder City (AKA the Emerald City) but being turned into little tin soldiers by the turn-style
23.  People using guide-cats to get home from the Glee Club concert in the dark
24.  The picture of the Scarecrow labeled "Scarcrow"
25.  The Scarecrow being the King of the Munchkins (is this why Ojo is an elephant boy rather than a prince?)
26.  Glinda, while still Queen of the Quadlings and a Sorceress, being just a girl chum of Ozma's and performing no magic
27.  Aunt Em and Uncle Henry's debate on spanking
28.  The Gnomes that live under Oz (rather than Ev)
29+ Anything that I've blanked out

A few of these elements might've worked, like the turn-style or the Ozlection, but it's all too much, and it's thrown in there without developing most of it.  Yes, Baum and Thompson would ramble and not have much of a plot, but there was always a sense that there was something driving the story.  Thompson was reasonably faithful to the history and characters Baum created, or at least they were never unrecognizable.  This made me feel like I was reading fanfic as bad as My Immortal.  In fact, if Dumblydore had shown up saying, "What the hell are you doing, you motherf***ers???", he would've fit right in.

On the plus side, the illustrations are good.  Wacked-out as the text, but with expressive people, lively animals, and cool buildings.  If C is average, then all of the Oz books till this point (and all the other children's books) have been at least a bit better than average.  The lack of Ozziness (and no, coming up with words like "Ozbestoz" doesn't count) brings the book down to a C-.  The insanity takes it down to a D+.  The borderline sexism and racism to a D.  And then with the illustrations back up to a D+.  Yet, I will keep this book, just in case some friend ever speaks of a book being the weirdest and/or worst children's book ever.  I can say, "Have you read The Wonder City of Oz?"

Oh, and welcome to the 1940s, we won't be here very long.