1995, first edition, from Hungry Tiger Press
David Maxine as Editor-in-Chief, Eric Shanower as Art Director
Oz Story Magazine, No. 1
Bought new for $14.95
Worn paperback
C+
Despite the title, this annual, which ran through 2000, is in the format of a tall paperback book of over 125 pages. It includes contributions from Oz historians Baum, Thompson, and Cosgrove, as well as artwork by Denslow and Neill, although it also has more modern contributions, not just from Shanower of course but a not-bad comic page called The Pathetic Losers of Oz. Overall, the pieces are uneven, with Baum's almost-50-pages-in-this-format Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea, a boys' adventure story, mostly forgettable (except for the unfortunate repeated use of the N-word). I most enjoyed the reproductions of the comic strip The Wonderland of Oz by Sprouse, with new text by Shanower.
The decade tags represent when these works were originally published, which in some cases is in this issue.
Showing posts with label Oz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oz. Show all posts
Monday, September 23, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
The Glass Cat of Oz
1995, first edition, from Emerald City Press
David Hulan
Illustrated by George O'Connor
The Glass Cat of Oz
Purchase price unknown
Slightly worn paperback
C+
Almost a century after L. Frank Baum started publishing children's books, there was a flurry of what the ad in the back calls "Exciting Oz Stories from a New Generation of Authors and Artists." I haven't read much of it and own even less. (Oz Story Magazine will be coming along later in '95.) This entry is pretty good, as Hulan not only revisits some of Baum's characters, but gets a bit meta as modern Oz fan Barry and his karate-chopping twin sister Becky travel to Oz and try to prove themselves worthy of staying. The Kleins (Jews in Oz? well, why not?) are more memorable than Tom and Twink of The Shaggy Man of Oz (1949), although it is jarring at times to have '90s (or maybe it's '80s, see below) preteens commenting on Oz traditions, from girls wearing skirts to the etiquette of males and females sharing a tent. Also, in the illustrations, Barry wears his baseball-cap backward. (I wanted Cher from Clueless to comment.)
One of the plot threads is that Betsy Bobbin is going to celebrate her 75th anniversary in Oz. And at one point Barry guesses that Trot arrived around 1914. We know that Betsy got there shortly before Trot, in 1914's book Tik-Tok of Oz. So this is roughly 1988? Maybe Hulan thought that 75th sounded better than 80th, and after all we don't know which anniversary Dorothy was celebrating in Thompson's Ozoplaning, so I'll cut him some slack on that.
Betsy wants the people (and dragon) she met on her first adventure to come to her party, so the title character visits Oogaboo and finds out that the Bad Lads of Brookville are planning to conquer that tiny queendom. A small rescue party is formed, with Barry and Becky helping out. Barry's learned how to pronounce "Pyrzqxgl," so that's a big help. (Hulan is as coy as Baum about the pronunciation.)
Hulan's writing is more intelligent than that of Neill, Snow, or Cosgrove, but I didn't feel like the plotting was very good. And I do have to say that Cowville (why not Cowtown?) is one of the duller spots in Oz, and the Elsie the Cow joke ranks down there with Snow's Charlie McCarthy reference. On the other hand, the comparison of the Tin Woodman's statue of Dorothy to Judy Garland is extra meta, considering that the illustration in Road was Neill's commentary on Denslow.
Ah, yes, illustration. I would probably give this a B- if it weren't for O'Connor. He's not as dreadful as Kramer or Dirk, but he's at best competent. I didn't like how the twins' freckles look like pimples that are about to burst. I didn't think he captured any of the Ozites, even Bungle, who, let's face it, can't be that hard to draw. I was amused that he gave Salye milkmaid's cleavage on p. 37, especially since there's some mild sexual tension later between her and the oldest Bad Lad. Not the one whose bottom is briefly bared.
Oh, yeah, perhaps because this book is inspired by Tik-Tok, all the chapter titles are alliterative, the longest being "Trot's Team Takes on the Twins."
David Hulan
Illustrated by George O'Connor
The Glass Cat of Oz
Purchase price unknown
Slightly worn paperback
C+
Almost a century after L. Frank Baum started publishing children's books, there was a flurry of what the ad in the back calls "Exciting Oz Stories from a New Generation of Authors and Artists." I haven't read much of it and own even less. (Oz Story Magazine will be coming along later in '95.) This entry is pretty good, as Hulan not only revisits some of Baum's characters, but gets a bit meta as modern Oz fan Barry and his karate-chopping twin sister Becky travel to Oz and try to prove themselves worthy of staying. The Kleins (Jews in Oz? well, why not?) are more memorable than Tom and Twink of The Shaggy Man of Oz (1949), although it is jarring at times to have '90s (or maybe it's '80s, see below) preteens commenting on Oz traditions, from girls wearing skirts to the etiquette of males and females sharing a tent. Also, in the illustrations, Barry wears his baseball-cap backward. (I wanted Cher from Clueless to comment.)
One of the plot threads is that Betsy Bobbin is going to celebrate her 75th anniversary in Oz. And at one point Barry guesses that Trot arrived around 1914. We know that Betsy got there shortly before Trot, in 1914's book Tik-Tok of Oz. So this is roughly 1988? Maybe Hulan thought that 75th sounded better than 80th, and after all we don't know which anniversary Dorothy was celebrating in Thompson's Ozoplaning, so I'll cut him some slack on that.
Betsy wants the people (and dragon) she met on her first adventure to come to her party, so the title character visits Oogaboo and finds out that the Bad Lads of Brookville are planning to conquer that tiny queendom. A small rescue party is formed, with Barry and Becky helping out. Barry's learned how to pronounce "Pyrzqxgl," so that's a big help. (Hulan is as coy as Baum about the pronunciation.)
Hulan's writing is more intelligent than that of Neill, Snow, or Cosgrove, but I didn't feel like the plotting was very good. And I do have to say that Cowville (why not Cowtown?) is one of the duller spots in Oz, and the Elsie the Cow joke ranks down there with Snow's Charlie McCarthy reference. On the other hand, the comparison of the Tin Woodman's statue of Dorothy to Judy Garland is extra meta, considering that the illustration in Road was Neill's commentary on Denslow.
Ah, yes, illustration. I would probably give this a B- if it weren't for O'Connor. He's not as dreadful as Kramer or Dirk, but he's at best competent. I didn't like how the twins' freckles look like pimples that are about to burst. I didn't think he captured any of the Ozites, even Bungle, who, let's face it, can't be that hard to draw. I was amused that he gave Salye milkmaid's cleavage on p. 37, especially since there's some mild sexual tension later between her and the oldest Bad Lad. Not the one whose bottom is briefly bared.
Oh, yeah, perhaps because this book is inspired by Tik-Tok, all the chapter titles are alliterative, the longest being "Trot's Team Takes on the Twins."
Sunday, October 14, 2012
The Making of "The Wizard of Oz"
1977, 1989 Delta edition
Aljean Harmetz
The Making of "The Wizard of Oz": Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM-- And the Miracle of Production #1060
Bought new for $12.95
Worn paperback
B
Originally released the same year as The Oz Scrapbook, this covers some of the same territory of course, but with the focus on the 1939 movie. Harmetz was able to interview many of the survivors who'd worked on the film, many of whom would die in the dozen years before this edition came out. The content seems mostly unchanged, except she updates some of the statistics and acknowledges the passing of, among others, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, and Margaret Hamilton. (I'm not sure if he was the last of the cast to go, but I remember a couple years ago when Meinhardt Raabe, the Munchkin Coroner, himself became "really most sincerely dead."
Not only does Harmetz look back to Hollywood's Golden Age, but reading the book now evokes that period in the early '70s when the studios literally threw away much of their history, and Debbie Reynolds was the only movie star to bid on the Ruby Slippers at the MGM auction. (One pair was offered for $2 million last December but didn't sell, so it's funny to read of Debbie not being able to match the winning bid of $15,000, an astounding amount in 1970.) Such issues as overtime and risk, comparing the 1930s to four decades later, come up, as when MGM didn't seem to care about the injuries to, among others, Hamilton and Buddy Ebsen (the original Tin Man, who had an allergic reaction to the make-up).
My favorite parts are about the Wicked Witch, with Hamilton's no-nonsense attitude a hoot. (She points out that legally the Witch should've inherited the slippers from her sister.) It's also fun to read the sometimes overwrought earlier drafts of the script. (For years, my ex-husband and I would deliberately misquote the line of the Tin Man's love interest, Lizzie Smithers, as "I should've stayed in bed with the Tin Man," but honestly, the real line, "Why did I ever leave the Tin Man? Oooh, I wish I was home in bed!" isn't much better.)
As with The Oz Scrapbook, the book is generally even-handed, although I think she's too harsh on the later Baum Oz books. To her credit though, she does see the turning of Oz into a dream as a weakening of the book's realistic fantasy. She offers different versions of some stories, letting readers decide which interviewee is most believable. There are many illustrations, including some in color. The book overlaps a little with John Lahr's biography of his father, but includes some information on Bert Lahr that that book from eight years before did not. Harmetz and the people she interviews, including songwriter Yip Harburg, seem less enthusiastic about The Wiz than Greene and Martin were.
Harburg's biography, Who Put the Rainbow in "The Wizard of Oz"?, will come along in 1993, and as the title suggests, The Wizard of Oz ended up being the greatest legacy in the careers of nearly everyone who helped make it.
Aljean Harmetz
The Making of "The Wizard of Oz": Movie Magic and Studio Power in the Prime of MGM-- And the Miracle of Production #1060
Bought new for $12.95
Worn paperback
B
Originally released the same year as The Oz Scrapbook, this covers some of the same territory of course, but with the focus on the 1939 movie. Harmetz was able to interview many of the survivors who'd worked on the film, many of whom would die in the dozen years before this edition came out. The content seems mostly unchanged, except she updates some of the statistics and acknowledges the passing of, among others, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, and Margaret Hamilton. (I'm not sure if he was the last of the cast to go, but I remember a couple years ago when Meinhardt Raabe, the Munchkin Coroner, himself became "really most sincerely dead."
Not only does Harmetz look back to Hollywood's Golden Age, but reading the book now evokes that period in the early '70s when the studios literally threw away much of their history, and Debbie Reynolds was the only movie star to bid on the Ruby Slippers at the MGM auction. (One pair was offered for $2 million last December but didn't sell, so it's funny to read of Debbie not being able to match the winning bid of $15,000, an astounding amount in 1970.) Such issues as overtime and risk, comparing the 1930s to four decades later, come up, as when MGM didn't seem to care about the injuries to, among others, Hamilton and Buddy Ebsen (the original Tin Man, who had an allergic reaction to the make-up).
My favorite parts are about the Wicked Witch, with Hamilton's no-nonsense attitude a hoot. (She points out that legally the Witch should've inherited the slippers from her sister.) It's also fun to read the sometimes overwrought earlier drafts of the script. (For years, my ex-husband and I would deliberately misquote the line of the Tin Man's love interest, Lizzie Smithers, as "I should've stayed in bed with the Tin Man," but honestly, the real line, "Why did I ever leave the Tin Man? Oooh, I wish I was home in bed!" isn't much better.)
As with The Oz Scrapbook, the book is generally even-handed, although I think she's too harsh on the later Baum Oz books. To her credit though, she does see the turning of Oz into a dream as a weakening of the book's realistic fantasy. She offers different versions of some stories, letting readers decide which interviewee is most believable. There are many illustrations, including some in color. The book overlaps a little with John Lahr's biography of his father, but includes some information on Bert Lahr that that book from eight years before did not. Harmetz and the people she interviews, including songwriter Yip Harburg, seem less enthusiastic about The Wiz than Greene and Martin were.
Harburg's biography, Who Put the Rainbow in "The Wizard of Oz"?, will come along in 1993, and as the title suggests, The Wizard of Oz ended up being the greatest legacy in the careers of nearly everyone who helped make it.
The Oz Scrapbook
1977, first edition, from Random House
David L. Greene and Dick Martin
The Oz Scrapbook
Bought new for $10.00
Good condition hardcover with worn dustjacket
B
By the time I got this book, I was 9 and a huge Oz fan. I even regretted that Ruth Plumly Thompson had died the previous year and I'd never get to meet her, although at that point I only knew of her books from my 52-year-old father. I think I'd read all of Baum's fourteen Oz books, and maybe Mo and/or Zixi as well. The 1939 movie was also a favorite. So this book, especially all the illustrations, a few of them in color, was a delight.
Thirty-five years later, it holds up pretty well, although of course it is dated. The Wiz (which to this day I've only seen bits and pieces of) did not, as they predicted, influence future Oz movies. As I mentioned in my review of Tin Woodman, their opinions of the individual books affected my assessments as a child and even on the rereads for this blog. They're even-handed, harsh when they have to be, as with the abysmal animation in NBC's Return to Oz (1964). Martin illustrated Merry Go Round in Oz, and both men were friends with Thompson, so there are times when they seem a little too gentle about Baum's successors, or Neill's. They don't address the racism of Baum or Thompson, although there is a brief discussion of feminism in Land of Oz.
With so many photos and drawings, the text is overshadowed at times, even for an adult reader. Generally a solid book, still with useful information, as long as you don't mind the omission of later Oz spin-offs, such as Wicked, the novel and musical, or even the more (in)famous Return to Oz, the visually impressive but disturbing 1985 movie.
David L. Greene and Dick Martin
The Oz Scrapbook
Bought new for $10.00
Good condition hardcover with worn dustjacket
B
By the time I got this book, I was 9 and a huge Oz fan. I even regretted that Ruth Plumly Thompson had died the previous year and I'd never get to meet her, although at that point I only knew of her books from my 52-year-old father. I think I'd read all of Baum's fourteen Oz books, and maybe Mo and/or Zixi as well. The 1939 movie was also a favorite. So this book, especially all the illustrations, a few of them in color, was a delight.
Thirty-five years later, it holds up pretty well, although of course it is dated. The Wiz (which to this day I've only seen bits and pieces of) did not, as they predicted, influence future Oz movies. As I mentioned in my review of Tin Woodman, their opinions of the individual books affected my assessments as a child and even on the rereads for this blog. They're even-handed, harsh when they have to be, as with the abysmal animation in NBC's Return to Oz (1964). Martin illustrated Merry Go Round in Oz, and both men were friends with Thompson, so there are times when they seem a little too gentle about Baum's successors, or Neill's. They don't address the racism of Baum or Thompson, although there is a brief discussion of feminism in Land of Oz.
With so many photos and drawings, the text is overshadowed at times, even for an adult reader. Generally a solid book, still with useful information, as long as you don't mind the omission of later Oz spin-offs, such as Wicked, the novel and musical, or even the more (in)famous Return to Oz, the visually impressive but disturbing 1985 movie.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Hidden Valley of Oz
1951, 1991 International Wizard of Oz edition
Rachel R. Cosgrove
Illustrated by "Dirk" (Dirk Gringuis)
Hidden Valley of Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C
A giant pink-eyed rat waves to a little boy and very cartoony versions of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Hungry Tiger. Oh boy! I can't wait to read this!
Maybe in the early 1950s, the artwork didn't stand out as so bad, but it certainly doesn't look inviting now. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, and this is indeed a much weaker book than The Lion, tWatW. I didn't read it till I was an adult, but I can't imagine ever enjoying it as much as Baum. The writing is OK. Cosgrove has some creative ideas, like Spots the Leopard who changes, well, his spots. But she shows a Thompsonian liking for rambling. Characters will show up and then leave, for almost no reason in either case. Again like Thompson, she gives Dorothy almost nothing to do. Not that the Snowically-badly named protagonist "Jam" has much to do either. The actual hero is the aforementioned rat, Percy the Personality Kid, who calls everyone "kiddo."
One thing that Cosgrove does better than the other Royal Historians, including Baum, is write doggerel. She's got some clever rhymes for the Rhyming Dictionary, a citizen of Bookville. I wish she'd been given the task of going back and rewriting the poetry in most of the previous Oz books, particularly some of Thompson's. As for writing a full-length Oz book, well, obviously it's not the worst. She shows more knowledge of Oz than Neill did, and of course more sanity. Given an artist who could improve and a second chance, like Snow got, her second book would probably get a B-.
And in fact, in her forty-years-later Afterword, she tells of her then still unreleased Wicked Witch of Oz. The International Wizard of Oz Club published it in '93, five years before her death. I've never read it, but I do appreciate that they got Eric Shanower, the best modern Oz artist, to do the illustrations. Dirk died in '74, after illustrating three Boxcar Children books among others. Presumably, he'd improved by then.
There's one more book of the Famous Forty. For years and years, I've been hearing that it's a vast improvement over the post-Thompson stories. So of course I've never seen Merry Go Round in Oz (1963). I suppose I could get it as an interlibrary loan, but it wouldn't fit in with this project. We'll see how I feel when I get up to '63, since I could mention it briefly in another post.
Rachel R. Cosgrove
Illustrated by "Dirk" (Dirk Gringuis)
Hidden Valley of Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C
A giant pink-eyed rat waves to a little boy and very cartoony versions of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Hungry Tiger. Oh boy! I can't wait to read this!
Maybe in the early 1950s, the artwork didn't stand out as so bad, but it certainly doesn't look inviting now. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, and this is indeed a much weaker book than The Lion, tWatW. I didn't read it till I was an adult, but I can't imagine ever enjoying it as much as Baum. The writing is OK. Cosgrove has some creative ideas, like Spots the Leopard who changes, well, his spots. But she shows a Thompsonian liking for rambling. Characters will show up and then leave, for almost no reason in either case. Again like Thompson, she gives Dorothy almost nothing to do. Not that the Snowically-badly named protagonist "Jam" has much to do either. The actual hero is the aforementioned rat, Percy the Personality Kid, who calls everyone "kiddo."
One thing that Cosgrove does better than the other Royal Historians, including Baum, is write doggerel. She's got some clever rhymes for the Rhyming Dictionary, a citizen of Bookville. I wish she'd been given the task of going back and rewriting the poetry in most of the previous Oz books, particularly some of Thompson's. As for writing a full-length Oz book, well, obviously it's not the worst. She shows more knowledge of Oz than Neill did, and of course more sanity. Given an artist who could improve and a second chance, like Snow got, her second book would probably get a B-.
And in fact, in her forty-years-later Afterword, she tells of her then still unreleased Wicked Witch of Oz. The International Wizard of Oz Club published it in '93, five years before her death. I've never read it, but I do appreciate that they got Eric Shanower, the best modern Oz artist, to do the illustrations. Dirk died in '74, after illustrating three Boxcar Children books among others. Presumably, he'd improved by then.
There's one more book of the Famous Forty. For years and years, I've been hearing that it's a vast improvement over the post-Thompson stories. So of course I've never seen Merry Go Round in Oz (1963). I suppose I could get it as an interlibrary loan, but it wouldn't fit in with this project. We'll see how I feel when I get up to '63, since I could mention it briefly in another post.
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Shaggy Man of Oz
1949, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Jack Snow
Illustrated by Frank Kramer
The Shaggy Man of Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
This is an improvement over Magical Mimics in every regard. First of all, yes, the illustrations are much better, never reaching Neill's heights, seldom reaching his depths, but thoroughly competent. The writing is better, too, with more interesting places to visit, including the Valley of Romance, where denizens of a castle are forced to put on plays every night. Conjo, the villain, is a bit like old-school Roquat, before he became embittered Ruggedo. The Nomes (yes, we're back to Baum's spelling) have an impact on the story, since Snow forgets that the tunnel in Emerald City was all filled in.
The title character and the other protagonists aren't too memorable though, other than the goshawful names Snow comes up with: Twink and Tom, being the scarcely better nicknames for twins Abbadiah and Zebbidiah; and third-cousin wooden clowns (don't ask) Twiffle and Twoffle. The twins and one of the clowns travel via a television to the Island of Conjo. So, yes, 1949 is the Year of Books Where Televisions Do Amazing Things. (Too bad Colette didn't compare an orchid to a TV.)
Although Snow tried to emulate Baum, I was reminded of Thompson in four ways, three of them to do with Cowardly Lion of Oz. There's an unfunny clown, a car that flies, and a trip to a land in the sky. Also, Snow has a previously untapped potential for unintentional innuendo, with his fairy beavers (that Tom wants to fondle) and the frequent use of "arouse" for "rouse." Nothing like classic Thompson, but more than she managed in Ozoplaning.
Snow wrote Who's Who in Oz (1954), which I've always heard good things about, but this was his last full-length Oz story. He died in 1956, while Thompson lived on for another two decades. As for Oz, well, the next of the Famous Forty isn't too far off. But this is it for my 1940s books. See, I told you we wouldn't be here long.
Jack Snow
Illustrated by Frank Kramer
The Shaggy Man of Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
This is an improvement over Magical Mimics in every regard. First of all, yes, the illustrations are much better, never reaching Neill's heights, seldom reaching his depths, but thoroughly competent. The writing is better, too, with more interesting places to visit, including the Valley of Romance, where denizens of a castle are forced to put on plays every night. Conjo, the villain, is a bit like old-school Roquat, before he became embittered Ruggedo. The Nomes (yes, we're back to Baum's spelling) have an impact on the story, since Snow forgets that the tunnel in Emerald City was all filled in.
The title character and the other protagonists aren't too memorable though, other than the goshawful names Snow comes up with: Twink and Tom, being the scarcely better nicknames for twins Abbadiah and Zebbidiah; and third-cousin wooden clowns (don't ask) Twiffle and Twoffle. The twins and one of the clowns travel via a television to the Island of Conjo. So, yes, 1949 is the Year of Books Where Televisions Do Amazing Things. (Too bad Colette didn't compare an orchid to a TV.)
Although Snow tried to emulate Baum, I was reminded of Thompson in four ways, three of them to do with Cowardly Lion of Oz. There's an unfunny clown, a car that flies, and a trip to a land in the sky. Also, Snow has a previously untapped potential for unintentional innuendo, with his fairy beavers (that Tom wants to fondle) and the frequent use of "arouse" for "rouse." Nothing like classic Thompson, but more than she managed in Ozoplaning.
Snow wrote Who's Who in Oz (1954), which I've always heard good things about, but this was his last full-length Oz story. He died in 1956, while Thompson lived on for another two decades. As for Oz, well, the next of the Famous Forty isn't too far off. But this is it for my 1940s books. See, I told you we wouldn't be here long.
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Magical Mimics in Oz
1946, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Jack Snow
Illustrated by Frank Kramer
The Magical Mimics in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C
If it weren't for the sometimes horrible art, I'd probably give this a C+, since the writing is on a level with Thompson and Baum at their weakest. Neill, after publishing two more books beyond Wonder City and leaving behind a manuscript for another, died in 1943. I don't miss him as a writer but, man, do I miss him as an illustrator! Kramer is at best passable, as with Scraps and the Wizard. But he can't manage Dorothy and at one point gives her scary sunken eyes. Snow had a horror background and Kramer would be fine if this were purely a horror story, as it verges on with the identity-stealing villains. Even the benign pine people seem terrifying on the cover, with their round, rosy cheeks that look like explosives. Kramer does try for humor at times, especially with Toto, but it's leaden compared to Neill's whimsicality.
Snow, born in '07, was a huge Oz fan from childhood, but he disliked Thompson and Neill's books to the point that he hoped Reilly & Lee would drop them, which seems to be going a bit far, particularly since it's not as if Snow was a better writer than Thompson. He is faithful to Baum, mentioning Lurline and Merryland, and I can't accuse him of misreading the Original Fourteen Oz books, as Neill seems to have. At times, he even quotes/plagiarizes lines from Baum. It's just, I can't say I'm particularly drawn into the story. It's OK but not memorable, not unlike Purple Prince. Also, I'm irritated by the laxness of Ozana, Ozma's first cousin who's supposed to be keeping an eye on the Mimics but gets distracted by gardening and carpentry.
The Pineville couple we meet have a mischievous, complaining son named Charlie. The Wizard owns a radio, so he knows what happened to the lad. Yes, there's a Charlie McCarthy joke in an Oz book. Wait till we get to Snow's next story....
Jack Snow
Illustrated by Frank Kramer
The Magical Mimics in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C
If it weren't for the sometimes horrible art, I'd probably give this a C+, since the writing is on a level with Thompson and Baum at their weakest. Neill, after publishing two more books beyond Wonder City and leaving behind a manuscript for another, died in 1943. I don't miss him as a writer but, man, do I miss him as an illustrator! Kramer is at best passable, as with Scraps and the Wizard. But he can't manage Dorothy and at one point gives her scary sunken eyes. Snow had a horror background and Kramer would be fine if this were purely a horror story, as it verges on with the identity-stealing villains. Even the benign pine people seem terrifying on the cover, with their round, rosy cheeks that look like explosives. Kramer does try for humor at times, especially with Toto, but it's leaden compared to Neill's whimsicality.
Snow, born in '07, was a huge Oz fan from childhood, but he disliked Thompson and Neill's books to the point that he hoped Reilly & Lee would drop them, which seems to be going a bit far, particularly since it's not as if Snow was a better writer than Thompson. He is faithful to Baum, mentioning Lurline and Merryland, and I can't accuse him of misreading the Original Fourteen Oz books, as Neill seems to have. At times, he even quotes/plagiarizes lines from Baum. It's just, I can't say I'm particularly drawn into the story. It's OK but not memorable, not unlike Purple Prince. Also, I'm irritated by the laxness of Ozana, Ozma's first cousin who's supposed to be keeping an eye on the Mimics but gets distracted by gardening and carpentry.
The Pineville couple we meet have a mischievous, complaining son named Charlie. The Wizard owns a radio, so he knows what happened to the lad. Yes, there's a Charlie McCarthy joke in an Oz book. Wait till we get to Snow's next story....
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz
1939, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ozoplaning with the Wizard in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
Continuing the sci-fi note of Silver Princess, Thompson this time puts seven of the characters from the first Oz book into outer space, via the wizard's Ozoplanes. One of these characters is the Tin Woodman, which is honestly the first memorable thing she's had him do since polish himself when the Emerald Palace was attacked in Kabumpo. The character who's not given much to do is, perhaps not surprisingly but still annoyingly, Dorothy. She and her first Oz friends, including the Soldier with the Green Whiskers renamed Wantowin Battles, gather to celebrate her (unspecified) anniversary of arrival in the Emerald City. But the heroine of the story is Jellia Jam [sic]. Thompson gives her a saucy but clever personality, not too far from the minx of the second book. Neill draws her with an upswept late '30s do.
As for the Wizard, he invents the Ozoplanes and some other devices, but he's a supporting character, despite getting his name in the title for the third or fourth time. (I'm not sure how to count the Little Wizard books that Baum wrote, especially since I've never read them.) His tell-all-escope doesn't tell all, since it gives his background without the whole accessory to Ozma's kidnapping thing.
As the quite good afterword by Michael Patrick Hearn describes, Thompson had very mixed feelings about Oz by the mid-1930s, but reluctantly stayed on. She had issues with the Baum family and with Reilly & Lee. And then along came a certain MGM adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. This book had to tie in with the new movie, which is why the cover looks the way it does, with the Tin Woodman, Wizard, and Scarecrow all greeting something in the sky, the words "The Wizard of Oz" larger than any others.
Thompson got fed up, and financially independent, enough to quit, but she had produced nineteen Oz books, which is why, even though I'm missing a few, I've still read more of hers than of Baum's. Her output isn't bad but it's rarely on the level of the originals. This last one does show bursts of imagination, but the plotting is weak, particularly the introduction of yet another dispossessed young royal, once the travelers are back in Oz. Still, this story, even when the Wizard and friends are plummeting to Earth on an iceberg, doesn't compare to the insanity of what came next....
P.S. I couldn't find any innuendo! Although it is weird that there's a husband and wife deer couple.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ozoplaning with the Wizard in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
Continuing the sci-fi note of Silver Princess, Thompson this time puts seven of the characters from the first Oz book into outer space, via the wizard's Ozoplanes. One of these characters is the Tin Woodman, which is honestly the first memorable thing she's had him do since polish himself when the Emerald Palace was attacked in Kabumpo. The character who's not given much to do is, perhaps not surprisingly but still annoyingly, Dorothy. She and her first Oz friends, including the Soldier with the Green Whiskers renamed Wantowin Battles, gather to celebrate her (unspecified) anniversary of arrival in the Emerald City. But the heroine of the story is Jellia Jam [sic]. Thompson gives her a saucy but clever personality, not too far from the minx of the second book. Neill draws her with an upswept late '30s do.
As for the Wizard, he invents the Ozoplanes and some other devices, but he's a supporting character, despite getting his name in the title for the third or fourth time. (I'm not sure how to count the Little Wizard books that Baum wrote, especially since I've never read them.) His tell-all-escope doesn't tell all, since it gives his background without the whole accessory to Ozma's kidnapping thing.
As the quite good afterword by Michael Patrick Hearn describes, Thompson had very mixed feelings about Oz by the mid-1930s, but reluctantly stayed on. She had issues with the Baum family and with Reilly & Lee. And then along came a certain MGM adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. This book had to tie in with the new movie, which is why the cover looks the way it does, with the Tin Woodman, Wizard, and Scarecrow all greeting something in the sky, the words "The Wizard of Oz" larger than any others.
Thompson got fed up, and financially independent, enough to quit, but she had produced nineteen Oz books, which is why, even though I'm missing a few, I've still read more of hers than of Baum's. Her output isn't bad but it's rarely on the level of the originals. This last one does show bursts of imagination, but the plotting is weak, particularly the introduction of yet another dispossessed young royal, once the travelers are back in Oz. Still, this story, even when the Wizard and friends are plummeting to Earth on an iceberg, doesn't compare to the insanity of what came next....
P.S. I couldn't find any innuendo! Although it is weird that there's a husband and wife deer couple.
Monday, May 21, 2012
The Silver Princess in Oz
1938, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Silver Princess in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C+
OK, let's start with the pluses. This is the best of the Prince & Princess romances in the Thompson books. Randy has grown up from the 10-year-old in Purple Prince to a 16-year-old who's really 20, and therefore old enough to get married. He falls in love at first sight with Planetty, the Princess from Anuther Planet. (Not to be confused with Brother from Another Planet.) The Neill drawings of the couple are charming, whether they're making goo-goo eyes or storming a palace. Planetty's animal, Thun the Thundercolt, is (like her) metallic but (unlike her) silent and fiery. Randy is accompanied by Kabumpo, and this is probably the book where I find the elephant least annoying, since for once he's not scorning everyone they meet.
The minuses. I'm not crazy about the ending, since Planetty and Thun lose some of what makes them special in order to live on Earth. Most of the lands visited are forgettable, in particular Gaper's Gulch, as if Thompson needed to put in another lethargic kingdom after Pokes and Fix City in Royal Book. The land of tickling feathers, whatever it's called, is pointless, except to prove how strong Thun and Planetty are. The Box Wood is OK. And I like the concept of Nonagon Island, which sounds smaller than Octagon Island.
Randy and Kabumpo meet the aliens on their way to visit Jinnicky the Red Jinn. They come in the midst of a revolution. And here we get to the racism. Not only are Jinnicky's people slaves, they are black slaves, who speak and look like turn-of-the-century stereotypes of American blacks. The torn nature of this book is literally illustrated by the pictures on pp. 176-77. On the left, we have beautiful and brave Planetty and her noble steed attacking, and on the left we have two black men running away, their hair scraggly, their facial features grotesquely exaggerated.
Since I prefer innuendo greatly to racism, it's disappointing that Thompson put her energy for inappropriateness in this direction. The best she can come up with for suggestiveness is "the Red Jinn trying to beat off the fisherman with his puny hands."
The afterword, by Thompson's niece, of course doesn't address the racism, but it is notable that she refers to how Thompson lost her father at a young age, which is why she had to support her mother and siblings. Perhaps that's why fathers (and father figures) are so much more important than mothers in her Oz books, even in this book where a princess is born from a spring.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Silver Princess in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
C+
OK, let's start with the pluses. This is the best of the Prince & Princess romances in the Thompson books. Randy has grown up from the 10-year-old in Purple Prince to a 16-year-old who's really 20, and therefore old enough to get married. He falls in love at first sight with Planetty, the Princess from Anuther Planet. (Not to be confused with Brother from Another Planet.) The Neill drawings of the couple are charming, whether they're making goo-goo eyes or storming a palace. Planetty's animal, Thun the Thundercolt, is (like her) metallic but (unlike her) silent and fiery. Randy is accompanied by Kabumpo, and this is probably the book where I find the elephant least annoying, since for once he's not scorning everyone they meet.
The minuses. I'm not crazy about the ending, since Planetty and Thun lose some of what makes them special in order to live on Earth. Most of the lands visited are forgettable, in particular Gaper's Gulch, as if Thompson needed to put in another lethargic kingdom after Pokes and Fix City in Royal Book. The land of tickling feathers, whatever it's called, is pointless, except to prove how strong Thun and Planetty are. The Box Wood is OK. And I like the concept of Nonagon Island, which sounds smaller than Octagon Island.
Randy and Kabumpo meet the aliens on their way to visit Jinnicky the Red Jinn. They come in the midst of a revolution. And here we get to the racism. Not only are Jinnicky's people slaves, they are black slaves, who speak and look like turn-of-the-century stereotypes of American blacks. The torn nature of this book is literally illustrated by the pictures on pp. 176-77. On the left, we have beautiful and brave Planetty and her noble steed attacking, and on the left we have two black men running away, their hair scraggly, their facial features grotesquely exaggerated.
Since I prefer innuendo greatly to racism, it's disappointing that Thompson put her energy for inappropriateness in this direction. The best she can come up with for suggestiveness is "the Red Jinn trying to beat off the fisherman with his puny hands."
The afterword, by Thompson's niece, of course doesn't address the racism, but it is notable that she refers to how Thompson lost her father at a young age, which is why she had to support her mother and siblings. Perhaps that's why fathers (and father figures) are so much more important than mothers in her Oz books, even in this book where a princess is born from a spring.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Handy Mandy in Oz
1937, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Handy Mandy in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
For a change, Thompson has a female main character, with the boy prince only a minor character. Handy Mandy is brave and funny, as well as seven-handed. She's sort of a Swiss miss, although she lives on Mt. Mern and Neill makes her look Dutch. Apparently, in Pirates in Oz or one of the other Thompsons I'm missing, Ruggedo was transformed into a jug, and there was a prophecy about a seven-armed Mernite being the only one who could free him. Uh oh. At the end of this story, he's transformed into a cactus, and no Royal Historian has disenchanted him yet.
Nox the Ox is one of the less obnoxious animal characters, and he and Mandy team up to free little Prince Kerry. Along the way, they run into Hookers, men with hook-noses, and Topsies, spinning characters who are black with woolly hair (see Uncle Tom's Cabin). Because, you know, it wouldn't be a Thompson book without innuendo and/or racism. And, yes, there's Scraps-bashing, in order to make the Scarecrow look good in comparison.
As with Captain Salt, Neill is in his 1930s renaissance, sometimes using two-page illustrations and generally seeming a lot more inspired by the stories than he has in over 15 years. There's an old-school Neill castle but there's also an action-shot of an underground "scenic railway." If I remember correctly, his pictures in the next Oz book are gorgeous, and it helps to offset Thompson at her most racist.
Oh, and while this book still has the Munchkins in the West, Thompson has learned to spell "Gillikin."
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Handy Mandy in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
For a change, Thompson has a female main character, with the boy prince only a minor character. Handy Mandy is brave and funny, as well as seven-handed. She's sort of a Swiss miss, although she lives on Mt. Mern and Neill makes her look Dutch. Apparently, in Pirates in Oz or one of the other Thompsons I'm missing, Ruggedo was transformed into a jug, and there was a prophecy about a seven-armed Mernite being the only one who could free him. Uh oh. At the end of this story, he's transformed into a cactus, and no Royal Historian has disenchanted him yet.
Nox the Ox is one of the less obnoxious animal characters, and he and Mandy team up to free little Prince Kerry. Along the way, they run into Hookers, men with hook-noses, and Topsies, spinning characters who are black with woolly hair (see Uncle Tom's Cabin). Because, you know, it wouldn't be a Thompson book without innuendo and/or racism. And, yes, there's Scraps-bashing, in order to make the Scarecrow look good in comparison.
As with Captain Salt, Neill is in his 1930s renaissance, sometimes using two-page illustrations and generally seeming a lot more inspired by the stories than he has in over 15 years. There's an old-school Neill castle but there's also an action-shot of an underground "scenic railway." If I remember correctly, his pictures in the next Oz book are gorgeous, and it helps to offset Thompson at her most racist.
Oh, and while this book still has the Munchkins in the West, Thompson has learned to spell "Gillikin."
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Captain Salt in Oz
1936, 1990 International Wizard of Oz edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Captain Salt in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
Set four years after Pirates in Oz, which came out in 1931, this marks the return of a bunch of characters whose earlier adventures I've never read. Not only that, but nobody, not even Captain Salt is actually "in Oz," since it's all set in the Nonestic Ocean. There are references to Oz and Ozma though, and Capt. Salt is on a colonization mission because Oz is overpopulated. Since when? Even in the Thompson books, there are still stretches of undeveloped land, or places where lonely travelers must travel for hours before finding a farmhouse. After all, the population of the Emerald City isn't much larger than it was in the sixth book. Yes, nobody dies (often) or ages (much), but it's not like there's been a baby boom. In any case, apparently it's OK with Thompson for Ozma (or with Ozma for Thompson) to encourage conquest.
True, the colonization is done in a mostly peaceful manner, mainly consisting of planting Oz flags and telling the "conquered" that they are now under the beneficent rule of Queen Ozma. (Side-note, in some books she's a princess, in others she's a queen; Baum wasn't very consistent about this either.) Some of the islands are unpopulated, so that makes it even easier.
Meanwhile, there's a whole other continent, Tarara, with two major countries and various tribes. A young king has been kidnapped by the bad guys, and then he's kidnapped by the title character. OK, he's pressured into becoming a cabin boy, but still.
And it's a no-women-allowed voyage, although female creatures like a motherly hippo are OK. Inevitably, this leads to slashy subtext between Salt and Ato, a king turned cook: "'What a tremendous fellow he was,' sighed Ato, sinking dreamily back in his hammock and half closing his eyes. 'I'll never forget how high and handsome he looked...'" (p. 23). Salt returns soon after, to take Ato on another voyage, promising, "Only over my prone and prostrate body shall another man enter my galley to shuffle my rations, sugar my duff or salt my prog!" That's devotion!
Thompson does a fine job creating the various lands that the crew visit, and Neill's illustrations are his best in ages. Perhaps exploring new territory is as liberating for them as for the captain and the cook.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Captain Salt in Oz
Original and/or purchase price unknown
Worn paperback
B-
Set four years after Pirates in Oz, which came out in 1931, this marks the return of a bunch of characters whose earlier adventures I've never read. Not only that, but nobody, not even Captain Salt is actually "in Oz," since it's all set in the Nonestic Ocean. There are references to Oz and Ozma though, and Capt. Salt is on a colonization mission because Oz is overpopulated. Since when? Even in the Thompson books, there are still stretches of undeveloped land, or places where lonely travelers must travel for hours before finding a farmhouse. After all, the population of the Emerald City isn't much larger than it was in the sixth book. Yes, nobody dies (often) or ages (much), but it's not like there's been a baby boom. In any case, apparently it's OK with Thompson for Ozma (or with Ozma for Thompson) to encourage conquest.
True, the colonization is done in a mostly peaceful manner, mainly consisting of planting Oz flags and telling the "conquered" that they are now under the beneficent rule of Queen Ozma. (Side-note, in some books she's a princess, in others she's a queen; Baum wasn't very consistent about this either.) Some of the islands are unpopulated, so that makes it even easier.
Meanwhile, there's a whole other continent, Tarara, with two major countries and various tribes. A young king has been kidnapped by the bad guys, and then he's kidnapped by the title character. OK, he's pressured into becoming a cabin boy, but still.
And it's a no-women-allowed voyage, although female creatures like a motherly hippo are OK. Inevitably, this leads to slashy subtext between Salt and Ato, a king turned cook: "'What a tremendous fellow he was,' sighed Ato, sinking dreamily back in his hammock and half closing his eyes. 'I'll never forget how high and handsome he looked...'" (p. 23). Salt returns soon after, to take Ato on another voyage, promising, "Only over my prone and prostrate body shall another man enter my galley to shuffle my rations, sugar my duff or salt my prog!" That's devotion!
Thompson does a fine job creating the various lands that the crew visit, and Neill's illustrations are his best in ages. Perhaps exploring new territory is as liberating for them as for the captain and the cook.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ojo in Oz
1933, 1986 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ojo in Oz
Original price $5.95, bought used for $3.48
Worn paperback
B-
There are two main things to talk about with this book: innuendo (of course) and history. Of the latter, Thompson calls it not just hoztry but Oz hoztry. Are there other kinds of hoztry? Wouldn't the history of Ev be called hevtry? And what of Mo-ology? Thompson still has a bad habit, a dozen years into her royal-historianship, of tacking "Oz" onto or into words as if to make them more authentic. The worst example is "ozade." If lemonade is made with lemons, limeaid with limes, and Gatoraid with--
OK, back to hoztry. In the previous book, Glinda was celebrating a century of ruling the Quadlings. Does this include the time of the Quadling king? Was that mysterious man actually a consort, that died or divorced?
In this book we find out that Ojo's grandfather ruled the southern part of the Munchkin Country (which has moved back to the west), and had Seebania as the capital. When Ozma became queen and was able to select rulers of the quadrants, the royal family was left with only Seebania, while presumably the Ozure Islanders took over rule of the Munchkins, or at least the north half. Ojo's grandfather was overthrown by Mooj the Magician, who then imprisoned Ojo's parents. Ojo's father, Ree Alla Bad, was released on condition that he not free his wife or ask anyone else to free her. So he became Realbad the bandit.
He didn't know his queen was pregnant, but later his uncle Stephen hid the baby away in safety, and we know that pair better as Unc Nunkie and Ojo. Ojo, by the way, is "ten." I have no idea how much time is supposed to have passed.
This is not the Ojo of Patchwork Girl, since he's much less graver, although I suppose his spirits might've improved after so long in the Emerald City. Neill doesn't draw him with dark hair as he did twenty years earlier, although Realbad has curly black hair in text and illustrations. Realbad also has a very dashing mustache.
Thompson does a good job showing the connection between Realbad and Ojo, even before it's revealed that they're father and son. The queen, however, just shows up at the end and, much more than in Giant Horse, is a very vague character. Thompson seems to have been a lot less interested in mothers than fathers, but then her cast tends to be more male than Baum's was.
The other main character is the bear Snufferbux. (Snuff her bucks? I hardly know her!) He and Realbad fight over Ojo and other matters at many points in the book, but of course become friends.
He meets Ojo in a Gypsy camp, and I have to say that Thompson doesn't miss a stereotype for this thieving, fortune-telling, cruel but charming, swarthy pack. Even Realbad's bandits are portrayed more sympathetically. At the end of the story, Ozma deports the Gypsies to Southern Europe, and I try not to think about the fate of Gypsies in Northern Europe in the following decade.
Moving on to the lighter topic, this is unquestionably the most innuendous Thompson book so far, maybe ever. In Lost King, she had a character named Humpy, and here we get Humper, but that's minor compared to this line when Realbad meets a unicorn in the fog: "To his dismay and consternation the pointed end of his rod immediately embedded itself in a soft, yielding body."
And even that is nothing next to the dizzying chapter "Dorothy in Dicksy Land." Yes, I know that "queer dick" means roughly "odd duck," but that doesn't mean that all the uses of "queer" and "dick" in this chapter can be glossed over. How about this, which manages to get in a drug reference as well: "'Here we are all Dicks together. I am the Dick with the queer hat band. That's my peculiarity. To what are you addicted?'" Or what of "Dorothy decided that [there were no female Dicks] because men were queerer than women"? (I think Sinclair Lewis might disagree about that.) Then in the next chapter, the Cowardly Lion asks, "Do you mean to tell me that every Dick in Dicksy Land is perfectly satisfied?" Toujours gai Scraps remarks, "This is a queer country. I'll come back some time and spend my life."
The Pointless Dorothy Side-Plot this time is possibly more pointless than ever. Ozma, Nunkie, and the Wizard are already going to get Glinda's help in rescuing Ojo from the Gypsies. But Scraps, who gets hushed two or three times of course, wants to rescue Ojo, and Dorothy and the Lion go along. Mooj transforms them into clocks, and you could take this subplot out of the book and lose nothing.
I do really like Unicorners. It's as if after dicking around for 180 pages, Thompson finally decided to write a good story. The concept and execution of this little kingdom are well done, and not coincidentally the other aspects of the story improve for the last 60 pages or so. Neill's best artwork in the book is of the unicorns.
Of course, some of his worst artwork is in the penultimate chapter, specifically the worst hairstyles since Glinda of Oz (1920). After a few pictures of Ozma with her traditional long hair, she's got some horrible proto-late-1980s geometric do on p. 241. And Queen Isomere sports a similar style. I find it hard to believe that this was popular in 1933. (Even Vanessa's hair on The Cosby Show was less ridiculous.)
I'm missing the next couple Thompson books, including the one with the most overtly drug-related title: Speedy in Oz.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Ojo in Oz
Original price $5.95, bought used for $3.48
Worn paperback
B-
There are two main things to talk about with this book: innuendo (of course) and history. Of the latter, Thompson calls it not just hoztry but Oz hoztry. Are there other kinds of hoztry? Wouldn't the history of Ev be called hevtry? And what of Mo-ology? Thompson still has a bad habit, a dozen years into her royal-historianship, of tacking "Oz" onto or into words as if to make them more authentic. The worst example is "ozade." If lemonade is made with lemons, limeaid with limes, and Gatoraid with--
OK, back to hoztry. In the previous book, Glinda was celebrating a century of ruling the Quadlings. Does this include the time of the Quadling king? Was that mysterious man actually a consort, that died or divorced?
In this book we find out that Ojo's grandfather ruled the southern part of the Munchkin Country (which has moved back to the west), and had Seebania as the capital. When Ozma became queen and was able to select rulers of the quadrants, the royal family was left with only Seebania, while presumably the Ozure Islanders took over rule of the Munchkins, or at least the north half. Ojo's grandfather was overthrown by Mooj the Magician, who then imprisoned Ojo's parents. Ojo's father, Ree Alla Bad, was released on condition that he not free his wife or ask anyone else to free her. So he became Realbad the bandit.
He didn't know his queen was pregnant, but later his uncle Stephen hid the baby away in safety, and we know that pair better as Unc Nunkie and Ojo. Ojo, by the way, is "ten." I have no idea how much time is supposed to have passed.
This is not the Ojo of Patchwork Girl, since he's much less graver, although I suppose his spirits might've improved after so long in the Emerald City. Neill doesn't draw him with dark hair as he did twenty years earlier, although Realbad has curly black hair in text and illustrations. Realbad also has a very dashing mustache.
Thompson does a good job showing the connection between Realbad and Ojo, even before it's revealed that they're father and son. The queen, however, just shows up at the end and, much more than in Giant Horse, is a very vague character. Thompson seems to have been a lot less interested in mothers than fathers, but then her cast tends to be more male than Baum's was.
The other main character is the bear Snufferbux. (Snuff her bucks? I hardly know her!) He and Realbad fight over Ojo and other matters at many points in the book, but of course become friends.
He meets Ojo in a Gypsy camp, and I have to say that Thompson doesn't miss a stereotype for this thieving, fortune-telling, cruel but charming, swarthy pack. Even Realbad's bandits are portrayed more sympathetically. At the end of the story, Ozma deports the Gypsies to Southern Europe, and I try not to think about the fate of Gypsies in Northern Europe in the following decade.
Moving on to the lighter topic, this is unquestionably the most innuendous Thompson book so far, maybe ever. In Lost King, she had a character named Humpy, and here we get Humper, but that's minor compared to this line when Realbad meets a unicorn in the fog: "To his dismay and consternation the pointed end of his rod immediately embedded itself in a soft, yielding body."
And even that is nothing next to the dizzying chapter "Dorothy in Dicksy Land." Yes, I know that "queer dick" means roughly "odd duck," but that doesn't mean that all the uses of "queer" and "dick" in this chapter can be glossed over. How about this, which manages to get in a drug reference as well: "'Here we are all Dicks together. I am the Dick with the queer hat band. That's my peculiarity. To what are you addicted?'" Or what of "Dorothy decided that [there were no female Dicks] because men were queerer than women"? (I think Sinclair Lewis might disagree about that.) Then in the next chapter, the Cowardly Lion asks, "Do you mean to tell me that every Dick in Dicksy Land is perfectly satisfied?" Toujours gai Scraps remarks, "This is a queer country. I'll come back some time and spend my life."
The Pointless Dorothy Side-Plot this time is possibly more pointless than ever. Ozma, Nunkie, and the Wizard are already going to get Glinda's help in rescuing Ojo from the Gypsies. But Scraps, who gets hushed two or three times of course, wants to rescue Ojo, and Dorothy and the Lion go along. Mooj transforms them into clocks, and you could take this subplot out of the book and lose nothing.
I do really like Unicorners. It's as if after dicking around for 180 pages, Thompson finally decided to write a good story. The concept and execution of this little kingdom are well done, and not coincidentally the other aspects of the story improve for the last 60 pages or so. Neill's best artwork in the book is of the unicorns.
Of course, some of his worst artwork is in the penultimate chapter, specifically the worst hairstyles since Glinda of Oz (1920). After a few pictures of Ozma with her traditional long hair, she's got some horrible proto-late-1980s geometric do on p. 241. And Queen Isomere sports a similar style. I find it hard to believe that this was popular in 1933. (Even Vanessa's hair on The Cosby Show was less ridiculous.)
I'm missing the next couple Thompson books, including the one with the most overtly drug-related title: Speedy in Oz.
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Purple Prince of Oz
1932, 1986 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Purple Prince of Oz
Original price $5.95, bought used for $3.00
Waterlogged paperback
C+
It may be partly that I didn't pick this up as early as the other Thompsons, but I think this is one of the most forgettable of her books. In fact, within hours after reading it, I thought, "I wonder when I'll get back to Thompson." It's odd because it does mark the return of many of the Kabumpo characters, with Pompa and Peg Amy now the proud parents of a four-year-old baby. (Do Oz babies age slowly, too?) And it's the return of the Red Jinn of Ev, glimpsed briefly in Jack Pumpkinhead. But it's yet another story about a young prince who must complete some tasks.
I suppose I should note what I didn't with Pumpkinhead, that the Red Jinn has black slaves. I assume Thompson did this to add to the exoticism, but it is unpleasant, if perhaps less so (because briefer) than the racism in Royal Book. And the Red Jinn is supposed to be a sympathetic character, so no one judges him for being a slave-owner. If I remember correctly, it's most offensive in Silver Princess, due partly to Neill's illustrations. (I'm restraining myself from going and looking, so I can judge Silver P at the proper time.)
Oh, the Thompsonian Innuendo Prize goes not to the King and Queen of Stair Way, Kumup and Godown, since the names are sort of to be expected, but to the Red Jinn for crying, "Oh! Oh! Oh! He's the best and only boy friend I have ever had!"
But, yeah, otherwise, not too memorable a book.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Purple Prince of Oz
Original price $5.95, bought used for $3.00
Waterlogged paperback
C+
It may be partly that I didn't pick this up as early as the other Thompsons, but I think this is one of the most forgettable of her books. In fact, within hours after reading it, I thought, "I wonder when I'll get back to Thompson." It's odd because it does mark the return of many of the Kabumpo characters, with Pompa and Peg Amy now the proud parents of a four-year-old baby. (Do Oz babies age slowly, too?) And it's the return of the Red Jinn of Ev, glimpsed briefly in Jack Pumpkinhead. But it's yet another story about a young prince who must complete some tasks.
I suppose I should note what I didn't with Pumpkinhead, that the Red Jinn has black slaves. I assume Thompson did this to add to the exoticism, but it is unpleasant, if perhaps less so (because briefer) than the racism in Royal Book. And the Red Jinn is supposed to be a sympathetic character, so no one judges him for being a slave-owner. If I remember correctly, it's most offensive in Silver Princess, due partly to Neill's illustrations. (I'm restraining myself from going and looking, so I can judge Silver P at the proper time.)
Oh, the Thompsonian Innuendo Prize goes not to the King and Queen of Stair Way, Kumup and Godown, since the names are sort of to be expected, but to the Red Jinn for crying, "Oh! Oh! Oh! He's the best and only boy friend I have ever had!"
But, yeah, otherwise, not too memorable a book.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz
1929, undated (see below) Reilly & Lee edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz
Original price unknown, bought used for $20.00
Poor condition paperback, with broken spine, tears, and stains
B-
Peter returns from Philadelphia via a magic coin in his sack of pirate gold. (Thompson by the way, in her introduction, lists her full West Philly address. So here you go: RPT house .) Presumably two years have passed since Gnome King, although Peter's age isn't mentioned. He again gets to be more heroic than Bob Up of Cowardly Lion, although Jack has his part to play in saving the day.
I like the setting of the red mountain baronies, including Baffleburg. Baron Mogodore is a pretty good villain. It is creepy, perhaps more creepy than intended, that this cruel, ugly, middle-aged man wants to marry teenaged princesses Shirley Sunshine and Ozma. (Check out the two-page illustration of Mogodore leering at bound Ozma, pp. 216-17.) Shirley is drawn as a more traditional-looking lady than Ozma, and it's interesting to compare the picture on p. 230 of them clasping hands with that on p. 207 of Road, where Ozma meets Polychrome. Both times Ozma has an expression like "Yes, you are lovely, My Dear, but I am the most beautiful girl in the world," while the other girls humbly agree.
I could've done without yet another rhyming character. Yes, Baum would include poems and songs, but Thompson overdoes it. At least this time the poet is an Iffin, a Griffin without the Gr. I also have to note that I think this might be the first time that Thompson doesn't use her annoying "Don't you care," meaning roughly "Don't worry, be happy."
The typos are worse, the innuendo less, than usual. And this line would have different connotations four decades later: "'I am the King and the highest Swinger here.'"
The list of "The Famous Oz Books" confusingly only goes up to Grampa in Oz (1924). So I'm not sure on the date of this copy. It's probably not a first edition, since there are no color plates. It could be a 1935 second edition, but it's in such terrible shape I probably won't keep it.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz
Original price unknown, bought used for $20.00
Poor condition paperback, with broken spine, tears, and stains
B-
Peter returns from Philadelphia via a magic coin in his sack of pirate gold. (Thompson by the way, in her introduction, lists her full West Philly address. So here you go: RPT house .) Presumably two years have passed since Gnome King, although Peter's age isn't mentioned. He again gets to be more heroic than Bob Up of Cowardly Lion, although Jack has his part to play in saving the day.
I like the setting of the red mountain baronies, including Baffleburg. Baron Mogodore is a pretty good villain. It is creepy, perhaps more creepy than intended, that this cruel, ugly, middle-aged man wants to marry teenaged princesses Shirley Sunshine and Ozma. (Check out the two-page illustration of Mogodore leering at bound Ozma, pp. 216-17.) Shirley is drawn as a more traditional-looking lady than Ozma, and it's interesting to compare the picture on p. 230 of them clasping hands with that on p. 207 of Road, where Ozma meets Polychrome. Both times Ozma has an expression like "Yes, you are lovely, My Dear, but I am the most beautiful girl in the world," while the other girls humbly agree.
I could've done without yet another rhyming character. Yes, Baum would include poems and songs, but Thompson overdoes it. At least this time the poet is an Iffin, a Griffin without the Gr. I also have to note that I think this might be the first time that Thompson doesn't use her annoying "Don't you care," meaning roughly "Don't worry, be happy."
The typos are worse, the innuendo less, than usual. And this line would have different connotations four decades later: "'I am the King and the highest Swinger here.'"
The list of "The Famous Oz Books" confusingly only goes up to Grampa in Oz (1924). So I'm not sure on the date of this copy. It's probably not a first edition, since there are no color plates. It could be a 1935 second edition, but it's in such terrible shape I probably won't keep it.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The Giant Horse of Oz
1928, undated but probably 1941 Reilly & Lee edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Giant Horse of Oz
Original price $1.75, bought used for unknown
Surprisingly good condition hardcover, although the dust jacket is frayed
B
I'll deal with the simpler question of chronology first. The dust jacket says, "There are now thirty-four of the Delightful Stories of the Wonderful Land of Oz," but they omit Wizard, which I think was still owned by another publisher. The last book on the list is [The] Scalawagons of Oz, which came out in '41, while Lucky Bucky was published in '42. The end papers seem to be Scarecrow-era though, with a line of characters that includes Pon the Gardener's Boy but not Betsy.
As for the chronology within the book, I hope you're sitting down. We're three books past Lost King, but only two years have passed. And Kabumpo and Gnome King were five years apart. Let's call this 1828 O.Z., since in Cowardly Lion we learned that it was seven centuries since 1120 O.Z.
1822 O.Z. Kabumpo
1826 Lost King
1827 Gnome King
1828 Giant Horse
Now, within this story it seems that 25 years ago (1803 O.Z.), Orin was a "Princess of the North," daughter of King Gil of Gilkenny. Gil ruled some of the northern land, but Mombi was the supreme ruler of all the North, while the nameless King of the Munchkins had a son named Cheeriobed, who fell in love with Orin. Mombi later fell for Cheeriobed, who of course spurned her, so she swore revenge. She waited three years though to kidnap Orin, by which point Cheeriobed and Orin were happily married, with a two-year-old son named Philador. This was twenty years before our story begins, so Cheeriobed and Orin's engagement must've lasted a couple years.
1803 O.Z. Cheeriobed meets Orin, and they fall in love
1805 They get married, infuriating Mombi
1806 Philador born
1808 Mombi kidnaps Orin
1828 "Present-day"
Philador is now "ten," but that's because it turns out that people can stay the same age as long as they want. Trot is also ten now. This means that she was no more ten when she arrived. This is what I wrote on the subject for Lost Princess: "Baum tells us that Betsy is a year older than Dorothy, who's a year older than Trot. He hasn't yet explained that people have stopped aging in Oz, but it's starting to be implied. Button-Bright is younger than Ojo, and we know he's younger than Trot and Dorothy. In Road, he seemed to be about half Dorothy's age, say 4 or 5 to her 8 or 9. He was half a head shorter than Trot in Scarecrow. If I remember correctly, Thompson will make Trot 9, I think in Giant Horse, so when we get to that point, I'll try to approximate the other kids' ages." Trot probably was nine at most, since she, like Philador, "likes being ten, so I've been ten for ever so long." I don't think she could've been less than seven, if she was taller than Button-Bright.
To return to the Oz history, it sort of works for the North, with Mombi turning Orin into Tattypoo, the Good Witch of the North, who conquers Mombi and rules the Gillikins. (I refuse to misspell that word like Thompson does.) We still don't know what was up with the "King" of the Gillikins in Road, but that's not Thompson's problem. The chronology here is more of a problem for the Munchkins, although at least their land is now back where it belongs, in the East.
The story opens on the Ozure Isles, in the Lost Lake of Orizon, definitely one of my favorite Thompsonian kingdoms. The lake became lost after Mombi kidnapped Orin. And yet, there's an "old history book" that tells of Ozma and "the three little mortal maids that have come to live in the Emerald City." The book would have to be at least twenty years old, since the 1807 Ozurians have lost contact with the outside world. But there is no way that more than twenty years have passed since Betsy and Trot arrived. That would give us a chronology something like this:
1805 Mombi still rules the North
1806 Betsy arrives
1807 Trot arrives
1808 Ozure loses contact with outside world
1808 or later Tattypoo conquers Mombi
1809 or later Land of Oz is set
1828 "Present-Day"
Maybe the sea gulls brought the book from the mainland, but I'm still calling shenanigans. My guess, Betsy, Trot, and even Dorothy arrived during the "lost time." Of course, there's still the problem of the King of the Munchkins mentioned in Ozma and Road. I'll go into this more when we get to Ojo.
The backstories, confusing though they are, do raise this above the average Thompson story. There are as usual two parties trying to get to the Emerald City, this time Philador and the two friends he meets along the way, and Trot with the Scarecrow and an animated statue from Boston, this last character falling through the earth to Oz, where it's apparently day when it's night in Boston, lending support to the Oz = Australia theorists. The two friends of Philador are the title character from Up Town (not to be confused with Down Town in Hungry Tiger), one of Thompson's better animals, and Herby the Medicine Man, who prescribes pills like they're candy. So, yeah, this time we have drug abuse rather than innuendo, thanks, Plumly!
I'd remembered Neill as having more obviously 1920s illustrations than he does, but this is the book with "flapper Dorothy." On p. 36, she's shown with feathers in her now dark bob. (Neill, as you may've noticed by now, is pretty casual about hair color, sometimes changing it from light to dark and back for a character within one book, although he's usually consistent about Ozma, who's had black hair since the third book.)
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Giant Horse of Oz
Original price $1.75, bought used for unknown
Surprisingly good condition hardcover, although the dust jacket is frayed
B
I'll deal with the simpler question of chronology first. The dust jacket says, "There are now thirty-four of the Delightful Stories of the Wonderful Land of Oz," but they omit Wizard, which I think was still owned by another publisher. The last book on the list is [The] Scalawagons of Oz, which came out in '41, while Lucky Bucky was published in '42. The end papers seem to be Scarecrow-era though, with a line of characters that includes Pon the Gardener's Boy but not Betsy.
As for the chronology within the book, I hope you're sitting down. We're three books past Lost King, but only two years have passed. And Kabumpo and Gnome King were five years apart. Let's call this 1828 O.Z., since in Cowardly Lion we learned that it was seven centuries since 1120 O.Z.
1822 O.Z. Kabumpo
1826 Lost King
1827 Gnome King
1828 Giant Horse
Now, within this story it seems that 25 years ago (1803 O.Z.), Orin was a "Princess of the North," daughter of King Gil of Gilkenny. Gil ruled some of the northern land, but Mombi was the supreme ruler of all the North, while the nameless King of the Munchkins had a son named Cheeriobed, who fell in love with Orin. Mombi later fell for Cheeriobed, who of course spurned her, so she swore revenge. She waited three years though to kidnap Orin, by which point Cheeriobed and Orin were happily married, with a two-year-old son named Philador. This was twenty years before our story begins, so Cheeriobed and Orin's engagement must've lasted a couple years.
1803 O.Z. Cheeriobed meets Orin, and they fall in love
1805 They get married, infuriating Mombi
1806 Philador born
1808 Mombi kidnaps Orin
1828 "Present-day"
Philador is now "ten," but that's because it turns out that people can stay the same age as long as they want. Trot is also ten now. This means that she was no more ten when she arrived. This is what I wrote on the subject for Lost Princess: "Baum tells us that Betsy is a year older than Dorothy, who's a year older than Trot. He hasn't yet explained that people have stopped aging in Oz, but it's starting to be implied. Button-Bright is younger than Ojo, and we know he's younger than Trot and Dorothy. In Road, he seemed to be about half Dorothy's age, say 4 or 5 to her 8 or 9. He was half a head shorter than Trot in Scarecrow. If I remember correctly, Thompson will make Trot 9, I think in Giant Horse, so when we get to that point, I'll try to approximate the other kids' ages." Trot probably was nine at most, since she, like Philador, "likes being ten, so I've been ten for ever so long." I don't think she could've been less than seven, if she was taller than Button-Bright.
To return to the Oz history, it sort of works for the North, with Mombi turning Orin into Tattypoo, the Good Witch of the North, who conquers Mombi and rules the Gillikins. (I refuse to misspell that word like Thompson does.) We still don't know what was up with the "King" of the Gillikins in Road, but that's not Thompson's problem. The chronology here is more of a problem for the Munchkins, although at least their land is now back where it belongs, in the East.
The story opens on the Ozure Isles, in the Lost Lake of Orizon, definitely one of my favorite Thompsonian kingdoms. The lake became lost after Mombi kidnapped Orin. And yet, there's an "old history book" that tells of Ozma and "the three little mortal maids that have come to live in the Emerald City." The book would have to be at least twenty years old, since the 1807 Ozurians have lost contact with the outside world. But there is no way that more than twenty years have passed since Betsy and Trot arrived. That would give us a chronology something like this:
1805 Mombi still rules the North
1806 Betsy arrives
1807 Trot arrives
1808 Ozure loses contact with outside world
1808 or later Tattypoo conquers Mombi
1809 or later Land of Oz is set
1828 "Present-Day"
Maybe the sea gulls brought the book from the mainland, but I'm still calling shenanigans. My guess, Betsy, Trot, and even Dorothy arrived during the "lost time." Of course, there's still the problem of the King of the Munchkins mentioned in Ozma and Road. I'll go into this more when we get to Ojo.
The backstories, confusing though they are, do raise this above the average Thompson story. There are as usual two parties trying to get to the Emerald City, this time Philador and the two friends he meets along the way, and Trot with the Scarecrow and an animated statue from Boston, this last character falling through the earth to Oz, where it's apparently day when it's night in Boston, lending support to the Oz = Australia theorists. The two friends of Philador are the title character from Up Town (not to be confused with Down Town in Hungry Tiger), one of Thompson's better animals, and Herby the Medicine Man, who prescribes pills like they're candy. So, yeah, this time we have drug abuse rather than innuendo, thanks, Plumly!
I'd remembered Neill as having more obviously 1920s illustrations than he does, but this is the book with "flapper Dorothy." On p. 36, she's shown with feathers in her now dark bob. (Neill, as you may've noticed by now, is pretty casual about hair color, sometimes changing it from light to dark and back for a character within one book, although he's usually consistent about Ozma, who's had black hair since the third book.)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
The Gnome King of Oz
1927, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Gnome King of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
The title is interesting for a few reasons. To begin with, Thompson is using the correct spelling of "gnome," with the G, as she usually does, unlike Baum trying to simplify things for the kiddies. The king is "of" rather than "in" Oz, unlike Kabumpo and Grampa, even though they're Oz natives and Ruggedo is not. He again hopes to conquer Oz, so he might become the king of Oz, but he of course fails. The same number of years have passed in Oz as in the real world, so he's been on his island for the five years since Kabumpo. He escapes thanks to an earthquake and a boy named Peter.
Peter is an all-American lad who plays baseball and would rather live in Philadelphia than Oz, unlike Button-Bright, who also hails from that city. Neill draws Peter as more modern-looking than Button, or even than orphan Bob in Cowardly Lion. He's nine years old, so we'll see how much he ages when he returns a couple books later.
The story doesn't get to Peter and Ruggedo till Chapter Four. The first three chapters deal with the succession in Patch, which is the 705th small country within Oz. The current population of the Emerald City is 57,318 "gay Ozites" and "nearly a hundred celebrities." The 57,318 figure is identical to that in the sixth book, but Baum didn't count the celebrities separately. Still, a pretty stable population.
The new queen of Patch, which, like Ragbad and Kimbaloo, is another country with a very specific economy, appears to be Scraps. Thompson does better with and by her this time, although Peter is the real hero of the book. The two parties going to the Emerald City team up, as usual, although Ruggedo uses a magic cloak of invisibility and transport to go off on his own and try to conquer E.C. Peter uses his baseball pitching skills to vanquish the gnome, who's again dunked in the Fountain of Oblivion and granted his freedom. You'd think Ozma or somebody would know better by now, but this is one villain that the Royal Historians like to keep around. As for Peter, he becomes a prince, like Dorothy becoming a princess long ago.
Unlike my other 1927 books, there are no lesbians in this story, unless you count bob-haired, short-skirted Queen Jazzma of Tune Town admiring Scraps's doggerel and serenading her, "Maiden stay, you are so gay, I'd like to look at you all day." Actually, other than the recurring use of "gay," the main Plumly innuendo this time is "As for Peter, he was so excited over the adventure with Kuma's hand, he could think of nothing else."
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Gnome King of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
The title is interesting for a few reasons. To begin with, Thompson is using the correct spelling of "gnome," with the G, as she usually does, unlike Baum trying to simplify things for the kiddies. The king is "of" rather than "in" Oz, unlike Kabumpo and Grampa, even though they're Oz natives and Ruggedo is not. He again hopes to conquer Oz, so he might become the king of Oz, but he of course fails. The same number of years have passed in Oz as in the real world, so he's been on his island for the five years since Kabumpo. He escapes thanks to an earthquake and a boy named Peter.
Peter is an all-American lad who plays baseball and would rather live in Philadelphia than Oz, unlike Button-Bright, who also hails from that city. Neill draws Peter as more modern-looking than Button, or even than orphan Bob in Cowardly Lion. He's nine years old, so we'll see how much he ages when he returns a couple books later.
The story doesn't get to Peter and Ruggedo till Chapter Four. The first three chapters deal with the succession in Patch, which is the 705th small country within Oz. The current population of the Emerald City is 57,318 "gay Ozites" and "nearly a hundred celebrities." The 57,318 figure is identical to that in the sixth book, but Baum didn't count the celebrities separately. Still, a pretty stable population.
The new queen of Patch, which, like Ragbad and Kimbaloo, is another country with a very specific economy, appears to be Scraps. Thompson does better with and by her this time, although Peter is the real hero of the book. The two parties going to the Emerald City team up, as usual, although Ruggedo uses a magic cloak of invisibility and transport to go off on his own and try to conquer E.C. Peter uses his baseball pitching skills to vanquish the gnome, who's again dunked in the Fountain of Oblivion and granted his freedom. You'd think Ozma or somebody would know better by now, but this is one villain that the Royal Historians like to keep around. As for Peter, he becomes a prince, like Dorothy becoming a princess long ago.
Unlike my other 1927 books, there are no lesbians in this story, unless you count bob-haired, short-skirted Queen Jazzma of Tune Town admiring Scraps's doggerel and serenading her, "Maiden stay, you are so gay, I'd like to look at you all day." Actually, other than the recurring use of "gay," the main Plumly innuendo this time is "As for Peter, he was so excited over the adventure with Kuma's hand, he could think of nothing else."
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The Hungry Tiger of Oz
1926, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Hungry Tiger of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
Except for Ozma being kidnapped by an "airman" (balloon-like man from the sky), this story is mostly about how the title character, Betsy, and a man made out of vegetables help the young Prince of Rash regain his throne. (Chapter 19 is called "Reddy Restored to the Throne," so this isn't much of a spoiler if you read the List of Chapters first.) Rash is a small pink kingdom on the edge of Ev, and, yes, the name leads to lots of puns.
There are surprisingly few if any innuendos, but to make up for this, the Del Rey cover (by Michael Herring I've discovered via the Internet) looks like this:
An exciting ride for Betsy!
|
Ahem. Moving on, there are also a couple of egregious typos. I haven't commented on this I believe, but nearly every Oz book contains some typos, no matter what edition. Usually I ignore them, but this time we've got "shudddered" with three D's and a chapter called "The Vegetable Man of Ox."
Neill's work continues to be mostly unimpressive in the 1920s. He misses chances to offer the Rash palace, or much of Down Town, the place run by King Dad and Queen Fi Nance. With the latter, I kept thinking how this is three years before the Great Crash.
I do have to say that the androgyny of the illustrations of the child characters has reached a new height. For over 20 years, Neill has been drawing most of the boys and many of the girls with that same Prince-Valiant-ish hairdo, so Dorothy and the rest have transitioned well into the 1920s. But here Betsy, whom he used to show with long blonde hair, to help distinguish her from Dorothy's blonde bob, is also sporting a blonde bob. The problem is, Prince Reddy is as well. This leads to the picture on p. 191, where it looks like a tiny Betsy is standing on a giant Betsy's shoulder. In fact, Reddy should be wearing one of the big wigs. On p. 207, it looks like Betsy is at the coronation of her older sister, when it's Reddy in his crown. Not only their hair but their eyes, noses, and mouths are similar.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The Lost King of Oz
1925, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Lost King of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B
This is Thompson's best so far. The main plot deals with pre-wizard history, as she tries to resolve a loose end that Baum left. That she doesn't do so completely satisfactorily is not entirely her fault, since, as we know, Baum contradicted himself. In DatW, Ozma had claimed that both Ozma's nameless grandfather and Ozma's father were prisoners of Mombi, and then "When I was born she transformed me into a boy." Baum had named Ozma's father Pastoria for the 1902 musical of The Wizard of Oz, which carried over to the book of Land, where Mombi confessed that the Wizard gave her the baby princess.
In Thompson's version, it's not only acknowledged that the Wizard helped Mombi, which Baum ignored after the Wizard's return to Oz, but the Wizard shows genuine remorse. Thompson does, however, have Ozma remember her father and their old hunting lodge, implying that Ozma was older than a baby. Thompson doesn't reconcile how Ozma is descended from both a long line of fairies and Pastoria, although she does mention the fairy queen Lurline. Perhaps Ozma's mother was queen, and Pastoria the consort and then regent. (I loathed Wicked, so I haven't read Son of a Witch, but I will admit that the theory, as described in Wikipedia, sounds plausible.) After all, Ozma says in DatW, that all rulers of Oz once it became a fairyland were named Oz if male, Ozma if female, and "Pastoria" doesn't fit that.
In any case, the lost king is found but he abdicates so he can continue his career as tailor. There's no long-range impact, other than an old mystery being cleared up. And we do get to see Mombi again, before she's wiped out by water. She's lost her magic because of Glinda, but she's still a mean old broad. I like how Neill draws her Gillikin ex-witch costume to look old-fashioned among the simpler fashions around her.
Mombi journeys to the Emerald City accompanied by a goose she was going to cook for dinner (she's had to become a cook) and Snip, a button-boy of Kimbaloo. The goose is actually the Prime Minister Pajuka. (I kept thinking of the song "Paducah" from 1943's The Gang's All Here.) She transformed him years ago and he demands to know what she did with the king, but she lost much of her memory when she lost her magic. The three travelers pass through Catty Corners, so of course Thompson uses the word "pussy." Then Snip finds Tora the Tired Tailor, who's also lost his memory, and no one yet realizes he's Pastoria.
The Dorothy subplot this time isn't as pointless as usual, for two reasons. When she accidentally wishes herself to Hollywood, California, she ages all the years she's been in Oz, and then this is reversed when she returns to Oz, which resolves a bit the question of aging in Oz. (Not entirely, since Thompson will add a proviso to this later.) More importantly, Dorothy discovers a moving-picture stunt dummy that she brings to life, and his robe has a clue that helps restore Pastoria.
She and the dummy, whom she's named Humpy (oh dear), run into Kabumpo, whom I still don't like, even if Thompson assures us he's kind under his gruffness. Kabumpo says that Kimbaloo is near Pumperdink, but that's not how it looks on the map. (Kimbaloo by the way has an economy built on buttons and bouquets, and they seem to be doing better than Ragbad in these post-utopian times.) The two parties who are going to the Emerald City team up.
Meanwhile Ozma and some of her friends have gone to Morrow, today. This is mainly so Ozma can remember her father, and be away when he returns. It also leads to what may well be the worst Scraps-bashing. Ozma hushes her, Trot calls her a goose, Sir Hokus commands, "Silence, wench!", Betsy "looks shocked at the Patch Work Girl's heartless speech," and I think there's even a moment when the Scarecrow gets annoyed with her, although I can't find it now.
Still, flaws and all, this is an improvement on the first four Thompsons, and luckily not the last time she'll delve into Ozian pre-history.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
The Lost King of Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B
This is Thompson's best so far. The main plot deals with pre-wizard history, as she tries to resolve a loose end that Baum left. That she doesn't do so completely satisfactorily is not entirely her fault, since, as we know, Baum contradicted himself. In DatW, Ozma had claimed that both Ozma's nameless grandfather and Ozma's father were prisoners of Mombi, and then "When I was born she transformed me into a boy." Baum had named Ozma's father Pastoria for the 1902 musical of The Wizard of Oz, which carried over to the book of Land, where Mombi confessed that the Wizard gave her the baby princess.
In Thompson's version, it's not only acknowledged that the Wizard helped Mombi, which Baum ignored after the Wizard's return to Oz, but the Wizard shows genuine remorse. Thompson does, however, have Ozma remember her father and their old hunting lodge, implying that Ozma was older than a baby. Thompson doesn't reconcile how Ozma is descended from both a long line of fairies and Pastoria, although she does mention the fairy queen Lurline. Perhaps Ozma's mother was queen, and Pastoria the consort and then regent. (I loathed Wicked, so I haven't read Son of a Witch, but I will admit that the theory, as described in Wikipedia, sounds plausible.) After all, Ozma says in DatW, that all rulers of Oz once it became a fairyland were named Oz if male, Ozma if female, and "Pastoria" doesn't fit that.
In any case, the lost king is found but he abdicates so he can continue his career as tailor. There's no long-range impact, other than an old mystery being cleared up. And we do get to see Mombi again, before she's wiped out by water. She's lost her magic because of Glinda, but she's still a mean old broad. I like how Neill draws her Gillikin ex-witch costume to look old-fashioned among the simpler fashions around her.
Mombi journeys to the Emerald City accompanied by a goose she was going to cook for dinner (she's had to become a cook) and Snip, a button-boy of Kimbaloo. The goose is actually the Prime Minister Pajuka. (I kept thinking of the song "Paducah" from 1943's The Gang's All Here.) She transformed him years ago and he demands to know what she did with the king, but she lost much of her memory when she lost her magic. The three travelers pass through Catty Corners, so of course Thompson uses the word "pussy." Then Snip finds Tora the Tired Tailor, who's also lost his memory, and no one yet realizes he's Pastoria.
The Dorothy subplot this time isn't as pointless as usual, for two reasons. When she accidentally wishes herself to Hollywood, California, she ages all the years she's been in Oz, and then this is reversed when she returns to Oz, which resolves a bit the question of aging in Oz. (Not entirely, since Thompson will add a proviso to this later.) More importantly, Dorothy discovers a moving-picture stunt dummy that she brings to life, and his robe has a clue that helps restore Pastoria.
She and the dummy, whom she's named Humpy (oh dear), run into Kabumpo, whom I still don't like, even if Thompson assures us he's kind under his gruffness. Kabumpo says that Kimbaloo is near Pumperdink, but that's not how it looks on the map. (Kimbaloo by the way has an economy built on buttons and bouquets, and they seem to be doing better than Ragbad in these post-utopian times.) The two parties who are going to the Emerald City team up.
Meanwhile Ozma and some of her friends have gone to Morrow, today. This is mainly so Ozma can remember her father, and be away when he returns. It also leads to what may well be the worst Scraps-bashing. Ozma hushes her, Trot calls her a goose, Sir Hokus commands, "Silence, wench!", Betsy "looks shocked at the Patch Work Girl's heartless speech," and I think there's even a moment when the Scarecrow gets annoyed with her, although I can't find it now.
Still, flaws and all, this is an improvement on the first four Thompsons, and luckily not the last time she'll delve into Ozian pre-history.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Grampa in Oz
1924, 1985 Del Rey edition
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Grampa in Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
This is similar to Kabumpo in that a young prince goes in search of a princess bride, who turns out to be the enchanted girl he's already befriended. Urtha shows up at an earlier point than Peg Amy, so she has more time to befriend her prince. The story also resembles Royal Book in that there's a parallel and pointless story for Dorothy. I do like the various lands that Grampa and company go to, even if the back cover of this edition gives away that they "fall, swim, explode, sail, and fly above and below Oz and Ev." Grampa isn't an actual grandfather, it's more of a courtesy title. Thompson dedicates the book to "Uncle Billy," who was briefly referenced in Cowardly Lion.
I'm taking off the "utopias" tag until further notice. It is in this book that it becomes clear that Thompson is not a Baumian socialist. There's a mention of money in Mudge, but that's one of the "bad kingdoms," and Ragbag is supposed to be a "good kingdom." In a utopia, a royal family (or any family) wouldn't be impoverished. At this point, the only thing that Thompson is definitely carrying over is talking animals, and that's not enough in itself. Is the farm in Charlotte's Web a utopia? I didn't think so.
Well, Thompson does continue the tradition of sticking the Winkies in the East, which comes up several times. She also apparently has forgotten The Magical Monarch of Mo, when she writes that Fumbo is the first king to go on living after losing his head. Like the Mo King, Fumbo gets a dough-head, although his is not eaten by birds.
There are fewer double entendres than usual, unless you count the Fire Islanders waving their arms gaily or the weather cock rising excitedly. Incidentally, Bill does not meet Billina, although there is a gold-brick-laying hen.
Nothing too notable about Neill this time, except that he has Urtha wear flowers but not look like she's made of flowers. The Del Rey cover makes Urtha look like walking shrubbery, which isn't exactly an improvement.
Ruth Plumly Thompson
Illustrated by John R. Neill
Grampa in Oz
Bought newish for $5.95
Slightly worn paperback
B-
This is similar to Kabumpo in that a young prince goes in search of a princess bride, who turns out to be the enchanted girl he's already befriended. Urtha shows up at an earlier point than Peg Amy, so she has more time to befriend her prince. The story also resembles Royal Book in that there's a parallel and pointless story for Dorothy. I do like the various lands that Grampa and company go to, even if the back cover of this edition gives away that they "fall, swim, explode, sail, and fly above and below Oz and Ev." Grampa isn't an actual grandfather, it's more of a courtesy title. Thompson dedicates the book to "Uncle Billy," who was briefly referenced in Cowardly Lion.
I'm taking off the "utopias" tag until further notice. It is in this book that it becomes clear that Thompson is not a Baumian socialist. There's a mention of money in Mudge, but that's one of the "bad kingdoms," and Ragbag is supposed to be a "good kingdom." In a utopia, a royal family (or any family) wouldn't be impoverished. At this point, the only thing that Thompson is definitely carrying over is talking animals, and that's not enough in itself. Is the farm in Charlotte's Web a utopia? I didn't think so.
Well, Thompson does continue the tradition of sticking the Winkies in the East, which comes up several times. She also apparently has forgotten The Magical Monarch of Mo, when she writes that Fumbo is the first king to go on living after losing his head. Like the Mo King, Fumbo gets a dough-head, although his is not eaten by birds.
There are fewer double entendres than usual, unless you count the Fire Islanders waving their arms gaily or the weather cock rising excitedly. Incidentally, Bill does not meet Billina, although there is a gold-brick-laying hen.
Nothing too notable about Neill this time, except that he has Urtha wear flowers but not look like she's made of flowers. The Del Rey cover makes Urtha look like walking shrubbery, which isn't exactly an improvement.
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