Well, leave it to Tommy Kovac to be the guy who figures out how to revisit Oz via a completely modern twist and not stomp on the source material one bit. This is one of the strongest first issues I have read in a very long time. (The last one that hit me like this was Marvels’ new S.H.I.E.L.D. book.) Plus, The Royal Historian only cost a dollar. If you have read Tommy’s Wonderland, you know how he can take an old story, make it a “new” old story that looks a bit different since you last saw it, but it’s still your pal and will give you a couch to crash on. I really can’t say enough good things about this book. Okay, one complaint: the color scheme on the cover looks like a corduroy leisure suit from 1977.
You know that Tommy is not just intimately familiar with Baum’s creations, but the politics of the obsessive fans as well. His thugs are a riot:
“Sigh. I just hope there isn’t another letter from the ‘Official Oz Society’…”
“The who?”
“Oh, just a bunch of gay old men with dogs named ‘Toto’”
Methinks Mr. Kovac may have had a run-in with the freaks at the Baum Bugle. Oh, and though Baum’s books differ greatly from the MGM 1939 film, you can come in with zero knowledge of his books and The Royal Historian of Oz should be 100% accessible to any reader. I like that Tommy and Andy tackled this in a way that they really could just as well have been writing about a fictitious series of books; not something that is easily pulled off. If you hate this book (which I promise you won’t, unless you’re from the Baum Bugle), the revelation of what Frank Fizzle’s dad is up to at the end is worth the price of admission. It would make the actual Wizard Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs proud. Did I mention this gem is only $1? This is not just a great Oz comic, but a terrific comic by any standards. They put together a great book—the best I have read this month—and they did not have to use Marvel Universe politics, Green Lantern rainbows, or Batman resurrections. Bravo.
[BTW: For those who don’t know, L. Frank Baum Jr. made a silent film in 1925 from his dad’s work The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which you can watch
HERE]
