A New Wonderland, The Woggle-Bug And More!

L. Frank Baum was a writer of a great many other books other than the OZ titles for which he is justly famous. Some are what I call OZ-adjacent, in that they are either inspirations for the OZ stories or are merged into the mythology in some way. I am far from a Baum authority, but here are some titles I've come across which should be considered when one sits down to read Baum's greatest creation. 

A New Wonderland was first published in 1899 under the title The Surprising Adventures of the Magical Monarch of Mo and His People. After the success of The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, Baum revised the story very slightly by changing the name of this weird territory to "Phunnyland" and issued it again in 1903. It's a rather ridiculous collection of absurd stories set in a land made literally of milk and honey and fruitcake and whatever confection Baum could imagine. (Think of Milton-Bradley's Candy Land.)

The titular Monarch and his people are immortal and suffer outrageous wounds and whatnot as the individual stories develop. This is a collection of stories called "Surprises" which are trapped somewhere between a set of fairy tales and a short novel. Utterly impossible things happen like the King getting his head bitten off and replaced by a series of regrettable objects, and a dog which is kicked into the air so far that it's flattened enough to serve as a rug for a time. The antagonist is a Purple Dragon who appears several times and meddles. And there is King Scowleyow who sends a metal man to upset things in the candy kingdom. (The iron man did put me in mind of TikTok in some ways.) Another story reminded me of the Black Knight from Monty Python when the hero has all his limbs nipped off, but he's still going strong. We even get some clever monkeys and a yellow hen. The candy motif wears thin and is abandoned in many of the stories which see the protagonists popping into other worlds. These seem to be pretty good stories if read aloud to kids, story by story, and that is likely the intent. Sadly, my edition lacked the illustrations which were done for the original publication. 

The Woggle-Bug Book features one of Baum's more delightful and genuinely funny creations. This is an exceedingly slim book and a rare one to boot. The 1905 book unfortunately is rife with ethnic humor and more than a few slurs. It is a product of its time, but still it's easy to see why this book is not fit for a child's reading. But as the intended adult audience I can adjust my settings and dig out that it's a really funny yarn about H.M. Woggle-Bug T.E. (Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated), a character first seen in The Marvelous Land of OZ. The character was used in a musical as well. And this story was taken from the Woggle-Bug's appearance in Queer Visitors from the Land of OZ, a comic strip featuring Baum's characters. In the story the Woggle-Bug is visiting New York City, and he falls in love with a dummy wearing a very loud pattern dress. He then transfers his love for the dress to the woman who buys it, then to the woman she gives it way to, and so on and so forth. Always the loud fabric is what he's chasing. The original had lots of illustrations, but sadly my copy does not. 

The Enchanted Island of Yew was published in 1903 and tells the tale of a fairy that wished to be a human. Three girls named Sesely, Helda and Berna find the fairy and turn her into a young man named Prince Marvel. He magically acquires a horse and gear and sets out to feel life for one year. He quickly gets a squire named Nerle who comes from a pampered life and seeks discomfort. After reforming a large gang of thieves led by a guy named Wul-Takim, the duo travel to Spor at the center of the island to see an enigmatic king named Terribus and discover he is a hideous creature who first tries to kill them and then keep them prisoner. Later they visit a weird territory hidden behind a giant hedge where everyone is doubled. Once again, their lives are threatened by the people there. They survive that with help from the friends they've made along the way. Finally, the Red Giant of Dawna kills Sesely's father, and Marvel and gang go to rescue her and her friends. After that the year is over and Marvel happily becomes a fairy again. This is a diverting fairy tale with surprises, but little stands out about it despite the clever invention. 

John Dough and the Cherub was first published in 1906. The titular John Dough is a gingerbread man of the highest order. He was fashioned with great care and then accidently infused with a mysterious elixer owned by a greedy Arab, which gave him both life and sentience. He soon learns that folks would love to take a bite out of him to partake of the magic which brought him to life and so he heads out of town and by fluke and firework ends up on Phreex Island where he finds an array of oddball characters. One of these is Cherub who is reputedly the first test-tube baby. A curious thing about Cherub is that Baum never tells the reader what sex Cherub is. He or she is dressed androgynously throughout the story and is never referred to by either "he" or "she". The two escape the Arab in a flying machine and then have more travels finding other territories with things like retired pirates, talking rabbits and fairy beavers. They encounter a strange race called the Mifkets who are like little roly-poly elves or something like that. A rubber bear named Para Bruin joins them on their journey as they help a sick princess before John Dough himself becomes the ruler of the twin kingdoms of Hiland and Loland. John Dough and Cherub show up very briefly in The Road to OZ. The mifkits appear in Rinkitink in OZ. 

Queen Zixi of Ix, Or the Story of the Magic Cloack was first published in 1905. The story deals with a brother and sister who are orphaned and end up with their rather stern aunt. Through a series of flukes, the sister ends up with a magic cloak made by the fairies which can grant one wish to whomever is wearing it. Then later the brother is made king after an even more random chance. Now they are rich and powerful, and we see how they cope with that as well as seeing a parade of the characters get hold of it and we see a series of bizarre accidental wishes.  We finally meet the titular Queen Zixi of Ix a third of the way into the novel and find out she's a six-hundred-year-old witch who appears young and beautiful. She decides she wants the cloak and uses both trickery and force to try and get it. Then come the Roly-Rogues, strange ball-like creatures who invade the kingdom and drive out the populace. Needless to say, since this is a fairy tale, things ultimately turn out fine. I should also note that the bountiful illustrations by Frederick Richardson are gorgeous. 

Despite not being an OZ book it was nonetheless the basis for The Magic Cloak of OZ in 1914, the second film from the OZ Film Manufacturing Company operated by Baum himself. Because of the relative failure of the earlier The Patchwork Girl of OZ this movie and its successor His Majesty, the Scarecrow of OZ lacked decent distribution. The movie adds a donkey who meets an array of other critters to save a young girl stolen by robbers. Visit this link this link to watch the movie. 

These books showcase L. Frank Baum's range to some extent as well as his industry. All the tales reviewed here were published between 1899 and 1906, and they are just some of the output from this prolific and important American writer. 

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The Man Who Sold The United States!

My nation is nearly two hundred and fifty years old and faces its greatest challenge since the days of the Watergate Scandal or perhaps even the Civil War. A literally raving lunatic has gained control of one of the two major parties and is running for the highest office in the land. He is manifestly unfit for any public office especially the presidency, despite having held the office once before. He brings with him hate and division and all the things which destroy civility and ultimately freedom. But this story today was told before nearly fifty years ago, not long after the embers of the Watergate Scandal were beginning to fade, and the United States was about to celebrate its two hundredth birthday. 

Marvel Comics in 1975 was losing steam, when Jack "King" Kirby agreed to return to the "House of Ideas". It was not as big a bombshell when Kirby returned alas as it was when he originally left, since there was a general sense of inevitability about the whole thing. Kirby was not interested by and large in returning to his old haunts such as the Fantastic Four and Thor, but rather as he'd done before he wanted to do new things such as The Eternals and animation-inspired Devil Dinosaur.

But there was an exception made for Captain America. Cap had been under the control of writer Steve Englehart and artists Sal Buscema and Frank Robbins for several years, but Englehart had recently left creating a void. Kirby came in and largely ignored much of the topical continuity that Englehart had laid down with such skill in the preceding issues. This was a full-blown reboot. 

The Captain America and Falcon of this new way forward were not as angst ridden as they had been under previous writers, and they were very comfortable working in sync with the government, specifically SHIELD. Working on the first two issues with the reliable Frank Giacoia, it feels like Kirby his wheels under him on the strip. Perhaps due to editorial mandates. 

They are driven to join forces with the United States government when a threat to the whole nation is revealed dramatically enough as a wave of inexplicable hate overcomes both Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson as well as a large part of New York City itself. Struggle and destruction ensued and amid that rubble they are told of the secret conspiracy to destroy the whole nation with a sonic bomb dubbed "Big Daddy", an ICBM-sized device which would throw the country into an orgy of self-destruction.

Behind this scheme is a group of self-absorbed "one percenters" who dub themselves "The Elite". Cap and the Falcon track them into the western "Badlands" and find an underground complex in which a distorted society has reared itself, built on exalted privilege for a few and fueled by greed for those left to support those at the top. 

It's an Orwellian world in which hate is equated with love. Cap and Falcon are discovered by a girl named Cheer Chadwick, the daughter of William Taurey, the man behind this foul scheme to rid the country of the Constitution and return it to a monarchy with Taurey and his allies at the top.

They are forced fight in a brutal gladiatorial contest and eventually alongside the U.S. military are able to bring down the vast "Badlands" complex. But "Big Daddy" had already been moved. By finding its creator, a man named Mason Harding, they hope to find the bomb. But Harding is motivated by the love for his daughter who is overcome by a fatal disease. 

He is hidden by the Elite as Cap and Falcon and SHIELD descend on their hiding place. But eventually they learn that the bomb is hidden in Philadelphia and the Falcon leads a team to stop it. Cap on the other hand goes to a rich estate to confront Taurey and his Elite colleagues. It's a desperate battle and the Falcon takes the worst of it, but it is one at the end of which, as Cap reports that "the Nation Stands".

I well remember being disappointed by this storyline when I first read it, since it seemed to lack the topicality which had dominated Cap stories of the recent past. But now I see a more subtle symbolism in this yarn which escaped my literal-oriented noggin at that time.

The "Madbomb" in its shape and function at once stands for the nuclear might which both the U.S. and some other few countries wield, and the effect that awesome power might inflict on the psyche of the public. The concept of "M.A.D." (Mutually Assured Destruction) was a sword of Damocles which hung over the world for decades (and still does actually though we don't confront it nearly as much as we once did in those old "Cold War" times). That fear could easily be manipulated into self-destructive fury.

The world of the "Elites" is remarkable in that they hate democracy, the empowering of the masses. The desire to concentrate power into the hands of a few is a constant struggle in this country, in the world. For those few, currently dubbed "The One Percent", have goals and motivations which do not comport with what is best for the greater whole of humanity. They wish to end the American experiment in democracy and return to a culture which elevated some to nobility while others lived out their days as humble peasants happy for the crumbs they were given. 

The story is somewhat simple-minded in that United States military might is offered as a solution to the problem, which while not implausible does offer up a somewhat troubling image. That the Falcon is so easily co-opted into this mindset does run counter to much of his character development which had been the focus of so many previous issues (one of the things which I was annoyed with when I first read the story in its original run).

But one thing I did notice is that the Falcon is often key in much of the story for the success of the effort to stop the Elite. Captain America seems confounded sometimes by the clash of reality and his ideals and the Falcon is able to cut through the philosophy with a no-nonsense attitude. This does point out the value of their partnership. 

The story is clearly meant to give us insights into what makes America a successful nation, and in a reverse mirror sort of way it does just that.

More Cap next week. Happy Fourth of July! My next year's celebration be a happy one as well.

Post Scriptum: Given the Supreme Court Decision from a few days ago, this Fourth of July takes on added significance. We normally think of it as the remembrance of the beginning of battles to create our nation. Now we can think of it as the beginning of a great battle to preserve it in the modern day. We win this battle, or rights and liberties we've long taken for granted are in grave jeopardy. The loss of a woman's right to choose and have control over her own body was just the beginning for these bastards. They want to be our overlords. They want to rule us. They want us on our knees.  

This is a Revised Red, White, and Blue Dojo Classic. 

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A Day In The Anti-Life - Super-Villain Team-Up!

I've kept my views on the news of the day off this blog for several years because things had settled down with a President who obeyed the laws and didn't riff on tormenting the helpless day after day after day, but the quite recent travesty of a Supreme Court decision has moved me to speak up again. I genuinely worry that the democracy I have enjoyed for my many decades on this planet is indeed in danger of disappearing for all practical terms. The case was obviously taken up by the highest court in the land in bad faith because of the timing and extensive duration of consideration, and the decision is dangerous in the extreme. The United States Supreme Court has created a Super-Executive who is not answerable to the laws applicable to the common folk. We are lucky that the man in the office now is a good and decent fellow, who will not order the assassination of his enemies. 

This all happened because the disgraceful cowardice of Republicans in Congress who some years ago failed utterly and shamefully in their duty to impeach and remove our loathsome former president who had instigated an attack on our own Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. That's what the Constitution clearly demanded they do in that circumstance and for fear of being hurt or killed by their own followers they faded when the moment came to hold him to account for his obvious crimes. Holding the man to account after that has proven difficult and now the Supreme Court has made it all but impossible. We now run the very real risk that an amoral sociopathic traitorous sex-offending convicted felon might become the leader of the free world again. And this time he won't leave office until he dies. 

I still believe that will not happen. I think that the clearly good man named Joe will win the day and save us from our own demons, at least for a short time. But now we have to hope that all future Presidents are good men or good women, because the Supreme Court has made the office a fertile nest for an evil person, an utter villain to wreak havoc on this country and the world. Maybe in practical terms it was always thus, but now we know it can happen for certain.  And we're not out of the woods yet on this one. 

It has been a particularly sad day in the Anti-Life! The villains among us have won a dark victory indeed. It's time for the good guys to win one. 

Stay tuned. 

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A Marvelous Neal Adams Gallery!

In his relatively short time at Marvel Neal Adams created some of the finest covers the company has ever produced. The masterpiece above with a spaceman descending in golden light before a gaggle of classic cavemen is probably my favorite Adams cover of the era, though it does have stiff competition. 

I think Adams drew the Man-Thing better than anyone. He drew the second Man-Thing story and created the wonderfully macabre image above for an early issue of Monsters Unleashed. There are some fantastic exploitation elements in this one, in particular the woman with the torn blouse and heaving bosoms. The gunshot which goes astray as the Man-Thing in all his shaggy awfulness dispatches the men.  

Dracula is a powerful creature who deserves a powerful artist, and Adams created three dandy covers starring the Lord of the Undead for Marvel. His cover for the debut issue of The Tomb of Dracula is amazing. The image of the vampire king cradling a helpless woman is used again for Dracula Lives, but this time with more background drama. I find the cold ferocity of the former to best effective. 

I used to not like this cover for Marvel Spotlight which featured the debut of Werewolf by Night that much. I was annoyed at the structure, but over the years its grown on me. Perhaps it takes longer for some of us to properly feel the power of lycanthropy. 

This Legion of Monsters cover is legend. What a mob. 

I'm not one hundred percent sure what's going on in this image, but that doesn't stop the ferocious power of it to seep in. One gets a glimpse of the power of the Neal Adams pencil Marvelmania Magazine offering. 

Space, girls, and gibbering monsters is a classic science fiction image and Adams delivers in spades for his Epic Illustrated outing. 

This is an interesting Marvel project Adams produced for another publisher. Back in those halcyon days before the internet, guides and indexes played a big role in my comic book life. 

I know it's culturally insensitive these days (was back then too) but I really like Red Wolf. He was introduced in The Avengers and quickly got his own solo feature in the debut issue Marvel Spotlight. The thing was Marvel decided to switch the setting to the Old West and that was fun, but not as much as seeing this brave warrior taking on modern villains in an urban setting. They eventually brought it back to the modern day, but the title was gone by then. Adams for his part drew a gangbuster cover for this first adventure. 

I know I said the Marvel Preview cover was my favorite but looking again at this Marvel Feature offering I change my mind. Neal Adams created an epic image with Subby, Doc Strange and Jade Jaws in excellent form. I remember the thrill of his new team whenever I see this fantastic debut image. I'm not sure they get better than this one.

But I'm looking at more Neal Adams work for Marvel later this month such as the stuff he produced for The Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers, The Mighty Thor, the Inhumans, and The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu so I might change my mind yet again. Also, I'll be taking a glance at his Sword and Sorcery work for Marvel and others later this summer. 

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Atlas-Seaboard Comics - July 1975!

This is the mother-of-all-months for Atlas-Seaboard. Lots of titles, lots of changes of direction, and sadly lots and lots of cancellations. This month marks the great collapse of the edifice that Martin and Chip Goodman built to spit in the face of their former success story, Marvel. Let's begin.

IRONJAW #4 gives us the "origin" of the barbarian, and this tale by Gary Friedrich and Pablo Marcos is a somewhat overdone saga of a young minstrel who is tortured and maimed by some jealous thugs. A witch tries to save him at the cost of her own immortality, and she is the one who first gives the young man his new jaw and his new name. Ironjaw was the flagship of the Atlas line, the only character to appear in five stories, but this issue is the last. We will never know the second part of Ironjaw's origin. The Atlas-Seaboard tragedy begins to unfold.

GRIM GHOST #3 gives us a Tony Isabella script with more Ernie Colon artwork. This story introduces Brimstone, a demon from Hell who wants to take over the operation. He gives powers to two thugs the Ghost encounters, and the battle is on. Brimstone offers G.G. a role in his revolution, but Dunsinane sees the flaw in Brimstone's plan and rejects him. Satan gives the Ghost some help in the form of Lady Braddock, the same woman who betrayed him in issue #1. It's a clever twist, and it gives the story some real depth. The battle with Brimstone has some neat twists, and I wonder if a young Todd McFarlane ever read this issue. I heard whispers of Spawn throughout. Alas this was the last issue, as despite an excellent Russ Heath cover and a logo change, sales must have not been there. It won't be the last cancellation of the month.

WULF the BARBARIAN #3 offers a change of talent and direction. A Steve Skeates written story with superb Leo Summers artwork, gives us Wulf and his new partner Rymstrydle saving some nobleman and his beautiful daughter from Kangroo-riding Rat-Men (shades of Kamandi) only to find themselves drawn into a struggle between a Master of an Industrial-Wonderland city-state and Wulf's arch-enemy. There is some great derring-do, before the battle is won, and by tale's end Wulf is again alone looking for revenge. There is also a map of Wulf's world in this issue. There will be one more issue.

BRUTE #3 gives us a change of talent and direction as Alan Weiss under Jack Abel inks takes the art chores. The new story by Gary Friedrich (who seems to have taken over all of Mike Fleisher's assignments at this point) puts the Brute in conflict again with the police before he eventually meets up with an android super-agent named Doomstalker. The story ends in a cliff-hanger with the Brute (now possessed of the limited ability to speak) having taken a terrible and fall, and the Doomstalker threatening all of mankind. Alas this is the last issue, and as far as I know the Doomstalker is still standing there.

MORLOCK 2001 AND THE MIDNIGHT MEN #3 (formerly known as simply Morlock 2001) is the saga that gets one of the sharpest twists in direction. Steve Ditko with some Berni Wrightson inks gives the book a new look, and the story involves a scientist horribly burned who leads a revolution against the same oppressive government that gave birth to Morlock. Morlock is taken underground where the newly dubbed "Midnight Man" seeks to enlist him in the war. The Thought Police attack and the battle rages. Morlock seems to fall, even to be dead as the story closes with the Midnight Man vowing to fight on. Issue #4 might have been retitled I suspect, but this series ends with this issue.

PLANET OF VAMPRIES #3 features delicious Russ Heath artwork under a very bland cover. The story by John Albano broadens the saga beyond the limits of the city and gets our hero into the wilderness. The death count is brutal in this issue as of our five astronauts (one was killed in the first issue) only two survive by the last page of this story and they are not together. The wives of both Chris and Craig meet tragic deaths, and a two-page ad by Larry Lieber suggests they will be together again battling more vampires. But this is the last issue.

THE SCORPION #3 tells of the death of Moro Frost, the Scorpion of the previous two issues. The immortal hero has moved on into the then-modern world of 1975 and has become a superhero. This Jim Craig drawn issue is typical superhero stuff with the Scorpion doing a Daredevil thing across NYC battling neo-Nazis who want to revive assorted Nazi villains from the Big One. The battle takes place under the Twin Trade Towers, then new, but it does give the comic a poignancy that it otherwise lacks. This is the last issue of this totally transformed comic. The panic in the Atlas editorial offices is becoming apparent with this particular comic.

WEIRD SUSPENSE #3 featuring THE TARANTULA offers another good dose of Boyette beauty, but the story is a rambling mess with a villain who ineptly used mind-over-matter to battle the star of the book. There are threats and danger, but the book lacks emotional direction. Rich Buckler offers both the cover and the splash page as there seemed to be some rewriting of the original story along the way. This is the last Tarantula story despite the fact #4 is advertised with cover art. Apparently, the next story would have explained the Tarantula was part of some alien invasion early in man's history. But we'll never know for sure.

TARGITT #3 gives us another episode of his war against crime, this time finding him against a ghastly character named Professor Death, neatly drawn by Howard Nostrand. There's nerve gas involved and Targitt's exposure seems to give him some powers of some sort, though this is vaguely explained. There is also something about his outfit giving him mechanical abilities of strength, but again it's vague. By the end of this story Targitt is renamed Man-Stalker and he's left his Magnums behind. Like the Scorpion another superhero is born. But like some many titles this is the last issue. Even the Buckler cover doesn't help things.

TALES OF EVIL #3 gives us the MAN-MONSTER, an Isabella-Buckler effort that has an abrasive Olympic swimmer overcome by weird sparkly stuff and change into a big old monster. Some reporters save him, take him to a hotel, where a costumed villain assaults him and sets fire to the hotel. The hero's father is an equally abrasive rich guy who happens to own the hotel and the Man-Monster is accused by story's end of torching it and his own dad is ordering the cops to shoot him. What happens next? We'll never know. BOG BEAST shows up for another (and final) turn with good art by Romero. Tales of Evil pulls the hat-trick and offers a werewolf for him to battle, making three werewolves in three issues of the abruptly cancelled series.

SAVAGE COMBAT TALES #3 gives us the last SGT.STRYKER'S DEATH SQUAD tale as Goodwin and McWilliams offer up another somewhat tepid story of the usual WWII mayhem. The team goes after Rommel, but miss, though through a complicated network of mistakes by all sides they think they've succeeded. I don't want to be there when they discover they screwed up. But we won't as this is the last issue. The second story is a pretty good tale of WWII with Jack Sparling artwork. It tells of a black vet and a white raw recruit who pull dangerous duty on a dangerous ridge and overcome both danger and racism, if only for the moment. It seems to be the start of a new series, but it's unclear. And sadly it's moot.

THE COUGAR #2 is another tale of Hollywood stuntmen battling supernatural menaces. With worthy Frank Springer artwork, this is a rather bland comic book. Our hero is Jeff Rand, is a Louisiana boy we discover and there's a werewolf in his past. That werewolf might just be his own brother and further seems to be on the loose killing folks all around our hero. We learn the Cougar identity is the result of a failed starring vehicle for our wannabe stuntman, but little is shown beyond that. This a wide-ranging story with little direction, but it does offer a climactic battle and the potential for a change of direction in issue #3 as by story's end the Cougar is paralyzed. We'll never find out, as this is the last issue. Sigh.

The lone debut of the month is...

BLAZING BATTLE TALES #1 starring SGT.HAWK. Hawk is the usual hard-nosed battle-weary hero and he goes after his mission in this effective one-shot story with the stereotypical Native American and Jewish soldiers at his side. I think their names are White Cloud and Goldberg, but any cliche names would have done. There's some decent Jack Sparling art over what claims to be Pat Broderick layouts, though I don't see it myself. Sparling certainly dominates. The second story features a fighter pilot with a six sense about attack targets and might be the beginning of a series, but its unimpressive despite typically good McWilliams artwork. John Severin puts in a two-page offering detailing the heroic efforts of a real soldier. This issue has it all it seems for the war comic fan. Atlas seemed to be clutching at straws by the time this one hit the stands, and even a rather nice Frank Thorne cover doesn't help much.

That's July from Atlas-Seaboard. With this wave of final issues, it's pretty much all over but the crying. Atlas will linger for a few more months, but there will be precious few more comic books from this company that promised so much, but sadly delivered so little in the final analysis. August awaits.

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