Wizard of Oz

October 29, 2012
Caldwell’s angular, dynamic artwork leans more toward Saturday-morning cartoons than romantic fantasy in the fourth comics adaptation in his All-Action Classics series. His Dorothy is gap-toothed and freckled; the black-eyed and troll-like Munchkins are truly alien; and the witches recall Disney villainesses like Snow White’s Queen or The Little Mermaid’s Ursula. (Caldwell’s Wicked Witch of the West even speaks with a Western twang: “You and yer little furry thing have back-breaking, bone-crunching work to do!”) Caldwell follows Baum’s original novel rather than the iconic film. The heroes are pursued by the Kalidah, “horrific beasts, with heads like tigers and bodies like bears,” and the famous path the four friends follow, as in the original, is called the “road of golden bricks.” The humor, though, is his own. “She enslaved and tormented us!” says one Munchkin about the Wicked Witch of the East. “She despoiled our lands!” says a second. “And cut library funding!” adds a third. Caldwell’s Wizard of Oz slots conveniently between Spongebob Squarepants and Adventure Time, and readers will fly through this story with the speed of winged monkeys. Ages 10–14. (Nov.)■

July 29, 1991
Santore's illustrations for this new edition of Baum's classic tale work on two levels. They capture the story's epic sweep in numerous colorful landscapes and dramatic tableaux, and they are models of sustained characterization. Though the paintings occasionally lapse into Saturday morning TV cartoon art, they generally evoke the many beloved scenes with verve. In contrast to a rather mundane scarecrow, Santore's cowardly lion is a splendid beast--looming over his companions, lower jaw ever a-quiver. The episodes in the Emerald City are appropriately green-tinted (the book's pages, in fact, are green in these sequences) and cleverly framed by faceted, emeraldlike borders. Unfortunately, the text is abridged, and significant sequences and characters are missing. These cuts have robbed Santore of the chance to realize fully his vision of Oz, and readers of the opportunity to enjoy the story as Baum told it. Morrow's facsimile of the first edition illustrated by W. W. Denslow and Holt's edition illustrated by Michael Hague are better versions of this enduring favorite. All ages.