Some stories have a message...kinda...

Additional Notes:

WARNING! (The real one)

This story is pretty offensive, it can get graphic and downright ruthless at times so if you don’t like that sort of humor, don’t read this story. But if you read it anyway don’t complain if you get offended, I did warn you and keep in mind it IS only a story.

(Or read it anyway, get offended and leave a hilariously triggered comment, that's fine too.)

Also, don't bother trying to "win" either. You can't. Just heed the moral lessons you may learn.

One musician's tale in a dying world

Additional Notes:

If you’ve read and liked Necromancer, then this might interest you as this story takes place during the same course of events of that story. (Not a prequel, not a sequel, but an equal!)

However, this story is definitely more “story” than “game”. In fact you shouldn’t even bother reading it if you’re intent on “winning”. You can’t. That being said, there is a “true ending” to this story and you’ll probably know if you get it. If you do get it, you can consider it a “win” if you like.

There are a few points in the story where there are links that lead to “Letters to Home”. While not necessary to understand the story, they do provide a little more insight into the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings on various situations.

The last hope for a dying empire

Additional notes:

This story can be very long assuming you're not dying. Years pass and your surroundings will most likely change. You may very well live a life time in the story.

As with any of my writings, the story comes before the game. However while there isn't a complex inventory and all of that, you can technically "win" by getting one of the epilogues.

There are 13 epilogues total.

There are also several points in the story where there are links that lead to more background information on various people, places, things and events. While not completely necessary to understanding the story, they do give you more insight into it.

Carnivals aren't all fun and games.

Additional Notes:

While there is only one spot that contains extra histories for this story, it's basically the background information of all the major characters and factions. It's strongly recommended that these are read due to the fact that your character will be interacting with most of these folks in his attempts to successfully accomplish his task(s).

This story has a very factional feel to it, so choose your allegiances carefully to get one of the better endings.

If you see a bright light, duck and cover!

Additional notes:

I should point out that this story can be very long assuming you're not dying. Years pass and your surroundings will most likely change. You may very well live a life time in the story if you're lucky. You will also experience a completely different adventure depending on how you escaped the initial nuclear strike. (Assuming you do survive it.)

As with any of my writings, the "story" comes before the "game". However, this story was written in a "game like" format. So while there isn't a complex inventory and all of that, you can technically "win" by getting one of the 4 special endings. (You'll know if you get one because you'll get an epilogue)

This one's for the kids, no really!

Additional Notes:

This story has clear cut win/lose endings. There is nothing excessively unusual about this story, it's just a simple "children's story".

(Yes, you can still die in it)

Running the family business isn't easy!

Additional Notes:

In a few places there are links for history or certain characters. While not necessary to understand the story, they do provide further background information.

There are several endings varying in degrees of good/bad or neutral outcomes. Technically there is one very happy ending, but it isn't labeled as such.

Underneath the sickness there's love...

Additional Notes:

WARNING!

This story contains a lot of graphic content, if you are offended by ultra violence, explicit sexual descriptions, tons of swearing, blasphemy, inappropriate dark humor, and brutal misanthropy in general then DO NOT read this story!

Of course now that I’ve mentioned all the things it contains, you’ll probably read it anyway, you sick little monkey.

Well don’t complain if you get offended, I did warn you and keep in mind it IS only a story.

(Or read it anyway knowing it'll offend you and leave an amusingly triggered comment. That's fine too.)

This also isn't really a "win/lose" type story. While there are some endings better than others, this is basically just a tale about a very twisted man and his very twisted lifestyle.

Additional Notes:

This story is definitely more "story" than "game", however there are two distinct paths that can be followed, each with their own pitfalls and additional choices. There is also "one true" ending in which can be considered a "win" (You'll know if you got it, because you'll get an epilogue)

This story can get long, and assuming you're surviving, years do pass in it and you and your environment will change. There are a few points in the story where there are links that lead to more background information on various people and things. While not completely necessary to understand the story, they do give you more insight into it. The text that accompanies some of the pics are also done for similar purposes (Your journal entries, personal thoughts, letters written to you, etc)

Humanity never changes...

Additional Notes:

There are links leading to various background information and your character's current thoughts throughout the story. In some cases these may provide greater insight since some mysterious things can occur in this story.

There are also several endings varying in degrees of good/bad/neutral outcomes. Technically there is one ultimate "winning" ending, but it isn't labeled as such.

Emotions can be wonderful or dangerous...

Additional Notes:

This story has a few bits that are probably a bit on the disturbing side. Not many, but they are there in places. So if you don't like that sort of thing, you probably shouldn't read it.

This story in general is probably a bit odd and less verbose than most of my other stories. There are also several endings varying in degrees of good/bad/neutral outcomes. While there are some endings better than others, this is basically just the tale of a teenager who definitely has some issues.

From humble beginning to infamy and beyond!

Additional notes:

This story is a fully self contained one and can easily be read on its own, however it also acts as a "sequel" to Innkeeper.

As with any of my writings, the story comes before the game. However while there isn't a complex inventory and all of that, you can technically "win" by getting one of the 12 epilogues.

Things would be so much easier if your name was Mary Sue

Additional notes:

This story is a fully self contained one and can easily be read on its own, however it also acts as:

A direct sequel to the "Good Girl" short story in Tales From The Basement.

A semi sequel to the other TFTB short stories, Repression, TRASH, Love SICK and Geek.

A semi prequel to Ground Zero.

As with any of my writings, the story comes before the game. However while there isn't a complex inventory and all of that, you can still "win" by getting one of the epilogues.

There are 16 epilogues total.

Because Basement Dwellers are people too!

Additional Notes:

This story is three stories in one. Your first choice will lead to a separate tale of a different “basement dweller”. Each one is mostly different in tone.

Ebay Escapist is weird and random. It’s the least verbose of the three. (Or my stories in general)

Good Girl is the longest and most descriptive of the three. There is some weirdness going on here too, but is mostly kept much more in "reality". There is a cast of characters link in the beginning to help you keep up with who’s who.

Anime Addict has a lot of offensive language and humor, so if you don't like that sort of thing you shouldn’t read this one.

In all the tales there are several endings varying in degrees of good/bad/neutral outcomes. While there are some endings better than others, these are basically just tales of basement dwellers.

It's an edgelord boogaloo!

Additional Notes:

This story is three stories in one where it follows a different protagonist based on the first choice.

This story is also probably really offensive or something. Probably shouldn't read it if that's not your thing, but feel free to do so anyway and complain loudly in the comments since those are always good for a laugh.

Anyway, there's your extra warning. You can't say you weren't told.

Incel Insanity and Whining Wokie are all new tales, while Film Fanatic is a "reboot" of sorts of an older story called Exploitation Theater. Yes, it's finally here and been greatly expanded on.

As always the story is always more important than the game focus, but also as always, you definitely can get better endings than others.

Three ladies. Three legends.

Additional notes:

This story is a fully self contained one and can easily be read on its own, however it also acts as a connection to Rogues, Eternal and Necromancer.

As with any of my writings, the story comes before the game. However there is an epilogue for each "winning" ending.

Yee Haw! It's a trailer park life for me!

Additional Notes:

This story has a ton of offensive langauge and humor so if you don't like that sort of thing, you probably shouldn't read it. Though given the setting, the language used is pretty accurate.

This also isn't really a "win/lose" type story. While there are some endings better than others, this is basically just a tale about a typical day of a degenerate that lives in a trailer park.

The Founders haven't been active for over a decade. They pop up very rarely every now and then but they mostly leave the place to us to deal with.

As of right now we don't have any code monkeys to do anything with the site and while hopefully that changes in the upcoming year, I've been told the code resembles ancient hell spaghetti and is held together with duct tape and glue. Wasn't really designed with mobile in mind since it didn't even exist at the time. 

Who knows maybe someone can techwizard something at some point but there's other things that have to be fixed, added, and altered first.

No, he really couldn't.

Plus it was constructive and he kept it civil by not calling the OP a retarded faggot.

Updated.

Alright the home stretch here and the completion of the post Nome King arc. Or Wickest Witch arc as it is now.

I assume because of name trademarks, they couldn’t use the name Oz even if they had the rights for everything else. So the series was called “Dark Oz” instead. It was a lot harder to find too due to Arrow having smaller distribution which is saying something since Caliber wasn’t exactly a major company. I’d argue that the only reason I managed to regularly find anything from either company is due to living in Michigan where both companies were located and the comic shop I used to go to often carried more obscure shit or local stuff.

Happily the artwork for Dark Oz was done by the old artist that worked on the first 15 issues (and the prequels) so it looks much better.

Anyway let’s finish this.

Dark Oz Issue 1: Children of the Corn

Fine time for them to show up now

Starts off with Dorothy and the rest finally showing up at Glinda’s old place. It’s gloomy looking but Hungry Tiger doesn’t smell anyone living there. Scarecrow uses Heckle to scout the place just in case. At this point Dorothy laments how much Oz has changed in 10 years which prompts HG to grumble about how she was fortunate enough to at least sleep through most of it. 

It then goes into a recap of what happened in the comics before Dorothy got snapped out of her trance. I guess this was for the benefit of new readers, but honestly anyone who was into the series was probably already following from the old Oz name. One thing that gets mentioned is what potentially happened to the good witches and Scarecrow says they probably got turned into ornaments which prompts HG say of course, why didn’t anyone think of this before?

Anyway eventually they get to what they’re supposed to be doing and approach the castle door. The castle however is surrounded by a lot of corn and there’s creepy scarecrows everywhere. Scarecrow tells Trot he’ll ignore that remark, but she mentions they aren’t nice looking and she feels like they’re watching her.

So they get inside and it looks like the place has already been ransacked. They assume it was probably the nomes that did this, but it’s a huge place so something might still be around. In his infinite wisdom Scarecrow suggests they split up to search the place quicker. Dorothy says to just gather anything that looks magical and they’ll look at everything later.

Trot and HG got the basement which he’s pissed about, but he was busy eating up mice while they were making plans. So he grumbles and goes along.

Betsy and Tin Man search the main level, but there’s not much left. Betsy also says this whole search is wrong anyway. Everyone lost 10 years, but she’s trying to effectively erase what actually happened. Tin Man says maybe she just needs to find the fountain rather than use it and then she’ll find her new place in the world. Betsy says she hopes that’s the case.

Trot and HG are in the basement where HG tells her she can put the knife away since he can’t smell anything down here. She says it makes her feel better, but he says the only thing he’s smelling is bales of hay. She says isn’t it odd to have bales of hay in a cellar.

And at that point HG is smashed over the head with a club by a straw man. Trot starts stabbing it, which just causes it to laugh and she’s overwhelmed by more straw men. Yep, they finally got back to this prequel plot point.

Dorothy and Scarecrow are searching the upstairs and they’re finding a bunch of other scarecrows hanging up on the walls. Dorothy is wondering why Glinda would have them and Scarecrow says something about all this seems very familiar. Apparently during the brief reunion Scraps never reminded Scarecrow he was trying to build an army of golems. 

They find a secret door which has a room with a crystal ball and some other magic looking items which Dorothy is sure will be able to help somehow. Meanwhile Tinman and Betsy are done searching the main level since it seems to be pointless, so Tinman heads upstairs to see what Dorothy and Scarecrow are doing while Betsy heads to the basement.

Betsy doesn’t get far before she stumbles upon HG and Trot’s unconscious bodies. She’s soon taken by the straw men as well. Tin Man has found Scarecrow and Dorothy when they hear Betsy’s screaming, but they don’t get the chance to go save her since a horde of straw golems arrive with one of them shouting “Father!”

Tin Man an Dorothy are confused by this and Stitch is also confused since he’s wondering why dad is hanging out with a fleshling and the other evil king asking if he’s a prisoner.

Stitch orders his golem brothers to attack. Dorothy screams that she’s come too far just to get stuck like a pig by a pitchfork. Scarecrow pushes her aside and she falls right into a mirror. Instead of it shattering though, she passes through it entirely.

Then during the fight, the mirror falls and shatters. Tin Man exclaims their pitchforks aren’t going to work on him and asks who he is. Stitch asks if his metal ears aren’t working,  and that he’s Stitch, son of Scarecrow and he’s creating an army to rid Oz of the fleshlings. The scent of straw will be the perfume of the air and all those horrible liquids and smells of the fleshlings will no longer foul the air.

Scarecrow is calling for Dorothy, but Stitch tell him to not honor such a creature with a name and is glad she’s gone. Meanwhile Tin Man is mobbed by the straw golems who say he has no authority here and that they will throw him in the river to rust away forever.

Stitch is trying to get through to his father saying that he must be under some sort of spell, Scarecrow is confused and Tin Man is still getting mobbed and smacked repeatedly with blunt clubs until he eventually get thrown off a balcony crashing through shit.

Stitch is then showing Scarecrow Betsy, Trot and HG tied to scarecrow poles and states they will die.

That’s it for this issue.

And that’s also it for Dorothy. You don’t see her again. Where did she go? Well remember the few references to Wonderland? Well that’s where Dorothy ends up and Arrow published a mini-series called Wonderland documenting what’s going on over there while shit’s going down in Oz.

I am unlikely to entirely go over that short lived series (3 issues) for various reasons, but I’ll explain a little more about it later.

Dark Oz Issue 2: Between a Rock and A Hard Place

Just gets worse from here

This one starts off with a bunch of lore about Gillikin Country stating its known for being a big producer of various items for Oz. Also goes on about how it was free from direct Nome King rule due to him having stretched his forces as much as he dared. 

However after his defeat the Gills soon felt into a false sense of security and soon got wrecked by the gobs when they came strolling into their capital. However it mentions some of the Gillikins were natural warriors and one of them by the name of Julian.

Next scene is him speaking with a bunch of others and their King Erburt. They’re going on about the goblin threat and how the Winkies fell and the precautions they’re should be taking.

And that’s when they get alerted that the gobs have already breached the gates and there’s a shitload of them coming. Julian tells the king he needs to flee to Em City to get help from Amber while he and the others fight off the horde. The king almost dies but Julian prevents this and eventually the others are carrying the king to Em City while Julian is holding back gobs all by himself.

Cut to Shaggyman recovering from his wounds in a bed while Ozma is telling him he couldn’t have fought off an army of gobs by himself and it’s good he made it back to tell everyone since Amber and the Wizard can now prepare.

The plan is for Scraps to take Gump and go get the Scarecrow and the others while Amber and the Lion head over to Winkieland with an army to liberate the place. (Though they’re really just retaking territory since all the winkies are supposed to be dead)

Ozma tells the Wizard she wish she could just make friends with the goblins and live in peace instead of following their wicked ways. The Wizard tells her to stop being an optimistic bitch and start realizing that Oz ain’t ever going to be the same anymore. Even the good guys need an army.

She still holds out hope that when she sees the Quadlings that they will finally see reason, but the Wizard isn’t holding out such hope even though it would be nice if that turns out to be the case.

Ozma soon goes to the stables to get Sawhorse where she has a rose conversation with Scraps who is about to take Gump. They go on about how there’s too much doom and gloom and everything will turn alright since the goblins are just a minor nuisance compared to the Nome King.

Jesus Christ is this Ozma bitch a fucking retard. At least Scraps has straw for brains and has an excuse.

Meanwhile Amber’s speaking with some of his lieutenants and they all have concerns about attacking the goblins with inexperienced troops. Amber agrees but they can’t afford to let the gobs get any more entrenched than they already are, plus they’ll have the Lion with them.

Meanwhile the Gillikin capital is in flames and the gobs are raising their flag in the ruins. Still there’s some arguing over how they lost too many men and the king escaped which the shaman won’t like. More arguing ensues saying they NEED to follow orders or else they get punished. It isn’t like the old days anymore.

The goblins aren’t really having a great time with all this since the fighting isn’t even as much fun now, it’s a (gasp!) FUCKING JOB. In fact the Wickest Witch has made it so they can’t even directly fight each other anymore over minor arguments since unity is more important.

They then argue some more over what orders to follow and such. Some stay at the capital ruins to “hold it” like the witch said while others say they need to return to Winkieland to ask for more soldiers.

Cut to Ozma and the Wizard heading to Quad capital. Before they get there, they’re arguing again about how Ozma doesn’t really grasp the seriousness of the situation, meanwhile Ozma’s busy gazing at flowers.

They’re soon greeted by a surly Quad who states she must be mad if she’s come here given how unpopular she is. He also says they ain’t afraid of her royal guard or even her wizard, but he’ll inform the princes that she wants to speak with them.

Cut to Lion and Amber who are talking on their way to Winkieland and going on about how grim this situation is. There’s just too many goblins, but they have to still find a way to win because defeat at this battle probably means losing the war.

Cut back to Ozma about to speak to the four princes who state she’s not really welcome here. She makes her opening speech to them about unity and such, but the guard that first spoke to her is already pulling out his crossbow saying that they shouldn’t be swayed by her pretty face and word and he’s taking care of that right now.

A Quad prince tells him to put that away since they don’t have intention of hurting her, but it’s already done. He shoots Ozma just like you saw on the cover!

The Wizard summons a small tornado to prevent anymore attacks while they get away. After getting far enough, the Wizard heals her up while muttering that she needs to live otherwise Oz is DOOMED.

Ozma recovers, but now she’s saying she thinks the Wizard has been right all along. Evil has come to Oz and she’s too much of a weak bitch to stop it. She fears that Oz is DOOMED.

That’s it for this issue.

Dark Oz Issue 3: Inferno

Always funny how most of the covers never match what the majority of what the focus is

Starts off with Stitch standing with Scarecrow and Tin Man chained up in a chair. Scarecrow for some reason can’t call his crows so he  continues to plead for his friends and after some debate, Stitch is still under the impression Scarecrow must be under some influence for him to be acting the way he is and then tosses Tin Man into a well. Scarecrow vows he’ll save Tin Man before he rusts while Stitch says that there may be a magical spell book that can cure him of his current condition.

Cut to Scraps flying around not really knowing where to search until the murder of crows appear and Heckle speaks to Gump as to the where abouts of Scarecrow. They head to Glinda’s place immediately.

Cut to Amber and Lion fighting goblins. A whole lot of them. They win the battle, but it’s just one of many to come since it’s not even a tenth of the entire horde. Amber says they won’t behave in an uncivil manner though and will not slaughter prisoners. Instead they’ll be kept bound until this is all over and they’ll be released back underground. The Lion states Amber’s far more merciful that he’d be and growls at some goblin prisoners before destroying their flag and moving on to the next location to fight more of them.

Cut to Stitch who is showing his dad that he’s been continuing the work he started in Munchkinland. Scarecrow once again explains he was under a spell that turned him evil and what he sees now is his real personality. Stitch continues to be unconvinced stating that the Tin Man must’ve done something to him.

Scarecrow says he doesn’t think he’ll ever be convinced, but asks how the hell did Stitch even wind up here anyway. And now we get the backstory that fills in that big plot hole.

So shortly after Scarecrow created Stitch and some other straw golems, Nome King found out about it and told him to knock that shit off because he was paranoid that they would be used to try to overthrow him later. (Not wrong) Scarecrow claimed it was all to support his regime but NK wasn’t taking any chances saying his nomes were army enough to keep control of Oz.

So Stitch and the rest of the golems were stored at Em City and one by one they eventually “died” as the contaminated powder of life wore off, though since Stitch had receive the purest dose he was fine, but he eventually played dead since the Nome King was still keeping an eye on him. Eventually NK forgot about him. (If NK was really that fucking worried he should’ve just burned the lot of them immediately)

Later, Pipt was captured and taken to the dungeons. Mombi however had Pipt create more powder of life for her own purposes. During this time Stitch was still playing dead, just laying in a corner plotting and planning. When he knew he was totally alone he explored the dungeons and eventually found an opening which lead to the nome tunnels.

He escaped the dungeons, also ripping off Pipt’s flasks in the process. Stitch says he was glad he thwarted whatever Pipt and Mombi were planning since that was less competition. He also mentions the smell of worms in the tunnel wall gave him satisfaction that fleshlings lived short pointless lives. He vowed to end their days forever.

Eventually the tunnel lead to Glinda’s place and he’s been building his army ever since using the magic books he found here. He also learned how to create the powder of life. 

Again all of this probably would’ve been better had the series been set during NK’s reign, rather than being told in a flashback.

All in all he’s incredibly proud of everything he’s accomplished leveling up in alchemy and the wizard class.

He shows his dad a shitload more straw golems he’s already got made saying it’s almost time for them to be unleashed on Em City. Scarecrow is overwhelmed by all this saying he needs to sit down which Stitch takes as a sign that his dad is impressed by his work and finally sees the light.

While Stitch excitedly runs off to go get his flask from his secret hiding place, Scarecrow is plotting to free the others.

Cut to Betsy, Trot and HG tied to the poles asking if each other are okay and wondering if Glinda set all these scarecrows up as some sort of defense system.

Just then Gump arrives and draws away the straw golem guards while Scraps unties the rest. HG rips up the golems and he also pulls Tin Man out of the well while the rest go to free the Scarecrow.

Cut to the goblin shaman and WW speaking. The shaman is reporting the bad news about losing ground in Winkieland and Amber having a large enough army to cause trouble. WW orders all their forces to make a stand at the Tin Man’s old castle where they’ll meet his army. The shaman doesn’t think this is a good idea as they could lose all their forces this way, but WW isn’t swayed. She wants to destroy Amber’s army in one battle.

Cut back to Stitch who is ready to use the remainder of his powder to wake up the rest of his army, but then receives news of the fleshlings having escaped and are on their way to save Scarecrow. Stitch is planning on killing them, but Scarecrow tells him to stop this madness and he’ll ensure that he’ll be left alone in peace.

Stitch literally says peace was never an option because he can’t possibly live side by side with them.

Meanwhile Betsy, Trot and Scraps are on their way with torches in hand. Well Scraps doesn’t have one, but the other two do and are setting golems ablaze. The straw men spread their own fire even quicker as they flail about in pain. Tin Man is also ripping up some golems

There’s a couple of straw golems that looks a little different than the rest, one of them is even female in design (The only obvious one) and they turn out to be a little stronger than the rest. This is even pointed out by Trot when she engages them. They get the better of Betsy and Trot, though Scraps overcomes her own fear of fire and picks up a dropped torch to attack them with it.

Stitch knocks the torch out of Scrap’s grasp and takes it himself saying she’s another one fallen under a spell, but he’s got no problem destroying her if she’s siding with the fleshlings. Scarecrow of course isn’t going to let him burn her so he grabs it from Stitch allowing Scraps to help out Trot by knocking the other female golem into fire. Trot then helps Betsy with her golem, also knocking him into some fire.

Tin Man shouts that they need to get out now because the whole place is going up. Trot asks about Dorothy, Tin Man says HG soaked himself in water and went to search the castle but there’s no sign of her. Betsy says she could be trapped somewhere, but there’s no more time, Tin Man says the heat will soon get to the point where even his metal will melt.

Meanwhile Stitch and Scarecrow are still fighting with Stitch saying if there’s no curing him then let them perish together. Scraps however is already on her way to help Scarecrow even though the rest have managed to leave the castle. Tin Man goes back in to try to rescue them since he can still withstand the fire.

Stitch at this point has gone into a madness rant about feeling the purifying flame and says perhaps when their powdery ash lie mixed together then he will at last be healed and will forgive this great sacrifice. Scarecrow calls him insane.

Stitch finally gets pissed at his dad saying he’s not insane as it was his spark of genius that gave him life. Proof that he’s his son. Scarecrow gets angry back stating Stitch is NOT his son, the Nome King is his son and he’ll gladly die if it’ll keep him from blighting the face of Oz.

Scraps can’t reach Scarecrow at this point and Tin Man grabs Scraps before she gets burned up too.

Last panel is the rest of the group watching the still burning castle while HG saying nothing could’ve survived and Scraps weeping over Scarecrow with Tin Man trying to console her.

That’s it for this issue.

Dark Oz Issue 4: The Beginning of the End

Seems like they spilled green ink all over this cover

This is one starts off with Amber and Lion making their stand with their army at Tin Man’s old fortress. There’s some brief banter about how this battle will be an important one, but concerns about the goblins not being the idiotic brutes they were always told they were as well as there seemingly being no end to the savages. 

The battle then begins and it goes well for the Oz army at first, but by the time the gob shaman shows up with his new magic powers the tide begins to turn. 

Eventually even Amber’s lieutenants get massacred and soon it seems like Amber and Lion are the only two left. They’re pretty tired now and then it doesn’t help that they get ambushed by some of those super goblins. 

More fighting happens and the Lion does well enough, but Amber barely manages to defeat the one he was fighting and getting a broken leg in the process.

With all of the immediate attackers dead, Lion goes over to help Amber, but he says this is his dying place and there’s some word spoke between them about how Amber is the most noble of souls to have lived in Oz and such.

Just then the shaman arrives with another horde of goblins. The shaman tells them to kill the Lion immediately but to kill Amber slowly and let him ponder the mistakes his ancestors made when they drove the goblins underground. Amber tells Lion to save himself. Lion however says he cannot and will not let the goblins slowly torture his friend to death. 

Lion then snaps Amber’s neck and then charges into one last battle with the goblin horde. Hardcore.

Cut to Em City where Ozma is still trying to recover from her wound. Jellia (Who apparently is a handmaiden) says her body has healed but it’s her spirit that has been broken which is why she’s still so weak. The fact that one of her subjects would try to kill her was devastating to her.

The Wizard points out that the Quad had seceded long before they shot her though. Jellia says Ozma’s great power lied with her optimism and she always still held the belief that her honesty, compassion and goodness would eventually win them over regardless of any negative thoughts they might’ve had.

There’s some debate between Jellia and the Wizard about how Ozma actually “works” but it can be boiled down to Ozma sort of being a demi-god that is only as powerful as people believe in her. And her trusting act that was repaid with treachery and hate has caused her to severely go down in power level so she doesn’t believe that good will eventually win out either.

At this point Ozma wakes up and the Wizard tries reassure her that there are many who would still lay down their life for her, though she says she doesn’t really want that. Tik Tok comes in saying that the other group has arrived. 

This group would be the Ex-Dorothy crew minus Dorothy (and Scarecrow). They explain what happened at Glinda’s place, Stitch, and the loss of Dorothy and Scarecrow, though they aren’t entirely sure if they died, hoping that maybe they found a magical way to escape with the items that were found in a secret chamber.

Well this doesn’t make Ozma feel any better losing her friend Dorothy and Scarecrow, but she’s reminded that Dorothy chose her own path and the rest went of their own free will. Ozma apologizes that she’s so weak and she’ll try to do better.

Jellia tells everyone to leave as Ozma needs her rest, though Ozma keeps seeing Glinda’s castle in flames now when she closes her eyes.

Cut to WW who is cackling over the Army of Oz being defeated, Amber and the Lion being dead and even Tin Man’s fortress is now destroyed. She claims nothing can really stop her now and Em City is next. 

A gob reports to her saying they await new order, but she tells them to spend the next three days to rest, eat and even drink as they’ve earned it and there’s no hurry. He asks about a prisoner, and she says she’ll drain her essence before the attack on Em City, but to let her know her days are numbered.

Cut to the Wizard and the Tin Man with the Gillikin king and the ones who brought him to Em City. They’re all going on about what to do next and generally arguing until Shaggyman says everyone needs to stop it because the goblins are about to tear up the fucking place. Betsy says Shaggy’s right so they need to do something constructive while they wait for news of Amber and the army.

Just then the Wizard receives a message. He then says he’s got some very bad news, the army has been killed to the last man and Amber and the Lion are dead. F.

Cut back to WW three days later and she’s glad to see that the shaman managed to survive the battle with the Oz army even if there were heavy losses. She’s also ready to see the prisoner.

The prisoner is Jinjur who states what the hell does she wants as she thought she would’ve killed her a long time ago. WW states she was busy with other things and Jinjur wasn’t really important enough to worry about. However WW figures that Jinjur might have some info on Em City that might be useful for the final push seeing as she’s been in the place. No reason to leave anything to chance and it’s always better to increase the odds of victory.

Jinjur refuses to tell WW anything and spits in her face. This prompts WW to tell her she just ruined her chances for a quick death and proceeds to use that life drain spell turning Jinjur into a withered husk. 

WW states that she didn’t learn anything they didn’t already know, but it was a task that needed to be done anyway. She then tells the shaman to get ready to ride to Em City as they’re going to burn it down like they did to Tin Man’s castle.

That’s it for this issue

Now before we get to the exciting conclusion, there was one more book tied directly to the arc. It was a one shot that was actually created after it was done, but chronologically it fits in between issue 4 and 5 so we’ll get that out of the way now.

Issue "1": Wogglebug

Were you wondering what happened to him?

Before we get into this one, a little bit of a personal anecdote about it. I never did see this one in stores at all. I only stumbled upon it during a visit to a comic convention. In fact, it wasn’t even in the normal area where all the various store keepers set up shop, it was in the personal artist/writer area who had their own space with whatever stuff they had.

And yep, ran into Ralph (Fortunately not Stu). I actually wasn’t planning on speaking with the dude since I was never going to those things to meet anyone, just to find shit I couldn’t find before. They had all their backlog stuff they hadn’t sold and that’s where I found this along with their old “The Dead” comics. Ended up speaking with him a bit since he started a conversation first while I was looking for stuff.

In any case, he was cool enough.

Anyway on with the comic.

Starts with a munchkin running in stating that the ones who brought in the Gillian king (Loolooba and Perriwinkle) have reported that the Gillian capital has been razed to the ground and the gobs will be marching on Em City any day now.

Ozma continues to fall into despair though the Wizard tries to remind her to keep her spirits up and that besides the forces they have here at the city, Wogglebug is also on his way to help. Ozma tells the munchkin to spread word to all that wish to see Oz survive to make their stand at Em City.

Ozma still isn’t feeling optimistic about winning though and wishes the Wizard could just lead since he might be able to stop the evil tide, but the Wizard says it’s not that simple and Oz is really dependent on her maintaining a positive attitude so she should rest up try not to give into despair.

Cut to some Gillikin warriors who have been doing a hit and run tactic on the occupying goblin force for days. Now it makes it seem like these folks are going to be important, but after a few pages, one by one they get picked off by goblin ambushers. Once again though the gobs talk among themselves saying they don’t like all this sneaking about to kill people. It’s cowardly and worse, it’s not as fun. But one reminds them that the WW will reward them and they still got the big Em City fight to look forward to.

Cut to the secret Gillikin refuge where we see the remaining hold outs, including Julian who they made a big deal about in that one issue and then you assume he probably got killed when the capital got wrecked. Well he’s still alive and trying harass the goblins as much as he can with who he has left, which includes Loolooba, Perriwinkle and another called Bard (Who has an attack cat). It hasn’t been going well though.

Then he receives word that he’s got a visitor and Wogglebug appears. After some brief introductions and stating his position as a founder of the Freedom Fighters, Julian accept that he may be of help. He asks what’s in the bag he’s carrying and Wog states that it’s the remains of Jack Pumpkinhead. He hopes that upon their triumphant return to Em City, the Wizard will be able to return him to an animated state.

Julian isn’t too sure about triumph though after a bit more talking Julian accepts Wog’s help since he needs all he can get.

Cut to a bearded goblin leader called Klaktus telling a group of other gobs that following the WW isn’t the way. They should be fighting for themselves not her. I states its time for another goblin warrior to be king again and he’ll be the one to do it.

Another goblin called Broggy though says this is retarded because WW is not only stronger than Klaktus, but she’s already giving them food, drink, good weapons what’s he going to do different for them? He states that he’ll give them freedom to do whatever the hell they want. They can fight when they want. He states the WW doesn’t give a shit about the goblins and might even turn magic against them after Em City falls.

Broggy says Klaktus sounds like a surfacer. He can’t fight the witch, so he just talks a bunch of shit. If he kills the witch, he’ll follow him. Until then WW is the leader. Broggy also mentions Klaktus is afraid of the witch so he’s trying to use the gob council as a shield and they’re not falling for it. 

Besides giving them a lot of stuff they like, she’s got the Ozzites on the run. The old witches didn’t do that and neither did the Nome King so there’s no reason to not follow her.

Klaktus gets angrier stating he wonders if Broggy is even a real goblin anymore. They used to be free to fight anytime they wanted. Now they have to sit around and wait for orders and run like bitches to do chores. Better to be free in the caves than witch lackies on the surface.

At this point WW comes strolling in stating she had no idea that her general was so dissatisfied with things seeing as he obeys just the same as the rest of his fellows. Klaktus not backing down tells her that she’ll discard the goblins as soon as Em City falls and she won’t be happy until everything’s dead.

WW calmly says that as long as the goblins follow her, they’ll flourish on the surface as the dominant race and if he behaves himself she’ll forget all about this and not turn him into a toad.

Cut back to Julian and the rest going on a gob hunt. Wog makes some references to cowboys based on the stories he’s heard from Dorothy. Apparently this goes on for the entirety of the trip until they get to their destination where they have to go in some caves on foot. Julian tells Wog he need to shut the fuck up for once.

Upon entering the caves, it doesn’t take long for them to stumble upon some gobs. A fight breaks out and Wog’s being a little more flip with the combat comments than he’s ever been portrayed before. In fact he’s been a little less serious so far in general. This might’ve been an attempt to have him match his OG Book personality, but still a little jarring compared to his FF days.

In any case, they’re doing alright at first against the gobs until Wog takes a severe hit to the back while he’s been picking off gobs with his bow. Wog attempts to goad the the goblin into having an honorable hand to hand combat and that might have worked under the old goblin ways who liked to fight for fun, but they got jobs to do now, so Wog gets fatally wounded and falls to the ground dead.

Sheesh, he didn’t even make it to the end of his own one shot special!

At this point Julian goes into a bit of a rage mode and cuts down that goblin. He also notices his other two buddies are dead too. He picks up Wog’s bag with Jack’s remains saying he’ll get him to Em City to return him to life if he can.

He almost makes it to the exit of the cave, but two goblins block him and strike him down. He dies too. 

The last panel is of his hand and Wog’s open bag with pieces of Jack’s head scattered out of it. Text box stating that another band of brave Ozzites fighting for their freedom have fallen and there are none left to mourn them.

And on that happy note, that’s it for this special one shot!

I can only imagine this one might’ve been created partly due to the odd absence of Wogglebug in the Dark Oz series what with him having played a pretty large role in the main Oz series. Seems like they wanted to do more with the Julian guy too so he got a role 

Well I suppose they could only shove in so much in a one shot.

On with the exciting conclusion

Dark Oz Issue 5: The End of the End

About fucking time

Starts with WW being frustrated that she can’t find Dorothy at all. She starts thinking maybe Ozma is shielding her with magic or there’s a spy. The shaman says Ozma doesn’t even know of WW at all (Only two that did were Jinjur and Jack and they’re both dead) so she can’t be shielding Dorothy. He says that maybe she’s just off on one of her adventures and she shouldn’t let this small loss cloud her vision as they’re very close to victory.

WW says of course and asks for a report. The shaman says the forces are gathered to attack Em City as planned, however he’s worried they may be falling into a similar trap that they set for Amber and his army. He believe caution might be in order. WW ain’t got time for all that and says she’ll win and the attack will go as planned.

Cut to a group of gobs getting ready for the big attack, but to their surprise the Quadlings show up saying when they first made a treaty there was nothing about conquering Oz and they need to stop it. The gobs of course aren’t listening to this, so a battle it is. They overcome this group of gobs and begin their way towards Em City.

Meanwhile gobs are busting down the gates of Em City already. Trot, Sawhorse, Betsy and Tik Tok are all shown trying to hold them back from reaching the tower. 

The Wizard is watching from a window somewhere stating that the remaining munchkins, gillikins and winkies (guess some lived) are all crammed together in the courtyard blocking the path way for soldiers to get through and it’s a hard enough battle without their side tripping over themselves.

Scraps says Heckle and the rest of the crows went to search for Jinjur and Jack, but haven’t returned and that she fears the worse. The Wizard shares the negativity that when he sent those two to the volcano to spy that they’d come back with info, but he fears he may have sent them to their doom.

Meanwhile Trot is getting tired even if Sawhorse still has endless endurance. Unfortunately he gets hit with a fire arrow and starts acting wildly as he starts burning. Trot is tossed off, but before she even gets a chance to really recover, she’s cut down with goblins mocking her.

The Quadlings finally arrive to help, but so does WW who demands to know why they’re breaking the treaty. One of the princes says the treaty wasted under short sighted anger and that they can’t allow her to destroy the heart of the land. WW says very well and then pretty much sets their whole damn company on fire.

Speaking of which Sawhorse is completely engulfed in flames now and tells Betsy get back since he’ll be ash soon anyway. Hungry Tiger and Gump are in the fray now

Tin Man mentions the fight is going badly and the Quadlings have been dispersed by some sort of sorceress. He says he’ll be joining the fight directly soon and it’s up to the Wizard to protect Ozma. The Wizard says his magic is going to be needed in the battle if there’s a sorceress out there. Tin Man says Scraps certainly can’t defend Ozma so he’ll have to use his magic to teleport her away. Ozma asks where the hell is she going to go. Tin Man says she could hide out on earth where she’ll be safe.

Well safe from witches and goblins anyway.

While Ozma mopes about how things could’ve ever gotten this bad and the Wizard says the only thing they can do is fight to the last a figure walks in stating there may be one thing left. It’s the Scarecrow and he’s fairly blackened holding a big ass book.

Meanwhile HG has gotten shanked repeatedly by a life stealer blade wielded by the shaman, though he doesn’t get to gloat for long after Gump stomps him to death. However as with how this battle is going Gump catches two spears in his side.

Cut back to the Scarecrow who shows the book to be the Book of Undo which was thought to be a legend. Tin Man asks what it does, the Wizard basically says exactly what it says, it un-does shit. However it’s a huge damn book and would take awhile even for a level 20 magic user to study the entire thing, not to mention it’s not in the best condition with a lot of pages either missing or faded.

Worst of all the Wizard can’t even read it. Only an Oz born can read it which means they’re no better off than before.

Cut back to the battle outside and displaying the corpses of HG and Gump. Betsy is the last one guarding the tower door saying she won’t let them pass, but she’s definitely not wearing a gray robe so she gets mobbed and stabbed gobs who tell her to shut up forever and break through. Tik Tok is the next layer of defense and tells Jellia to get the hell out of the combat zone and back to the queen. Jellia though catches an arrow in back.

Tik Tok shouts that they will get no further as they now face the final defender of Oz however Tik Tok suddenly starts sensing something going wrong internally and then his head explodes.

As the toaster falls down with a loud clank, WW says if he was the final defender then she’s already won. (Fool!)

Tin Man approaches the door stating that it’s too quiet out there for goblins. He opens the door only to find Jellia’s body as she whispers a dying “They’re here.”

Tin Man shouts that Jellia never harmed anyone and is there no shred of decency in all their smelly carcasses. The only one really around now though is WW who states she was looking forward to killing the Tin Man along with all her other enemies. Tin Man charges at her, but much like what she did to Tik tok, she casts her “dismantle machine” spell and Tin Man is reduced to pieces of metal.

Wizard casts a haste spell on Ozma for her to read the Undo Book so that she can cast the spell. Ozma isn’t sure, but the Wizard says there’s no more time for doubt because whatever happens with the spell it can’t be worse than what’s already happening.

WW comes strolling in saying the Wizard needs to give up already as she’s clearly won at this point. She conjures a giant metal brace to wrap the the Wizard to the wall. She then hogties Shaggyman with his blanket. She then turns her attention to the Scarecrow and Scraps and just flat out sets them on fire.

WW finally turns her attention to Ozma and goes on a villain monologue about how Ozma’s goodness and beauty makes her sick. Though it’s not exactly like WW is some ugly green crone anymore, but bitches always gonna be jealous I guess. She also states why be a queen if she’s not going to actually use her power.

She on the other hand knows how to use power and it won’t do any good to beg for their lives because she’s killing everyone in the room and then making everyone in Oz her slaves.

“I HAVE WON!” - WW

However, now it’s Ozma’s turn to make the hero monologue. 

She goes on about how she’s the heart of Oz and she gets her power from love and her side only lost due to her losing faith in herself. The fact that the Quadlings came back to help is proof that they came back because they ultimately loved her as she loved them. WW only gets power from fear and hate and ultimately that will never satisfy her.

“I pity you.” - Ozma

Well as you can expect that makes WW pretty angry and they do more debating over what’s better taking control by your own hand or shit that’s just given to you freely though Ozma says there’s strength in sacrifice too and she freely will sacrifice herself to free Oz of WW’s evil. 

WW is disappointed Ozma didn’t beg or cry but is instead going to just die with her ignoring reality and clinging to faith that everything will be well in the end.

So WW casts her killing spell, which doesn’t work and there’s the whole good vs evil banter while Ozma is using the Book of Undo. WW starts turning into the crone she actually is and then realizes what the book is and states that the book will destroy everything including Ozma. She even begs her to stop and she eventually fades from existence along with everything else else surrounding Ozma.

The last panel is Ozma holding her face with one hand and the other still on the book with a completely white background around her.

“What have I done?” -Ozma

And that’s all folks!

Well not exactly.

So there was another series that started right after Dark Oz called The Land of Oz which was basically a reboot of the entire world thanks to Ozma’s restart spell.

It follows a bit closer to the OG books and isn’t nearly as grimdark as either of the old series. Hell, it’s practically kid friendly.

It was 9 issues total and I’m pretty sure I owned all of them at one point, but they sort of sucked also the series just ended suddenly in the middle of a storyline since Arrow was probably going bankrupt again. (They got better again though, they can’t seem to die)

I couldn’t even tell you what they were about since I don’t have them anymore, but everyone was pretty much alive again. No Nome Kings enslaving Oz or goblins overrunning the place.

As for Dark Oz, well they tried to tie up as many loose ends for characters as possible, especially what with making a special one shot for Wogglebug and all. 

Though one major one that got skipped was Mombi since it did show her scheming during the last issues of the old Oz comic after trading with the White Rabbit. However I suppose it doesn’t matter seeing as whatever she was plotting got cancelled as soon as she got erased with everyone else in the reboot. Glinda never shows up either, I assume she remained a crystal ball until she got rebooted.

The only other loose end is Dorothy who as I said went to Wonderland. And yes I do have those 3 comics, but they also suck a lot so I’m not even skimming them. Surprised I didn’t toss them and I probably only collected them out of a sake of completeness. The artwork is pretty bad too, like really bad. Alice herself looks like some gender fluid faggot rather than female mostly due to her dykey haircut and attire. She make a lot of annoying looking expressions too that make her punchable.

So a real quick run down from what I remember just to tie this up. Dorothy immediately bumps into Alice and her crew when she transports to Wonderland. After getting through all the getting to know you stuff, it’s a case that Alice is sort of having her own rebel alliance thing against the Queen of Hearts and the rest of those card people. 

Queen of Hearts looks like some Jabba the Hutt abomination and she’s keeping the heads of the folks she has decapitated to drain their souls or some shit. They also got the Love Magnet from Oz which I assume was brought by the White Rabbit in one of his deals. 

So a bunch of shit happens and Dorothy helps out Alice and one of the good witches who got turned into a Christmas Ornament is found too. (Remember the white rabbit did bring that one to Wonderland when he was trading with Mombi) It’s not Glinda though, it’s the other one called Tattypoo (Lol)

The Queen of Hearts gets defeated and turned back into her regular fat self rather than the Jabba form she had since apparently there was some creature possessing her. I think Tatty imprisons it.

Anyway, Tatty opens up a portal to Oz and her and Dorothy return to it though Dorothy says it’s weird that they’re only seeing a white light and wonders what has changed implying Dorothy’s time in Wonderland spanned the remainder of the Dark Oz series to when Ozma hit the reset button. Once again Dorothy got lucky and missed all the worst shit.

(For that matter the earthers and the dog also got lucky too. The dog especially since he had the better option of sticking around.)

Alice in her final scene wants to know more about these alternate dimensions from the Chesire Cat and the White Rabbit.

And that’s basically it for Wonderland other than the publisher stating that the series has ended because the lack of sales so much that it wasn’t even cost effective to even reprint the comic. (Issue 2 apparently was really limited) and they had to drop the comic altogether, but they have plans to bring it back at some point. This is not the end of Wonderland!

Um, yes it is and nothing of value was lost.

Anyway that’s also the end of this series review. 

Until next time when I decide to do one of these things again.

Alright first five in this post Nome King arc. and while technically not the last, but more on that later.

This was also about the time Caliber doing it’s “New Worlds” shit (You can see it on some of the covers) which they kept advertising in their various comics. It was sort of a way to try and tie all the various worlds together and while there were some one shot crossovers, it didn’t work out very well like most things Caliber did.

And as I mentioned before, this is when the artwork changed from the first 15 issues (And the prequel series) since they had a different artist working on it. It’s not as good. Something about it just looks a bit sterile compared to the one doing the art before.

Anyway let’s get on with it.

Issue 16: New World Order

New art, same trio

This one starts off with the Wizard shouting at Ozma and Amber that all his magical shit is gone. The worst loss being the the magic spell that makes Oz invisible to outsiders is gone too, so now anyone can just enter the place.

Amber is all set to raise and army, but Ozma as usual is like “Oh but the Nome King is gone, surely there won’t be anything bad like him ever again!” 

She’s reminded to not be a retard and that they don’t even have the good witches anymore and nobody knows what happened to them.

So they’re sending folks out to search for them (Not knowing they got turned into little tree ornaments a long time ago by the Nome King and are probably just sitting somewhere) using an updated Oz map by Shaggyman since he’s the traveling hobo map maker. Also they have to make preparation for the Earthers to leave since they still want to go home.

Cut to Peter who has been enjoying five days of non-stop partying and dressing up in Ozzite clothing. He visits Kevin who is in his room to ask if he’s ready to get going. He says he’ll be out in a moment.

Kevin goes to see Mary who is all dressed up like some fairy tale princess and he’s ready to just do her right there. They talk a moment while he’s groping and kissing on her from behind (No, they’re not having sex, she’s just standing in front of mirror) and while there’s certain things they enjoy about Oz, it’s time to go home and go back to normal.

“Yeah, normal.” - Mary as she’s literally rolling her eyes AND fantasizing about Amber kissing on her instead.

She’s totally dumping Kevin as soon as there’s an opportunity to do so back home.

Cut back to Peter who went to go see Dorothy because well let’s not dwell too much on the implications. Dorothy greets him and says she recently ran into her two friends Betsy Bobbin and Trot who she used to have adventures with when they were all little girls and not the hot jailbait they all are now. (These girls were in the OG books apparently)

No seriously, they fucking really glamorized Dorothy and her friends. All the women did. Mary certainly did. Hell even Ozma got an extra glow up and she didn’t even need it. Oddly Peter and Kevin actually look less action hero in this and more “normal” now. Like they actually look more like the nerds they always were so now Kevin REALLY looks like he managed to hit the jackpot with Mary.

Anyway Peter charms her friends and is in anime nerd heaven going to the party with 3 lolis in older bodies instead of just 1. 

Though this brings up the question if Dorothy actually got transformed older or did she just grow up?. Other than that one mistake of her being portrayed as a little girl in the Tin Man one shot, all signs indicate she got magically transformed into young woman.

So why are her friends grown up too? They didn’t get hit by the same spell, this is the first we’re seeing of them.

However ten years did pass after all, though supposedly nobody in Oz grows old. Maybe the kids in Oz grow up to at least adult age, so they just aged naturally?

Well doesn’t matter since the Tin Man comes walking into the party downing motor oil saying he’s getting a bit loose tonight. He’s got a really creepy degenerate look while saying this too, so not sure what he’s got in mind exactly, but he immediately runs off to speak with Tik Tok.

While Tin Man is chatting up Tik to screw his bolt into a nut, Scarecrow is out dancing everyone since he’s made of floppy straw and doesn’t tire. He stops though when some munchkin says someone wants to see him and it’s his little patchy girlfriend Scraps.

At this point Ozma and the Wizard enter and make a speech about how Peter, Kevin and Mary helped save Oz and all that shit. And with the rings he’s giving them, they can transport home.

Peter’s ready since he says he’s probably missed a lot of episodes of Babylon 5 (Honestly Peter probably would’ve missed just as many episodes if he stayed on earth given how much they changed the fucking time slot on it)

Kevin’s ready of course, and yet once again Mary’s thinking “A ring of transport…” meaning she’s already considering transporting her ass back to Oz for Amber’s dick at some point later.

Speaking of dick, Ozma tells Peter and Kevin she hasn’t been on such a grand adventure since SHE was a little boy.

“BOY?!” - Kevin and Peter

Don’t worry guys, this minor mistake will prep you for what’s to come in 20 years!

The Wizard laughs and tells the dude bros that they need to really go back and read the books.

Just for reference in the OG books Ozma at one point got turned into a boy by Mombi almost immediately after she was born and she spent her entire childhood as one until she got turned back into a girl.

Though there’s conflicting canon that even Mr. Baum didn’t bother keeping fucking straight (Ha ha) since there’s even one point Ozma is supposedly a never aging fairy (Jokes write themselves) that has always ruled Oz. 

Anyway, Max the dog is also addressed since he can just be carried by one of them to go back home, of course doing so means he goes back to being a regular dog as opposed to a talking one here in Oz. He decides to go back home like a good boi since apparently for whatever Kev’s faults, he’s always been a cool owner and is probably going to spoil him more. (It’s a smart choice too on Max’s part, given what happens later)

With that, the three earthers plus one teleport back home (With Mary still pining over Amber). 

And that’s it for them. You NEVER see them again. Their arc is done. Sort of abrupt to end it in the middle of the comic, but there you go.

So after this happens, another young black haired woman dressed like a soldier comes rushing in to tell the Wizard and Ozma that the Quadlings still aren’t reuniting with the rest of the kingdom. Now I thought this woman was Jinjur, but apparently it’s yet another character from the OG books called Jellia Jamb. According to the books she was a young Gilikin girl, but yeah she’s all aged up too I guess. She still looks too human though seeing as she’s normal height and all of the native Oz folk are dwarf height at best unless they’re immigrants from earth or something.(In fact she’s green in the books)

Anyway the Wizard is pissed about this, though Ozma tells him to calm down since they’re probably still upset about their king getting killed (By the Lion no less). Jellia also wonders why not just let them go since she doesn’t know what they really offer anyway. The Wizard reminds her that the Quadlings are the best warriors of the Oz folk and without them, Amber’s job of rebuilding the army is going to be harder. Well that’s enough to convince her.

Cut to the Quadlings who are still talking shit over with the Goblins of why they should ally with each other. It goes back and forth a bit, but while the goblin shaman tries to whip the Quad princes into a frenzy over the Lion killing their father and Ozma potentially coming back to force them back into the fold, they’re just not convinced that they should be allying with goblins and besides they don’t hate Ozma they just want independence from her.

Eventually the goblins are done with the diplomacy bullshit and reveals why they should join them. They introduce the Wickedest Witch of Oz. (And yeah, she’s in the whole sexy evil sorceress outfit because the good guys can’t be the only ones getting appearance upgrades)

“Now do you want to join us?” - Goblin King

And that’s it for this issue.

No ramblings or reader mail, because Caliber’s too busy trying to convince everyone to buy all their comics with a bunch of ads in the back. It’s sort of like this for the rest of this run.

Issue 17: Peace Be So Fragile

Betsy, Dorothy, and Trot. Fortunately Alan Moore didn’t write this one.

So this issue is a little fatter than the usual one, though not because they put more story in. It’s one of those double sided flip issues where they put an entirely different comic in it which is typically never a good sign. It was called Boston Bombers (Some sort of action adventure thing) and apparently they did this with the entirety of the mini-series with other Caliber comics which means if you genuinely enjoyed this, you were going to have to buy other shit you didn’t necessarily read. Never mind the fact that you could’ve been getting the middle of the damn story. The Oz issue had the first part which was probably the safe bet since Oz was the most popular title at the time.

Anyway on with the important shit.

There’s some panels with Amber training men and instilling that they should be soldiers not butchers since more than one of them are genuinely trying to kill Amber during training. Not sure why they’re so pissed at him, but I guess NK’s former reign made everyone at bit more edgy.

Cut to Dorothy and her gal pals who are going on about how hot Amber looks. Dorothy thinks they’re being weird for talking about an old man this way. Her buddies point out that Amber isn’t that much older than she is since she’s now at an age where she could be getting married and having children.

Dorothy is horrified at this idea stating she’s a little girl! Her buddies again are like not anymore you’re not and briefly mention how Peter seemed like he might be falling in love with her. Dorothy also makes some innocent comment about the Wizard being handsome and now her buddies are telling her SHE’s the weird one since he really is an old man. Though to be fair, he’s actually a lot younger looking than you’d think he’d look at his age. His bald head makes him look closer to his age, but not by much and apparently Dorothy doesn’t care about all that anyway.

I suppose Dorothy has still maintained her mindset of being a little girl might be due to the Nome King magic that put her in a magic trance aa well as getting magically aged up meanwhile it turns out her buddies had been locked away in a dungeon the entire time aging in real time (And all that comes with going through puberty the normal way and such)

She’s asked if she’s planning on going back to earth, but at this point Oz is more like her home and she didn’t like what Peter’s mentioned of the place now (And was just the 90s, just gets worse from there) Her aunt and uncle are still missing (Most likely dead at this point) and Toto is missing too (Definitely dead) who she cries a bit over.

But she quickly recovers and then states they should all go on an adventure to get the missing years back by seeking out the fountain of youth! Her buddies though seem a little puzzled by this since they seem a little more comfortable with the fact that they’re at the sexing up age now and are apparently a lot hornier than Dorothy.

Cut back to said Wizard who is speaking with all the Lion and some of the former Freedom Fighter crew. He’s going on about the Quadlings needing to be dealt with, but they’re still waiting on Ozma. Amber is annoyed with him saying he’s always interrupting people’s schedules, Jinjur (Who you can barely tell apart from that Jellia chick last issue) says she doesn’t know why they should bother with the Quadlings at all seeing as they didn’t do shit to help free Oz. The Lion however has his forest kingdom near Quailing country so he’s invested in what the Wizard has to say.

Wizard points out that a huge volcano has risen where the hammerhead village once stood and it’s obviously a magical construct rather than a natural occurrence. Now this is a bit of retconning or perhaps it just wasn’t explained well earlier, because it was implied that the Nome King caused the big ass quake that genocided the hammerheads. Though even he sort of flip flopped on claiming responsibility on that when he was getting confronted.

In any case, the comic is sort of going with the idea that the Wicked Witch did it and the Wizard is going to take an army to stamp out whoever did it if Ozma ever gets her ass to the meeting to give her final input.

So Ozma finally shows up (With Scraps who’s apparently her handmaiden now) and as usual she’s full of retarded optimism and doesn’t understand why the Wizard is making a big fuss. When he explains it in not so civil terms Amber starts getting pissed enough that he suggests throwing the Wizard into the dungeons so he learns to respect the queen!

However, Ozma isn’t bothered by any of this and tells Amber to calm the fuck down. Wizard also questions where Tinman, Scarecrow and Hungry Tiger are, but she says she’s got a different mission for them. (We also learn that the Wizard’s real name is Oscar since this is the first she mentions it) So the Wizard picks Lion, Jinjur, Jack and Scraps for some reason to go on the Quadling mission.

Oh and during all this, Tik Tok’s text in his word balloons is in a different font than everyone else’s now. Looks more like a digital clock, not sure why considering he was speaking like everyone else before. Even after he got rebuilt.

So it cuts to Tin Man, Scarecrow and Hungry Tiger (Or the New Trio because one big pussy is just the same as another) who are wondering what this new mission is supposed to be. Tin Man is also going on about how he thought about returning to Winkieland to try to fix some of the war crimes he did there, though apparently Johnny Dooit is currently fixing shit up there.

Then they bump into Dorothy and her besties all dressed up in action girl attire. (Trot apparently designed the clothing if that means anything) In any case, this is what the new trio’s mission is and that’s to escort them to the fountain of youth. Scarecrow doesn’t understand why since it’s not like the citizens of Oz have needed it in very long time, but Dorothy once again reminds everyone that she was a 12 year old girl and now she’’s an OLD woman so she wants to go back to being a child.

Dorothy believing that 22 is being an old woman is pretty in line that she never really grew up like her buddies did. It is an amusing childlike way of seeing age since we all know it’s actually 25 when you officially get old.

Anyway getting back to Johnny Dooit and the Winkies, the next scene cuts to a full on goblin invasion totally fucking them up. The goblins got that magically enhancement so they’re tougher than usual. The machines are destroyed and the winkies don’t do much better, actually they do worse since they were relying on the steampunk toasters for defense anyway.

Major Minor comes back looking a bit more enhanced, but after slaying a few gobs, he also gets wrecked. 

Then Johnny Dooit himself comes out like a fucking action hero and start beating down gobs with his hammer and throwing gears like they were ninja stars. He’s another one that got a serious “upgrade” in appearance because he was just some little skinny nerd in the old art work rather than the semi-muscular dude he is now.

Anyway he smashes the skull of the last goblin as they argue over metal or flesh being stronger. It’s a short lived victory though since soon the Wickest Witch comes in with magical powers and crushes his legs to powder. The Goblin King wants to finish him off since he just killed his son, but the Wickedest Witch is talking with her sister (Who apparently is just a disembodied voice at this point) and they’re debating on whether to spare Johnny since he is a skilled dude that could be useful. 

However, they decide to finish him of since he might try to secretly build toasters to betray their side later. So she drops a huge metal ball on Johnny and laughs evilly about it. (As one does)

And that’s it for this issue.

Issue 18: Quadling Quandary

Yeah not sure what they were doing with this art

This one starts off with some rather horrific looking tree folk explaining that they’re not going to just let the Quadling army march through the forest to take out the Lion and his followers. The Quadling leader explains that they have to avenge their father’s death and if they were flesh, they’d know the pain of losing those close to them. Of course the tree folk take great offense to this stating the Tin Man was chopping and burning down entire forests when he was evil. They definitely know loss and they’re not seeking revenge on him.

At this point the princes start debating the issue again with one saying maybe they should just go home or even trying to compromise saying maybe just killing the Lion would be enough. (This one is Quanto) However Quizlun, Quinn and Quum (Who is the leader and heir) are all decided that total war is the name of the game in this case and Quanto is just being a faggot.

So they attack the tree folk with predictable results. This prompts Quum to unleash fire on them with equally predictable results. Quanto was trying to reason with him saying the tree folk have never been enemies, but it fell on deaf ears and soon the army is marching through burned up trees.

Meanwhile the Lion and crew have reached the Quailing capital only to find that there’s a big beautiful wall surrounding it now. A Quadling with a scope on his crossbow tells them that they need papers to enter the city. Jinjur says since when and that they’re here on business from Ozma. Quad sniper says they ain’t listening to Ozma or her allies anymore and they can go home or get a bolt in their ass.

Jinjur’s pissed, but the Lion even more so and speaks up about how when King Quark was around he wouldn’t have done this. Bad choice of words considering that’s what got him killed, never mind that this statement was made by the one who killed him in the first place. Recognizing the Lion, the Quads on duty open fire immediately.

Jack has to step in to take the bolts while the others start running. Jinjur gets a safe distance and is ready to fire upon them back, but she’s stopped from doing so since Ozma said they weren’t supposed to hurt any Quads and it’ll only make things worse anyway. In the distance, the Quads shout that the Lion better run and hide before the princes track him down.

Cut to some meeting in a little cottage in a woods somewhere. You don’t see who is talking for awhile but there’s an exchange of magical items. One of which is one of the baubles that a good witch got turned into and that’s in exchange of a magic scroll.

Then it finally reveals who took the good witch ornament and it’s a human sized white rabbit stating he’s got other places to go and he’s late for another appointment. After he leaves through a portal, it turns out the other person was Mombi who is plotting the take over of Oz. And if it wasn’t apparent, this indeed was the White Rabbit from Wonderland.

Cut to Jinjur at their camp asking Scraps where Jack went and she tells her he has to go get a new melon so he had to find a pumpkin patch. Next scene shows Jack finding a rather oversized pumpkin all by itself, but since his current head is attracting flies, beggars can’t be choosers.

(More on this a little later)

Cut to the New Trio and crew where Betsy is taking practice shots at Scarecrow who compliments her skills saying Jinjur would probably want her in her all girl army. This prompts Trot to state she’d rather be in an all boy army because she’s a dirty redhead that thinks about dick all the time. In fact Dorothy even slut shames her for it. Trot does bring up the point though that this whole mission is boring because they’re just wandering around unsure of where fountain even is. 

So Dorothy asks the Scarecrow where he thinks it’s supposed to be and he does his goofy riddler shit of them having to fucking guess, until the Tin Man gets in his face and tells him to just fucking tell them already. So he says Glinda’s old castle should still have magic items there that they can use to locate the fountain, so they start heading there.

And then they get attacked by a pack of kalidahs. Yes, a pack of these fucking abominations and they’re actually even meaner and bigger looking than before. During the fight it becomes even more surprising when they actually speak! 

In their halting grasp on language they mention they’re only like this due to Oz folk using magic to make them in the first place. They made them and then drove them away so yeah of course they hate the Ozzites. Dorothy says this isn’t an excuse for their behavior and maybe if they acted civilized then they could join the rest of society. Now victim blaming on top of the slut shaming, Dorothy’s pretty based sometimes.

So they kill the Kalidah pack though Dorothy goes back to a little girl mentality and cries over the fact she had to kill the beast at all since it really wasn’t its fault that it was just acting as an animal would. After a bit more talking the group continues their adventure.

That’s it for this issue, but before we move on to 19…

Oz: Daemonstorm

Another failed Caliber crossover

Alright not going to spend too much time on this since I forgot what the fuck this was even all about and I no longer have this comic and I can’t even find a synopsis on it (or maybe I just didn’t look hard enough)

Anyway Caliber had this Daemonstorm event hit all their best seller comics, Oz, Deadworld and a few others. Probably LegendLore too since I think that setting had something directly to do with the event. It was something to do with demons invading various worlds. So in the case of Oz, you know how Jack found that giant pumpkin to use as his new head? Yeah well it was something infected with the daemonstorm and Jack gets temporarily possessed by a demon trying to call in his fellows.

As I said, I can’t remember all the details, but obviously his group eventually cures him, wards off the storm and everything is back to normal next issue.

That’s it really. Nothing more with this arc other than it was one of those Caliber attempt at connecting all their world probably in the hopes of boosting sales.

Well, moving on…

Issue 19: From Bad to Worse

Well evil’s not a club after all

So this starts off with Lion and crew heading back to Em City. Jack is remarking how his new head is wonderful and compliments Scraps on her carving skills which she says she had plenty of time to practice while in the Nome King dungeons.

Okay, once again the comic has ignored its own canon because according to the SS prequel, Scraps actually never went to the Nome King dungeons! She escaped and it was said she rejoined the FF by the end, unless she got captured again off panel at some point, but seems like Mombi would’ve ended up destroying her given how pissed she was for getting away the first time.

Meanwhile Jinjur is telling them both to stop being so damn chipper while things are going to shit in Oz. Lion says things are dire, but with hard work things can be fixed. Then some random pipes up stating no things are indeed doomed!

This rando is some Ozzite called Fignut and he’s a “hopper” which apparently is some other race of folks in Oz that hasn’t been seen in a long time. (They move about on one big leg) Fignut goes on to say he’d rather have the Nome King back than witness what he just saw and his tribe has been hiding out with another group called Horners.

So they ask what he saw, he’s afraid to tell the Lion, who then threatens that he better tell him or he’s going to see worse. So Fignut tells Lion that his kingdom just got razed to the ground and all his subjects scattered by the Quadling army (And some goblin allies)

Well the Lion isn’t happy and he’s not heading back to Em City now, he’s going back to check on what’s left of his kingdom and he’s already stating he’s going to finish what he started under the Nome King’s tyranny.

Cut to Amber who is already reporting the news of what the Quadlings did. The Wizard states he was afraid that the repercussions of the Nome King’s reign was going to still have after effects and this is one of them and why Amber insisted on rebuilding the army. The Wizard states that the Quadlings are unruly children that need to be spanked and taught a lesson. After some time has passed, they’ll soon see the wisdom of why they needed this. Lol

At this point one side is committing warcrimes and the other is talking about conquering them to bring them under the jackboot and hell the Lion is just blatantly saying he’s genociding all of them. Arguably Oz is more fucked than it ever was under the Nome King.

Tik Tok goes on some rant about how maybe this is the end of the golden age for Oz and they’re entering the silver age or even iron age, or zirconium age, until Amber tells him to shut the fuck up before he stops winding him up. Still Amber says Tik might be correct if they don’t take care of the Quads immediately. Ever optimistic Ozma however says she’s not going to war and she’ll meet with the Quads herself and to summon Sawhorse so she may ride immediately.

However, the bad news doesn’t stop coming before she can even get that far since Shaggyman arrives to tell them that all the Winkies are dead. Like ALL of them. Shaggy says he watched from afar to see the goblins not fucking around. 

Tik Tok’s response is amusing since the first thing he says is they’re the only ones that can repair him and Amber starts moaning about how they couldn’t even repay the Winkies for helping them against the Nome King and now that they’re all dead, this brings him great dishonor. I’m sure Tik’s mortality and Amber’s honor were the top priority in the mind of the last Winkie. Lol.

Amber declares that a force should be sent to meet the gobs immediately and now Ozma’s pissed enough to order that a force be sent to meet the Quads. Amber refuses the order which enrages Ozma that he’s defying her at such a time. though Amber states it’s not that, it’s just that they don’t have the manpower. If they send a force to deal with the Quads too, then Em City would be completely undefended.

“Oh Fiddlesticks!” - Ozma shouting in anger

Ozma apologizes for her outburst and says she’s retiring to her chambers while Amber and the rest carry out orders. 

Cut to the Goblin King who states that his shaman is treading on thin ice with his dealings with the witch who is starting to get more powerful. The shaman assures the king though that he’s got her under control with spells. Gob King says she’s talking to herself or like someone else is there with her and if she’s crazy then that makes her even more dangerous.

the shaman points out that the Wickedest Witch is made up of the old Wicked Witch of the West and East. And they weren’t nice, so she won’t be either, but he’s got her under control. Gob King isn’t entirely convinced and says you couldn’t trust those two so can’t really trust this incarnation that combines them. 

The shaman leaves full of reassurances that he’s got her under control and of course while he’s out of earshot he’s snickering to himself that already they aren’t needed for his plans that are in motion. Gob King and his son (Another son or the same one that may have gotten killed? Who knows, they all look alike) however are already untrusting of the shaman and the witch (Who as a FEMALE shouldn’t have power over a goblin in such a way) so they plan to kill her at a banquet.

Cut to Wickest Witch who is talking to herself (Well sister) about how nobody ever truly dies in Oz and at worst they get dissipated until they can somehow get recalled into a new body. (Yes, very convenient). They go on about how while they couldn’t take over Oz by themselves, together they certainly will and even if Glinda was still around they couldn’t match her. They also wonder how the shaman is so much smarter than the rest of his kin and that maybe they’ll spare him.

She soon meets up with the shaman who states he’s well aware of how powerful she’s getting and always knew this was going to happen. He says he’s fine with her ruling Oz and he just wants a high position so he can live comfortably. WW is a little surprised by his candor to which he states there’s no point in deceiving her since he knows his power will never match hers. Better to be on the winning side. WW is like well okay can get your wish then.
WW then goes on a villain rant about how she’s going to rule Oz and make everyone pay who opposed her, but especially Dorothy who she plans on murdering the shit out of in the middle of the public streets. To be fair, she did crush one with a house and melted the other one with water.

Cut to Dorothy and crew looking for Glinda’s place which isn’t easy to find anymore due to when the Nome King was around, her lands started slowly becoming rocky like his home and hard to travel. So they gotta make camp before setting off to where the Scarecrow thinks it might be located now.

Cut to Quum returning home with his brothers where one of his people states that the Lion was at the gates not long ago with an entourage. Quanto points out that they could’ve just stayed home and took their revenge on just the Lion and not burned down the entire fucking forest. Quum says there was no way to know this and he’s not going to be swayed by any of his brother’s tears, besides once the Lion sees what was done to his kingdom, he’s surely going to be back and THEN they’ll get him.

Cut to the Lion and crew arriving at the remains of the forest kingdom and it’s a charred graveyard. A single furry with an arrow in her back has managed to live long enough to info dump on what exactly happened. The Quads ordered everyone to leave before they finished destroying the place. When there was resistance, that was met with violence. Besides killing a lot of the furries, they even took some as slaves. Some did manage to escape though.

As the furgirl dies in the Lion’s paws he vows vengeance on every single Quadling even if takes the rest of his life.

That’s it for this issue.

Issue 20: The Season of the Witch

Hey she’s not black coded at all!

Okay this starts off in some Gob tunnels under Quad country where they’re having their banquet. Jack and Jinjur are spying on them and they see WW but don’t know who the hell she is yet other than why is she cavorting with gobs.

The gobs are enjoying their victories and saying hail to their king and prince and then one dummy praises WW magic which then of course causes the king to get mad. The shaman tries to say she’s powerful and surely the king can see that, but that just makes him madder and states that the shaman is obviously no true goblin and is obviously a freak. He even shows fear in his eyes when threatened. Maybe it would be better to kill him so he doesn’t breed.

The king and prince start a fight with WW and as you can expect, it doesn’t end well for them as she easily downs the both of them. Though she actually levitates the king stating isn’t the king not supposed to show fear. Look at his eyes now which are full of fear. Obviously he’s not fit to be king. She impales him on a stalactite which immediately causes the rest of the gobs to fall in line. Jack and Jinjur have seen enough and decide to get out of there to go report to the Wizard and Amber.

Though the shaman thought he saw someone watching from a nearby opening in the caves and before they can escape, they have to deal with gobs that were alerted to the area. Eventually they defeat them and continue looking for an unguarded way back to the surface.

Cut to Ozma who has calmed down and decided she’s going to ride off to see the Quads on her own after all. Amber strongly advises against this, but Ozma says she’s going to try one more time to convince them to come back into the fold and if not well she’ll return and they can keep their independence. (Or “silly” independence as she puts it) Before she can go riding off on Sawhorse though Lion and Scraps return with more bad news.

Well this puts another change in plans since the Quads are now considered even more dangerous given that they destroyed the Lion’s entire kingdom. Ozma says she’ll send for Tin Man, Scarecrow and the others since the Wizard was right that they need everyone. then when Jinjur and Jack come back they can begin their quest to reunite Oz proper.

Cut back to Jinjur and Jack who have found a way out, though the shaman and several gobs have caught up with them. And these are “super” goblins that the shaman has been creating for WW. A fight ensues, and they’re defeated, but the shaman just calls upon more. Eventually they’re overwhelmed and Jack gets thrown off a cliff. Jinjur gets beaten and captured while the shaman mocks her stating that it is time for goblin kind to rule over Oz.

Last panel is Jack’s body and his broken melon all over the rocky ground.

That’s it for this issue.

And despite it saying “Next issue: Confrontation” that doesn’t happen or at least not under the Caliber name.

These would be the last issues under the Caliber brand because after issue 20, the series would limp a bit longer under (drum roll) the Arrow comics brand. 

Yep, Arrow gets resurrected for a third fucking time and the Oz series ends up following since it was pretty much the only one that Ralph and Stu still had full control over at that point, plus probably because Oz was public domain so wasn’t like Caliber could claim it like say the Deadworld series.

Oh and there’s ONE last ramble by fucking Stu who goes again about how he was speaking to a school about the comic and a teacher asked about why it had to be so violent and he gave the reasons that it was to show the bad guys doing bad guy shit and the good guys only using violence in the pursuit of doing good.

All well and fine, except then he goes on his douchebag “righteousness” routine about how maybe other writers should tone down the violent aspects in their heroes.

Fuck off Stu, just fuck off. You’ve been in charge of writing this comic and in the last few issues you’ve had a bunch of “morally gray” shit going on even with the heroes or “good” folk. In fact it resembles more Game of Thrones where everyone is starting to suck now than fucking black and white morality of Oz. This isn’t even counting let’s see, the hammerheads getting genocided, the winkies getting genocided, the treemen genocided, the furries nearly getting genocided and some of them enslaved.

Hell, fuck Game of Throne, this is starting to resemble a W40K setting or the average CYS Fallen Land gaming session.

Anyway, the last 6 comics will be the next post. Stay tuned!

I never could quite muster up too much actual hatred for James since he actually was the one that laid the foundation for the CYS TVTropes page and was the only one who bothered working on it (And my stories in particular). Granted I always thought he was still a whining faggot that ultimately melted down over dumb shit.

Wouldn't really be until Cricket showed up that someone properly started working on it again (And my stories in particular)

Probably should have some folks here go update that old outpost next year sometime.

I mean it looked like one of the more promising edgelord stories we've had on here and I gave him some advice on stuff. (Rare for me to do in general)

Who knows though maybe he'll be back on a more permanent basis next season.

Well looks like someone doesn't get a mention in the CYS history update!

I personally enjoyed getting accused of making Skyrim racist.

In the spirit of Christmas, I have necroed a thread of what this place used to be like 10 years ago.

Oh how times have changed!