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The Oz Series

So I always meant to get around to this one sometime after the Deadworld series. Seeing as the Wicked movies are a big thing now, it’s no time like the present to do so.

Alright as always a little history first…

The Oz comic series or at least this one I’ll be going over (Since there’s certainly other comics based around Wizard of Oz) came out in the ancient days of the mid 1990s. It was actually created by the same people who created the Deadworld series. (Ralph and Stu. Go read that thread for info about that one if you haven’t already)

The comic came out after Arrow Comics’ titles had all been taken over by Caliber Press, so unlike Deadworld it started under that brand until it wasn’t, but we’ll get to that when the time comes. In fact it started after the second failed attempt at keeping Arrow Comics alive, so Ralph and Stu needed a job to help pay the bills.

The series isn’t exactly “grimdark”, in fact it’s arguably not even the “darkest” version of someone messing about with the setting. Hell the original books from what I’ve heard can be nightmare fuel themselves in some places. However, if someone was only familiar with the 1930s movie, it’s definitely darker in that regard. The Return to Oz movie from the 80s on the other hand might’ve fit right into this comic. Still in general, it’s more classic good rebels versus evil tyrant fantasy rather than “everything is terrible” type thing.

I, myself really have only been familiar with the couple of movies based around Wizard of Oz and like one old cartoon movie that popped up on TV back in the 80s. So I wasn’t really familiar with a lot of the characters that get introduced in this comic, but they’re all from the various OG books. Of course there’s a few original character as well, most notably the protagonists as you’ll soon see.

Anyway, I’ll be going more or less in chronological order with the comic though the series jumped around a bit with some flashback issues, but of course I’ll mention that shit when it comes up.

Alright let’s get on with this and see if I can’t finish this series review before the new year.

Issue 1: Mayhem in Munchkinland Part 1

The limited edition had an extra “outer cover” with the scarecrow as well since the regular version just had the Jack Pumpkinhead cover that you see here.

So it starts off with three young adults and a dog waking up in the middle of a forest. Their names are Peter who is 19 and an engineering student. Mary who is also 19 and a Phys Ed student and finally Kevin who is 20 and a comic book dealer. Oh and Mary is his girlfriend.

Alright, first off this was definitely written by nerds because the comic book guy has a damn girlfriend. Even the engineering guy would make more sense to be with her. All of these folks look like they’re in good shape with at least above average looks too. So no fat comic book dude or scrawny looking engineering student. (The girl is phys ed, so makes sense she’s in shape)  Already the story is firmly in the fantasy realm.

Still, they actually look older than their ages would suggest. they look more like mid to late 20s than the teenage borderline. Hell none of them are even able to legally drink yet.

All that info isn’t just dumped in the story, it’s actually in the back pages of the comic with some sketch examples of all the characters they were planning out. Figured I’d just mention it because it supports the fact that back then comic readers didn’t want to read comics about people that looked like them, whereas nowadays if it doesn’t have some fatty with rainbow hair then the comic was obviously created by BIGOTS.

Oh the dog’s name is Max which is a pretty common name for a dog. Looks like a mutt mix, definitely bigger than Toto.

Anyway what the 3 are doing is trying to figure out what the hell happened since they were looking at some old dusty book and then they passed out, along with being carried away in tornado before winding up in a forest that has trees with faces on them. However, they don’t get to ponder this too long since they’re soon attacked by a bunch of munchkins and intend to take them to their king. Or “a midget punk gang” as Kevin puts it and already he’s saying he knows how to handle this type like he’s got fucking years of experience fighting gangs of dwarves.

Kevin’s already taken a halberd from one of them and doing the old “We can handle this one of two ways” action hero shit. The munchkins are unimpressed however and are doing a good job of overwhelming Peter and Kevin, but Mary shouts at them to just run instead of trying to fight them all. (But this is what men do!) Also Max steps up to attack too, but he gets knocked out. Peter and Kevin meanwhile get knocked off a short cliff instead. The munchkins would check to see if they’re dead, but apparently they fell into a “forbidden fields” and they’re not going in, so they decide to go chase after Mary instead.

Kevin and Peter are still alive, but it doesn’t take long before they both fall unconscious. Cue a flashback scene to before they got to the land of Oz. Basically it’s about the events on how Kevin got the book that sent them there which involve him buying a shitload of old books from some old guy in the hopes of them all being valuable so he can sell them for fat profits. Mary wasn’t exactly thrilled with Kevin spending money on this stuff since he was supposed to take her out that night too.

But Kevin’s like “Yeah no can do babe, we gotta price check these books to see how much money I wasted!” And Mary sighs and just puts up with this since she obviously has esteem issues.

Doesn’t take long before they get to the book that transported them to Oz It actually had a lock on it until Kevin pried it open with a knife. Cue the tornado coming out of the book and then…

Back to the present where Max is dragging Peter and Kevin out of the field at which point they wake up. Pretty sure its a case that the field had some effect on them that knocked them out rather than their exhaustion from dealing with the munchkins. Probably had poppies or something.

Since it’s getting dark, Peter suggests that they stop until morning to go look for Mary since it won’t do any good getting even more lost than they already are.

Cut to Mary who is still getting chased by munchkins and definitely lost in the forest. She might be on the track team, but the munchies are keeping the pace. In true dwarf fashion they have more endurance than she does and catch up to her, but then Jack Pumpkinhead appears to save her.

That’s the end of issue 1.

So who is Jack Pumpkinhead anyway? Well he’s a character from the later Oz books. I actually do remember him since he was in a Oz cartoon on TV and was also in the Return to Oz movie. In fact, he’s probably one of few Oz characters outside of the main 3 I even know about thanks to that 80s movie. (It really was underrated)

Remaining pages of the book are like a I said a lot of sketches of things to come and such. Plus Stu felt the need to spend an entire page to ramble like an old man about things changing in the world and how all anyone seems to be driven by is money anymore. He’ll do this a few more times

Issue 2: Mayhem in Munchkinland Part 2

Well just sit there and look scary then

This starts off with Pumpkin boy throwing out insults and beating up munchkins, though again the little guys aren’t overly impressed and are eager to collect the bounty on him when they present him to their king. Mary at this point goes into GURL POWAR mode saying “What am I a damsel? Not this 90s girl!” and leaps into the fight to help out Jack.

Though he doesn’t really need the help of some human seeing as he’s got plant powers and after a bit of fighting he binds all the munchkins in vines, leaving them only to yell threats that him and the rest of the freedom fighters’ days are numbered. Jack says Mary can follow him or go on her way but he’s got important shit to do. Seeing as he’s the only one that hasn’t attacked her and she has no idea what else to do, she starts following him.

She gets tired though eventually since Jack not having the weakness of a human is just constantly using forward to his destination. He grumbles about the weakness of her flesh what with needing to eat and sleep, but he  agrees to stop for awhile so she can rest.

Cut to Kevin and Peter where Kevin’s bitching about Peter’s boy scout skills not being enough to track down Mary which causes a little friction but Kevin calms down. So they’re trying to track Mary and that’s when they encounter a kalidah.

So what the hell is that? Well it’s basically a tiger-bear combo that has appeared in the OG books. It’s not the best thing you want to run into while there. There’s a long fight with it for a few pages. Eventually they manage to skewer it on a several tree branches.

Cut to a witch of some sort looking into a crystal ball and when she see Max, this alarms her enough that she’s gotta go see the king and report this immediately because they just don’t have dogs in Oz I guess (Petros would love it there).

This witch is Mombi. So Mombi was in the OG books as the wicked witch of the north before the good witch there deposed her (And no it wasn’t Glinda, it was her sister). Unlike some of the other witches in Oz, she apparently wasn’t naturally magical, she actually had to study and work hard at it as opposed to being born with it. She was the one who created Pumpkinhead as well.

Mombi was also in the Return to Oz movie, though like most movie adaptations, she was a little different in that version.

Anyway it cuts back to Peter and Kevin who are limping along with their wounds from the battle with the tiger-bear. As luck for them would have it they stumble upon an abandoned village and just enter one of the houses to rest. One of them says the place is starting to seem awfully familiar though. Meanwhile Max starts barking and there’s an old munchkin hiding in a cabinet, but fortunately he’s a doctor and he’s willing to help out.

While he’s patching them up he starts going on about the village looking like it is due to the kalidahs coming in and wrecking everything and eating folks. Eventually everyone that could escape did and he doesn’t think they’ll ever come back to rebuild. He also goes on to say Oz has turned into a hellhole ever since the Nome King took over (Yep, nome with no “g”). He’s worse than any of the witches they ever had.

At this point Kevin and Peter are like “OZ?”

After a bit of disbelief and then pondering the evidence, Peter is sufficiently convinced they are indeed in Oz, though Kevin still has his doubts. (You’d think the engineering student would be the skeptic rather than the comic book guy)  They ask about the scarecrow and tin man to which the old munch says they’ve turned evil and are acting as minor “kings” to the various areas in Oz. In fact the Scarecrow is ruling over the munchkins as their direct king.

So Peter suggests they go see the Scarecrow since he seems to be in charge and maybe he’s got Mary. The munchkin doc says he doesn’t see anyone, but they’re undeterred so he tells them, it’s easy enough to find him, just follow the yellow brick road.

“You gotta be kidding me.” - Kevin

So they follow the yellow brick road and eventually they get to a huge barn surrounded by straw fields. They run inside and that’s when they finally meet the Scarecrow who isn’t pleased about being disturbed.

And that’s it for issue 2.

And I might as well address who the Gnome King is too. He was another character from the OG books and he’s always an asshole wanting to take over Oz and enslave everyone to work in his mines forever. Always claims that the emeralds from Emerald City for example rightfully belong to him. In fact he’s probably the closest thing to an ongoing villain in the series even if the wicked witch of west is better known. He originally comes from a neighboring land called Ev which has a deadly desert separating it making travel pretty rare and tough to do normally.

He was another character in the Return to Oz movie and was the main villain in it. He was also allied with Mombi in that movie, but I don’t think they interacted in the OG books, so maybe them being paired up in this comic was a nod to the 80s movie.

Issue 3: Mayhem in Munchkinland Part 3

The Tinman is probably the only one they don’t change much out of the three to look more Eeeeevil

So after barging into the Scarecrow’s barn castle, they start asking him how to get back home and when he’s not very helpful with this line of questioning, Kevin immediately goes in with the insults saying he should be easy to beat up since he’s just full of straw.

Naturally it sets the Scarecrow off and he attacks, unleashing a shitload of crows from thin air. A struggle ensues with only the dog Max actually doing anything useful until Pete manages to grab a pitchfork to fight off the crows. Still the Scarecrow isn’t impressed and starts knocking them about with his staff until once again it’s the dog that does something useful and manages to tear off a medallion the Scarecrow is wearing. The dog gets zapped unconscious for his efforts, however it quickly transforms the Scarecrow back into his old self and he’s wondering why Kevin at this point is ripping the stuffings out of him.

After some clearing up of what’s going on and the Scarecrow healing Max with magic Kev and Pete see that he really doesn’t remember attacking them and says he must have some sort of magical amnesia that turned him wicked, though he doesn’t know who or how that happened.

Cut to Mombi speaking with the Nome King who is sitting with a young woman in a throne room. It’s somewhat implied that this is Dorothy (All grown up of course). In any case, the Nome King doesn’t want to be interrupted while he’s with his barely legal bride and tells Mombi that this better be important. He mentions seeing the dog and he tells her to keep an eye on it since it could fuck up all their plans.

Seriously, their plans are pretty shit to begin with if they can be ruined by one lone mutt.

After warning Mombi to not fuck this up, she’s secretly plotting to overthrow him because evil isn’t a club after all. She also mentions in her thoughts that he isn’t even the true Nome King anyway.

Cut to Mary with Pumpkinhead who summons some sort of horse made of wood for them to ride. This character is known as Sawhorse. Another one from the OG books.

Cut back to Scarecrow who thinks the Wizard would be able to help, but considering Em City is currently occupied by hostile forces, he’s probably not there and wouldn’t be a good idea to go there either. So his next plan is to go see the Tin Man (Or Nick Chopper as is his real name) who might help. Kev and Pete though relay that they were told the Tin Man had become evil just like he was when they first met him. The Scarecrow refuses to believe that the Tin Man could be affected by magic that could change his alignment in such a way as he has the most wonderful heart in Oz!

Kev and Pete aren’t really buying it, but they don’t have much choice so they decide to just go with the flow. Soon the Scarecrow calls his crows to carry them all to the Tin Man’s Kingdom.

Cut back to Mary and Pumpkinhead finally arriving at their destination. Mary mentions what a rough ride it was to which Sawhorse tells her to stop bitching which surprises the hell out of her since she didn’t know he could talk.

At this point Pumpkinhead introduces her to the Freedom Fighters of Oz who consist of:

Tik Tok (A clockpunk like robot, not the Chinese thing that spreads brainrot)
Gump (A flying moose like creature, not the retard who got into adventures and married his rapist)
The Winged Monkey (Just one apparently and he doesn’t have a name)
Hungry Tiger (A furry like the Lion, except a Tiger obviously)
Wogglebug (A giant intellectual insect man)
Hektor Hammerhead (Another mechanical type man. This one has a springy head with a flattop which he uses like a hammer. For whatever retarded reason, whoever created him didn’t think to give him fucking arms)
Jinjur (One of the few humans in the pack. She’s some sort of warrior which I’ll go into a bit later)
Amber Ombi (Another human and also another soldier type. Male. In case the name was too ambiguous)
And finally some munchkins and winkies who didn’t just fall in line like the rest of their kind when the new regime took over.

Again I’ll go into some of these characters after this last bit.

Cut back to Scarecrow and the rest finally getting to the Tin Man’s place which is now a steampunk fortress. They walk up to the gates and Scarecrow immediately starts saying “Hello Nick Chopper my old friend! You certainly look a little different than when I last saw you!”

The steampunk bot at the gate explains he’s not the Tin Man, but is Major Minor, the head of the mechanical royal army. He says he’ll take them to see the king though who may or may not decide to address them or not. On the way to the throne room, Scarecrow says he doesn’t remember the Tin Man having or needing an army before, which doesn’t inspire confidence in Pete and Kev.

They get to the throne room and there’s the Tin Man with a similar medallion around his neck and stating what business does the Scarecrow have with him and then sees the two humans and thinks they’re gifts. He tells Major Minor to take the meat people to service his great war engine until they fall down dead.

One can only hope servicing this great war engine is just working on some assembly line and not getting violated repeatedly with a giant steel dick.

Anyway that’s it for issue 3.

So real quick, most of the freedom fighter characters mentioned above were in the OG books. Tik Tok and Gump were also in that Return to Oz movie, though I remember Tik Tok better than Gump.

Wogglebug and Hungry Tiger are just two more funny animal folk that tend to be in Oz. Woggle is an intellectual type while Hungry Tiger is buddies with the Cowardly Lion. He’s also always hungry and longs to eat a fat baby, but he won’t because that would be wrong.

The munchkins and the winged monkey are self explanatory as everyone knows them from the old movie. The winkies are another Oz race in the books, but guess what? They were also in the 1930s movie. Remember the dudes in fur hats chanting “Oh We Oh” in front of the Wicked Witch’s fortress? Well those were the winkies. They’re a little shorter and more goblinoid looking here.

Now apparently there was a race of “Hammerheads” in the OG books, but they seem to be flesh and blood. Says they were also incredibly hostile to everyone. Hektor seems to be a mildly original character for the comic.

Same for Amber Ombi who is an original comic book character, however he’s supposed to be the son of an OG Book character called Omby Amby, because all of “Ombi, Omby, Mombi, etc” style names weren’t fucking confusing enough. Anyway Omby himself was general of all the armies in Oz, but he’s apparently dead by the time of this comic, so he won’t be playing any greater role in it.

Finally Jinjur gets a special mention here since she was a villain in one of the OG books where I guess she tried to overthrow the Scarecrow when he was in charge of Em City for awhile. She’s also a general but was in charge of an army of women which at the time was a parody of the women’s suffrage movement. Ha ha ha ha, oh those ladies and their big ideas of equality am I right?

Later though she calmed down and became a tradwife. No seriously, she settled down to become a simple married woman living on a farm on later books, though it was implied she regularly BEAT her husband since he’d always have black eyes. Women, go and figure ‘em.

Anyway, she’s back to being a warrior again because this is the 90s and Xena was really popular.

Issue 4: Allies and Enemies

Yep as you can guess he doesn’t appear until the end of the issue just like the other two.

So this one starts off with the freedom fighters all trying to determine if Mary isn’t some spy for the Nome King. Wogglebug questions the logic of Pumpkinhead bringing her here since even if she isn’t a spy, she’s going to cut into resources to feed her. Hektor gripes about hiding out and not doing anything about the Nome King. Hungry Tiger is already saying he could eat Mary to solve any doubts, Jinjur of course believes that she’s no threat.

Mary is just wondering where the hell she is and she gets some explanation, and reacts when she hears the name Dorothy which then makes her realize she’s in Oz and they realize she’s an earthling. Just then a munchkin mentions that the Scarecrow was seen leaving Munchkinland for the first time in a long time and mentioning he was heading west to the Tin Man who is king of the Winkies. This doesn’t inspire confidence in the Freedom Fighters that they might have to deal with both of them since they aren’t aware of the exact situation yet.

Cut back to the Tin Man thanking the Scarecrow for bringing him more oilers and polishers since meat sacks tend to die a lot when worked 24/7. However Scarecrow already protests saying they come from Dorothy’s world and he wasn’t bringing them as slaves. Naturally this doesn’t go over well and Tin Man is already telling his bots to capture everyone. Despite steampunk toasters advancing, Kev goes full Leroy Jenkins mode and states going for the leader worked before so it should work again.

Of course taking on hostile toasters is a lot different than taking on a bunch of crows so they don’t get far before they’re getting their slowly crushed by steel hands and told that the flesh is weak along with how steel will soon rule over all of Oz. (Apparently the Tin Man was having ideas of overthrowing the Nome King too)

Scarecrow tries to step in to help, but they easily rip him apart. The dog can’t even help much in this case. Fortunately the Tin Man spends so much time gloating as he’s got Kevin by the throat, that it gives him enough time to rip the medallion off his neck. This immediately causes him to snap out of it and call off his toasters.

Cut back to the Freedom Fighters who are, actually I don’t know exactly where they are. They’re at some sort of large building, possibly a fortress, but it’s not Em City and it’s not the Scarecrow or tin Man’s place. I can only assume this is Mombi’s place or one of them since that’s who ends up attacking them while Wogglebug is going on about this potentially being a trap and Hammerhead saying now is the time to strike.

Mombi isn’t alone though she’s got the Ladies Auxiliary Brigade backing her up and yes that is the name of this group of warrior women. I can only guess they’re ones Jinjur used to be in charge of before she joined the rebellion. Though that doesn’t seem to matter since they attack everyone and after some fighting they get the upper hand and not only stab Hungry Tiger in the back (Still alive though) they also chop off Hammerhead’s head.

And he’s dead. So much for that original character. He wasn’t a likable character and was freakish looking anyway.

Cut back to the Tin Man’s place where they’re all going to head over to the Lion’s place since they figure he’s probably under the same spell that Crow and Tin were. Also it would be better to have him on their side.

Last page is of course of the Lion sitting on his own throne with two scantily clad lionesses (Though they have big long flowing hair) reporting that this group is on their way and should the warriors be called, but the Lion says he’ll deal with the prey himself.

That’s a wrap for issue 4.

Issue 5: Heroes Gather, Battles Fought

The trio reunited at last!

Starts off Tin Man and the rest heading into the forest where the Lion’s kingdom is and some talk about hoping they can get him to on their side. Doesn’t take long before they bump into the Lion who asks why the hell they’re intruding on his domain before he disposes of them anyway.

An appeal to reason is made, but the Lion claims he’s not under any sort of spell since he’s not wearing an amulet, but they try to tell him he must still be under an evil influence somehow anyway. The time for talking is over and the Lion is ready to get down to killing them all. Though only the Tin Man steps up to fight since the Scarecrow warns that only he’d be able to survive a fight with the Lion, all they can really do is stand back and watch.

Well doesn’t take long before the Lion is kicking the Tin Man in the nuts and bolts. As the Tin Man is losing badly, Kevin once again is the one who steps up and grabs the Tin Man’s axe (Which he threw aside since he didn’t want to kill the Lion) to help out. However, the Scarecrow stops him saying he really wouldn’t survive this attempt and unlike him he couldn’t be put back together.

Well fuck Scarecrow then YOU at least take the axe and fucking help out then. Sure you’re not beating the Lion, but you could at least survive getting shredded while distracting him.

Anyway Kevin notices that the Lion is actually wearing an amulet after all, it was just under his mane. He shouts for the Tin Man to rip it off of him which the Tin Man manages to do so.

Cut to the Freedom Fighters getting captured and mocked or at least the ones who aren’t dead (Hektor) or the ones that managed to slip away during the fight which is Wogglebug and Tik Tok. Tik comes up with a plan and tells Woggle to overwind him so he goes into spinning top mode to fight off the dimestore amazons and allow everyone else to get away. Woggle obliges and soon Tik Tok is coming out swinging and punching out more bitches than a pimp on a slow saturday night.

This gives the rest of them enough time to escape. Jack and Woggle on Sawhorse, while the three humans ride away on Gump. Poor Hungry Tiger who’s actually fucking wounded has to run by himself.  Zombi meanwhile throws some sort of magnetic powder at Tik Tok which not only stops him completely, but also causes all of the weapons the ladies were holding to be ripped from their hands and go straight into Tik Tok. Yeah he’s done.

Watching from a safe distance at Tik’s sacrifice is the winged monkey escaping with the rest saying something about being one step closer to the decision he dreads the most, making it sound like he’s planning something sinister which may or may not have been the point.

Cut to the Nome King speaking to some woman in a dungeon. This woman would be Ozma, the rightful queen of Oz. Anyway he’s doing the usual villain taunting and threats of how she’s not morned or a martyr as people are already slowly starting to forget about her. Her lands are being ruled by three evil kings, kalidahs run amok, the good witches and the wizard are nowhere around and how everything is just wonderfully terrible and nobody can stop him.

Still, he REALLY wants her to be his queen so he gets the throne with “legitimacy” because I guess he’s lawful evil. Though given how much he’s already horse fucked the place, he states that she better make her mind up soon otherwise he won’t really need this service of her…though he may still DESIRE it.

He’s talking about rape right? Yes, of course he is.

Cut back to the Freedom Fighters or what’s left of them and half of them are still arguing over if Mary is a spy or not. Especially since they got ambushed. Jack, Jinjur and Ombi are all of the mind that she’s innocent and it was just a coincidence. Woggle accuses Ombi of thinking with his DICK, but eventually Woggle is outnumbered in his arguments so he lets the matter go, meanwhile monkey boy is back with the news that their comrade has Tik’ed his last Tok.

They all decide they really can’t afford to play it safe anymore since that isn’t working anyway, they need to just go ahead and make a major attack. There’s only one free army left in Oz though and that’s the flying monkeys. Nameless monkey boy isn’t sure they’ll even help, but he’ll go ask even though he doesn’t want to. (And this is the big decision he was dreading earlier) Woggle along with Gump go with him.

Cut back to Tin Man and the rest still wondering if the Lion has really changed after getting rid of the amulet since he’s still acting a bit hostile, but he soon snaps back to his old self. After some warm and fuzzies, Tin Man exclaims they need to take back Em City

And that’s it for issue 5.

Finally we get a letters page, however unlike Deadworld it isn’t nearly as amusing. You don’t have anyone like King Zombie calling the readers faggots for bitching about the comic being $2.95 for example. Yep, someone claimed that was a lot of money for a mere 32 black and white pages. In fact a lot of people bitched about it being in black and white. I can bet some of these folks if they’re still into comics are probably wishing for the days of a quality comic for such money regardless of it being in color or not.

One thing that popped up were people whining about the comic being “grim and dark” because it seemed like ALL comics were heading that way now. Keep in mind this was the 90s where this was happening in even the super hero genre, in fact Stu himself makes a rambling page about being positive and how negativity was now being “lauded as sophistication” and he didn’t like that.

Well gee Stu, why the fuck are you making shit like edgelord Oz killing off characters, not to mention zombie comics where you’re actively having edgy covers saying “Not for wussies” with babies getting ripped apart and clits being chewed off and eaten? (Go read the Deadworld review thread for more about that!)

Look if you don’t like darker stories, that’s fine. But saying how much you don’t like it and then writing the exact opposite is talking out both sides of your dick licker.

Anyway this is a good stopping point. We may or may not continue with the main story line first or go back to some prequel one shots they did. Haven’t decided yet. Stay tuned!

Decided to go with the prequel one shots.

Issue “0”: To Covet a Kingdom

Happier times…

Alright so this starts off in Em City with a big celebration and a sign saying “Welcome King of Ev”. It’s a big deal since this is supposed to be an end to hostilities between Oz and Ev, even though they
were never officially at war.

Everyone important is there, the usual trio, along with the Wizard and Dorothy who is still a little girl here. I don’t see Toto, but she’s got some chicken called Billina with her. I don’t remember this pet, but I guess they were in the OG books and it was in the Return to Oz too. Dorothy even mentions how the chicken saved them the last time from being statues the last time the Nome King tried to take over.

In any case this Nome King is a new one and is supposedly nicer, but the Lion isn’t convinced like the rest of them. They all just tell him he’s worrying over nothing though.

Cut to the Nome King walking with a shitload of nomes behind him. They stumble upon Jinjur’s place in the country where she’s living with her battered husband Filo. Filo immediately asks what they’re doing to which the Nome King says he’s here to take over the country fool! Filo isn’t even scared of him considering he gets beaten by Jinjur on a daily basis, so he’s like “Yeah right, like you’re going to be able to stand up against the queen, the wizard and all the good witches. Lol.”

Well NK isn’t in the mood for this bullshit, so he turns Filo into a crystal squirrel. At this point Jinjur comes out yelling at NK saying she’s the only one that can abuse her husband and demands that he transforms him back at once. NK goes on about how he’s got powerful artifacts that are going to allow him to take over everything. Funny enough Jinjur’s response to this is more of apathy/disbelief, she really only wants her husband back, she doesn’t even give a shit if he attacks Em City saying for him to just move on.

He does move on and even leaves her husband with her, only in several shattered pieces when he throws the crystal squirrel to the ground. He then tells her to spread the word that he’s not one to be fucked with.

Cut back to Em City where the Scarecrow and the rest finally see NK arrive, though Dorothy is wondering why he’s walking which the Wizard says that the Deadly Desert is treacherous to cross without magic so he probably transported himself and his entourage without realizing they had a longer distance than they thought (Yeah that must be it)

NK arrives before Ozma and the rest and she’s presenting him with a dove to symbolize the new peace treaty between their two countries. NK immediately cuts to the chase and says a better way of doing this is to marry, thus solidifying the union between the lands. Ozma says she’s not set on marrying anyone and NK in general starts getting jeers from the rest saying he must be mad to come in and start demanding such a thing.

NK at this point has more nomes pop up out out of floor of the palace and while the Wizard cast a spell to return them all home, Zombi (Who was hiding in nome form) appears and counter acts his spell and he goes flying straight up with piece of cloth wrapped around his neck. Which looks like it could be legit hanging him, but apparently he just got sent back home (Which would be earth of course) Ozma says Zombi has allied with a complete mad man, but she’s of the mind that she’d do better under his regime than she ever would under hers.

NK once again tells Ozma that she needs to submit peacefully or he’s going to make things worse in Oz. Ozma order Amber to take the rest and Dorothy away while she deals with Mombi and NK. Zombi tells NK to not let them go, but NK is fine with it saying they can spread the word of his glorious conquest of Oz. He’s also still thinking Ozma is going to give up the good stuff, but she’s still not marrying him regardless of what he threatens.

Meanwhile Dorothy is outside crying thinking its all her fault that they’re all not helping her because they’re busy protecting her. After some discussion though, Lawful Neutral Amber is like “Well she told us to leave, she didn’t say we couldn’t go back in.”

So they’re ready to go back in and try to fight a billion nomes, however at this point the two good witches and the entire ladies auxiliary brigade behind them have arrived and they’re already demanding that NK release the queen. NK though invites them in and says they can discuss this in a civil manner. Tin Man says does he really expect them to fall for such a ruse, and unfortunately the two good witches go in like fucktards by themselves. Amber sensing this isn’t going to go well, they rush back to Ozma.

When they arrive, there’s two new shiny objects on a table nearby. One a crystal figure and another a crystal ball, implying that’s what he’s turn the good witches into. Ozma by this point has already been thrown into the dungeon. Amber starts demanding what he’s done to everyone, prompting Mombi to zap him and NK to cast his own spell to turn the trio evil.

Realizing he’s severely outnumbered now, Amber makes an escape out the palace, fighting off nomes and vowing to rescue everyone eventually takes up about 6 pages. This detail I’ve mentioned is important which I’ll get to a little later.

After Amber’s escape, the trio get the amulets placed on them to ensure their obedience and then finally Dorothy gets one placed on her too. Cue NK making the villain boast about how OZ will become so demoralized that it will have no choice but to submit completely.

Finally there’s an epilogue which has a man that looks vaguely like the Wizard (He’s a bit shadowed but you can tell it’s him) putting together some magic lock on a book saying he only hopes it won’t be too late. This of course is the same book Kevin and crew ended up buying and opening later.

And that’s it for the comic.

There’s also another long rambling page by fucking Stu saying how they had an idea of how they wanted the comic to go, but just not enough time to shove it all in the beginning about the “dark times” when the trio were evil and they didn’t want to wait until way later to show up in later issues. So they decided on these one shot prequels. So y’know they focused on the dark shit anyway despite Stu moaning about it before. Granted I think it probably was Ralph that was more into that aspect, which we’ll get into later down the road with this series.

Issue “1”: Who’s Afraid of the Scarecrow?

Another cover with strawman’s mug close up on it

Okay so remember that epic escape that Amber did from Em City that took up 6 pages? Well that’s how this one starts off, though I think they cut a few panels since it’s only 5 pages here, but it’s the exact same artwork copy/pasta.

And I might as well mention this now, the next 3 issues after this one also start off like that! Guess they really wanted to save money.

So the proper start begins with Wogglebug speaking with his little fairy assistant Pyff who is struggling to carry a bag of books of his. Dude is a giant fucking insect with probably more strength than the average human and he makes pixie girl carry a shitload of books that are bigger than she is because he’s a fucking asshole.

Anyway, Woggle continue to be a fucking asshole to her exclaiming he’s late to the historic event of the Nome King at Em City because of her though she mentions that she tried to tell him but he threw a damn book at her. To which he says she always has an excuse. He also goes on to say he should’ve been given priority for an invite anyway seeing as he should be there for negotiations and he just goes on about how smart he is. He’s actually worse than a fucking asshole, he’s a fucking Redditor.

Anyway they see a dark mass in the sky up ahead and he’s like they should go investigate right away, though Pyff is a little concerned about all this.

Doesn’t take long before they stumble upon the Scarecrow crouched on a big rock looking creepy as shit. Pyff says how he scared her to which he merely remarks that’s what he does best with an even creepier smile. Already Pyff isn’t feeling this and wants to leave immediately, but Woggle for all his so called intelligence starts greeting Scarecrow and asking if he missed the main festivities.

At this point the Scarecrow is already tired of listening to Woggle’s pontification and tells him he’s a fucking moron compared to him as everyone knows HE has the superior intellect. Woggle naturally takes offense and again Pyff is attempting to pull him aways saying this isn’t it, but as usual he brushes her aside saying this is a debate between intellectuals and it’s far above her station.

Scarecrow now takes offense that Woggle even claims to be on his level so he’s putting him in his place by UNLEASHING THE CROWS.

Pyff always having a better handle on this situation immediately flees and tells Woggle to do likewise, but he’s still standing there like a dumb giant roach. Scarecrow decides to prove just how evil he is by sending his crows directly after pixie girl.

Woggle is still arguing with Scarecrow, but that’s not doing much good since he’s already going on about how he’s served Ozma too long and it’s time for him to be a king again and Woggle better surrender and serve him or else…

And then a crow returns with poor Pyff’s lifeless little body.

Woggle is so angry he start stammering causing Scarecrow to mock him being speechless for the first time. he starts laughing as well which finally motivates Woggle to directly start attacking and ripping the stuffing out of him. Scarecrow though once again calls upon his crows which attack and even bite off a bit of Woggle’s antennae.  Finally when he’s been weakened enough Scarecrow calls them off and says he’ll kill Woggle himself and starts choking the life out of him claiming he’ll use his body to feed his pets and his bones to serve as a warning to those who would defy him.

Fortunately Amber Ombi shows up jumping out of a tree and chopping off Scarecrow’s hand and they both start running off. Scarecrow puts his hand back together and releases his crows again to pursue them. They end up in a pond which fools the Scarecrow enough to believe they drowned since they don’t come back up.

Cut to the Nome King who is lamenting about how Ozma isn’t giving it up despite throwing her in the dungeon and taking over her kingdom. He hopes he doesn’t have to rape her, but if that’s what it takes…

“Geez can’t she see I’m being a nice guy?!”

Just then Mombi shows up saying “Yeah you might have to completely destroy her spirit dude.” (AKA Rape)

NK flips out on Mombi for just creeping up on him like that and questions if she’s spying on him. She’s just like “Calm down, I’m just reporting shit. Anyway, all of Oz is in a uproar and you need to do something about it before we have rebels all over the fucking place.”

Which sparks NK’s idea to bring him Dorothy since she’s pretty well respected in Oz so having her by his side should ease some tension. And having a loli for a queen is the next best thing to raping Ozma apparently.

Cut back to Amber and Woggle who of course didn’t drown since Wog’s incredible knowledge of Oz’s geography allowed him to know there were some underground caverns nearby if they swam long enough. Also fortunate that Wog’s got antennae that light up so they can make their way through the caves. Wog asks what happened to turn the Scarecrow evil and their scene ends with Amber saying he’ll tell him all about it once they make it to the surface.

Cut to the Scarecrow overseeing the munchkins build his giant barn fortress. He then tells a munchkin to chop down some sign he points to saying they could use the wood and it won’t be needed anymore. Last page is the Scarecrow laughing maniacally as the munchkin chops down the sign that says “Wogglebug College” and a whole bunch of other shit going on about his various titles (Which he probably gave himself anyway)

That’s it for the issue.

Oh and some last page with Stu pontificating about how Scarecrow is the scariest of the evil kings and how he genuinely likes the fear he instills. Shut up Stu, we don’t give a shit.

Issue “1”: Beastmaster

He’s no pussy anymore that’s for sure

After skimming past 5 pages of copy/pasta, we get a scene of the Lion beating the chicken soup out of Hungry Tiger. Though the Lion stops and says he sees he’s had enough so he won’t kill him. He then heads to his throne and grabs his crown saying it’s no mere ornament any longer and is a true symbol of regal power as he’s a proper king now.

Hungry Tiger asks why he nearly killed him along with turning his back on Ozma, to which the Lion says Ozma’s reign is over and to stuff whining since the lionesses will tend to his wounds. He even says he knows Tiger is a strong creature and a worthy subject. Tiger however is like fuck this I’m not serving your crazy ass, I’m leaving and healing up then I’m coming back to knock that crown off your head.

Probably not the smartest thing to do making threats to the guy who just kicked your ass when you’ve got 2HP left. Immediately the Lion sends three big cats after HG, a panther, a leopard and mountain lion. HG manages to best the panther (Black cat dies first, but the leopard gets the drop on him and he’s soon in a bad position with the two remaining cats circling him.

Cut to Mombi who is still worrying about the resisting population of Oz and feels this may be a losing war. However now the Nome King tells her not to worry and presents Dorothy who is now grown up magically (Since I guess NK decided having a child bride wouldn’t be a good look. He goes out to address the folks of Oz who are openly rioting in the streets of Em City. Well first he uses some sonic wave magic that gets them to collapse in ear pain first and then he shows Dorothy saying she’s willingly accepted his rule and is the new queen of Oz.

The Ozians (Ozites? Ozeneese?) see this and immediately lose their will to fight and NK tells them all to go home and he’ll be rolling out the new laws of the land soon.

Cut back to HG who looks like he might be done for, but fortunately Amber along with Woggle come in to rescue him by taking down the two large cats. Well Amber does anyway, Wog’s busy just being a look out saying there’s more large cats coming. HG is hurt though so Amber isn’t sure if they can get away in time. However HG says he just needs to heal himself. This prompts HG to enact his cannibalism perk and he quickly eats the carcasses of the three dead big cats healing himself immediately. Amber and Wog’s reactions aren’t dissimilar to when you start chowing down on bodies in front of your companions in Fallout 4.

“Don’t be repulsed, the creatures I eat, their spirit lives on in me!” - Hungry Tiger not making the situation any less weird

They travel to the caves that Amber and Wog first escaped to, though HG is reluctant to enter them at first since he’s apparently a bit claustrophobic, but he soon gets over it. He also isn’t familiar with Wog until some clarification of him having a college named after him, which causes HG to realize of yeah there’s only one oversized roach in all of Oz.

So Amber asks what happened exactly and now we get a flashback in a comic that’s already a flashback!

HG says he had been invited to a great feast by the Lion and everyone was having a good time until the Lion got summoned to Em City for the Nome King thing. the Lion told HG to just keep the throne occupied while he went to the ceremony since he didn’t like leaving the court unattended which HG was cool with.

So then shows the Lion leaving and then fast forwards a bit to HG enjoying the perks of the throne a bit when the Lion returns and he’s telling him to get the fuck off his throne. HG’s like “Hey you told me to keep the seat warm while you were gone, but I’m going you crazy bastard.”

This isn’t good enough for the Lion however and wants HG to swear allegiance to him. HG says the only ruler he recognizes is Queen Ozma and that’s where we came in at the beginning with their fight. At this point Amber fills HG in on what’s going on and so does Wog with his dealings with Scarecrow.

Meanwhile the Lion is beating up some leopard man (or is it a jaguar man?) for losing Hungry Tiger especially since he was at death’s door when he’d left. (Well gee Lion, you should’ve finished the job yourself then!) In any case he tosses leopard man aside and makes the villainous announcement that all creatures in the land are his to command, he’s king of the beasts and anyone who doesn’t like it gets their ass ripped apart.

And that’s it for this issue.

One last bit not with Stu thankfully this time, but Chet who apparently was the editor and he’s going on about how the Lion is actually the “scariest” of the three evil kings because unlike the other two who were either human at one time (Tin Man) or created with a humanlike design in mind (Scarecrow) he was always an animal with that primal law of nature survival of the fittest thing going on. Well in any case, Chet doesn’t go on as long as Stu does so it’s a plus.

Issue “1”: The Mechanism of Destruction!

Yeah, the Tin Man was always my favorite of the three

Alright after the copy/pasta again, this one starts off with Tik Tok in a forest looking fairly distressed and stating he wonders why the hell did Tin Man turn into a major dick. Tik continues his escape from presumably the Tin Man, but is concerned about his gears slowing down since he hasn’t been wound up in awhile.

Tik has some luck though and he soon bumps into Hungry Tiger and Amber. This luck doesn’t last long as Tin Man soon arrives with some wicked looking steampunk toasters. Tin Man calls Tik a miserable excuse for a machine and all he’s done is ensure his meatball friends’ deaths.

So this comic has a pretty long battle scene compared to the other ones (Like most of the comic is pure action with little dialog). HG and Amber attempt to fight the toasters but they aren’t too successful. Tin Man points out it doesn’t matter how skilled or strong they are, metal is stronger and will never tire unlike the weakness of flesh. Tinny is literally paraphrasing a 40K adeptus mechanicus at this point. He says he acknowledges them as skilled warriors, but fleshlings have no place in his kingdom except as slaves.

And since he knows they would never capitulate to being slaves, he’ll give them the honor of death by killing them himself.

Cut to Em City where Dorothy is giving a speech to the people saying they need to just obey the Nome King and how she doesn’t want them to cause him to hurt them even more. She then tells them she loves them all and then walks off like a pod person.

Mombi and NK are both exclaiming of how morale and resistance is getting lower every day and generally cackling about how delightful it is to see the Oz folk pathetically give up and mope about their queen rather than do anything about it. NK says the Oz folk are weak and if they were anything like his nomes they would still be fighting to the last.

This is all well and good, however there’s one problem.

There was a big fuck up with continuity with what Dorothy looks like. In this issue she’s back to looking like a little girl and she was already brought out last issue to talk with the Ozzites (Apparently that’s what they’re called) and she was grown up. So one can only assume this was a mistake by the Tin Man artist since there’s been a few different artists working on these books. (So far the art has been the same with the main comic)

Cut back to Tin Man kicking the shit out of Amber and crew, but before he can actually kill any of them, Tik manages to get into the fight and stop him. Tin Man is pretty pissed about another machine working with the meat sacks saying he needs to stomp that flaw out of him.

Though Amber and the rest get away and soon Tik escapes as well causing the Tin Man to shout about how he gave them a chance for a noble death and now he’s going to slaughter them like cattle if he finds them again. He then makes his own evil king boast about how fleshlings will only be in his kingdom to serve THE METAL.

Last bit is Amber, HG and Tik limping along through a deforested section of land saying that this war has just begun.

And that’s it for this issue.

Once again we get a page of rambling from Chet. This time he’s going on about why the Tin Man is the worst of the evil kings. He’s the first cyborg motivated by cold logic and without the kind heart he’s an unstoppable ruthless machine. Well make up your mind Chet, is it the Lion or the Tin Man you think is the most evil. (Yeah I get they just wanted to make an argument for all of them)

Issue “1”: All Together Now

Last of these prequel one shots

Alright same 5 pages of copy/pasta, however this one doesn’t immediately go into the title drop afterwards with the new page like the others do. This one starts off with Amber wandering through some forest with large vines and he soon bumps into Jack Pumpkinhead who asks if he’s friend or foe and after some discussion, they realize they’re on the same side and ready to join forces.

Then Mombi shows up to fuck things up. Jack gets the advantage and attempts to strangle her with his vine hands, but then Tin Man comes in and chops his hands off. Jack then gets his literal melon split open with Tin’s axe.

Amber who has been standing there the whole time like a dumb ass finally tries to do something, but Scarecrow grabs his arms behind his back while the Lion slashes him up. He eventually falls with the Scarecrow laughing at his dying breaths.

Then Amber wakes up from his nightmare. He then washes up a bit and someone knocks on the door asking if he’s alright as he’s getting dressed. He opens the door saying he’s fine to some girl that looks like a patched up quilt.

This would be Patchwork Girl or Scraps as she’s also called. She was another character from the OG books, though I guess like Jinjur, she was also very briefly seen in the Return to Oz movie but wasn’t credited or named.

Next page is finally the title drop of this issue as Amber addresses the first meeting of the Freedom Fighters. Apparently this base is established in Gilikin territory where the Nome King has the least amount of influence. Wog mentions how the Munchkin, Winkie and Quadling territories have all fallen.

There’s some debate about whether or not the trio have been truly bewitched to be evil or they just decided to become dickheads. Others say it doesn’t really matter since they need to be killed anyway. Amber points out an attempt to bring them back to the side of light should be in order seeing as they were/are heroes and they have indeed been magically charmed.

Jack and Wog back him up saying that it’s the Nome King and Mombi that really need to be taken care of to get rid of the evil in the land.

At this point Wog says he’ll take Gump and spread the word of fighting against NK while Amber trains everyone (And in a thought bubble he’s got concerns about the fate of Oz resting in the hands of a squabbling mob)

Tik Tok come rushing in claiming that Jinjur has gotten the other good witches apparently together and they’re ready to attack Em City. Though I was under the impression it was just the two NK that he already took care of, but I guess these are minor ones. Amber is set to lead the rest of what troops he currently has before the nomes get too entrenched.

Cut to the Flying Monkey Kingdom which apparently is in the far north. A flying monkey king sits on his throne addressing another one called Abella and stating he’s not pleased about hearing that he’s trying to convince younger monkeys into joining this fool quest to get involved in the Oz war. The law is they are to remain neutral now in the affairs of Oz, but Abella says it’s not a good idea to just leave the Nome King unchecked and it’s also just wrong to let the Ozzites get slaughtered without doing anything.

The king bring up the law of the CAP which means they have to obey, but Abella points out they own the damn cap, so their destiny is in their own hands. This debate goes no where and ultimately Abella is kicked out of the kingdom to go live in Oz and he’s stripped of his name (Yep, this is the nameless winged monkey in the freedom fighters). Oh and the king of the flying monkeys was his dad, so he’s also a prince or ex-prince now. Could be worse, could’ve lost the title being on an island with the “lost girls”.

Cut to Jinjur retreating of all things with a few troops, well really only one. They’re both being overrun by a bunch of nomes who soon kill her only one left and she’s got a spear in her leg. Though she gets rescued by Amber who shows up with just some of the known freedom fighter characters. Not an army at all.

So Jinjur tells her tale of woe that as they marched upon Em City, the nomes did their usual thing of attacking from below and ambushed everyone with her as the only survivor now. Not sure what happened to all the good witch magic but must not have been worth a shit if they couldn’t beat a bunch of fucking nomes.

In any case, they all realize this is going to be an even tougher war now, but they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win it.

Last panels consist of Mombi and Nome King gloating about their recent victory and NK in particular saying how he’s ruling Oz FOREVER.

And that’s it for this issue. No after ramblings about shit this issue either.

All in all, these prequels were cool. Honestly I sort of would’ve rather the comic been more about this time period than the main story line involving Kev and crew. In fact I'm not all that fond of Kevin and his peeps anyway, but that’s how they wanted to roll with it. There’s actually a few more comics that deal with the “dark times” but those are mini-series which we’ll get into later.

Anyway next post will go back to the main storyline, stay tuned!

Will keeps beating me to these comms, can't win against that timezone.