Today's Oz Comic

Today in In the Bleachers, Elphaba hits the gym.

This Week's Oz Comic

Friday's edition of The Wizard of Id confuses me. Because it looks like it should be Ozzy, and the name check makes it sound like it should be Ozzy, but the two just don't quite go together! (Plus, in this instace, wouldn't Lyft be a funnier company to use?)

Today's Oz Comic

Well, okay, it's not much, but Big Nate does get off an Ozzy line at the end of today's strip.

Last Month's Oz Comic

Yeah, this is an old one. But unlike every other comic strip I read, Tundra does not have an online presence that I can just copy and paste a URL for you to enjoy it. Tundra doesn't do Oz very often anyway, but the edition from June 21 earlier this summer was too good not to share. I had to do some shenanigans and jiggery-pokery and other technical fiddly bits to get this to you, after also dealing with two Oz conventions this summer. But here it is at last!

If you enjoy this kind of comic, I urge you to support Chad Carpenter and Tundra by visiting his website at www.tundracomics.com.

Today's Oz Comic

I'm in Aberdeen, South Dakota, today for the final day of this year's Oz: The National Convention, and I head out on a long road trip home tonight. So today's edition of The Argyle Sweater hits close to the bone.

Today's Oz Comic

Today in The Wizard of Id, the wizard is not being very supportive. (Side note: Why doesn't The Wizard of Id have a lot more Oz content? I mean, the name alone means the jokes will practically write themselves.)

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

The Far Side had another classic Oz-themed cartoon today. Hmm, there are enough, I wonder if Oz could be the theme for one of their Monday collections?

Today's Oz Comics

It's a two-fer today!

• First up, the dangers of dining out in today's edition of Rhymes with Orange.
• Over in today's offering on Dork Tower, another Kansas canine gets a call-out usually reserved for Toto. (Hmm, both are orphans raised on Kansas farms, both go out into the world and have adventures with their dogs… Are Dorothy and Superman the same character???)

Today's Oz Comic

Ooh, intrigue and a love triangle in today's edition of Rubes!

Today's Oz Comic

That is a very good question being asked in today's Strange Brew.

Oz in Jeopardy!

On tonight's episode of Jeopardy!, this was the Final Jeopary! clue. Because of the dates, I knew it with only the first few words.

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

The Far Side is at it again today with this vintage favorite.

Today's Oz Comic

Today's edition of Mother Goose and Grimm makes me think of Buration in the Emerald City a Russian crossover between their versions of Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz. I wonder why?

Today's Oz Comics

It's a two-fer today, one classic and one new one.

• The website of The FarSide had this classic panel today.
• And Strange Brew had this new cartoon about a previously unknown witch.

Today's Vintage Oz Comic

The duck pulls an Ozzy fast one on Oscar in today's rerun of Liberty Meadows.

The Last (For Now) Oz Short Story

It's taken longer than I anticipated, but I finally managed to finish off the 2024 edition of Oziana with "The Soldier with the Green Whiskers and the Guardian of the Gates" by J. L. Bell, with very Denslow-esque illustrations by Rob Lauer. This takes place shortly after the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in, as you might anticipate with those title characters, the Emerald City. On his morning patrol, the Soldier is surprised to see the Winged Monkeys taking apart the western part of the wall of the Emerald City! They fly off, and the Soldier finds the Guardian so that they can investigate what happened and why the Monkeys did it. The ease at which the Monkeys dismantled that part of the wall and the lack of mortar suggests only one thing: magic! Someone is helping the Monkeys, and they are bound and determined to find out who and why. But the problem is quickly solved when they return to the Palace and find that the Scarecrow has returned from seeing Dorothy head back to Kansas. The Scarecrow explains that it's all a part of a renovation plan and… No, I think I'll leave it there so that you can be surprised. But at least it turns out the Monkeys aren't bad. Mischievous and naughty, maybe, but not bad. It's a nice little story about what happened in the Emerald City right after The Wizard of Oz, and explains a few differences between Oz books. And the title pair make a nice double act.

Since this is the last story in this issue of Oziana, I must also mention the cover by Paul Miles Schneider (a panorama of Oz characters, drawn many many years ago before he ever became a noted Oz author); an illustration of Glinda by Suren Oganessian on Interim Editor Jane Albright's introduction page; and a poem, "Oz It Was" by David M. Perkins, with an illustration by Thomas and T Craft.

Finally, I must address the title of this post. I need to focus on my career for at least a little while, which means that I'm officially suspending the review of Oz short stories. Oh, I know, I haven't done much lately anyway, other than whatever comes along in each year's Oziana. And I do have more short stories I want to read and react to here. But they're just going to have to wait a little longer. I hope my time is more cleared out by the time the next Oziana comes out, and I will do my best to cover that, at least. Let's just say that continuing this series is one reward I hope to give myself in the not-too-distant future.

Today's Oz Comics

Well, one definitely is Ozzy and the other is just Ozzish..

• Today in Mother Goose and Grimm, the Tin Woodman may be in over his head.
• And over in Rubes, it looks like Percy Vere, the Forgetful Poet from The Lost King of Oz, may have branched out into country music. (Yeah, this one's a stretch, but it is so much like something Percy would say.)

Today's Classic Oz Comic

Over on the dedicated website for The Far Side, this all-time classic was the very first one. I seem to recall using that on a Christmas card once, and inside it said, "'Tis the season for—um—giving."

Today's Oz Comic

It's not the greatest of Oz jokes, but they made it over in Close to Home today, which is a lot more than most of us have done with it, I'm sure.

The Latest Oz Short Story

Yes, it's time for another offering from the 2024 issue of Oziana, the annual literary journal of the International Wizard of Oz Club. This time around, it's "Straw and Magic" by Malcolm Niess, with illustrations by David Diket. This is a tale of the early days of the Scarecrow's reign in the Emerald City, not long after Dorothy first left Oz. The Scarecrow enters his throne room to find a surprise visitor one day — the Wizard of Oz! Not the Omaha circus balloonist who recently departed, but the actual, magical Wizard of Oz! It seems he's been laying low lately, and isn't interested in staying in Oz anyway. He makes a deal with the Scarecrow: In exchange for all of the humbug Wizard's equipment and supplies, he'll make the Emerald City actually emerald, which would mean that the citizens would no longer need the green glasses to see everything as green. The Scarecrow agrees, constructs a balloon to send everything up to the sky, and Oz performs his magic. It's a fun little story, and it does explain how the Emerald City actually lived up to its name in the later books. But it also raises a lot more questions, like why Oz is only appearing now, and how the (humbug) Wizard could find so much of his old equipment right where he left it at the end of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. But it's an Oz story, so it's all harmless fun.