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A review by saroz162
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower
4.0
I first read this adaptation of Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 2010, when it was first available as a collected graphic novel, in preparation for an academic conference presentation on comics/manga adaptations of the famous story. At the time, I compared it unfavorably to Le Magicien d'Oz, the French adaptation by David Chauvel and Enrique Fernandez, which had been translated to English a few years earlier. Looking at the two adaptations now, I see immediately why: the Fernandez art is strongly based in the use of curved lines, exaggerated perspectives, and bold color choices. It's an incredible piece of design, a polished children's fairy tale storybook full of curves and forward motion. It seems built on the Art Nouveau-inspired shoulders of the original Oz artists, W.W. Denslow and John R. Neill, without actually mimicking either of their styles. In short: despite a few new visual interpretations of characters, the Chauvel / Fernandez comic is a very classical presentation of Oz. It is sure to appeal to people like me who are already enamored of that kind of art.
That is not the case with the Eric Shanower / Skottie Young comic. To an older, more conservative audience, Young's art can look sketchy and unfinished, a mass of big simplistic circles and very straight lines. His characters have disproportionately giant heads and tiny features, with wisps of hair, fur, and straw frizzing out everywhere. His buildings and landscapes are equally cartoonish, with squared-off trees and an angled, monstrous moon that might be made out of some kind of cheese. The whimsy of Young's work is suffused with an enthusiastic energy that seems to electrify it and bounce it straight off the page. It's not pretty, per se, but it's enormously appealing, and I think it would much easier win the affection of a child.
Another point that plays only into a purist's favor is the Chauvel / Fernandez comic's amount of text. Yes, I love L. Frank Baum's narration as much as the next fan - in fact, I've memorized whole lines of it. But quoting it so often gives the pages a stuffy, overly complicated feel. Eric Shanower, a very famous Oz aficionado at this point, actually shows an admirable restraint in reducing the amount of narration from the book to a bare minimum. He lets Young's art tell most of the story, which is just as it should be. In fact, if I were to criticize Shanower at all, it's that he doesn't cut out enough of the actual dialogue, or modernize it; Baum's characters saying things like "I haven't the faintest notion" or "What must I do?" are perfectly reasonable in their original context, but alongside Young's art, it often seems incredibly formal and a real mouthful, to boot. Even some carefully modified contractions would probably have helped.
Yet there's a nice balance in the pace of the Shanower / Young graphic novel, too, which is only really apparent when you read it as a collection instead of individual issues. I've read the original novel any number of times, including once just a couple of months ago, and I don't think Shanower's removed even a single event from the narrative. He's made some very clever choices in which episodes to emphasize, though, and that includes the most oft-forgotten material: the scenes that focus on the little details of Dorothy and her friends' journey. Whether it's finding a bed for the night, eating food, or using tools to make travel easier, including the smaller moments of the story helps to give it a sense of completeness, and not - as a comic could so easily do -portray it simply as a collection of edited highlights.
My review has focused on the critical aspects of the work, and it hasn't really touched on the hundred and one completely subjective charms of the piece. Glinda's hair! The Wizard's giant head! Everybody's teeth! The Lion drawn as if he's an enormous, frightened pussycat! The best thing to do with this comic is, quite simply, to wrap yourself up in it. It isn't the kind of artistic work you step back and admire in a museum; it's a world in which you get lost. Thankfully, since my original, overly purist judgment, Shanower and Young were able to lose themselves in that world over five more volumes and a total of over 1000 pages of fun.
That is not the case with the Eric Shanower / Skottie Young comic. To an older, more conservative audience, Young's art can look sketchy and unfinished, a mass of big simplistic circles and very straight lines. His characters have disproportionately giant heads and tiny features, with wisps of hair, fur, and straw frizzing out everywhere. His buildings and landscapes are equally cartoonish, with squared-off trees and an angled, monstrous moon that might be made out of some kind of cheese. The whimsy of Young's work is suffused with an enthusiastic energy that seems to electrify it and bounce it straight off the page. It's not pretty, per se, but it's enormously appealing, and I think it would much easier win the affection of a child.
Another point that plays only into a purist's favor is the Chauvel / Fernandez comic's amount of text. Yes, I love L. Frank Baum's narration as much as the next fan - in fact, I've memorized whole lines of it. But quoting it so often gives the pages a stuffy, overly complicated feel. Eric Shanower, a very famous Oz aficionado at this point, actually shows an admirable restraint in reducing the amount of narration from the book to a bare minimum. He lets Young's art tell most of the story, which is just as it should be. In fact, if I were to criticize Shanower at all, it's that he doesn't cut out enough of the actual dialogue, or modernize it; Baum's characters saying things like "I haven't the faintest notion" or "What must I do?" are perfectly reasonable in their original context, but alongside Young's art, it often seems incredibly formal and a real mouthful, to boot. Even some carefully modified contractions would probably have helped.
Yet there's a nice balance in the pace of the Shanower / Young graphic novel, too, which is only really apparent when you read it as a collection instead of individual issues. I've read the original novel any number of times, including once just a couple of months ago, and I don't think Shanower's removed even a single event from the narrative. He's made some very clever choices in which episodes to emphasize, though, and that includes the most oft-forgotten material: the scenes that focus on the little details of Dorothy and her friends' journey. Whether it's finding a bed for the night, eating food, or using tools to make travel easier, including the smaller moments of the story helps to give it a sense of completeness, and not - as a comic could so easily do -portray it simply as a collection of edited highlights.
My review has focused on the critical aspects of the work, and it hasn't really touched on the hundred and one completely subjective charms of the piece. Glinda's hair! The Wizard's giant head! Everybody's teeth! The Lion drawn as if he's an enormous, frightened pussycat! The best thing to do with this comic is, quite simply, to wrap yourself up in it. It isn't the kind of artistic work you step back and admire in a museum; it's a world in which you get lost. Thankfully, since my original, overly purist judgment, Shanower and Young were able to lose themselves in that world over five more volumes and a total of over 1000 pages of fun.