As the blogosphere went a bit haywire last week over reports that Todd McFarlane was planning a "revisionist take on the Wizard of Oz", everyone was peeking at his design of an S&M Dorothy toy from awhile back as a sign of just what McFarlane might be thinking. ("McFarlane has a vision of Oz that is a dark, edgy and muscular PG-13, without a singing Munchkin in sight.") I kept waiting for someone to link to the Illusive Arts comic Dorothy of Oz and point out that a modern Dorothy was already out there and available in tpb even and while Mr. McFarlane's interest is fine for him, those of us looking for a great story already have one, thank you very much.

Not a single word anywhere on Dorothy of Oz last week, however. Not one single word.

I first wrote about Dorothy a year and a half ago in a review at Bookslut (and mentioned it again in a feature I wrote later on revisiting the classics). I've been a fan of the Dorothy character in particular for a very long time. She's one of the classic "lost girls" of literature, someone who is looking for herself and has caused countless millions to dream about what might lie at the "end of the rainbow". But what Mark Masterson, Greg Mannino and the rest of the Illusive Arts crew do with this story is more than just rehash it for the 21st century. They go deep into who Dorothy is and even more significantly, just what Oz is all about. This really comes home in the 4th issue when it is revealed that the reason the Scarecrow has no brain is because something awful was done to him and that something awful is the result of who he was before, a man who believed the pen was mightier than the sword:

And the things he wrote! Oh monster!
You will hardly credit how hateful they were.
Full of his arrogance and ignorance.
Full of lies about the way of the world.
Full of ludicrous claims about the fallen fairies of Oz.
Just nonsense.
Hurtful nonsense.
And when the wars were over, he still printed his lies.
Only now they attacked the powerful lady in the west who had done so much to bring peace. Who had sacrificed so much of herself to bring peace.
And when the lady, from her rightful western throne, declared at long last an alliance between the munchkinder and the warriors of Winkie country, when she achieved the dream and the people rose up and demanded with one voice that she be crowned Queen of all Oz, still the fool wrote terrible and bitter things.
Things that could no longer be ignored.
Things that might encourage others to question their new queen.
And so the fool got the response he deserved.

I'll give you one guess who the "lady in the west" is.

This Scarecrow is a much deeper, more devastatingly real and significant character than he has ever been in the past. He is someone we, in our own modern age of confusing patriotism, can certainly identify with. Along with a literal Tinman caught and abandoned in a tragic love triangle and a "cowardly lion" bred in a lab as a weapon of war, Dorothy finds herself surrounded by other lost souls, all of whom join her quest out of desperation, as a chance to no longer be alone. They are all looking for hope and purpose in a barren and destroyed landscape; they are all victims and she, by dint of being the one who will not give up, has somehow become their leader.

Not bad for a girl who got caught in a tornado after stealing her uncle's truck.

By the seventh issue, where the beast joins the group, Dorothy is becoming someone who doesn't want to ignore her new sense of responsibility. "You can't plan for the last time. You can't keep running off, leaving people behind. You just gotta go with your gut." Now she is a runaway no longer and it is the fractured souls who have gathered around her who have given her a new purpose. They are the catalyst for her ongoing transformation from the bored and frustrated girl from Kansas. Dorothy is finding herself in Oz, something that seemed impossible back home.

She is still missing, but lost no more, and that's a very big difference.

Beyond the story though, it is the way in which the Illusive Arts group puts Dorothy together that really knocks it out of the ballpark. Here's the gist from my interview in 2006:

We describe Dorothy as a comic created with live-action photography, computer graphics, 3-D and practical models. To break that down -- we use humans to portray some, but not all of the characters such as Catie Fisher as Dorothy and Greg Mannino as the Scarecrow [before]. We also use some physical models as well, such as TO-2, which Greg built. 3D models, such as the scarecrow doll, and scenery are added and then all are compiled together via computer. Our artists use programs such as Photoshop, 3D Max and Lightwave to enhance and alter the photographs, build "sets" and create other characters, such as the serpent.

Just a quick look at the comic's site will show you how much the pictures jump off the page and a "real" Dorothy makes it all that much more powerful. This has to be one of the more beautiful books I've come across and is impossible to ignore. For teens in particular it is certainly a title that will appeal to boys and girls alike, if not initially for the story, then most certainly for the art (and then the story will grab them and never let them go.)

So here's my big push: I adore this comic book. It's beautiful to look at, gripping to read and it tells a story that is both mature and heartfelt. Everyone will identify with Dorothy's frustrations and desire for something more out of life. They will be transfixed by her struggles to figure out where she is and how she can get back home once she arrives in Oz. And finally the larger political story here, the recognizable and all too familiar evil of those who dominate and control Oz as well as the efforts of those who try to oppose them, places this fictional land firmly in our national conversation. No, we are not in Kansas anymore but the more I read Dorothy of Oz, the more it somehow looks like home.

It doesn't get much better than this folks, I promise you.