| Oz Squad | |
|---|---|
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Publication date | 1991 – 1996 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Steve Ahlquist |
| Artist | Andrew Murphy |
| Inker | Dan Schaefer |
Oz Squad is acomic book series using characters and setting fromL. Frank Baum'sLand of Oz series, "updated for a more adult audience".[1] It was created and written bySteve Ahlquist.[2][3]
The original series ran for ten issues from 1991 to 1996. The first four were illustrated byAndrew Murphy, inked byDaniel Schaffer, and published by Brave New Words, which also later reprinted the first two issues with alternative covers.Millennium Publications then produced a 48-pageOz Squad Special. Finally, Ahlquist and some friends created Patchwork Press to carry on publishing the book. Terry Loh drew the last six issues, and Mike Sagara illustrated aLittle Oz Squad special.[citation needed]
Ahlquist published a new Oz Squad novel in 2011,Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers.[citation needed]
The series adapts the mythology that Baum had created in the original children's books and updates it with the intention of appealing to a more adult audience.[citation needed]
Oz Squad's first issue featuredTik-Tok's becoming insane and violent after his "internal clockwork morality spring" runs down during a visit to Earth (it would run down more rarely in Oz, where decisions are more "black and white").[citation needed] Later issues featured an assault on the hideout of Rebecca Eastwitch (theWicked Witch of the East) at Castle Munchausen, and a series of time travel adventures in which the Scarecrow metLeonardo da Vinci andJoan of Arc, Dorothy found herself in the American Old West, and Nick met himself while still a human.[4] The series ended withDorothy Gale revealing that she ispregnant toPrincess Ozma.[citation needed]
In the 2011Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers, the Squad is in conflict with Rebecca Eastwitch and introduces Ozzy, Dorothy andOzma's son.[citation needed]
The series provoked a strong negative response from many fans of Baum's Oz.Pittsburg State University English professor Steven J. Teller reviewed it forThe Baum Bugle and considered it worthless and disgusting.[5]
When the series was reprinted, theBugle was much kinder to it, and referred to Teller's review, suggesting that with the Oz books so recently having fallen into thepublic domain, there was little else like it, but post-Wicked, it seems groundbreaking and not nearly as outrageous as it did at the time.[citation needed]
