One of the stories of Queer Visitors.
Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz was a newspaper comic strip written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Walt McDougall, and published in 1904-5.
The Visitors ran in the Philadelphia North American, the Chicago Record-Herald, and other papers from 28 August 1904 to 26 February 1905. The stories chronicle the misadventures of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Sawhorse, Wogglebug, and Jack Pumpkinhead as the Gump flies them to various cities in the United States of America. Dorothy Gale interacts with the Visitors in a few episodes. The comic strip in turn produced its own derivation in The Woggle-Bug Book (1905).
The newspapers paid Baum for the strip; from those fees he paid 25% to McDougall for the art, and 10% to Reilly & Britton for the use of their copyrighted characters. The remaining 65% was his remuneration.
The strip was designed to promote Baum's second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904). It ran at the same time as Denslow's Scarecrow and Tin Man, a comic by W. W. Denslow that also featured Oz characters visiting America.
The format is not a comic strip in the modern sense, but more of a short story with full-page illustrations.
(The comic was foreshadowed with a striking promotional device: newspaper announcements, beginning on 18 August 1904, of a strange flying object approaching the Earth, passing constellations and planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and others, on its way. This in time proves to be the Gump transporting its Ozian passengers.)
Some of the 26 Queer Visitors stories were adapted into a new form and published as The Visitors from Oz in 1960. Another, edited version of all the stories was released in 1989 as The Third Book of Oz. A complete edition with new illustrations by Eric Shanower was released in 2005 by Hungry Tiger Press. Selections have also appeared in Oz-story Magazine. In 2009, a full collection of the strips with their original illustrations was released.
The strip simply stops without a finale, so there is no explanation as to how the adventurers got back to Oz.
Episodes[]
- How the Adventurers Lost and Found Themselves
- How the Tin Woodman Escaped the Magic Flood
- How the Strangers Found Themselves Between the Auto and the Deep Sea
- How Uncle Eli Laughed Too Soon
- How the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman Met Some Old Friends
- How the Saw-Horse Saved Dorothy's Life
- How the Ozites Met a Beauty Doctor
- How the Adventurers Encountered an Unknown Beast
- Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse Win a Race and Incite a Riot: The Wogglebug Restores Harmony
- The Scarecrow Becomes a Man of Means in Spite of the Girls at a Church Fair
- How the Wogglebug Proved His Knowledge of Chemistry
- How the Wogglebug Got a Thanksgiving Dinner
- The Scarecrow Tells a Fairy Tale to Children and Hears an Equally Marvelous True Story
- Jack Pumpkinhead Pawns the Sawhorse
- Dorothy Spends an Evening with Her Old Friends and Is Entertained with Wonderful Exhibitions
- How the Wogglebug and His Friends Visited Santa Claus
- How the Wogglebug Found a Lost Child and Gave a Lesson in Heraldry
- The Scarecrow Presents a Magic Automobile to a Little Girl
- How the Tin Woodman Became a Fire Hero
- The Two Wishes
- Tim Nichols and the Cat
- Mr. Wimble's Wooden Leg
- A Magnetic Personality
- Nan's Magic Button
- Eliza and the Lozenges
- The Wogglebug Encourages Charity
- The Unique Adventures of the Woggle-Bug
Continuity[]
In the next Oz book Ozma of Oz, the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman encounter Dorothy in the Land of Ev, having never seen her since she departed from Glinda's Palace at the end of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The events of Queer Visitors are never referenced in the Oz books released afterwards, and this has led to debate among Oz fans as to its canonical status. The Royal Timeline of Oz places it in 1904, between The Road to Oz and The Emerald City of Oz.
Sequel[]
The short story "How the Adventurers Returned Home" by Jared Davis dramatized their return home, and ties the series into main continuity, giving a reason why no money is used in Oz.
Adaptation[]
Ray Bolger recorded an audio adaptation of nine Queer Visitors tales, issued as "The Little Oz Stories." This was the fourth in a series of four audiotapes, The Oz Audio Collection, recorded by Bolger and issued by Caedmon Audio from 1976-1983.
Gallery[]
References[]
- David L. Greene and Dick Martin. The Oz Scrapbook. New York, Random House, 1977.