Return to Oz: Road to Oz by Eric Shanower & Skottie Young

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2013 (contents: 2012-13)
Acquired and read September 2016

Road to Oz
Adapted from the book by L. Frank Baum 

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Writer: Eric Shanower

Artist: Skottie Young
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry

Sometimes an adaptation reveals hidden depths in the source material. At other times, it reveals just how thin the source material really was. Road to Oz does the latter to Baum's The Road to Oz: this is the dullest of journey narratives, completely lacking the sense of urgency and darkness that propelled Dorothy and the Wizard. In Road, Dorothy and company (she is joined by the Shaggy Man, Button-Bright, Polychrome, and Toto) simply shuffle from place to place... and the places just aren't that interesting. I mean, Skottie Young draws nice fox people, and I absolutely love his reinterpretations of Button-Bright and Polychrome, but there's no there there, and it feels like half the book is set beyond the danger anyway, with the characters just partying in Oz. I don't remember the original book being this bad, but to be honest, I didn't remember anything about it at all except for the guy with the sandboat, which was probably a bad sign.

from Road to Oz #2

Next Week: The whole family goes to Oz, in The Emerald City of Oz!