A Year of Cool Comics

CBR

A Year of Cool Comics - Day 24

By Brian Cronin

Published Jan 25, 2010

Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the moments posted so far!

Today we look at Eric Shanower and Skottie Young's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Enjoy!

When you look at this matchup on paper, it seemed like a total no-brainer - perhaps the foremost comic book adapter of L. Frank Baum's Oz works (Shanower) and one of the most dynamic young design talents in all of comics (Young)?

You would THINK that this would be a perfect fit!

And, well, you'd be correct, as it was!

The amazing thing about Shanower and Young's Oz adaptation is the way that it works pretty much on any level to which you are coming to the story.

If, like many, you are familiar with Baum's original novel (as opposed to the MGM film adaptation), then you can still appreciate the comic due to Young's brilliant vision of the various characters from the story.

If, however, you are unfamiliar with Baum's original work, you still get all the great Young design work, but you also get Shanower's faithful and skilled adaptation of the original story.

Also, I sometimes go a bit overboard praising Young's design work, as that seems to almost make it seem like that's all that he is bringing to the table. That is far from the truth, as Young is also a very skilled storyteller.

Here is an extended excerpt from issue #2 (the series is 8 issues long and has been collected into one large book by Marvel)....I felt okay showing such a large excerpt because it comes from Marvel's on-line preview for the issue, so they likely are okay with showing this much of the comic...