The book is paid for, but there’s still 25 days left! I’ll be telling you about PUSH GOALS very soon, to make this thing the best it can be!
Many other people than me have illustrated the Wonderful Wizard of Oz! Here are some of them.
W. W. Denslow illustrated the first edition of the book, and set up a look for the characters and setting so iconic and inextricable from the text that they’ve informed most later interpretations, and the two co-held the book’s copyright. Denslow’s background in cartooning is clear in the illustrations, which are dynamic and personable and look more modern than they are, I think.
The Folio Society published an edition of the book illustrated by Sara Ogilvie recently. I really love the texture and simple treatment of color in these, and the design of the book and slipcase is just absurdly fancy, which is good.
Spanish illustrator Juliá Sardà did a series of lush painted illustrations for the book, which I only just found. They seem to be for a print edition but I dunno?
An edition illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger was published in the 90s. This was the only edition I’d seen when I started this project, and I really love it. Zwerger’s illustrations are all watercolor, and emphasize a dreamy distance that I think can be read into the text. Much less character-focused and dynamic than a lot of interpretations, but I think that’s ok. Also the book came with a pair of green glasses to wear while reading the Emerald City parts which is a VERY COOL IDEA. It’s out of print but there’s a lot more art here.
There are many more. It’s fun to see how many distinct angles can be taken with illustrating this text– it’s written in a way that’s kind of loose and mythic. I’ve tried to support what I feel is important in the story with my own illustrations, and have ended up emphasizing my own personal angle on the text. I am running a Kickstarter to publish my own illustrated version. Did you see that I’m doing that
New drawings I made for the Kickstarter! I drew myself and my dog Billy in the style of the rest of the book because I thought that would be fun/cute. I was thinking at first of having little drawings of me and of L. Frank Baum in the book along with our little biographies, BUT I also don’t want to put too much of a spotlight on myself in the book so maybe not.
ONE DAY has passed, and the book is almost 50% funded. Thank you everyone SO MUCH!!! Thank you for supporting and for telling the internet about this thing.
The Kickstarter for my illustrated edition of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is live! If you’d like to support this project, and/or get a copy of the hardcover book of your very own, I hope you’ll check it out!
I’ve made 24 full-page illustrations and around 70 spot illustrations to go throughout the complete original text, in a 192-page book. Most of them have been posted on this tumblr. I’ve tried to support the text without distracting from it, and I’ve emphasized the sense of being lost in a strange, colorful place. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out so far, and having it as a nice printed book has always been an exciting possibility!! It is looking like a thing that will probably happen, thanks to Make That Thing and YOU YOU YOU
Thank you!
- Evan
Just launched the Kickstarter for the print edition of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with the full original text and 88 of my illustrations!!! More on that later.
Here’s the last chunk of chapter illustrations, covering the journey south from the Emerald City (the first part is here, the second part is here). There’s some bits in this last part of the book that are among the weirdest, and most unfamiliar to people because it was mostly discarded for the movie adaptation. The China Country is one I was very excited/daunted to draw; it’s very unexpected!
Oh and I put up a grid of all of the chapter illustrations together but I made it for the Kickstarter and I thought it was fun to look at
Toto and some Oz denizens. This one will go under Baum’s brief introduction from the original publication, which I like for its quaintness:
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.
Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.
L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900.
Something big going on here tomorrow, he says unsubtly
Dorothy now took Toto up solemnly in her arms, and having said one last good-bye she clapped the heels of her shoes together three times, saying:
“Take me home to Aunt Em!”
Aunt Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up and saw Dorothy running toward her.
This is THE LAST CHAPTER ILLUSTRATION! ALL 24 ARE DONE! You can see them all by tag.
I thing I love about this book is that Dorothy’s home is exclusively referred to as dry, lonely, and monochromatic, and its appeal is totally mysterious to everyone from Oz that she meets. But she loves her home and never gives up!!! I love this book.
A Kickstarter for the print version, with Make That Thing, will be happening IMMINENTLY.
“Let me have your name, and I will ask Glinda if she will receive you.” They told who they were, and the girl soldier went into the Castle. After a few moments she came back to say that Dorothy and the others were to be admitted at once.
This is the Chapter 23 illustration, though maybe it pertains a little better to the end of chapter 22. Wrapping up the journey through Oz, finally!
I have a couple more illustrations to post, and will be launching a Kickstarter for the Oz book (with Make that Thing, friends who are good at production & fulfillment) in the near future.