I recently ran across this
Wizard of Oz comic from 1975...
Since it was published by both
Marvel and DC, I couldn't stop myself from redrawing it with a few substitute characters. Click on it to enlarge...
You won't see this on on
Covered Blog like some of
my other recreations. It's too much of a parody/mash-up for the purpose of that site, if you're curious why.
When I first thought about what characters to use, I was surprised to realize that there are no Lion-based superheroes! And, very few villains.
Using
Tin (who's awkwardly out of step, if you didn't notice) from
Metal Men was an obvious choice. Using the Batman villain,
Scarecrow, was also an obvious choice. I very, very briefly considered using the Marvel
hero named
Scarecrow. He was created in the 70's and maybe used only three times.
I debated about who to use for the
Cowardly Lion. The most obvious choice would be
Leo...
...from the
Zodiac, a group of old Avengers villains...
...but he was too obscure, and boring to look at. I thought about the
Griffin...
...but he was a
griffin, not a lion. Marvel has a
whole race of Cat People. I thought about using one of them, like this dude below...
...but, again, too obscure. Even though she's a
girl and a
tiger, I came close to using
Tigra herself. However, my son told me I've already drawn her too much.
As I considered using
Kraven, my other son reminded me that "craven" means "cowardly". A winner had emerged.
It's my fondest wish that my thoughtful examination of how to translate Wizard of Oz characters into Marvel or DC characters will be of great use to future generations.
Anyone who can identify the correct answer on each card will receive a warm feeling inside!
Since it was published by both Marvel and DC, I couldn't stop myself from redrawing it with a few substitute characters. Click on it to enlarge...
You won't see this on on Covered Blog like some of my other recreations. It's too much of a parody/mash-up for the purpose of that site, if you're curious why.
I debated about who to use for the Cowardly Lion. The most obvious choice would be Leo...
...from the Zodiac, a group of old Avengers villains...
...but he was too obscure, and boring to look at. I thought about the Griffin...
...but he was a griffin, not a lion. Marvel has a whole race of Cat People. I thought about using one of them, like this dude below...
...but, again, too obscure. Even though she's a girl and a tiger, I came close to using Tigra herself. However, my son told me I've already drawn her too much.
I started my version with only minor changes planned. On the original, there is no spider on Spider-Man's costume, so I added it crawling across the logo. I changed the wording a bit.
Sharp-eyed readers will notice that there is no Human Torch on my version. I never drew one I truly liked, and, overall, the cover was feeling too close to the original. I saw no reason to continue working on it. If I'm not liking what I'm doing, I shouldn't expect anyone else to like it either.
On the inside back cover, it has reproductions of "famous" Spider-Man covers. It includes Strange Tales Annual #2.
However, it has extra dialog included!
It's a pretty crowded cover, so the decision must have been made to remove the word balloons. The file copy used on the Treasury page obviously doesn't reflect that. It could have looked like this--!
I like that there's a few different ways to interpret this image. Is it a parody of two things put together? Is it a tragic end to a well-known children's book series? Is it merely a small monkey finding an odd item after a Day of the Dead celebration, wondering what the heck that was all about?
