The Comic Book Bin ComicBookBin iPhone app
More Comics (815) Articles




 
Comics : Comic Reviews : More Comics
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2010 - 18:05:44 PM




Raythe Reign
Mark Bode's The Lizard Of Oz
By LJ Douresseau
Jan 10, 2005 - 15:24:00 PM

Publisher(s): Fantagraphics Books
Writer(s): Mark Bodé
Cover Artist(s): Vaughn Bodé
ISBN: 1-56097-595-4
Email this Article
 Printer Friendly Page
 Mobile Friendly Page

Add to Del.icio.us     Add To Reddit
Add To Digg     Add To Stumbleupon
Add To Technorati Favorites     Add To Ask







Cartoonist Mark Bodé used an idea from what was apparently one of his late father, famed underground and fantasy cartoonist, Vaughn Bodé’s, last works and turned it into a delightful graphic novel, THE LIZARD OF OZ. In 1975, the late Vaughn Bodé took well-known characters from his oeuvre and placed then in a color drawing as a counterculture version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.



Mark’s The Lizard of Ox is Baum’s book and the famous MGM film version transformed into a trippy road adventure down the yellow brick road from “the urban crackdom of the munchkin ghetto” to find “the great hung wizard himself, the Lizard of Oz.” Mark takes gentle fairytale characters and turns them into sexually-explicit funny animals, drug-addled humanoids, and randy creatures, all of which are ultimately harmless despite their colorfully dark characters.



Mark is faithful to a fault to Baum’s book and the film adaptation. At times, the book seems like an X-rated version of those awful Marvel Comics movie adaptations from the 1970’s and early 80’s. The Lizard of Oz’s saving grace is Mark’s color comix illustrations. His drawing style is close to his father’s, but Mark has a looser line and his colors blaze with impressionist fever; the art alone is worth the price of admission. B+



Related Articles:
Mark Bode's The Lizard Of Oz



Comment Script Join the discussion:

Add a Comment

Comments


© Copyright 2002-2010, Coolstreak Cartoons Inc. - All rights Reserved. All other texts, images, characters and trademarks are copyright their respective owners. Use of material in this document(including reproduction, modification, distribution, electronic transmission or republication) without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

Top of Page

 
Scheme Comix # 1
Arts trust Scotland know a good thing when they see it. And Scheme Comix # 1 is a very good thing indeed.
The Last Days of American Crime #3
Who's zooming who?
The Gathering: The Thing With Feathers
Hope springs eternal in this first anthology from Gray Haven Comics
Time Bomb #1
Back in time to stop a Nazi plot.
Lost at Sea
A great first work focusing on adolescence and showing a different side of the creator of Scott Pilgrim.