Comics / Comic Reviews / More Comics

Mark Bode's The Lizard Of Oz

By LJ Douresseau
January 10, 2005 - 15:24

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+

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12