Booknote: Grimm Fairy Tales: Oz

Joe Bruscha, et.al., Grimm Fairy Tales: Oz. Horsham, PA: Zenescope, 2014. ISBN:
9781939683298.

I kept my expectations a bit low after other Zenescope titles I read that I liked but did not think were a big deal. The titles in question are Robyn Hood: Wanted and Realm Knights. I gave 3 out of 5 stars to those books. As I said, I liked them, but I did not think they were anything extraordinary. I must say that Oz was much better; I was pleased to read this one. Oz is part of Zenescope's Grimm Fairy Tales Presents series, and it is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz with Dorothy as a quite grown up farm girl who becomes a heroine discovering that she can wield certain magics and powers. We do get the cast that we know: the Tin Man, the Lion, the Scarecrow, Toto, and others. They are familiar, but they are also different in this tale. There are also some new characters. Dorothy, with the help of her friends, needs to save the Emerald City from the Wicked Witch of the West.

While there is no need to have read Baum's classic tale before reading this, if you have read it, you will probably appreciate what the author is doing here. You can see where the author kept certain elements from the classic tale, and you can see where the author extended the classic tale or simply departed from it to make this new adventure. The book is quick and entertaining read with some suspense and some great action.

Another nice thing about this volume, which collects issues 1-6 of the series, is that it stands alone. You do not need to have read any other comics in the Grimm Fairy Tales series to enjoy this one. If this is your first entry into Zenescope comics, this could encourage you to seek out other volumes.

The art on this one was very good as well. I felt it was much better in quality than the volumes I read that I mentioned previously. Overall, this is a nice, easy comic. It is not exactly for children, due to the "cheesecake" factor, but older teens will probably be fine with this. In the end, it was good fun that I really liked.

Giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure: The mandatory stuff I have to type to tell you that I read this as an e-book review copy via NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. You know, so The Man is satisfied everything is kosher.