Artstuff

Above is the cover of Oziana 2006, published in 2007. It’s a photo of a sculpture by Steve Larabee. It’s one of many winged monkeys that he has sculpted and placed around Burlington, Vermont.

In December of 2006 John L. Bell commented on my blog, asking if I would be interested in doing illustrations for the next issue of Oziana. Oziana is the creative magazine of the International Wizard of Oz Club. John was the editor that year. I emailed him back and took the assignment.

I illustrated one story: “The Axeman’s Arm”, and three poems. The story was about two Munchkin children who find the cast off meat arms of the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier. It’s a bit of sequel to The Tin Woodman of Oz, L. Frank Baum’s 12th Oz book. In the book the Tin Woodman meets the Tin Soldier, another man whose entire person has been replaced by tin parts. Together they find Chopfyt, a man created from a combination of their cast off body parts. Bell’s story concerned some of the body parts that didn’t get used to make Chopfyt.

“Rivals” a poem by Adrian Korpel focused on one of Dorothy’s original Wizard of Oz traveling companions. Since the theme of that issue of Oziana was “Dark Oz” the poem told less happy versions of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Lion’s experiences with Dot.

The Oz Club offers print on demand versions of its most recent issues but this issue doesn’t make the cut. Below is the table of contents taken from the Monkeys With Wings website. John L. Bell regularly writes about Oz (and other things) at his Oz and Ends blog.

Story Seed #32

Alternate History: What if the Mongol Empire had remained intact for centuries?

When I was in junior and high school, my World History classes covered primarily European history. We’d start with the Fertile Crescent, get into the Greeks and the Romans and then carry on with the squabbles of various royal idiots in England and France. I would look at maps of the world and think, “This is not the world. This is just a part of the world. I want to know about what happened on the rest of the map.”

The largest land empire in history was not European. It certainly wasn’t Greek or Roman. It was the Mongol Empire begun by Genghis Khan. Like most empires it had a short life – about a hundred years. It was birthed by Genghis’s ambitions and split due to his successors’ egos. I heard very little about it in school. Kublai Khan got mentioned because of Marco Polo’s visits to the Empire.

Fiction set in the Mongol Empire, written by western authors, is almost nonexistent. Alternate histories featuring a lasting empire are even more scant. So there’s lots of room to write if one wanted to put in the research.

Other Newsletters

Restricted Frequency is a newsletter by Ganzeer. I think it was the first newsletter I subscribed to based on a Warren Ellis recommendation. Ganzeer writes about his life as graphic novelist, designer and working artist.

Lifestuff

Lifestuff is also Artstuff-in-Progress. I’m steadily working my way through my illustration assignments for the Lovecraft Country Holiday Collection. I’ve got two more illustrations to complete for Horrors of War. I have a book cover to complete for the second Ikasa Spider novel. I have a portrait commission for the Panel Jumpers. My wife and I are collaborating on graphic novel. Busy busy.

Thank you for reading. I hope your days bring you some fun and some joy along with all the other nonsense. See you next week!