Dorothy and Friends by Eric Shanower

Coming off a successful run inking Nexus over Steve Rude’s pencils, Eric Shanower decided to play with some of the beloved characters created by L. Frank Baum, and The Enchanted Apples of Oz, published by First Comics in 1986, was the result. Clearly using the works of classic OZ illustrators W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill as a starting point, Eric was able to find his own voice and add to lore with a series of graphic novels that I found utterly charming and had a lot of heart. (Nick Chopper will back me in this.) The stories were fun and the art quite lovely.

I met Eric at NYCC in 1991. We chatted about Oz and his other current projects and he had some concepts for a project that would in time become his retelling of the Trojan War, Age of Bronze. I asked if he’d accepted an Oz commission featuring three characters. He graciously agreed, and this is the result...