Welcome to my blog, featuring various pieces from my collection of Oz books, artwork and memorabilia!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Queer Visitors

Sunday Press has produced an impressive volume of the Queer Visitors from the Land of Oz comic pages from 1904-1905. The pages are presented in full color at their original size, which really helps capture the vitality of the vintage pieces. I've always been amazed at the tiny size of the type used for L. Frank Baum's stories, but of course that left more room for the illustrations! These are some of the most ephemeral of Oz items, and it's great to have a sturdy version that will hold up to some handling - antique newsprint is delicate! The inclusion of additional material, like the full run of W. W. Denslow's Scarecrow and the Tinman comic page, is a welcome bonus. http://www.sundaypressbooks.com/index.htm

An interesting point on the original comic pages is the way they were presented by different newspapers. Decorative headers and additional borders were sometimes used, adding to the overall appeal of the pages. The Philadelphia North American was the originator of the page, and their presentation was quite simple, with the addition of an illustrated header. Apparently different papers did different things, resulting in different appearances.

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