"There's room enough for a million different stories in the land of Oz." Thoughts on the Royal Historian of Oz

For all that I've enjoyed reading comics from Slave Labor Graphics over the years, their recent publications are maddening to the collector. Despite being on their newsletters, I'm frequently at a loss as to what's become of books I was trying to follow... and so, my interest wanes and I forget about the series. It's a shame, because SLG titles surely need every fan they can get.

It was clear the wheels were falling off back in 2009 when James Turner's new series Warlord of Io was refused by Diamond so only the first issue was printed; SLG continued it as a digital-only comic; then they abandoned the digital version and printed the story as a trade. Hooray, I finally had the whole story and boo, I had to buy it across three platforms and was constantly unaware as to when/if/where it was being continued.

In retrospect, the 2010 debut of Tommy Kovac & Andy Hirsch's Royal Historian of Oz may have been the last gasp of SLG as a publisher of single issues. Despite issue #1 bearing a $1 price tag and trading on the ever-interesting world of Oz as source material (plus some favourable internet reviews), the series faced the same ultimate fate of Warlord of Io; four issues were published with immense irregularity, a fifth issue was printed in digital format and the whole series was collected in a trade.

Despite having bought issues #1-4 in print, I didn't realize #5 existed in digital format until last week... somehow SLG never fails to spam me about Johnny the Homicidal Maniac but remains clueless about my actual interests. Why is it so hard for me to give you my money?

Royal Historian of Oz featured Jasper Fizzle, a hack Oz novelist who discovered the wonderful land of Oz truly existed and began pilfering doodads from Oz to Earth to help him write his stories. The point-of-view character was Jasper's son Frank, frequently embarrassed by his father, but forced to help sort out his father's problems when people from Oz came looking for an explanation.

The concept of the series was loose enough to fuel a long-running open-ended series, but the comic reading populace's lack of interest in the material seems to have doomed it to an early grave; issue #5 wraps up matters at a frantic pace; protagonist Frank is suddenly rendered irrelevant as the problem at hand (the Wicked Witch of the West has possessed Scraps, the Patchwork Girl) is resolved by Jasper who even invokes the deus ex machina in the climax (an admittedly novel deus ex machina). Fallout from the problem's resolution leads to Frank being given the chance to keep adventuring in Oz, but it may be a prologue to a story we'll never see. And if a sequel should come to pass... I can't imagine how I'll find out it exists.

Tomorrow: something more pleasant.

My current comic list

After looking over the 52 new issue #1s being introduced by DC Comics in September (see them all here), I concluded I wouldn't be sampling any of them, deciding instead to wait for critical reactions to the series and plan to collect the trades at a later date; I'll probably wind up buying the trades of Grant Morrison's Superman, at the very least.

This left me considering the current state of my comic book purchasing. I'm afraid the list has become very thin, particularly since Marvel gives me everything they publish. For the other publishers, there are still titles I'm very interested in, but I wish there were more.

Books which have almost completed their run:

• Xombi (DC Comics) In which an odd hero with odd powers combats odd forces of evil. It's a little odd. Due to end with #6, owing to DC's line-wide reboot in September.
• John Byrne's Next Men (IDW) Resuming Byrne's 1990s series about people with superhuman powers and the often harsh effects those powers have on the world around them, this is due to wrap up with issue #9.
• Comic Book Comics (Evil Twin) An ambitious history of comic books told in comic book format. There's more than enough material to keep this series running for years, but sadly it's due to end soon with issue #6.
• Marineman (Image Comics) Ian Churchill created this hero as a child and has brought him to life as a labour of love. Will end with #6.
• Royal Historian of Oz (SLG) An amusing tale of an Oz fan who finds the land of Oz is real and what happens when he absconds with a treasure trove of Oz-originating materials. Ends with #5.

Books which come out infrequently:

• Rasl (Cartoon Books) Jeff Smith's slow burn story of a man who can travel between realities; gaps of 4 months between issues are typical.
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City (DC Comics) Kurt Busiek's creator-owned series of a world of super heroes told from a grounded perspective. Has historically had difficulty shipping monthly and has now been absent more than a year.

Books which come out regularly:

• Usagi Yojimbo (Dark Horse) Stan Sakai's rabbit ronin in feudal Japan has been running since 1987 with very few gaps. Usagi plays to a small but devoted audience.
• Atomic Robo (Red 5) The adventures of a robot hero, often checking in on him at various points in his 20th century history. Played primarily for laughs, Atomic Robo seems to be on the verge of being a hit; for now, it's a cult favourite.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (IDW) Larry Hama revisits the continuity from his 80s-90s G.I. Joe series, with even some of his original artistic collaborators reuniting with him. Hama's wry perspective on the world is constantly amusing and his strange ability to make G.I. Joe plausible keep me entertained.
• Glamourpuss (Aardvark-Vanaheim) Although I've never read Dave Sim's Cerberus and don't really have an interest in the histories of the comic strip artists he recounts here, I like his brash sense of humour; some of his pieces, like the bit about the CN Tower, are inspired.

Having seen what I currently consider worth buying, if you have a recommendation to make please leave it in the comments.