The Lizard Of Oz

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, underground comix superstar Vaughn Bode fathered an entire world of wonderful characters, including Cheech Wizard, the belligerent "cartoon gooroo"; his trademark naive lizards and buxom "Bode babes"; eccentric robots; and much, much more. Tragically, Bode's premature death in 1975 deprived his loyal readers of reading any further adventures of these marvelously unique creations...until now. Working from ideas developed by Vaughn Bode right before his death, his son Mark has re-enlisted his father's entire cast of characters for "The Lizard of Oz, a full-color graphic novel that pays playful homage to and parodies the classic L. Frank Baum fairy tale (and its beloved film adaptation). Mark's graphic style perfectly duplicates and extends Bode's unique, lush, brilliantly colorful, pillowy graphic approach that has made him, even a quarter century after his death, a profound inspiration on several generations of cartoonists and graffiti artists. Blessed with an original full-color wraparound cover by Vaughn Bode (one of his last completed works), augmented with a long introduction by Bode expert and "Paper magazine contributor Carlo McCormick that explores the legacies of both Bode and Oz creator L. Frank Baum, as well as with a sketchbook of Mark's preparatory work for this ambitious book, "The Lizard of Oz is one last book-length romp with a group of fictional old friends and a witty tip of the magician's hat to a classic of fantasy literature.