Todd Klein's Blog, page 6

Rereading: THE ROYAL BOOK OF OZ by Ruth Plumly Thompson

The fifteenth Oz book has the author named as L. Frank Baum, but it actually the first by his replacement, Ruth Plumly Thompson. Thompson was born in 1891, and already a published children’s book author when she was asked by publisher William Lee in 1921 to continue the popular series. She was a fan of Baum’s books, and stepped in ably to continue in his style, gradually adding her own style elements over a long career of nineteen more Oz books for Reilly & Lee, more than Baum, and two later ones as well. The publisher put Baum’s name on this one to “smooth the transition,” telling readers it was developed by Thompson from Baum’s notes, but that was later disproven.

The Wogglebug has a new project, a genealogy of Oz’s most famous citizens, but the Scarecrow is upset when he realizes he has no ancestors or family. He goes off to visit the farm where Dorothy found him hooked on a pole to scare crows, and when he reaches that pole, he digs down around it. Suddenly the ground gives way, and he falls into a deep shaft that brings him eventually to the royal palace of the Silver Islands. The islanders are modeled on then current stereotypes of Japanese or Chinese people, so not politically correct by today’s standards, but they aren’t treated in a derogatory way with a few exceptions for villains. The Scarecrow is treated with reverence, as he resembles the last ruler of the Silver Islands, and the people take him for the reincarnation of that beloved ruler. The Scarecrow makes one new friend, a servant he calls Tappy Oko, but is threatened by the former ruler’s three sons, who want his throne. Meanwhile, Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion go in search of the Scarecrow and have all kinds of adventures in the usual unknown corners of Oz. In one they meet Sir Hokus of Pokes, a British knight in long captivity, who they help escape, and Sir Hokus becomes their new friend and Dorothy’s champion. Later they also meet the Comfortable Camel and the Doubtful Dromedary, who join the search for the Scarecrow.

The relationship between publisher and writer was not always smooth. Wikipedia reports: After submission of the manuscript, the publisher requested the story be completely rewritten. However, Thompson threatened to publish the book elsewhere without the Oz elements, and the publisher decided to publish the book as written.[6] Good for her, I say, marking out her territory and standing her ground.

I think Thompson did a good job filling Baum’s large shoes. Her stories are a bit more reliant on puns for humor, but her new characters are appealing, and fit in well. The plot is pretty typical until the very end, when it begins to feel a bit frantic and overdone, but generally this is a fun read and recommended.

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My Music: WARM WINTER

When I began preparing for this music project, I made a list of all my songs in chronological order, as I planned to post them. I thought everything on my list had been recorded (ones I had never recorded weren’t on the list), but when I got to early 1979 recently, I found there were two songs I remembered well, but hadn’t recorded. This is the first of them. I wanted to include them, so I made new recordings in the last two weeks. Here’s the song: Warm Winter

I don’t know why I didn’t record this at the time, it was written January 21, 1979 when I was actively recording in my Highland Park living room. It’s similar to “Me and You” posted last month, and that could be the reason, but I think I just forgot to record it. As for the subject, I remember a winter storm when we had about a foot of snow, and I stayed home from work. The woman I was dating then was also off work, and came over. I had my old sled from childhood (I have it still, but one runner is broken), and we had fun sledding in a nearby park. Was that the impetus for the song? I’d like to think so, but I can’t be sure if that happened before I wrote it or after. Either way, that memory is tied to the song in my mind. I’m sure I would have sung it better back then, but I do what I can. The recording uses both guitar and mountain dulcimer tracks with the vocals.

Warm Winter is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Incoming: SWAMP THING BY RICK VEITCH BOOK TWO

Images © DC Comics

This collection is nearly equally split between Swamp Thing issues written and pencilled by Rick Veitch and Hellblazer issues written by Jamie Delano with various artists. Constantine does appear in both, and the storylines are linked, so it makes sense as a collection, though perhaps Delano should have gotten better billing. Other artists involved are Alfredo Alcala, John Ridgway, Richard Piers Rayner, Tom Mandrake, Pat Broderick, Mike Hoffman, Brett Ewins, Mark Buckingham, Eduardo Barreto. Ron Randall, and Jim McCarthy. The issues included are SWAMP THING 74-79, SWAMP THING ANNUAL #4, and JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER 6-12, I lettered the latter. 408 pages, retail price $29.99. Release date is August 5th, check with your comics retailer or Amazon.

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Rereading: HUNTER’S MOON by M. E. Atkinson

Cover and illustrations by Charlotte Hough

This is the second book about Fricka and her three cousins, Hugo, Sugar, and Adrian, but most of the story focuses on a new character, Tony Martin. Tony had an alarming experience with a runaway pony when very young, but he doesn’t really remember it. Now that he’s older, staying in a house with Fricka and her cousins, who are into horses and riding, he finds he wants to ride too, but how can he learn? He and another boarder, Peter, take out Fricka’s horse for a ride, but get into trouble when the pony falls and injures his leg. Tony earns a little riding time with a borrowed horse at a show, but it runs away with him, allowing old fears to surface. He struggles to overcome them, and hatches a plot to secretly buy a young pony of his own at a horse auction, but plenty of things go wrong with that idea.

A good read if you can find it, recommended.

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Rereading: THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Philip Pullman

Cover art by Eric Rohmann

I bought and read this when It was first published in 1996, having never read anything by Pullman, and I loved it so much I sought out and read all the other books of his published before it.

Lyra Belacqua is a pre-teen girl living in Oxford at Jordan College, but her Oxford and her world are different from ours. The most obvious difference is that every human has an animal companion or familiar from birth to death. These ghostlike creatures can take on a variety of animal shapes until the human reaches adulthood, at which time they become fixed on one form. The person and familiar talk to each other, are best friends, and are somehow linked in a way that they can’t be separated very far apart without causing them great pain. Lyra and her familiar, Pantalaimon, have been left at the college by her Uncle, Lord Asriel, and are being raised collectively by the staff and instructors, she doesn’t know why, nor does she much care, as her life is full of fun and excitement, with just a little learning when the instructors have time. She roams freely about the college and grounds, from the rooftops to the cellars, sometimes with friends like Roger, son of a kitchen worker, and farther afield doing battle with town kids and finding allies in the gyptian children that come to Oxford from time to time.

As the story opens, Lord Asriel is doing a presentation to the headmaster and others that Lyra sneaks into, and it’s about a mysterious substance called Dust, elemental particles that seem to be attracted to people. He is experimenting with it in the frozen north, and needs funding. Some time later, a beautiful and powerful woman, Mrs. Coulter, arrives at the college, and Lyra is immediately attracted to her. Mrs. Coulter offers to take Lyra on as her assistant in London, and Lyra agrees. Before she goes, the Jordan college Master gives her a beautiful object that came from Lord Asriel, an alethiometer. It looks something like a compass, but with several pointers and many strange symbols. Lyra is told to keep it secret, and over time she gradually learns how to read it and use it to answer her questions, and thus find out many helpful things.

At first, Lyra loves the glamorous life she now shares with Mrs. Coulter in London, but even before coming there she had been hearing about children being kidnapped and taken away somewhere by a mysterious group the children called Gobblers. At a party at Mrs. Coulter’s, Lyra accidentally learns that Mrs. Coulter is in charge of this group, and responsible for the kidnappings. Outraged and confused, Lyra escapes with the help of some gyptian friends, and is soon part of an expedition to the frozen north to rescue the kidnapped children. Along the way she becomes friends with an armored bear who joins the group and takes on the role of Lyra’s protector. She will need lots of protection from the many perils of their journey.

This book is excellent in every way, from concept and characters, to plot and execution. I was not as positive about the second and third books of the trilogy, but I’ll be rereading them soon to see if my opinion has changed. Highly recommended.

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My Music: DISTANT VOICES

I’m publishing these songs in the order they were written rather than when they were recorded. This one was written in November 1978, the last of many songs written that year, but it was not recorded until 2007. I had compiled a CD of favorite songs in 2000, in 2007 I did a second one. Many of the tracks were older recordings, but this is one of four recorded for the new CD, titled “Time Was.” The recording mixes several vocal and guitar tracks with bird sounds from a commercial tape or disc, I no longer remember which one. The mix has the vocals too quiet, a mistake of the time I can’t correct, turn it up to hear them better. The song: Distant Voices.

At the time, in 1978 when I wrote it, I was interested in mysticism as expressed in the work of fantasy author George MacDonald and others. I wrote and published an article on MacDonald’s mystic themes for the fanzine Nightshade #4 in 1977. Art I did for it is HERE.

The lyrics of the song still ring true for me. I feel connected to the natural world in ways I can’t explain, a feeling that comes to me every now and then when I’m experiencing the beauty of nature. It’s a kind of longing that brings joy and sadness at the same time, somehow. I’m on a journey I can’t see the beginning or end of.

Distant Voices is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THE MAGIC CITY by E. Nesbit

Illustrated by H. R. Millar

Here’s a rare first edition Nesbit from my library, it’s even signed, bought at a London rare book dealer’s shop many years ago. I don’t think I appreciated it as much when I first read it then as I did on this rereading.

Philip (also called Pippin or Pip) lives with his much older sister Helen, their parents having died when he was small, and she is a mother to him. Pip thinks his life is quite perfect, but that changes one day when a young man appears at their doorstep, and he and Helen have a long conversation. Pip fears something terrible has happened, and for him it has. Mr. Peter Graham had been a childhood friend of Helen’s, but married someone else. Now his wife has died, and he has come to ask Helen to marry him. Helen said yes, and their happy home is no more. They will go to live at The Grange, a large house owned by Mr. Graham, where he lives with his daughter from the previous marriage, Lucy, and several servants. After the wedding, and while the couple is on a European honeymoon, Pip will live at The Grange and be cared for by a nanny already employed for Lucy.

When this happens, it all goes wrong, partly because Philip is so unhappy and lashes out angrily at Lucy and the servants. They all decide to leave him alone, and he spends his time building a magic city. This is something well-off children did at the time, making a model city out of building blocks, books, dishes, candlesticks, and anything around the house they could find. Pip has made them before, but all the grand things in The Grange make this magic city the largest and best he’s ever done. The nanny, who has been rather nasty to Pip, is horrified when she sees it, and vows to take it all down the next day, but that night Pip can’t sleep and he goes down to look at his city. Somehow he is magically shrunk and able to enter the place, which is now large and even more complex, and has inhabitants, animals, and plants. So begins a series of magical adventures in which Lucy also takes part. They are required to do seven difficult tasks, after which Philip can become the king of this magical land. Another visitor, who remains hidden behind a veil, has other ideas, and tries to thwart them at every turn.

While the structure of this book is episodic, the tasks and the enemy help bring it together, and both Pip and Lucy learn a lot from their adventures and each other. Nesbit’s ideas about magic and exciting adventures are as creative as ever. Recommended.

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ROBBUT: A tale of tails by Robert Lawson

A charming short book of 94 pages with lots of fine illustrations, Robbut is a rabbit who is unsatisfied with his tail. He envies the tails of some other animals he knows like the fox and the cat, and wishes his wasn’t so small that he can barely see it. One day Robbut comes across a little man caught in a cage trap and helps him escape. Though not so described, the man is clearly an Americanized leprechaun, and he takes Robbut to his home beneath a large tree where they both have a good meal. The man wants to show his gratitude by giving Robbut a gift, and when he hears about the rabbit’s tail envy, he says he can replace the little white tuft with any kind of tail Robbut would like. Thus begins a series of experiments, as various tails are tried, each with its drawbacks, so it’s a cautionary tale of tails.

Charming, great illustrations, recommended.

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Incoming: SHADE THE CHANGING MAN OMNIBUS VOLUME 1

Images © DC Comics

The full title of this massive book is SHADE THE CHANGING MAN BY PETER MILLIGAN AND CHRIS BACHALO OMNIBUS VOLUME 1, and it includes issues 1-37 of the original Vertigo series begun in 1990. I lettered them, they were crazy and weird and interesting. Some of these issues have never been collected previously. Retail price is $125, release date is July 15, 2025. Check with your comics retailer or Amazon.

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My Music: A FOOL’S PARADISE

Something different this time. In the 1970s and early 1980s I wrote lots of songs, and recorded many of them in my living room, but some were never recorded, and over time I either forgot the tune or the chords or both. In the fall of 2024, while working on this My Music project, I went through those lyrics and found six that I was able to resurrect. Either I gradually remembered my original tune and chords, or came up with new ones that worked for me. Then I recorded them using my iPhone, guitars, and keyboard, and mixing tracks in Audacity on my desktop computer. This is the first of those, the lyrics are from November 1978, the tune was partially remembered and I filled in the rest. I first recorded this in January 2025, but wasn’t happy with the vocals, so redid those in April. My voice is not the same as back when, but I do the best I can with it, and I think it’s okay here. See what you think. As for the song, it’s unbridled optimism: A Fool’s Paradise.

A Fool’s Paradise is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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