home
| Reviews or "What do you think?" |
Bakers
Dozen Interview There have been many Wizard of Oz based stories over the years which have taken the L. Frank Baum classic in some distinctly interesting directions. Into the Dust is the first I've encountered that actually mashes up the traditional Oz tale with the world of 60's counterculture, self-exploration, The Grapes of Wrath, On the Road by Jack Kerouac and the legendary Route 66. Getting all that into one story is an ambitious goal, but Jesse Rubenfeld works to bring these concepts together in the first two issues and, so far, he presents an interesting tale that I've enjoyed sampling. In the story, the lead character, Judy, is part of a farmer family living in Kansas in May of 1934. She's moved there to stay with her uncle after the death of her father. Suddenly, as is standard with any Oz guided story, along comes the tornado which whisks her and her dog Baum away. That's where the expected elements end and the unexpected story begins. Judy isn't transported to the mythical land of Oz. Rather, the trip takes her through time jumping her forward thirty years to Beverly Hills circa 1964. Instantly Into The Dust becomes a fist out of water story that's about to find a few kicks on Route 66 (which is playing the role of the yellow brick road for this tale). In the story, Judy doesn't drop a house on a wicked witch, but rather a phone to the head of a socialite actress who was busy sipping a drink narcissistically in her mansion's pool. As Judy makes her getaway into this wondrous new land of mystery, known to you and I as 60's Hollywood, she takes to the road in a ruby red mustang she liberates from the wicked actresses' garage. Once out on the road, she sets her sights on a return to Kansas and begins meeting some interesting new friends. As you read Into The Dust, the elements of an Oz tale are clearly present, but they are reinterpreted in unusual and fresh ways. Immediately, I found this particular mix of topics; 30's depression era dust bowl sensibilities, 60's drug culture exploration and Oz like story circumstances, to be an unexpectedly comfortable mix. What initially struck me about this series was the feeling of introspection present in the story. You can tell Jesse's working to write something that's a bit more than a reconstituted Oz tale. You can feel that there's a bit of soul and life experience within these pages. It has a tone that made me feel as if I were reading an early raw work by a writer/artist who was beginning to evolve into some exciting projects. Into the Dust feels fresh in places and immediately interesting. Jesse's art is evolving here. He has room to refine his talent as he goes forward, but there clearly is a lot of skill present in his imagery. The style he uses fits the tone of the story as it has an ethereal quality that sits well with the 60's era in which the story rests. I found the brown and white, pre-color scenes in dust bowl Kansas at the start of the story to be especially evocative and some of my favorite scenes from the series. Many of those panels are quite beautiful and the tornado sequence is certainly worth seeing. In summary, I found the series to be fresh and interesting and I would recommend it as a nice change of pace story. It doesn't race, it cruises and that makes for a refreshing read. Given that this is a self-published title, I find all the more reason to see out future issues. Jesse Rubenfeld writes, illustrates, paints and self-publishes
this series. My review covers issue #1 and 2 which are the first
chapters of a 12 part tale planned for Judy and crew. Learn more
about the series by visiting www.intothedust.net.
While visiting the site, don't miss the preview pages which allow
you to see some of the series for yourself. Their just a mouse
click away.
I really encourage you all to pick up Into the Dust. Is it a great comic? No. Is it a good comic? Yes, I would say so. But why should you pick it up over any other good comic? Well, it’s self-published, for one thing, and we should always encourage people publishing stuff on their own. If you don’t like it, don’t buy the rest. It’s only 3 dollars, after all. But the book has merits on its own. It’s a fantasy based on The Wizard of Oz, and in this opening chapter, we get the set up, which is intriguing. 19-year-old Judy, who has moved to 1934 Kansas from Texas after her father died to live with her aunt and uncle, is working on the farm and bemoaning her lot. It’s Dust Bowl time, so of course the land is unyielding. A tornado blows in, and Judy hides in the house with her dog, Baum, and is swept away. In 1964, the house lands in a pool in Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, there was a woman sitting on a pool chair, which isn’t a good thing for her. She, of course, is the Wicked Witch of the West. She even has a ruby-red car, which her sister (well, I assume it’s her sister, although we never find out exactly) gives to her to get back to Kansas. So she hits Route 66 to drive home. The parallels to the original story are obvious, but Rubenfeld’s time-traveling twist makes this interesting. Of course, the Kansas scenes are in brown tones, while the California scenes are in color. What will be neat (I hope) is seeing Judy in a less fantastical setting than Dorothy found herself in, but one that nevertheless offers some weird contrasts to her own time. The 1930s were quite different than the 1960s (more different than our present day is from, say, 1977, I would argue), so it will be fascinating seeing Judy adjust and seeing what the deal is and if she’s actually traveled in time. Rubenfeld’s art is rough, but it works. The tornado scenes are marvelous, and although the Beverly Hills scenes aren’t as glamorous as they need to be, he still gives a modern sheen to everything in 1964. It’s kind of a shame that more of the story won’t take place in 1934 Kansas, because those pages have a scratchy beauty that the “modern” pages don’t have. Of course, Judy will spend a lot of time in the desert on her journey back to Kansas, so perhaps that will help. I really hope that this ambitious project keeps going, because it’s very interesting. I’m certainly not saying this is the greatest comic out there, but it’s a nice book that sets up a cool story, and it’s something you should check out. I mean, do you really need to read 20 pages of Donald Blake and Thor rambling at each other? I doubt it. (And, if you can’t find it, go to the web site and order
it there. Why not?)
Jesse Rubenfeld’s simple cover evokes the dusty deserts of Arizona, which is where the story takes place, and also the idea of loneliness that the road brings. It also shows the springboard for the issue, in which Judy - our ”Dorothy” - who is driving home along Route 66, picks up a hitchhiker named Frank Bolger, who is, of course, the Scarecrow, who was played by Ray Bolger in The Wizard of Oz. In a fairly close parallel with the movie (and book, I guess, but it’s been years since I read it), the two find a poppy field (or what looks like poppies), and Judy finds a house where people are smoking opium. Frank knows the woman at the house and isn’t happy about it, but Judy smokes some and has herself an old-fashioned freak-out, just like Homer Simpson! Frank gets her out of there before the cops bust the place, and the issue ends with the two coming upon a man hogtied to a motorcycle. Well, that’s weird. This issue doesn’t have the same verve that the first one did, perhaps because that one began in the Dust Bowl and went all Technicolor on us when Judy ended up 30 years in the future, and it made the book fascinating. The biggest problem I have with this issue is that Judy seems remarkably well-adjusted to her situation. I guess Judy Garland was remarkably well-adjusted in the movie, but that was back in the Thirties, man, and it doesn’t really translate well to this era. I wish Judy were a bit more freaked out by the way she has gone from 1934 to 1964. I would be, man! I still like this comic, and look forward to it continuing. It’s
not great, but it is a nice read.
Can something be derivative and original at the same time? That’s a question that Jesse Rubenfeld is about to answer with this title’s twelve issue, bi-monthly run. His story is "loosely based" on a combination of The Wizard of Oz, Grapes of Wrath, and On the Road by Jack Kerouac, maybe with a bit of Hollywood Babylon, Buck Rogers, David Lynch movies and Chinatown thrown in for good measure. A farmgirl named Judy is transported by a tornado from 1930’s
Kansas to 1964’s Beverly Hills. There, after accidentally
killing a well known actress, she becomes embroiled in a plot for
revenge, deceit and murder. Her only option is to follow Route
66 east in the hopes of making it back to Kansas. But the road
is lined with dangerous strangers determined to stop her from completing
her mission.
The last time I read a comic book reinterpretation
of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy did the nasty with the Tin Woodman,
the Scrarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. Into the Dust is
decidedly less explicit than Alan Moore’s Lost Girls,
but does treat its reinterpretation with a likeminded seriousness.
And I can’t tell quite where it’s going, but the short
version is: Dorothy is a tough girl of 19 shoveling pig crap on
her Uncle’s farm circa the Great Depression. She encounters
the story’s archetypal tornado, but where she lands is 1960s
California and her “Yellow Brick Road” to home is Route
66. I’m not quite sold on it yet, but I dig writer/artist
Jesse Rubenfeld’s dusty, evocative art and I can certainly
see promise in the more grounded “stranger in a strange land” concept.
As an Oz fan, I’ll have my eye on this one.
|