Oz Squad is a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 updating of L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

's Land of Oz series. Its premise is that Dorothy

Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale is the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum, and the best friend of Oz's ruler Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels...

, the Scarecrow

Scarecrow (Oz)

The Scarecrow is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum and illustrator William Wallace Denslow. In his first appearance, the Scarecrow reveals that he lacks a brain and desires above all else to have one. In reality, he is only two days old and merely...

, the Tin Woodman

Tin Woodman

The Tin Woodman, sometimes referred to as the Tin Man or the Tin Woodsman , is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum...

 and the Cowardly Lion

Cowardly Lion

The Cowardly Lion is the main character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is a Lion, but he talks and interacts with humans....

 are now part of "Gale Force" (Not to be confused with the OzF5: Gale Force (2005) comic by Alias Enterprises), a Mission Impossible

Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

 type organization working to protect Oz

Land of Oz

Oz is a fantasy region containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fantasy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...

 from all manner of bizarre threats. Created and written by Steve Ahlquist

Steve Ahlquist

Steve Ahlquist is a comic book writer. He is the creator of Oz Squad, a modern comic book continuation of the L. Frank Baum Oz children's book series. Through the 1990's Steve was the proprietor of retail comic and video store Atomic Comics, located at 780 Hope Street, Providence, Rhode Island,...

, the series is complex and clever, playing with the mythology that Baum had created in the original children's books and updating it for a more adult audience.

Oz Squad first issue featured Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok is a fictional character from the Land of Oz books by L. Frank Baum. He has been termed "the prototype robot," and is widely considered to be the first robot to appear in modern literature, though that term was coined after Baum's death....

's "internal clockwork morality spring" breaking during a visit to Earth, causing him to become insane and violent. Later issues featured an assault on Rebecca Eastwitch's hideout at Castle Munchausen and a series of time travel adventures in which the Scarecrow met Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

 and Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...

, Dorothy found herself in the American Old West and Nick met himself while still a human. The series ended with Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale is the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum, and the best friend of Oz's ruler Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels...

 revealing that she is pregnant to Princess Ozma

Princess Ozma

Princess Ozma is a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by L. Frank Baum. She appears in every book of the series except the first, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .She is the rightful ruler of Oz, and L...

.

The original series ran for ten issues from 1991-1996. The first four issues were illustrated by Andrew Murphy

Andrew Murphy

Andrew Murphy is an Australian triple jumper, best known for his bronze medal at the 2001 World Indoor Championships, where he achieved an Oceanian indoor record of 17.20 metres....

, and published by Brave New Words, which also later reprinted the first two issues with alternative covers. Millennium Publications

Millennium Publications

Millennium Productions was an American independent comic book publishing company founded by Mark Ellis, Melissa Martin and Paul Davis. Initially known as a publisher of licensed properties, Millennium adapted works by Arthur Conan Doyle, Lester Dent, Frank Frazetta, Robert E. Howard, Harlan...

 then produced a 48-page Oz Squad Special. Finally, Ahlquist and some friends created Patchwork Press to carry on publishing the book. Terry Loh drew the last six issues, and Mike Sagara illustrated a Little Oz Squad special.

Ahlquist published a new Oz Squad novel in 2011, Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers. The story features the Squad in conflict with Rebecca Eastwitch and introduces Ozzy, Dorothy and Ozma

Ozma

Ozma may refer to:* Ozma of Oz, a 1907 and third book in the Oz series* Ozma , a 1989 album by the Melvins* Ozma , a rock band from Pasadena, California* Ozma Wars, a 1979 arcade game...

's son.

The series provoked a strong negative response from many fans of Baum's Oz. Pittsburg State University

Pittsburg State University

Pittsburg State University, also called Pitt State or PSU, is a public university with approximately 7,100 students located in Pittsburg, Kansas, United States. A large percentage of the student population consists of residents within the Pittsburg region; the gender proportion is relatively equal...

 English professor Steven J. Teller reviewed it for The Baum Bugle

The Baum Bugle

The Baum Bugle: A Journal of Oz is the official journal of The International Wizard of Oz Club. The journal was founded in 1957, with its first issue released in June of that year . It publishes three times per year, with issues dated Spring, Autumn, and Winter; Issue No. 1 of Volume 50 appeared in...

and considered it worthless and disgusting.

When the series was reprinted, the Bugle was much kinder to it, and referred to Teller's review, suggesting that with the Oz books so recently having fallen into the public domain

Public domain

Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...

, there was little else like it, but post-Wicked

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is a parallel novel published in 1995 written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. It is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, its sequels, and the...

, it seems groundbreaking and not nearly as outrageous as it did at the time.