These are based on some designs I made back in 2009. It was fun to reimagine these characters, but I think they are almost completely removed from their source counterparts by now.
I’m just sayin’, the fact that L Frank Baum was called the “Royal historian of Oz” and the books were supposedly him receiving info from Dorothy and recording it himself says a lot about the characters in his books who were “best friends”
hello here's my wizard of oz + wicked art so far 💖
as you see they're my own versions of a AU in my head but they're heavily based on a mashup of the MGM 1939 movie + of the wicked musical show because i RLLY love the wicked witches, but i'm getting into the respective books and other adaptations <3 im tentatively posting on tumblr to see if there are other people interested or if its all faded into obscurity, hope we can get along.
So, I've seen people on tumblr joke about John R. Neill being a secret Scarecrow/Tin Woodman shipper, and while realistically speaking he probably wasn't, I still think it's nice how they're just as affectionate in Neill's books as they are in Baum's.
This post by @poppies-from-oz inspired me to try and read 'Lucky Bucky in Oz' (I say "try" because the actual writing quality is... not the best) and for a moment I actually wondered if the gay subtext was intentional before remembering that it was written in 1942. Still, here are a few stand-out moments:
For context, at some point the Scarecrow has apparently started ruling the Munchkins, hence why he refers to himself as an emperor. Not sure if it was Neill or Thompson who came up with this.
Then they go on a boat with this club of men who're all uncles (don't question it). The version of Lucky Bucky I found online doesn't have illustrations, but I assume this is where the "gay cruise" image comes from.
Bonus: This scene from 'The Scalawagons of Oz', where Nick is finally able to talk after being severely rusted for a while:
Even if the subtext was completely accidental, it's still clear that Neill really liked their friendship!
(Wicked the Musical)Boq when he spends the entire musical chasing a pretty girl and having girl problems in general only to be magically transformed into one of the most queer coded characters in one of the queerest classic books: