J. L. Bell of Oz and Ends might want to take a look at Abadazad: The Road to Inconceivable by J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog. The book, like Travels of Thelonious, is a hybrid of graphic and traditional novel. It deals with contemporary children entering the world of a series of nineteenth century books by the fictional Franklin O. Davies (Frank L. Baum?) about a world called Abadazad (Oz?). Just as Lewis Carroll didn't get the Alice story right in The Looking Glass Wars, Davies doesn't get the Abadazad stories right in The Road To Inconceivable, the first in a series. One change he makes is particularly striking.
While I found the narrative voice in Abadazad a little flat, the book is finding fans elsewhere and getting plenty of attention. It has an interesting publishing history because it started out life as a comic book.
I was very impressed with ABADAZAD. The creators seem to have a good sense of Baum and his world unlike the creator of THE LOOKING-GLASS WARS who is reacting against an idea of a book and its creation rather than the book itself.
ReplyDeleteAt the time I read it I hadn't seen any reviews or even mention of it so posted a query on child_lit. J.L. Bell then wrote about it on his blog at:
http://ozandends.blogspot.com/2006/07/iz-abadazad-new-oz.html