L. Frank Baum's classic work, The Wizard of Oz, is forever associated with Judy Garland and MGM. But the book was brought to life in several incarnations before Garland stepped into those ruby slippers (which were silver in the novel, anyway), and there's no reason why it shouldn't find new life today.

Mark Masterson and a team of photographers, models, computer artists and others get a modern rendition off to a good start in the first volume of Dorothy. Set in modern Kansas, this Dorothy is dyed and pierced and sick to death of farm life. With her parents dead, she's forced to live with an aunt and uncle who just don't understand her, so this rebellious 16-year-old strikes back with a lifestyle that would no doubt have shocked poor Judy Garland back in the day.

After hot-wiring her uncle's pickup to head into town, Dorothy is caught in a tornado and wakes up ... well, it's not Kansas, that much is sure, but it's not the Oz we know and love, either. This Oz is a science-fiction world with dramatic landscaping, robots, witches and scientists -- and a scarecrow completely unlike anything Ray Bolger ever dreamed of.

Told through computer-altered photography in a computer-generated world, Dorothy blends the look of reality and fantasy so clearly, it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Dorothy (Catie Fisher) lives in a gray environment, with little besides her green eyes, her red lips, her jewelry and hair dye to set her apart from the surrounding drabness. Oz, of course, is bursting with color, but there's a great deal of danger, too -- making itself known first through the attack of a vicious flying monkey. But this Dorothy is no shrinking violet, and her grim matter-of-factness seems to get her through tough situations more easily than a "golly gee" attitude would do.

Mark Masterson has taken Dorothy someplace new. It's not over the rainbow, for sure, but I'm very curious to see where this path leads.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
4 November 2006