Monday, November 13, 2006

Dorothy


Dorothy

Volume 1-6

Published by Illusive Arts
http://www.dorothyofoz.net/
http://www.illusivearts.com/

Photography by Greg Mannino and Theo Panousopoulos
Story by Greg Mannino and Mark Masterson
Written by Mark Masterson
Special 3D effects by Theo Panousopoulos and Ray Boersig

Starring Catie Fisher

(Review to be published by Independent Propaganda)

When you first get a comic, you know how you hold it in your hands and just look at it? You settle it so it’s cradled in your palm so that you can open it without cracking the spine. You perform a quick flip-through, just to take a peek. Your eyes rest on the cover, just to soak it in. When you’re holding a copy of DOROTHY, all this examination makes you sigh with delight and awe as there are absolutely gorgeously assembled books.

I have not had much experience with comic books that have used real photos. Most of the time, these have looked cheesy and out of place. However, with DOROTHY, it is a concept that seems to blend with the tale so well that it helps to give the story the true feel of the fantasy land that we all know so well as America’s fairy tale, the land of Oz. Chief Operating Officer Anna Warren Boersig says, “Dorothy is a fumetti-style comic, blending elements of Dorothy’s modernity with the dreamscape of Oz and its denizens. We use digital photography, practical models, 3D models created in Lightwave and 3DMax and Photoshop to create this unique vision of Oz.”

The tale has been updated and improved upon. Dorothy is now a very modern twenty-first century young woman. Her pain, the inner Dorothy, radiates with not just a modern passion but with a more human passion. Her parents died and she was left with Aunt Em in the middle of Kansas, a lonely place to a young city girl. The narrative is nothing like watching the old 1939 movie, not at all. There are new elements interlaced that while it is a familiar world, and it is also a new and exciting one, with new traps and treasures around every corner.

Also, the origins of two of the famous quartet, notably the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, are extraordinary pieces of creative fiction. They not only stay true to the original L. Frank Baum tale, but they expound upon them, giving them such strong human emotions that lends a deeper strength to the story as a whole. The work on the Tin Man in Volume VI was especially absorbing, breaking my heart as well as the Tin Man’s.

DOROTHY is an absolutely engaging and captivating experience. The gorgeous high resolution pictures are enthralling, especially when mixed with the computer digital effects. The story, photography, and artwork all blend for a mesmerizing literary experience that will have the reader as lost as Dorothy in the Land of Oz. DOROTHY is simply a must-have.

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