Yellow Brick Ramble

Link

By the author of Pepsiaphobia, a webcomic version of a certain 1904 novel about a transgender princess. The rat wasn't around in 1904, so I'm pretty sure it's kosher as long as she doesn't incorporate anything from the 1939 film, the 1995 novel, or the play.

Edited by TwinBird on May 13th 2023 at 1:44:46 PM

Oh hey, there's a forum thread for this now! Nice.

I don't know which rat and which play you're referring to, but Tip's last name references a character from The Wizard of Oz (1902). Is that the play you're referring to?

Tip is from "The Marvelous Land of Oz" from 1904. The play I was referring to was Wicked. By "the rat" I mean a certain rodent that likes to play games with copyright. (...Disney, I mean Disney.)

(Also, 119-year-old spoiler, she's - I guess the last update established she/her pronouns, but unless Daisy is taking a wildly different direction, she's the princess of Oz.)

Edited by TwinBird on May 14th 2023 at 1:26:48 PM

Ah, that makes sense. The about page says Daisy's already ignoring the 1939 movie, so it's probably fine.

In terms of Tip's pronouns I feel like it's a bit up in the air. Logan acknowledges Tip as a girl and used she/her for Tip, and Jack sorta implicitly does because of the mom thing, but because the last time The Rant used he/him pronouns for Tip I'm sticking with that for now, even if it's practically a foregone conclusion that Tip will eventually identify with more feminine pronouns. At least, that was my reasoning when I first wrote up the tropes page for this work.

That said, Tip realizing you can just choose a gender after Logan chose his could mean such a change is coming soon, but at the same time, I acknowledged that trans people can identify with their gender without needing to do anything to justify it quite a while before I realized I was trans myself, so really who knows when Tip will have that realization.

I'm not sure whether you know this or not, but at the end of the novel that introduces Tip, he becomes a girl and stays that way for the rest of the series.

Don't worry, I'm aware, which is even more evidence for my earlier comment that "it's practically a foregone conclusion that Tip will eventually identify with more feminine pronouns". I just want to respect Tip's current pronouns.

Oh yes, I have known this webcomic since its inception. In fact, I found Daisy McGuire in the first place because of her artwork of Oz characters, particular Dorzma.

I am anticipating for Dorothy making her debut in the webcomic because something tells me there's going to be a love triangle shenanigan between Tip, Dorothy and Logan.

I really wish this comic was getting more attention. Daisy Mcguire is pretty talented, and her work deserves it.

Watching Tip in this new outfit, I have to say, I can't see a certain other witch who Jinjur worked with in the original novel wearing that.

Finally, we can call Ozma by her proper name and relegate that old boy-name to the dustbin.

That said, I wonder why she chose to name herself Ozma. It seems like there may be some personal history there that the comic hasn't yet gone into.

Well there is that whole Wizard of Oz being the subject of ridicule from Ozma. Makes you wonder what else does she know about Mr. Oscar Diggs before he fled on his balloon.

Good point. I'm looking forward to finding out.

On another note, Miss Cuttenclip's silent reaction in the fourth panel is golden.

Well it seems the next chapter has a particular description about Dorothy and Toto, namely that Dorothy needs a Boston terrier for a Boston marriage with Ozma when she's older.

Something tells me that Logan is gonna see Dorothy in a far different lens after realizing how deep Ozma's crush on her is.

I'm starting to wonder how and when Ms McGuire is going to bring Dorothy back. She doesn't come back until after the second novel in the original stories, but our dear artist is adapting the story rather than just retelling it. So is Dorothy going to be back in *this* novel, or the next one like how it happened originally?

Daisy laments that due to the story structure, Dorothy is not going to show up for about a year back when Yellow Brick Ramble was starting. So I'll hold my breath until April for Dorothy's return. Judging from the order of appearance, we expect Dorothy to appear after Gump is introduced but before Glinda the Good Witch of the South shows up.

The odd thing about the cast page, though, is that Dorothy's portrait is in black&white while everyone else is in color. I've been puzzling over that for a while. Considering how Baum described Kansas as basically "everything's bleached gray by the sun", does Ozma actually end up in Kansas and meet Dorothy out there? That would be an interesting twist.

What I love most about today's comic: it shows that Ozma's choice to go by a new name really means something. Even Mombi's magic is being forced to accept her true identity, while Mombi herself stays in denial about it.

Edited by Mr_Math on Sep 26th 2023 at 9:46:43 AM

Logan is clearly trying to denial his feelings for Ozma. I'm sure they'll make up for the misunderstanding, but still that looming shadow of Dorothy Gale is still ever present. How would Daisy resolve that Love Triangle when it's shown that Ozma does have some feelings for Logan? Maybe the words of Jinjur may have more of an impact on Ozma than previously thought.

Polyamory can be a thing.

As for Logan, his distress seems more like Confidence Sabotage than Denial. The doubts Dub Loon sowed back at the end of chapter 4 have convinced Logan that his feelings for Ozma were unrequited and that everybody sees him as just a sawhorse.

Well then. Logan seems to have perked right back up in today's comic. I wonder when he's going to actually deal with his feelings instead of just pretending to be OK.

I'm glad we got a new comic today. I was a bit worried when there was no update yesterday.

It's gonna be a slow story-pace, but I think the thread needs new members to discover this Oz adaptation.

Maybe I should make fan art or fan animation...

Hee hee! Jack is confused. Logan is annoyed.

Talk about getting all sappy.

I mean, that's probably sap not actual tears. He's made of wood.

Look at Scarecrow, dropping actual wisdom! Of course, he always did, he just didn't have any self-confidence. Good to see that's changed.