Still catching up on my comic reading; I just went through The Oz-Wonderland Chronicles #1, Dorothy #6 and Lullaby #4. Since they're all based on children's stories, they invite a bit of comparison.Oz-Wonderland has one of the better concepts, for me. Dorothy Gale and Alice Liddell have grown up and are in college, largely forgetting their adventures as children. The first issue also sports a gorgeous cover by Joe Jusko. The story itself is fairly well-done, but I felt the interior art was a little lacking. The storytelling was a little clunky in places, and the individual characters seemed a little "off" at times. I read another review that suggested that was from the computer coloring, and I can see that pretty easily.
Dorothy is a dark, modern take on The Wizard of Oz done in a fumetti style. As a fantasy tale, fumetti doesn't always entirely work since one has to blend real photos with models and CG designs. The folks at Illusive Arts do a darn good job, though, and it's only occassionally that you can notice problems. Last issue, for example, one of the minor characters was a modified action figure and didn't seem to fit well standing next to a photo of a human. But each issue has been more successful than the last, and #6 works really well in introducing the Tin Man or, as Dot calls him "Super-Soldier Samuari Bitch!"
Finally, we have Lullaby #4. The overal story has Alice as the "Hand of the Red Queen" teaming up with Red Riding Hood, the Pied Piper, Pinnochio, and Jim Hawkins. The story is co-written by Ben Avery, who's also partly responsible for Oz-Wonderland Chronicles but the artwork has a more distinctive manga style to it, making for a more fantasy-rich story. However, the story is decidedly more slow-moving and it's more difficult to follow the storytelling. I do like the story, but I think I'm working harder at than I probably should.
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