Cowards, Captains and Cobblers... Oh My!

Certainly, the Land of Oz is filled with all manner of creatures... and being the day of C, we take a look at several characters from Oz that begin with the letter of C.

One of the most recognizable characters from the Land of Oz is the Cowardly Lion, who most folks know from the 1939 MGM movie, The Wizard of Oz. Of course, the Cowardly Lion got his start in L. Frank Baum's first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

He is described as being as large as a horse with a bushy mane and frequently wearing brightly colored bows on his tail. In the movie, he falls asleep, along with Dorothy and Toto in the Field of Poppies and all three are saved by Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (Glinda is actually the Good Witch of the South). However, in the book, it is he alone that falls prey to the scent of the deadly flowers and slips into a deep sleep and it is the Queen of the Field Mice and Her subjects that come to his rescue, aided by the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. Following his adventures with Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, he finds his courage in a bowl full of green liquid given to him by the humbug Wizard of Oz and eventually is declared the ruler of all the animals of Oz.

Another of the many characters from the Land of Oz are a number of captains, including Cap'n Bill and Captain Fyter.

Cap'n Bill is a grizzled old sailor with a wooden left leg who has retired in order to travel about with his young companion, Trot. Bald, blue-eyed and sporting only a few teeth, he gets caught up in a whirlpool along with Trot and both of them wind up in the Land of Oz where adventures await them both. 

Another Captain in Oz is Captain Fyter, who it turns out suffers from the same fate as the Tin Woodman. Both had been chopped apart by an enchanted axe and both eventually got replacement part made of tin. The only differences are that Captain Fyter carries a sword while the Tin Woodman carries an axe. 

Finally, there is Cobbler the Dog, a unique creation cobbled together from old cobbler tools by Professor Wogglebug, who becomes the pet of Tik-Tok, the Mechanical Army of Oz. He was called the Unwilling Villain by Princess Ozma and it is he who cause much dismay in the Land of Oz. This unique character appears in my current Oz book, Family of Oz.

Being Spring Break for me, I find myself working on my newest Oz book, The Ozian Adventure of Pickleless & Blu. I'm nearly done and expect it to be ready for Oz-Stravaganza! 2012 this June. it looks to be my best work yet... I hope!

James C. Wallace II

Royal Liaison to Princess Ozma