Mr. Nakai's Illustrations: The Wizard of Oz

Here are Mr. Nakai's fabulous illustrations again!

Enjoy his wonderful works to your hearts' content.
(Click image to enlarge.)

1 Dorothy

2 Cyclone

3 Munchkins

4 Scarecrow in Munchkin

5 The Scarecrow's Problem

6 Tin Woodman

7 Cowardly Lion

8 Yellow Brick Road

9 JUMP!

10 Kalidhas

11 HELP!

12 Keep it up, Lion!

My favorite is #8 Yellow Brick Road. Look at their faces!

Oh, I like #9 too. And #4, #11, #12...and everything! :D

How about you? Which picture is your favorite?

Wonderful parade of "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz"

Here is Mr. Nakai's picture scroll.

Can't you hear their uplifting music? ;D

19 The Imperial Cornet Band

20 Flag Bearers, the Coward Lion and the Hungry tiger 

21Dorothy and Ozma, the Scarecrow and the Saw Horse, and Tik-tok 

22 The Royal Court Band

23 Prof. Woggle-Bug and Students of the Royal College of Athletic Science

24 the Tin Woodman and the Royal Army

25 The Royal Army and Jim

26 Jim, Zeb, and the Wizard

Mr. Nakai's Illustrations #3

Mr. Nakai sent me more illustrations!

Enjoy his beautiful world!

The  Princess of the Vegetable Kingdom

Taking a Short Break

 

Attack by Mangaboos

The Valley of Voices

Fight with the Invisible Bear

Cloud Fairies

The Braided Man

Gargoyles

Wonderful Escape

Dragonettes

Jim and the Saw Horse

Self-righting Dolls

This is the end of the illustrations of "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" I received.

Actually, Mr. Nakai sent me more illustrations. But they have a different theme, so, I'll post them in another entry.　It's coming soon. Don't miss it! ;)

Wonderful Illustrations of Oz Again!

 I've received 6 more pictures of "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" from  Mr. Hatsuo Nakai!

Dorothy and Zeb

Earthquake!

The Glass City

The Sorcerer of Mangaboo

The Wizard of Oz

The  funeral of Gwig

These illustrations make you want to read "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz," don't they? ;D

Wonderful Illustrations of Oz

Do you know of Mr. Hatsuo Nakai? He has been painting fabulous illustrations of Oz for 19 years.

You can see some of his works in "The Baum Bugle," the official journal of International Wizard of Oz Club.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?331027
According to this site linked above, his works appears on "The Baum Bugle, winter 1996."
(You can buy a copy from IWOC's online shop.
http://shop.ozclub.org/product.sc?productId=369&categoryId=7
It says "autumn 1996," not "winter 1996." I don't know why.)

Mr. Nakai told me that he has 72 Oz paintings and sent me six of them to display on my blog.
(I can't thank him enough.)

These are the paintings. Click to enlarge.

I'm sure that all of you who visit this blog can recognize the depicted scenes without any explanations.

Words like "marvelous" and "amazing" do not do them justice; These paintings are just fantastic!

Chapter 21: The Tin-Woodman Plucks a Rose

Glinda's army appears to be trained very well.　It has well-kept weapons and responds swiftly.　The number of soldiers wasn't mentioned, but there seemed to be quite many. They even had a marching band! It was quite different from the army of the Emerald City.

Glinda rode in a palanquin this time, not her favorite swan chariot.　　The palanquin didn't have wheels and was carried by twelve servants.　It must have been so bumpy that Glinda would have become ill with all the movement.　Could that be why she didn't attack the Emerald City when the Wizard of Oz ruled?　

The Gump with the Scarecrow and his friends flew along above her palanquin.　Don't you have an unpleasant feeling when something follows you above your head?　The Scarecrow's party seemed not to care at all, though.　Don't you think that Glinda might have felt it was annoying? Then, perhaps when she saw the Gump flying so smoothly across the sky, she cried out, "That's it!" and got the inspiration for the swan chariot.

I feel sorry that Jellia Jamb was forced to pretend to be Mombi and was threatened with death if she said what was going on behind her. The rule that nobody dies in Oz didn't apply here again.

I admire how shrewd Mombi was. She was old and experienced. Even Glinda couldn't find her.

I didn't know the Tin Woodman had a buttonhole on his body. What a fine job! Look at the Ku-Klip's craftsmanship! I'm just worried that it's hard to rub and starts to rust easily.

The Tin Woodman, who loves flowers, doesn't hesitate to cut one. I don't understand his philosophy yet.

As you remember, white is the color for a witch. In this chapter you can once again see the rule that Glinda's army's tents were red but Glinda's was white. However, the white flag which was used when Jinjur sent a messenger to Glinda didn't have the same meaning as the witch's color, of course. Raising a white flag to signify non-combat seems to be well-known in Oz too.

According to my further research, I found an article stating that a person who carries a white flag is recognized as an authorized non-combat messenger as established in the Laws and Customs of War on Land in 1899.

Chapter 20: The Scarecrow Appeals to Glinda

Each member took what they like from the hoardings in the nest.

I can't help feeling pity to the Jackdaws because they were abruptly intruded upon in their nest, attacked and beaten when they wanted the intruders to go away, moreover, their treasures were stolen which they had been save guarding for a long time.

The Scarecrow and his party were shrewd. They caught something for them even if they are in trouble. But there was one negative point for them: They left Dr. Nikidik's wishing pills in the nest. So, it's break-even, I think. They're useless for the Jackdaws, though.

It's regrettable that they forgot to bring the wishing pills. I wonder why they didn't wish that everyone can get to Glinda's palace safely in the first place. Oh, is it a taboo? Haha.

What would it have happened if they wished that they wanted to get back the throne from Jinjur? Maybe they had to forget the pills in order that the readers should forget these other more plausible possibilities.

Then, they arrived at Glinda's palace. I couldn't find any mention of Glinda's beauty. The author mentioned only the beauty of the garden and the throne.

I'm curious why Glinda's army was trained very well. In this Oz? Why? Who was supposed to be their (imaginary) enemy? Hummm...maybe it was the Wizard of Oz? Glinda mentioned she sent her spies to the Wizard in order to observe him.

Tip seemed to hate and loath Mombi anyhow. He cursed her only. No child knows how dear he is to his parents. (I can't help thinking that Mombi cared for him.)

Then, finally, Glinda and her army set off to the Emelard City. Mombi and Jinjur are going to be in danger! Uh...which side am I with?

By the way, Jack's head can turn horizontally, but not vertically. When he wants to look downward, he has to tilt his body being careful not to drop his head. So...he usually can't see the things lower than his eyes, can he? Since he is quite tall, when he sees Tip, I guess he can see only the top of Tip's head. Of course, if he keeps a distance a little from Tip, he can see Tip well, though.