A girl, her dog, and a diva off to see the Wizard...
Off to Oz is a reimagining of The Wizard of Oz that focuses on themes of diversity and acceptance told in a graphic novel form. The goal for this project was to recreate the characters and story of The Wizard of Oz to feel more up to date, and to deal with topics that would be helpful and entertaining to young readers! I also wanted to pick a visual style that felt fun, bright, and utilized a lot riso elements (both physically and digitally). Scroll below to learn more about this project! Enjoy!
The Comic
Deliverables
Dorothy
Dorothy is a young woman from Kansas who wants to find her way back home. After hearing about this Wizard fella, she decides she could ask him to whip up a potion or something that zips her straight back to Kansas. Acting as the leader of the crew, Dorothy often finds herself putting others problems before her own, but that's okay, right? Sometimes she just wants to be a girl, have fun, and not worry about all that has landed on her plate!
Scarecrow
Scarecrow, ironically, is scared of everything. He's a diva with astronomical levels of anxiety and worry, but that's okay! Scarecrow would like to ask Oz for a brain as he feels it will help him manage his worries better, ultimately making him less of a bother for his friends.
Lionne
Lionne is our Lion, well Lioness, in this version. She's the Princess of the Emerald Forest Kingdom and longs to break free from her father's grasp. Lionne dreams of finding the woman of her dreams and living happily ever after. She wants to ask Oz for courage so she can stand up to her father and finally live out this fantasy.
Tinny
Tinny is our "tin person" in this story. Dorothy and Scarecrow stumbled upon Tinny all rusted up in the forest one day. After a quick oil change, the two were able to help them get back on their feet (literally). Tinny doesn't speak much, so they want to ask Oz for a heart as they feel this could help them open up and be expressive like everyone else.
Toto
And then there's little Toto. Toto is Dorothy's best friend, but often finds himself in sticky situations. He means well but he's also a dog, and sometimes he just can't ignore his little dog tendencies. We still adore him though!
Type
For typefaces, I chose to create two systems: one for branding, and another one that would only appear in the comics.
For the branding system, I chose Synthemesc as my main typeface as I felt it was whimsical like the world of Oz, but was also legible. The next two typefaces I chose were Poppins Regular and Poppins Semibold. I landed on these as I felt they were a nice simple contrast from all the character that Synthemesc has.
As for the type system in the comics, I wanted these to feel like a classic graphic novel or manga. I felt it was important for readers to feel like this was something recognizable. To achieve that, I used Anime Ace 2.0 for main dialogue, Cracker Banana for smaller dialogue (like characters talking under their breath), and Palooka BB for sound effects.
Color
For color, I chose ones that I knew would work well with the zine I had created. A cobalt blue and bright pink to represent the riso colors I used, and a pale purple/pink color to represent the paper I had printed on. To bring the riso and paper elements all together I added a digital grain texture to emulate the way the physical print feels.
Concepts
Below are initial sketches and explorations for both character design and branding.
Mockups and texture used designed by Freepik, tirachard, and Vectonauta.
