Bloodstained Oz

As the unsubtle title of this deliciously gruesome novella suggests, Golden (The Myth Hunters ) and Moore (Writ in Blood ) have turned L. Frank Baum's concept of a wonderland "solely to pleasure children" into a nightmare intended to frighten adults. A storm propels much of arid Depression-era Kansas to an Oz inhabited by horrifying, vampiric simulacra of Dorothy's beloved companions, as shown in Glenn Chadbourne's lurid jacket art and interior drawings. Chunks of shattered bones, mounds of consumed flesh and worse litter this Oz. Many readers will agree with Ray Garton, who in his introduction claims he can never watch the Wizard of Oz film in the same innocent way again. (May)