Zenescope's Joe Brusha Talks Heading to Oz

After years spent playing in the Grimm Fairy Tales playground, Zenescope announced last month that [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Oz01CandD

After years spent playing in the Grimm Fairy Tales playground, Zenescope announced last month that they will add the realm of Oz to their fictional landscape. Zenescope's President and co-founder, Joe Brusha, will write the series, which has been hinted at for quite some time. Oz will finally make its debut at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con and hit retailer shelves in late July. Brusha joined ComicBook.com to talk about the series and what fans can expect from his version of somewhere over the rainbow. ComicBook.com: You've been teasing Oz for a long time; what makes this the right time to launch? Joe Brusha: The story is ready to be told. We've been planning this series for years and working out how it ties into the Grimm Universe. It took some time to figure everything out and plan a way to launch the series so that it adds to and impacts the Mythology of Grimm and the other Realms of Power in the universe. Once we finished planning that out we went into production on the series. ComicBook.com: What separates this Oz from others we've seen lately? Brusha: I think it's both darker and has more adventure than the other iterations I've seen lately. That and the fact that it ties into a much larger universe where every other Oz story I've seen deals with the land of Oz alone.

Oz01B

ComicBook.com: The other realms interact to a degree; will we be seeing that or will Oz stay self-contained for now? Brusha: It will be self-contained for the short term although there are references to the other realms throughout this first story arc. The plan is to slowly bring it into the Grimm Universe in terms of interaction with the other realms. ComicBook.com: There's obviously a great number of fascinating characters in Oz. Are you going to have a broader base or focus on the ones that are most familiar? Brusha: Mainly this story will focus on the most familiar characters. There are several new ones and for the most part all of the familiar characters have been reinvented but if you're familiar with the Wizard of Oz you'll recognize the majority of the characters. ComicBook.com: Now - I'm not a big Oz expert. Is the idea that Dorothy is kind of a chosen one something that's known in the mythology, or is that new to the comics? Brusha: From all of the research I've done into the original Oz stores it's something new to our version of the story. Again that ties directly into the overall universe that we've created and the idea that there are Highborn characters that get their powers from these Realms of Power.

Trending Now: