Review: ‘The Patchwork Girl Of Oz’ #3 Brings Trouble

The cover features a variety of hues with most of them being dark in order to highlight the lighter coloring of the bottle and trade dress. As for the design it feels simplistic, but it is not generic or unique.

Writer/illustrator/letterer/colorist Otis Frampton continues to be writing for the trade when it comes to the issue openings. This results in the first sentences coming across a bit like non-sequiturs. Nevertheless, he seems to be doing a relatively fine job with the cliffhangers. Speaking of the cliffhangers, this issue’s end point features a very cinematic style choice for the visual aspects that is rather debatable. Frampton’s use of this cinematic effect gives the ending a quality similar to a storyboard for animation. Although this is a fun effect it overly highlights certain elements of the narrative while obscuring others. Considering this is an adaptation primarily meant for early readers it will probably work best in a collection for their understanding.

When it comes to the lettering Frampton keeps up a high enough level of quality. Though there is arguably nothing astounding about the lettering in this installment there are some nice attempts at playing with the fonts.

The coloring is by Frampton and colorists Tracy Bailey and Kate Frampton and they all do a marvelous job. All of the pages are consistent in how the coloring looks in terms of application. Also there is remains a vibrant range to the color palettes. This means that all of the high quality that one sees in the previous issue is still in this one. Yet, the addition of Bailey does suggest that there may be some struggles when it comes to adapting the original novel (The Patchwork Girl of Oz [1913] by author Lyman Frank Baum). Hopefully this does not lead to any other creative disruptions, especially that of schedule slippage.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz #3 is out now from Image Comics.