Highland Park author releases first graphic novel in long-term ‘Ultimate Oz Universe’ project

Larry King spent the last 12 years researching and organizing a new graphic novel series titled “Ultimate Oz Universe,” set after L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wizard of Oz” ends.

The first installment, “The Lost Lands,” was released on Nov. 11. Working with a variety of artists, producers and historians, the Highland Park resident has big plans for the project’s future.

“People know ‘The Wizard of Oz’,” King said. “We’re starting with — this is what happened in Oz after Dorothy left the first time, because she comes and goes, which a lot of people don’t know.”

Unearthing details like that helped inspire King and others involved with the project to undertake this endeavor. King says there’s an almost endless amount of source material to work with, and the goal is to synthesize it all by telling the most important stories through the most important characters.

The original “The Wizard of Oz” was published in 1900, and a movie adaptation hit theaters in 1939. The musical stage production “Wicked,” a prequel, garnered national attention 64 years later and has since been adapted into films, with the second in theaters now.

“I’m currently creating a source book and doing profiles on every character, and we’re only at like character 600,” King said. “I feel like I’m not even half way done.”

King is working with Baum historians Jay Duncan, Julie McNulty and Mike Bujnack to make sure their adaptation is accurate to the source material. He says they’ve scrupulously combed through all of Baum’s stories, which jump around in time and location, to create a digestible, chronological series.

“Getting every detail right was crucial,” King said in a press release. “We’re not trying to replace the stories fans love but offer new ways to dive deeper and connect the dots.”

King and Cullen Bunn are listed as “cowriters” on the first book, as King worked to develop the story and Bunn focused on the actual words in the speech bubbles. Mike Deodato Jr., a comic book artist who’s been involved in a lot of Marvel works over the years, is doing the art for the series.

Elton John wrote the foreword in “The Lost Lands,” detailing his love for Baum’s fantasy universe as well as the inspiration behind his hit song “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

King and his associates managed to reach John through Kevin McCollum, a producer on Broadway. King initially began this project as a musical — and one is still in the works covering events from the first five books — but after connecting with McCollum, they decided this was bigger than a 90-minute production.

Now that the first book is available on Amazon and in book stores, King says the second will likely be released some time next year, and he hopes to release about two a year until all 10 books are out — seven of which he’s already outlined. After that, he says there’s enough material for them to decide to go even further.

“It’s not just about Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man and the Wicked Witch of the West,” King said. “There’s a thousand characters, there’s hundreds of countries and lands and so much more creative fodder and interesting subplots and adventures that have happened.”