Sergio Aragonés’ stand for creator’s
hnson Dan Jo
to treat the material.”
rights over Groo led him to walk away from main-
The plug was pulled on The Wiz when DC got wind
stream comics in the mid-1970s. A project that was
that the film was not going to be the blockbuster the
affected by his departure was a comics adaptation of
studio was hoping it would be. For Evanier, The Wiz
The Wiz—the “reimagining” of The Wizard of Oz with
being canned wasn’t too big of a disappointment. Even
an all-black cast, including Diana Ross and Michael
though the project was aborted, some good did come
Jackson—which he was slated to do with Mark Evanier
out of it. “One of the motives I had for doing the book
for DC Comics. Evanier wrote the adaptation’s script
was, Dan wanted to work for DC, and I thought he should
and replacement artist Dan Spiegle penciled the entire
work for DC,” says Evanier. “The fact that Orlando
book and inked around 22 pages before the project
wanted him on this project was a sign that I wanted
was cancelled.
to encourage. Orlando called me first and asked me
Had The Wiz been released, it would have been pub-
what I thought the problems would be if we called [The
lished in a magazine format with photos and related
Wiz] off. I told him, ‘I can’t speak for Dan, but if I were
articles. DC hoped that The Wiz would reach a broader
you, I would offer him a lot of other work in
audience beyond the one that was buying super-hero
exchange for stopping in the middle of the project after
comics at the time. There was even some talk of selling
he had cleared his schedule to do this book.’ DC gave
the magazine as a souvenir book in the lobby of the
Dan another comic to draw the next day, and he
theaters that showed the movie.
worked pretty steadily for DC for years after.”
Originally The Wiz adaptation was going to be written by Len Wein, drawn by Sergio Aragonés, and edited by Joe Orlando. When Wein left the project because of other writing commitments, Aragonés suggested that DC hire
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Mark Evanier to write it. When Aragonés vacated the project, the only thing that kept Evanier interested was Orlando’s suggestion to bring Spiegle on board. Spiegle, who had worked with Evanier previously on Scooby-Doo, the film and television adaptations he had done for Dell and Gold Key. Orlando got a copy of the screenplay before Evanier did, and he was the one who noted what parts of the screenplay should be omitted for the adaptation and what parts should be played up. “Joe and I had this one-hour long phone conversation where he read me his notes and I wrote them down, and they were my
Even though DC decided not to publish its adaptation of The Wiz, one of the movie’s stars, Michael Jackson, eventually danced his way into comic books. Captain Eo, a 17-minute 3-D movie starring the King of Pop, was produced in 1987 by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola for exclusive showings in Disney theme parks. Eclipse Comics published a 3-D adaptation of the film, illustrated by Thomas Yeates and released
blueprints,” says Evanier. “The result was one of those
in two formats: as a traditional comic book and in an
comics where I felt that I didn’t have any of myself
original art-sized souvenir edition sold exclusively at Disney
invested in it. If anything, it was Joe’s choice of how
gift shops.
G o d s
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© 1987 Walt Disney Corp.
was considered an excellent replacement because of
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