Disney’s new tent pole, Oz the Great and Powerful, opens across the country today and, already, the box-office figures from midnight screenings indicate the film is going to be huge. The film is a prequel to the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, and is based on material from the original book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, rather than the movie.
Timed to coincide with the release of Oz the Great and Powerful is the release of a new edition of Baum’s book by publishing house Harper Collins. To illustrate the book, the publishers called on Austin artist Michael Sieben, who is also known as a member of Austin’s Okay Mountain collective of artists, as well as the co-owner of Roger Skateboards. Sieben, who confessed last month in an Austin Chronicle interview that his “very first paying gig as an illustrator” came from this publication, also discusses in that piece the process of how he got this illustrious job and why he remains in Austin.
So, after seeing the movie and dropping money into Disney’s coffers, you might think about stopping by the bookstore on the way home to support the books that make the movies famous.
This article appears in March 8 • 2013.
