The Oz Books, it must be said, got goofier and wonkier as they went on. In The Tin Woodman of Oz, Baum introduced Nick Chopper's counterpart: Captain Fyter, the Tin Soldier of Oz. I believe (although I could be wrong) that this was the Tin Soldier's first and last appearance in the Baum books. It's not one of L. Frank's better ideas, frankly, although I did once toy with the notion of writing my own Oz book starring the stalwart Fyter.
This is the 37th card I've made. Earlier today I went through the whole deck (so far) and made a few changes of suit and numerology, because I did have several duplicate numbers. This was a good step towards bringing the whole into alignment as an occult deck, and there may be more changes like that as I get closer to finishing the project. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm at the point where I have to start thinking about the deck as a whole, not as just a random bunch of cards. These kinds of revisions are technical, though, so I won't be posting updated versions here at the site.
I'm not sure if I've posted this before, but this is part of my methodology: Red cards from the Quadling Country represent the Earth element, Yellow cards from the Winkie country represent the Air element, Purple cards from the Gillikin country represent Fire and Blue cards from the Munchkin country represent water. If the colors seem off, that's because these are the colors of the country of origin, not the element.
There is some argument as to whether the Munchkin country lies to the East or the West of Oz. Different Maps place it in different areas. I am a purist, and insist that Munchkin and lies in the East, while the land of the Winkies lies to the West. Gillikins live in the North and Quadlings in the south.
"And that'thhhh," as Lily Tomlin used to say, "the Trutttttthhhhh...."
-- Freder.
www.ducksoup.me
