BATTLE BRICK ROAD (2020 – ?)

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at the independent comic book series Battle Brick Road from Eric Weathers, Farah Nurmaliza and Zeb Hatfield.

BATTLE BRICK ROAD IS NOT TO BE MISSED.

This ongoing series is an exciting work from some of the most daring and visionary creators in sequential art today.

Battle Brick Road presents a post-apocalyptic take on Frank Baum’s Oz stories twisted through the ingenious prism of artist ERIC WEATHERS and writer ZEB HATFIELD with lettering by FARAH NURMALIZA.

Get ready for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion like you’ve never seen them before – as technologically and biologically enhanced warriors in a dystopian world that not even Mad Max could survive.

Battle-hardened, survival savvy Dorothea Gale – Thea for short – searches for her father through the futuristic technological wasteland called O.Z. (Operation Zephyr).

At her side is the hovering A.I. named T.O.T.O. (Target Objective Tactical Overwatch) and the mysterious Scarecrow, a vigilante skilled with firearms AND a deadly scythe.

Also accompanying Thea are the Tin Man, an axe-wielding mechanoid warrior, and the Lion, a savage, anthropomorphic man-beast who knows no fear.

Put them all together and they’re not only merely deadly, they’re really most sincerely deadly. (Sorry. Had to be said.)

The bleak world of OZ has wound up divided into four separate spheres of influence, ruled over by the Watchers of the North, South, East and West.

And it should go without saying, but take it from me – some of those Watchers can be downright wicked!

(Sorry again. I’ll stop now. I promise.)

Our heroine has no choice but to take them on if she wants to have any hope of finding her father. And with most of the American West rendered uninhabitable for the past fifty years, where else is she to go really?

The Watchers are served by their armies of perverted biological and technological creations, with only Thea, Scarecrow, TOTO, the Tin Man and the Lion standing against them.

Personally, I got a lot of enjoyment from the often-clever ways that the creative team behind Battle Brick Road reimagined Frank Baum’s creations in the context of a post-apocalyptic action epic.

It had me looking forward to how they would present other Oz figures like the female military leader General Jinjur, the wide-eyed and wondering Jack Pumpkinhead, and Princess Ozma, the realm’s true ruler.

If you liked Eric Weathers’ magnificent graphic novel FLYING FORTRESS, then you need to start immersing yourself in BATTLE BRICK ROAD.

I’m hoping Zeb Hatfield someday writes a story titled Hatfields and McCoys: 2120 A.D. But I’m kind of weird.

Putting aside all of my lame jokes, though, this series really stands out among the flood of independent comic books coming out ever since crowdfunding became a thing.

Battle Brick Road‘s creators go about this pastiche in what I consider to be the best way for such works. Things are played straight, without constant cutesy winks and nods to the reader.

A tale like this needs to treat the Baum books like they’ve never even existed in-universe, so no convoluted explanations are needed for why so much of this post-apocalypse tableau parallels those novels.

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