The following is an interview with critically acclaimed writer David Pepose (Savage Avengers, Space Ghost, Speed Racer) on returning to Kickstarter for the third and final installment of the series, The O.Z. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Pepose about bringing the characters’ journey to a close, the incredible backer rewards available through the campaign, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: You recently returned to Kickstarter for the third and final installment of The O.Z. Where will readers find themselves in Dorothy’s journey with this final adventure?
David Pepose: For those who aren’t familiar with The O.Z., our series is like what if Mad Max took place in the Wizard of Oz. It’s the story of Dorothy Gale’s granddaughter and namesake, an Iraq War veteran who’s caught up in a tornado and stranded in the war-torn land of Oz — where she learns her grandmother’s sudden departure after killing the Wicked Witch only plunged the country into decades of brutal civil war. Now our new Dorothy has teamed up with her grandmother’s former friends to bring peace to the Occupied Zone… or as the locals call it, the O.Z.
Of course, no plan goes off without a snag, and Dorothy and her Yellow Brick Road Warriors found themselves in dire peril, which is where our story picks up in this third Kickstarter. Dorothy had been in a race against time to stop the evil Scarecrow from finding the all-powerful Silver Slippers to invade our world — unfortunately, she and her crew have been locked up in the Scarecrow’s dungeons, with one of the Silver Slippers magically latched onto Dorothy’s foot.
Which means Dorothy’s got a problem — she’s locked in a battle of wills with the Scarecrow, who desperately needs her to give up the slipper. Who will break first? It’ll all boil down to our epic blockbuster finale, where the Resistance will face the Strawman Army, and Dorothy will learn exactly what secrets are going on inside the Scarecrow’s head. There’s going to be a lot of big character moments and twists for The O.Z.’s third and final issue, so you won’t want to miss any of the big payoffs we’ve got planned.
BD: You and artist Ruben Rojas have spent more than 6 years with this world and its characters. What can you tell us about your experience in bringing their journey to a close?
DP: We’ve been hard at work on this final issue of The O.Z. ever since the last Kickstarter wrapped up, but between various family and day job obligations, it took some time for our amazing artist Ruben Rojas to Shawshank his way through our giant-sized finale. That said, as a result, once I was able to revisit the finished pages for my lettering pass, it was almost like an out-of-body experience seeing that story I’d written all those years ago as a younger and scrappier writer, and be able to revisit and polish the dialogue as a more seasoned and experienced creator.
Looking at the entirety of The O.Z., I can’t help but look back on it with a sense of fondness and affection, not just for the story and the execution, but knowing who I was back then. And of course, it was also very satisfying to see that all those crazy ideas I had when I was starting out really did work — The O.Z. as an exercise in storytelling, in character-work, in world-building, in remixing preexisting mythology, it all really still holds up.
BD: Throughout your writing career, you have crafted incredible, new worlds and characters who resonate deeply with audiences and readers. Looking back at The O.Z. series, why do you feel that it stands out in your award-winning catalog of work?
DP: The O.Z. is the biggest leap of faith in my career — and indeed, this was the series that made me an award-winning creator to begin with, with The O.Z. #1 having won the Ringo Award in 2021 for Best Single Issue. This was a book that we didn’t wait for a publisher’s permission to see it through — I wrote The O.Z. purely on my own, assembled our creative team, self-financed it out of my own pocket. And seeing that we had such an overwhelmingly supportive readership still come out of that, when nobody knew who I was? That still means everything to me.
But beyond what the book means to me in terms of my career, The O.Z. is also just hands-down one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever worked on. There’s a reason we took so long between campaigns — Ruben Rojas’s artwork is the heart of the book, he’s breathed so much life into the Occupied Zone with his incredible designs and his impeccable storytelling. Combine that with Whitney Cogar’s sensational colors, and you’ve got a book that would be worth the price of admission, even without DC Hopkins’ amazing lettering of my dialogue. Even though it took years in the making, knowing that we were able to finish The O.Z. with a consistency in storytelling and in our creative team is something I am deeply proud of.
BD: You are no stranger to Kickstarter, having funded several successful campaigns. Why do you feel that crowdfunding has become such a vital resource for today’s comics creators and publishers?
DP: Kickstarter is an invaluable part of the comics community, and I always want to be a part of that constituency for as long as the readers will have me. While there’s certainly a learning curve with your first Kickstarter — how do you navigate a printer, how do you fold a Gemini mailer, what’s Pirate Shipping??? — once you figure it out, there’s ultimately something so empowering about not having to wait for a publisher’s permission to tell a story.
The Kickstarter community is as adventurous and omnivorous of a readership as any I’ve seen in the comics industry, and I am so grateful that these readers will go off the beaten path to give creators a chance, even when they’re not tapping into corporate multimedia franchises or conforming to a traditional publishing company. Kickstarter backers are truly patrons of the arts, and it’s one of the great highlights of my career to be able to interact with them individually.
Kickstarter really is the great equalizer in the comics industry, and the Kickstarter community really has given me so much with their support for The O.Z. Like I said, this is the series that won us the Ringo Award, it got me on Marvel’s radar. Honestly, I couldn’t have paid for IVF for my daughter if I hadn’t done these campaigns! Kickstarter not only has made me a better creator, but it’s also changed my life dramatically, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.
BD: In light of the Kickstarter launch, are there any particular backer rewards that you’re most excited to highlight for our readers?
DP: Knowing that it’s been a little while since our previous campaign, I wanted to make sure The O.Z.’s latest Kickstarter was accessible for newcomers and returning fans alike — so if you missed out on our earlier issues, we’ve got print and digital catchup tiers so you can get all three issues of The O.Z. in one shot. Meanwhile, if you’re a collector, we’ve got some incredible variant covers from Maan House, Joshua Hood, and Serg Acuña — and if you’re really into collecting variants, we’ll even have tiers for all fourteen covers we’ve released for The O.Z.
We’ve also got some really fun stretch rewards planned for this series, some of which I can’t even share yet — we’ve got some exciting ways to enhance the book that’ll really increase our finale’s value even further, plus we’ve got exclusive stickers, bookmarks, and enamel pins that backers will be able to purchase. I’m especially excited for a stretch goal reward we’ve got coming up, where we’ll have a fully illustrated map of The O.Z. from artist Kenneth Wagnon, as well as a special “closing credits” theme by the extremely talented George Marston.
And beyond that, I’m very excited to say that we’ll have trade paperbacks for all of my other series — everything from Spencer & Locke and Savage Avengers to Space Ghost and Speed Racer — available as individual add-ons for every physical pledge, or collected in discounted bundle sets. I want this Kickstarter to really serve as a storefront for anyone who’s even remotely curious about any of my work — it really is a one-stop-shop to catch up on anything!
BD: Are there any other projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
DP: Beyond The O.Z.’s exciting return, we’ve got some really fun stuff coming up in my run on Space Ghost, which wraps up its second volume in Space Ghost Annual in July. Artist Jonathan Lau and I are tying a nice bow on the storyline we’ve been telling for the last year, as Space Ghost has a fateful conversation about his future in the wake of defeating Tempus the Time-Master. Meanwhile, we’ll have an adventure with Space Ghost and his sidekicks Jan, Jace, and Blip, as they must stop a dangerous heist from a pair of thieves named Magnus and the Alien. These two storylines will converge in a pretty unexpected but dramatic fashion, as Space Ghost grapples with guilt and responsibility not just as a superhero, but as a surrogate father figure to Jan and Jace.
Of course, that annual also tees up our big Space Ghost event kicking off in September… as Alex Toth’s other team of sci-fi adventurers the Herculoids will be joining our series for an epic five-part storyline! I love the space barbarian Zandor, his formidable wife Tara, their acrobatic son Dorno, and the five interstellar kaiju that make up the Herculoids — Zok the Star-Dragon, Igoo the mighty Rock-Ape, Tundro the living tank, and the protoplasms Gloop and Gleep — and how they inject science-fantasy into the cosmic superhero world of Space Ghost.
Our story will revolve around the Herculoids’ homeworld of Amzot, as well as the discovery of Quasarite, the mysterious energy rock that powers the planets’ strange and deadly mutations. Without spoiling too much, people are going to want Quasarite for their own military applications, and that first strike will put Zandor and his Herculoids on the warpath. Imagine Space Ghost teaming up with an interstellar version of Conan the Barbarian, and you’ve got an idea of what we’re going for here — Space Ghost and Zandor will certainly have their differences at first, so it’ll come down to how much they love their kids to see if they can find a way to work together.
Meanwhile, we’ve got our “Demon on Wheels” storyline kicking off for Speed Racer, which will wrap up me and artist Davide Tinto’s second arc on the series. The story will follow Speed as he’s accidentally exposed to an experimental street drug known as “V-Gas” — it’s being used by shady drivers as a performance enhancer, but for Speed, it’s going to completely untether him from his standard moral compass.
We’re going to see Speed fully unleashed on the tracks, and neither he nor his supporting cast are going to really know what’s going on — except for Racer X, who realizes the V-Gas has a connection to his mysterious past. So not only am I very excited for readers to see the devastation that unfolds as Speed drives like a man possessed, but when you see the action-packed finale, as Speed goes head-to-head with Racer X in the heart of an active volcano. Ultimately, this storyline really puts a lot of focus on Speed’s supporting cast, from his new girlfriend Trixie to his father Pops to his kid brother Spritle, as they work together with Racer X to pull Speed back from the brink… before he does something he’ll really regret.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to support The O.Z. on Kickstarter and to find your other work?
DP: The best thing you can do to support The O.Z. is to back us early here — we’ll have early bird discounts in the first 48 hours to incentivize this, but every backer who shows up in the first two days helps drive us up higher in Kickstarter’s algorithm.
The O.Z. is a book that’s very special to me, and I wanted to make sure that this campaign invited as many people to the table as possible, so whether you’re new to our series, returning as a Yellow Brick Road Warrior, or a fan of any of my other series, you’ll find a lot to like about this third and final Kickstarter!
