Who was Dick Martin, and how did he get involved in Oz?
Dickinson Payne Martin was born June 29, 1927 in Chicago, and was a lifelong resident of the Windy City. Inspired by John R. Neill’s illustrations in the Oz books, he studied at several art colleges while still in high school. Martin’s art appeared in magazines and newspapers, on greeting and playing cards, and on posters and advertisements, but he especially enjoyed illustrating books. He did a lot of illustrating work for Reilly and Lee in the 1960s, including The Visitors from Oz, adaptations of some of Baum’s Oz books, and Merry Go Round in Oz. He also redesigned the Baum Oz books and wrote and illustrated an advertising newspaper, The Ozmapolitan. For IWOC, he illustrated a set of Oz maps (which he also helped to research and design), Yankee in Oz, The Enchanted Island of Oz, The Forbidden Fountain of Oz, and Animal Fairy Tales, as well as assembling two books of his own sketches, and writing and illustrating the novel The Ozmapolitan of Oz. He co-authored The Oz Scrapbook with Da
