Wicked: The Graphic Novel Part 1 by Gregory Maguire and Scott Hampton

Like Dorothy when she crash-landed all those years ago, prepare to be swept into a new and colorful world in this first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Wicked. While the long-running Broadway musical and major motion picture take inspiration from this iconic novel, this is Oz as Gregory Maguire wrote it—a fantastical story with dark edges that explores morality and ambition, love and friendship, and discovering one’s inner power.

Elphaba was born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens.

But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.