Costume designs for The Wiz (1978).

Costume designs for The Wiz (1978). The Wiz is a musical, but there’s nothing jolly about it. It’s a sinister film. Dorothy and her companions travel through a strangely abandoned, urban Oz; and whenever they do encounter other characters, they are often hostile in a quiet but persistent way, casually cruel and colorful, like bizarre survivors of a nuclear holocaust (the nightmarish Subway Peddler, above, is one of those characters). It seems like it’s Sunday for most of the time, about 6 o’clock in the evening: it’s dusk, dim, the sky is overcast, the streetlights are on, though they light the way for nobody.

Some of Bob Ringwood’s masterful concept art for Batman (1989).

Some of Bob Ringwood’s masterful concept art for Batman (1989).