Cheshire Crossing is a fantasy webcomic written and originally illustrated by Andy Weir from 2006 to 2008, and later re-illustrated by Sarah Andersen for Tapas from 2017 to 2019. The latter version was published as a graphic novel by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House, in 2019. The story, taking place in the early 1900s, takes characters from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan, and follows Alice Liddell, Dorothy Gale, and Wendy Darling after they are united at "Cheshire Crossing" by the mysterious Dr. Ernest Rutherford and Miss Mary Poppins (renamed Miss Poole in some versions) to study their abilities to travel between worlds before facing the combined forces of the reconstituted Wicked Witch of the West and Captain Hook.
The graphic novel was adapted into an audio drama, and has also been optioned for a film adaptation.
Plot
Overview Wendy Darling, Dorothy Gale, and Alice Liddell are all teenagers who have been diagnosed with "dissociative psychosis" following their respective travels to other worlds. The three have been committed to various wards and sanitariums, including Dorothy receiving electroshock therapy. By 1910, the characters are teenagers and are no longer sweet or naive as in the original works. The three are all sent by their parents to Cheshire Crossing, an English boarding school and research facility where they are the only patients. Dr Rutherford, who leads the institution, genuinely believes the girls can travel between worlds and wants to help them with their powers, and has appointed a nanny to care for them who carries an umbrella and has some powers of her own. Alice uses Dorothy's slippers to travel to Oz; Wendy is taken along with her while trying to stop her.
Their adventures continue between Earth, Neverland, Wonderland, and Oz, dealing with the Wicked Witch of the West and Captain Hook, who team up both for villainy and love. Many other characters from the original works appear, including the Cheshire Cat, the Knave of Hearts, The Mad Hatter, Tinkerbell, Munchkins, flying monkeys, and Peter Pan, who ages up during the story and obsesses over Alice.
Detailed synopsis There are some small changes between the various versions of the story. Most notably, the name of the nanny was changed from Mary Poppins to Ms. Gwendolyn Poole. The plot summary below describes the original version, with any changes marked with footnotes.
Issue 1 In 1904, Alice Liddell's parents discover her unconscious on the grounds of their estate, after she was missing for six days. After having her see a doctor, they ponder aloud where she was for that time and what happened to her, as Alice sits silently in her bed.
Six years later, Alice is brought to the apparent mental institution "Cheshire Crossing" by Mary Poppins, where she meets Wendy Darling and is told to await a third girl. Alice finds the windows are locked while Wendy practices throwing knives. Both briefly discuss their diagnoses of "dissociative psychosis" (described in the comic as meaning "crazy by means of creating an imaginary world"), talking of "Neverland" and "Wonderland" and their histories in similar institutions, both seeing the other as mad. After the arrival of the third girl, the American Dorothy Gale, Poppins brings them before Dr. Ernest Rutherford, who reveals Cheshire Crossing is a research facility and that he knows all three girls are sane and capable of travelling to other worlds. He informs them that experiments will begin the following day, to Alice's dismay, who expresses her not wanting to be a lab rat. They are then sent to shared sleeping quarters by Poppins, who Rutherford says will be their nanny and tutor.
That night, Dorothy asks Alice and Wendy about Wonderland and Neverland, revealing she first travelled to Oz in a tornado, but now can go any time using a pair of ruby slippers and calling out "There's no place like Oz". After prompting, Alice reveals she can travel to Wonderland via any reflective surface, most commonly mirrors, while Wendy states Neverland is located at "the second star to the right". After Alice attempts to escape, thwarted by Poppins, Alice takes Dorothy's slippers while she is asleep and uses them to flee to Oz, inadvertently taking Wendy with her.
After waking in Oz, Alice's arrival is detected by the Wicked Witch of the West with her crystal ball. West is surprised to see the slippers on someone other than Dorothy and sends a squad of flying monkeys to retrieve them. Both West and Alice are shocked when, after the flying monkeys lift her up into the air, Wendy flies into the air and rescues Alice. Wendy and Alice land in the poppy field which puts Wendy to sleep, but Alice resists due to a high laudanum tolerance. Alice flees to Wonderland through a nearby pond, where she is greeted by the Cheshire Cat.
Issue 2 In a flashback, Dorothy is informed by Glinda the Good in Oz how to use the slippers to return to her home in Kansas, before she realizes Glinda could have told her earlier and had manipulated her into killing the Wicked Witch of the West for her. In the present, at Cheshire Crossing, Dorothy tells Poppins and Rutherford of Alice's actions. Rutherford says that Dorothy's "powers are inherent" and tells her to go to Oz. After saying "There's no place like Oz", Dorothy is transported to Oz with Poppins, who explains to her that rather than the slippers providing her the power to travel to Oz, she herself had provided the power to the shoes, having subconsciously brought herself and her house to Oz previously during the previous tornado. Dorothy and Poppins follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Munchkin Village, where Dorothy is surprised to learn from its mayor that the Wicked Witch of the West is alive again, having returned a few months prior, and has captured "a girl from afar". Dorothy is berated for "sheer carelessness" by Poppins upon revealing she had previously accidentally killed both the Wicked Witch of the West and her sister.
In Wonderland, Alice is greeted by Jack the Knave of Hearts and his playing card soldiers, who hail her as a hero for having previously stood up to the Queen of Hearts. Grateful for her having previously saved him at his trial, Jack introduces her to the rebel troupe she inspired (including the Hatter). Alice offers to bring Jack and his troupe to Oz in exchange for helping to find and save Wendy. In West's castle, a shackled Wendy attempts to escape before being knocked unconscious by West. West examines Wendy and finds she is a "conduit to another world". After consulting dark spirits about this world, West learns its name, Neverland, and that it has fairies. Now viewing the slippers as unimportant, West has Wendy brought to her casting chamber, and uses her to create a gate to Neverland.
Outside the castle, in the mountains of Oz, Dorothy and Poppins encounter Alice and Jack's troupe after being led to them by Glinda after Alice had re-entered Oz with Jack's troupe. After returning Dorothy's slippers, Alice uses a shrinking potion she acquired from Wonderland to sneak past the Winkies, West's personal guards, then grows again with a magic cake and opens the castle's door from the inside. After overcoming the guards, the troupe reaches the Witch's casting room as she opens a portal to Neverland. Upon seeing Dorothy, West attempts to disintegrate her, but Poppins protects her with her umbrella. As Poppins battles West, the Cheshire Cat frees Wendy and she saves Alice and Dorothy from King Nikko of the flying monkeys. Recognizing Poppins as a fellow witch, and citing the "strange rules" of Oz, West splashes Poppins with a bucket of water, melting her. Enraged, Dorothy punches West through the portal to Neverland, closing it behind her. Dorothy believes Poppins can be restored, given that West had returned from Dorothy previously melting her, and Alice gathers Poppins' remains into a bucket to return her to Rutherford. Meanwhile, in Neverland, West wakes on the pirate ship of Captain James Hook, and explains to him that she had designed the portal to bring her to "the most evil being in Neverland".
Issue 3 One month later, on his ship, Captain Hook and his crew have raided half the fairy villages of Neverland, and presents the fairies to the Wicked Witch of the West as Smee sends word of Peter's and "Tink" Tinker Bell's arrival to rescue them. West hits Peter with lightning, rendering him unconscious, while Tink flees, all according to Hook's plan.
At Cheshire Crossing, Rutherford and his assistant Lem examine Poppins' remains to find that she is slowly reforming to her original configuration, but it would take her years to completely reform if left on her own. Meanwhile, while doing her hair, Dorothy finds she can now pass through mirrors like Alice. She tells Alice this who warns Dorothy not to do it again. Tink then crashes through the window and relays the circumstances of Peter's and the fairies' kidnapping to Wendy. After informing Alice and Dorothy of the situation, they agree to join her in rescuing them, and Tink provides the pair with fairy dust to allow them to fly like Wendy, powered by "happy thoughts". To fly, Dorothy thinks of her aunt, while Alice thinks of a man named Richard, which she is teased for. While flying to Neverland, Dorothy draws up a plan to rescue Peter, deciding that she will confront the Witch while Wendy distracts the pirates and Alice shrinks herself to rescue the fairies.
Upon arriving in Neverland and approaching Hook's ship, the trio put their plan into motion. While Hook and West are becoming romantically involved as he teaches her to how to pilot his ship, Wendy flies in above to distract them, while Dorothy throws a bucket of water at West from behind her, but it has no effect – witches are only weak to water in Oz. After Dorothy dodges West's lightning, West uses a spell to disable flight in the area, grounding both girls and Tink. After embarking in a duel with Hook, Wendy is stabbed in the gut and falls overboard. Elsewhere, a cornered Dorothy also throws the slippers overboard to keep them from West and tricks her into burning her own face, before being taken prisoner by Hook. Meanwhile Alice, having snuck into Hook's quarters, is unable to open the orb in which the fairies are imprisoned and hides in Wonderland through Hook's mirror before he and West enter. After they leave the room again, Alice returns and drags the unconscious Peter through the mirror into Wonderland. After waking Peter and explaining the situation, Alice decides they will require stronger magic to defeat West and ventures into the Tumtum Forest with Peter to retrieve the Vorpal Sword, while avoiding the Jabberwock.
Wendy is rescued by a mermaid, who delivers her and the slippers to the Neverland tribe of Tiger Lily, who knows Wendy as "Pan-Mother". After waking, Wendy is surprised that Tiger Lily has healed her, despite her wound having been a fatal one. After attempting to leave, Wendy feels woozy. Tiger Lily tells her that she needs a day of sleep to fully recover, and Wendy falls asleep again. The next day, Alice wakes in Wonderland to find Peter, having been eating the size-altering berries of Tumtum Forest, to have physically grown up. Peter now finds Alice pretty, and her chest "interesting", although he has no idea why. As Peter continues discussing his "weird feelings" with Alice, he remarks that he sees Wendy as his mother, as she had agreed to raise him and his friends.