Peanuts: Search and Destroy

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some of the revelations are charming - all those famous female athletes snoopy loudly crushes on (peggy fleming et al) are there because schulz had mad crushes on them in real life.

my main problem with the book is that DM appears to have no discernable sense of humor, which leads to him interpreting every single aspect of schulz and "peanuts" in the dourest possible light.

J.D., Friday, 11 January 2008 00:02 (sixteen years ago) link

<quote>my main problem with the book is that DM appears to have no discernable sense of humor, which leads to him interpreting every single aspect of schulz and "peanuts" in the dourest possible light.</quote>

It's extra irritating when DM lapses into extended DO YOU SEE moments. The book is great and I'm glad I read it, but Schultz was spot-on when he said that "everything is in the strip." It really is.

Elvis Telecom, Friday, 11 January 2008 00:20 (sixteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

I am reading the bio right now and I can relate to this guy SO MUCH it is painful. Except I gave up my childhood dream of being a comics artist. That part is the different part.

Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Monday, 1 December 2008 23:14 (fifteen years ago) link

I don't like that last part of that post. Try again.

UEK - Big Tempin' (Oilyrags), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 01:39 (fifteen years ago) link

it's about time i gave this a reread. the stuff about the midwest in the first third of the book stuck with me more than anything else.

J.D., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 02:17 (fifteen years ago) link

An excerpt from the comics journal roundtable about the Schulz bio-- http://www.tcj.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=836&Itemid=48

The whole issue is great, devoted almost entirely to critique & analysis of the Michaelis book along with personal reminiscence by colleagues & family. Some people reacted very negatively towards the portrayal of Schulz. Highly, highly recommended in addition to the bio. Should still be available from the publisher.

ian, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 03:37 (fifteen years ago) link

Oily, it's not heresy & I shall not recant.

Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 03:49 (fifteen years ago) link

I've wanted to read this book VERY BADLY since it first came out. I read the first 100 pages in a bookstore this weekend and John finally talked me into buying it. And: I'm really glad I did!

Lately I'm scared of buying things.

Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 03:50 (fifteen years ago) link

That Michaelis book was much too Kitty Kelley. One of the only things I liked about it was finding out how much Schulz despised Garfield and Jim Davis.

Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 03:53 (fifteen years ago) link

do tell! (although I'm going to guess it had something to do with Davis farming out his art to contractors and reusing sketches; I think charles schultz drew every strip by hand by himself until he quit)

akm, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 04:37 (fifteen years ago) link

It was a library book so I don't have the book to quote from, but basically Schulz thought Davis was a cynical hack and Garfield was this nasty soulless strip created just to sell merch.

Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 05:01 (fifteen years ago) link

"Schulz took every opportunity in private to belittle (Jim) Davis as a cartoonist. Davis's smug cat celebrated laziness and cynicism, and Sparky loathed it; Garfield, he often said in private, was the 'ugliest, most insulting and vicious' character he had ever seen." — Schulz and Peanuts, page 529

J.D., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 05:14 (fifteen years ago) link

Even harsher than I remembered!

Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 05:16 (fifteen years ago) link

That makes Garfield seem like a certain kind of triumph!

Casuistry, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link

FOPP uk selling the complete volumes books for 8 quid a throw. possibly only the first couple/few but hey.

piscesx, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:14 (fifteen years ago) link

Did Ned ever get his frame I wonder..

MaresNest, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link

wtf@heresy? I just like your drawings and want more.

UEK - Big Tempin' (Oilyrags), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 15:25 (fifteen years ago) link

That makes Garfield seem like a certain kind of triumph!

It is, isn't it?

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 15:27 (fifteen years ago) link

A triumph over Mondays, amirite? so true.

өөө (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 15:51 (fifteen years ago) link

I have to say Garfield was a big inspiration to me as a kid and I learned to draw cartoons by practicing characters from U.S. Acres and Garfield.

Somehow it seems like Schulz's visual icons are untouchable (the little eye parentheses for disbelief, apostrophe eyes for incredulity, their way of walking, even his squiggly, loose style). Like yes everyone can use exclamation points & question marks, sweat tadpoles, clouds behind them for movement, motion lines, but not anything Schulz invented. I haven't seen his little icons anywhere else, it seems like they're left to him out of reverence & I want to employ some of them but it does feel like lighting a smoke with the Eternal Flame or something.

That's why it was okay to steal from Garfield.

Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 16:22 (fifteen years ago) link

lolz US Acres

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 16:39 (fifteen years ago) link

How did Schulz feel about "Marvin"?

өөө (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 16:43 (fifteen years ago) link

i love how 95 percent of the responses to that are like 'wtf is the matter with you' and then the original dude finally comes around

J.D., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link

i'm shocked i took such an extremist BF Skinner/Shakey Mo Collier position on this. i actually like much of it, just have never understood people really, really into Peanuts.

― sanskrit, Tuesday, June 5, 2007 1:33 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wtf I love Peanuts and BF Skinner is a jackass

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:19 (fifteen years ago) link

man i LOVED those "charlie brown super book of questions and answers" books, i probably still have a ton of out-of-date '70s information floating around my brain somewhere because of them.

J.D., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:20 (fifteen years ago) link

I have given up on my dream of owning all the Fantagraphics reprints :(
well at least I have the first four volumes.

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:21 (fifteen years ago) link

man i LOVED those "charlie brown super book of questions and answers" books, i probably still have a ton of out-of-date '70s information floating around my brain somewhere because of them.

― J.D., Tuesday, December 2, 2008 3:20 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I threw these away a few months ago as we were moving. :-(

өөө (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:24 (fifteen years ago) link

i love how 95 percent of the responses to that are like 'wtf is the matter with you' and then the original dude finally comes around

― J.D., Tuesday, December 2, 2008 4:18 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

eh i am basically back to 'fuk peanuts' now - reading everyone's responses along the lines of 'well it's not supposed to be FUNNY, duh' just piss me off, like how dare i expect the funny pages to be funny/entertaining!@!!!!! well in conclusion eat shit charlie brown.

cankles, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:24 (fifteen years ago) link

those motherfuckers got chocolate in your peanut butter!

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:28 (fifteen years ago) link

ignore anyone who says that, that's just the cute hipster line. peanuts at its best was always funny.

J.D., Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:33 (fifteen years ago) link

just the name "Joe Shlabotnik" makes me laugh

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:34 (fifteen years ago) link

It's the pure misery of human existence that MAKES it funny.

UEK - Big Tempin' (Oilyrags), Tuesday, 2 December 2008 21:41 (fifteen years ago) link

three months pass...

I'm crazy curious about what those Al Plastino Peanuts cartoons look like.

The bio was a good read though I read it being warned not to take everything at face value. Michaelis does make some good points about how the strip reflected Schulz's real life, like how Lucy kinda went docile and getting hit in the head with the baseball all the time after he left his first wife.

And knowing the backstory of Snoopy's obsession with the girl-beagle's "soft paws", well okay then.

•--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 2 March 2009 21:40 (fifteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

Desecration.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link

I wonder if Mr. Schulz is doing a stylized grave-spin in time to Charlie B.'s sick beats...

I HEART CREEPY MENS (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 19:58 (fourteen years ago) link

Did Ned ever get his frame I wonder..

― MaresNest, Tuesday, 2 December 2008 14:21 (10 months ago) Bookmark

I did! In the post to-day. From The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962 - I give you my favourite-ist (well one of them) strip ever.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/4054758489_5cfa97e935_b.jpg

PC Thug (Ned Trifle II), Thursday, 29 October 2009 11:08 (fourteen years ago) link

one year passes...

that lattering is gross

all cats are gay (sic), Friday, 3 June 2011 01:00 (thirteen years ago) link

so gross it doesn't even deserve to be called lettering

all cats are gay (sic), Friday, 3 June 2011 01:01 (thirteen years ago) link

no peanuts parody i've seen has ever been anything less than embarrassing, except maybe that r. sikoryak one that redid the metamorphosis as 'good ol gregor brown.'

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 3 June 2011 02:05 (thirteen years ago) link

i lol'd a bit

private parts & labia (electricsound), Friday, 3 June 2011 02:07 (thirteen years ago) link

What if you're filling in the thought balloons of an old Snoopy comic with horrible lettering?

отдых в Крыму! (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:28 (thirteen years ago) link

Haha, they have everything on the internet now:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2OgpsMgKSls/SkGpB9Qo4rI/AAAAAAAADBs/U3-xLVVUG-E/s1600-h/Peanuts2.jpg

отдых в Крыму! (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:32 (thirteen years ago) link

Is it ok that fake 19-year-old Linus is giving me...feelings...?

free inappropriate education (Abbbottt), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:34 (thirteen years ago) link

no peanuts parody i've seen has ever been anything less than embarrassing, except maybe that r. sikoryak one that redid the metamorphosis as 'good ol gregor brown.'

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, June 2, 2011 7:05 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

love ivan brunetti's schultz-style characters and line, but it's hardly a parody

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/New-Yorker-Halloween-cover-Ivan-Brunetti.jpg

orchestral pygnoeuvres in zee park (contenderizer), Friday, 3 June 2011 03:34 (thirteen years ago) link

Brunetti's current style is not very Schulz-like, and his line not at all

all cats are gay (sic), Friday, 3 June 2011 04:10 (thirteen years ago) link

okay, yes, i regretted that "line" bit as soon as i hit submit. chalk it up to poor thinking, all apologies.

nevertheless, i do think his little bulb-head block-body people do look like (and almost certainly intend to evoke) peanuts characters.

orchestral pygnoeuvres in zee park (contenderizer), Friday, 3 June 2011 04:21 (thirteen years ago) link


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