Peanuts: Search and Destroy

Peanuts = def. CLASSIC. Surprised no-one mentioned the "Snoopy Come Home" movie, where Snoopy leaves Charlie Brown for his original owner (Leila, was it?) only to come back. Even after all these years and having grown up, it still touches a nerve.

Schulz is also notable as one of very few daily cartoonists who gets much funnier in large doses.

DESTROY DESTROY DESTROY

As far as "Peanuts" is concerned, I wouldn't have learned to read so quickly had it not been for Charles M. Schultz, so CLASSIC. Search: Linus, Peppermint Patty, Franklin (WOEFULLY UNDERUSED BROTHER), Marcie, Sally. Destroy: Snoopy's ugly-ass brother, Spike. And Violet, because she was the poor man's Lucy.

Josh, alas, is confused, poor man. ;-)

Lately I've noticed that a lot of the Peanuts anthology books have slowly become completely unavailable, perhaps even out of print. Hopefully this and the Chip Kidd book are the prelude to the release of a Compleat Peanuts collection of books where every strip Sparky ever did is reprinted, in chronological order and in color (where applicable).

The 70's, 80's and 90's Peanuts strips are nowhere near as bad as anybody says they are. The humor is awfully dry, I admit, but it's there.

I'll have to stick up for the Red Baron sequences, at least the original ones in the '60s. Yes the emphasis on Snoopy and Woodstock in later years and downplaying of Charlie Brown (and Lucy, who pretty much became a nonentity except for the football episodes) was depressing. But, I still think the idea of a dog pretending to be a World War I Flying Ace (flying a SOPWITH CAMEL, yet, and somehow knowing the names of all the French towns he's flying over) is the most bizarre idea ever to hit the comics. It makes Calvin and his pseudo-Buck Rogers fantasies look positively normal.

Wasn't the message of the show A Charlie Brown Christmas about "the true meaning of Christmas" as opposed to commercialism--that is, shopping, for example? Of course, with all the Snoopy dolls, and comic strip collections and games and greeting cards and everything else, we must realize that the "true meaning" is to go out and buy!

I think the strip also began to quit emphasizing the holiday at that time as well.

But the writer (or writers) went through the same plots of Lucy yanking the football from Charlie Brown, of Charlie Brown losing ballgames, etc. even as Snoopy got lost in the desert with his brothers. The new stories didn't make sense and the old ones were worn out. Worse, one wonders if any of the newspapers actually had the guts to drop the strip in favor of newer strips.

The strip had become a narcotic. Had it not been there, perhaps more newspaper editors and readers would have demanded change. But they remained set in their ways--and too many still do. We should be thankful that a few papers have dropped the Peanuts comic strip, but that number is too few.

They are great because they are lame! They make the other ones seem funny.

Am I missing something?

(+ I thought old C&Hs were being reprinted in newspapers, but maybe I'm wrong.)

I sincerely doubt it...newspaper publishers don't like the comic strips in the first place because they take up valuable space that could be used on ad pages. This is why the size of the comics has been shrunken down so much over the past 15 years or so. If the current comic strips were done away with they would not be replaced. Esp. since the readership for newspapers in general has aged so much.

Gil Thorp has REALLY gone in the shitter. It's barely literate! (And no points for the Orel Hershiser guest appearance!)

Zippy is godawful. Sorry.

The same goes for Funky Winkerbean's transmogrification into a Melrose-Place-for-geeks cesspool. And regardless of FBOFW's past, turning into a hybrid of Mary Worth and Hi & Lois didn't do a damn thing for me. There's the "funny" page, and there's the "serious" page - STAY ON THE FUNNY PAGE DAMN IT.

Example of newer Peanuts (as seen on my bathroom wall): Lucy & Charlie on the pitchers mound. Lucy sez, "Here's the roster for the other team: Francis, Horatio, Ludwig, Chandler, Francisco, etc etc etc" - all these "unique" male names. Fourth panel - close-up of Charlie, wistful expression (akin to the "rapturous contemplation" look found in every damn FBOFW strip, but, y'know, Peanuts style), and he says, "No one's named Bill anymore." Um. Five cents, please?

Add to my list: Zits, Monty (PKA Robotman), Liberty Meadows, Soup to Nutz, and Rex Morgan MD (as long as Graham Nolan is the artiste).

Aw yeah, Mutts is nice.

Let me specify -- when humor was attempted, it was of the cheese variety. When soppiness was attempted, it made me want to pound walls down. When prompted to appreciate how wossname knows his comic artists of the past, I reflect on how The Boondocks looks like the first honestly modern strip in years. Etc.

One panel. Linus, Charlie, and Snoopy are lounging in A Forest. Linus & Charlie lean against a tree, Snoopy against a rock.

Linus: "I hear you've decided no to go to summer camp after all..."

Charlie: "When you have a dog, you should stay home, and make your dog happy ... that's what you should do ... you should stay home..."

Snoopy: "Except for those obviously necessary short trips in to buy dog food..."

glad those photos are preserved here for posterity, for at least as long as my imgur account holds out

Peanuts is among the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all

that number is pretty staggering

i'll do it

https://i.imgur.com/qeXSpUd.jpeg

fuckin shermy amirite

I did a Peanuts readthrough a few years ago and ended up stopping after the strips for my birth year, 1978. I felt like the strip started to lose some magic a decade earlier after Woodstock was introduced, which is weird because I thought that the Snoopy and the birds strips before that were really great. And I don't mind seeing Woodstock on all the merch; it wasn't like that character was bad. Just happened to be the spot where the strip started to calcify or something, which is again funny because I'm guessing that era was when the strip had the most cultural relevance?

I think the strip had most cachet in the 60s, what with “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and the novelty hit “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”

But the 70s were still good— I remember Woodstock flying Snoopy like a chopper and revealing to Snoopy he was a pilot in ‘Nam.

the 80s are a downturn but it got weird and good again in the 90s

Watched the Thanksgiving special. What happened to Lucy? After the opening football gag, she's gone for the rest of the show...maybe that wanted a "nicer" show and decided to leave her out on purpose?

Love how Snoopy held back the REAL food, which is pretty sly for a traditionally subservient companion - fuck you humans, I'm saving the good shit for me and Woodstock later.

But Woodstock eating a turkey...granted, a different species, but does that still count as cannibalism?

Should have searched first. Apparently this is an age-old discussion.

haven't read the discussion but . . is this some more susan pevensie shit

nah, it's the debate over whether Woodstock committed cannibalism

All Woodstock is doing is eating a member of his Class, Aves. As a perching bird he would be of a different Order than a turkey. So this is no different from a human eating a pig or cow (both Class Mammalia).

also nobody seems to think it's weird that big fish eat smaller fish so not sure what these folks are on about

Also some birds prey on other birds.

Also Woodstock is a cartoon

woodstock is real buddy

What happened to Lucy? After the opening football gag, she's gone for the rest of the show…

It makes sense that she wouldn’t be around for the dinner party. Peppermint Patty invited herself, Marcie, and Franklin; Sally is there because it’s her house too; Linus is there because he offered to help Charlie Brown make dinner.

But I suppose it would’ve been nice to extend an invitation to grandma’s condo to her since her/Linus’ family apparently didn’t have plans for the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofzyGL8-rxc

So guess what you can get for $25.

(Essentially: everything.)

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/collected-peanuts-fantagraphics-books

collected strips like Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, and graphic novels like Batter Up, Charlie Brown!

nb that there are no graphic novels in this bundle

Not even Snoopy vs. Spawn?

So guess what you can get for $25.

(Essentially: everything.)

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/collected-peanuts-fantagraphics-books🕸

oh it’s pdfs

xpost

I don't really do digital comics, but my Fanta Peanuts volumes stop at 1979 and this would be a good cheap way to get those generally disappointing last twenty years. Sadly, 'not available in my area'.

Saw there was also a Love and Rockets humblebundle offer recently that was just insanely good value.

not available in UK