Peanuts: Search and Destroy

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Oh, golly, I could go on about a particularly fantastic moment in that most recent volume, but I'm a little too tired to right now. Remind me later.

I've just now completed a crucial rite of passage, after about 13 years in limbo. When I were a nipper, we were given a VCR copy of 'Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back)', missing the first five and last twenty minutes. As a kid, I absolutely loved it and watched it time after time, memorising the dialogue, artwork and music as I did so. Tonight I watched the whole thing for the first time. It held up beautifully, although the end was a little rushed. Most of it conveyed a certain kind of accident-prone, angst-ridden early youth that I was all too familiar with, although seeing it now, my sympathies switched to Snoopy and Woodstock, who had by far the most whimsical, philosophical, adult perspective on things. One golden moment I hadn't seen before was Woodstock emerging from a fire hose bearing his violin, which he then proceeded to play. One golden moment I'd just missed as a child was that whilst the boys + animals watched an in-flight movie called 'Happy Bunnies', the girls watched one called something like 'Naughty Esmerelda'! Ahem. And what was all that French swearing in the automobile wreck! 'Oooh le con' indeed...

i regret to tell you that "naughty marietta" (which i'm pretty sure was the movie) isn't quite as naughty as one would hope: http://imdb.com/title/tt0026768/

ILX's JD is a true star for repping for late period Peanuts

I can't imagine how hard I'd lose my shit watching Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown today, I can barely deal with first season episodes of Frasier

And what was all that French swearing in the automobile wreck! 'Oooh le con' indeed...

i always thought they were shouting "oooh! le car!" - seeing as charlie brown's request for un pain was phrased as "une loaf de bread".

the gang visit wimbledon too in this one. i still prefer 'a boy named charlie brown' though.

There's also the bit where they can't understand the guy offering them steak and kidney pie.

and yet they can understand teachers who talk like muted trumpets...

Well duh, those are AMERICAN teachers.

Then again I suppose Othmar could be Lithuanian in background or something.

Trombonian.

This I believe.

Peanuts, by Charles Bukowski

Amazingly, not bad as I'd thought it would have been. Brilliant even.

lolz@"Good grief, he thought. What a cunt. "

goddammit they are putting out these complete peanuts volumes faster than I can afford them! I only have 1-4 and haven't even gotten to the 60s yet :(

search: http://images.skyllo01.multiply.com/image/6/photos/187/400x400/34/tyra_grossaroo.gif?

BAH

search: http://images.skyllo01.multiply.com/image/6/photos/187/400x400/34/tyra_grossaroo.gif

wtf

fuck never mind

buy the boxes Shakey, they're cheaper and you only have to keep up with one a year instead of two.

that's what I did with vol 3-4... maybe I'll get 5-6 for Xmas...

Is the new one out? I thought it wasn't coming out for a few more weeks.

all I know is my volumes end at '59 and now they're like on '66 or some shit.

also watch for huge new biography of schulz by david michaelis, 6 years in the making, next month

am i the only one who's read the michaelis bio yet? quite controversial, owing to its open treatment of schulz's lifelong depression, his shortcomings as a dad, and even his sex life. his kids aren't happy with it.

i finished reading it this morning. it's well researched and not at all as sensationalized as that description makes it sound, but michaelis spends way too much time on rambling, discursive, and frankly unconvincing analysis of schulz's personality. it often reads like a (very) rough first draft, before a sensible editor made him take all that bullshit out. he also leaves WAY too much out - he spends 30 (admittedly gripping) pages on schulz's extra-marital affair, but virtually ignores the last 25 years of "peanuts."

the revelation that schulz reacted to his divorce by having charlie brown kick lucy off the baseball team is worth the price of the book, though.

also the story about him calling garfield "the ugliest, most insulting and hateful character i've ever seen."

Haha! This sounds like a good read for a long flight.

I think on some level Schulz ignored the last 25 years of "peanuts."

Oh my GOD I need to read this. His depression and doubt make him my spiritual kin basically. RIP my dear Sparky.

Schulz gets an "American Masters" on PBS tonight (Michaelis is interviewed and was a consultant).

wau

I saw Chip Kidd speak this summer and he showed (or at least explained) three or four book covers that were rejected before the one they used got picked. Originally I think there were Peanuts characters on the cover until the family started to dislike what they read.

am i the only one who's read the michaelis bio yet? quite controversial,

Just picked it up over the weekend, but haven't read yet.

really been really enjoying the two most recent volumes in the Complete series. some of these books have like 150 strips that were never reprinted!

Yeah I was surprised by how much was new to me in the most recent one.

This American Masters ep is pretty good. It's available thru the usual sources.

Still, it's difficult for me to really express the centrality and importance of Snoopy & Peanuts to my growing up dorkling years.

Am planning to buy the Fantagraphics Peanuts collections only through 1970.

why? they're good through 1975 at least!

also get good again around 1996 or so

My favorite stuff is the, I think 70s material with a lot of long story arcs. The absolute high point for me is when Charlie Brown goes to summer camp and due to some baseball-related anxiety develops a rash on his head that makes it look like a baseball. He covers this up with a paper back and instantly the mysterious "Mister Sack" becomes the most popular kid at camp. Eventually the rash goes away, he takes off the sack, and his popularity dissipates. Absolutely wonderful little story.

From Fantagraphics spamco:

"UNSEEN PEANUTS" Revealed This Friday!

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, in association with the Charles M.
Schulz Museum and Research Center, is pleased to present "Unseen
Peanuts." This collection of full size, rarely seen Peanuts strips
opens with a daylong preview on Friday, November 23 from 11:30 until
8:00 PM, highlighted by an "Unseen Peanuts" slide presentation by
Fantagraphics Books co-publisher Kim Thompson at 6:00 PM. The public
of all ages is invited to this free event.

Perhaps no American artist is more closely associated with the
holidays than Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. Kim Thompson, co-
editor of the Complete Peanuts series, points out that even though
Peanuts is the most-reprinted comic strip in history, several
thousand strips had never been collected until The Complete Peanuts
project began in 2004. The show includes a companion 32-page "Unseen
Peanuts" comic book catalogue featuring over 150 more of these "lost"
strips. This fully annotated publication is available for free with
any purchase exclusively at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery.

Get an early start on your holiday shopping at Fantagraphics
Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport way S.)
in the heart of Seattle's lively Georgetown business district.
Throughout the month of November all comic strip reprints, including
The Complete Peanuts, are offered at 20 % off, and pick up our free
"Comic Strip Masterpieces" tabloid.

"Unseen Peanuts" remains on view through December 31. Fantagraphics
Bookstore & Gallery is open daily 11:30 - 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00
PM. 206.658.0110.