July 2003 will see the publication of IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL, CHARLIE BROWN. We don't have definite confirmation, but to all appearances this looks like the collection of strips from 1995. This is the last year of Ballantine's reverse-order printings of the final 5 years of the strip, and the only period not covered by a roughly-sequential strip reprint book.
That's not to say that this is the last sequential Peanuts
strip reprint ever. There are plenty of years worth of
material that are not currently in print in the U.S., some
of which have been out of print for well more than a decade.
The time is ripe for much of that material to be re-collected
and presented in a consistant format. 1995 is just the
last full period hole in the collections for those of us
who have hunted down all the old books.
---------------------------------------------------------------
REVIEW: A CB CHRISTMAS GIFT EDITION
The hardcover gift version of the kids adaptation of A
CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS has basically the same adaptation
as last year's paperback version. The only changes to
the content are that the cover image and one page of the
interior story have been redrawn. The changes are in
the packaging. In edition to the more durable hardcover
packaging, both the dust jacket and the cover itself are
embossed. In a plastic envelope on the inside back cover
of the book is a CD with four music tracks from the
special's soundtrack: Christmas Is Coming, Skating, Linus
And Lucy, and Christmas Time Is Here. The packaging and
CD does make this a better version to buy someone as a gift,
but if you're just a book collector who already owns the
paperback, the small amount of changed story content probably
won't make this a must-buy.
Hardcover gift edition: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689853572
Paperback: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689846088
Original special on DVD: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00004W5UM
VHS: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?6304209266
---------------------------------------------------------------
BUY SOME CLOTHES, GET A DEAL
As most of you realize, the AAUGH.com shop acts as a Peanuts fans' catalog for Amazon. Well, Amazon just launched their "apparel" store (I always just call it "clothes"), and in order to get people used to shopping there, they are offering a great deal: order $50 worth of apparel (or clothes, if you wish) and a few weeks later they'll send you a coupon for $30 off of your next non-apparel (and non-clothes) Amazon purchase. And then you can come back to AAUGH.com, buy some Peanuts stuff, or click through and by other Amazon stuff. So if you're going to be buying books, DVDs, or stuff like that anyway, this is like getting $50 worth of clothes for $20.
For more info and limitations, see:
http://AAUGH.com/clothes.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------
OTHER PEANUTS CHRISTMAS PROBLEMS
In the last newsletter, I pointed out some of the disappointing things about the worthwhile-but-lackluster book A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS. I was soon receiving email about those shortcomings and others as well. I missed a strip duplication; the December 17, 1963 strip on page 80 is repeated on page 84. Also, the dust jacket says "Discover if snow has any effect on Pig Pen's 'aura'", but that strip is not in this collection. Pig-Pen appears in one panel on page 12, and throughout a whole Sunday strip on page 13 (hard to recognize, because he's clean!), and that's it for the entire book.
A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0345453514
---------------------------------------------------------------
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE UPDATED
Of course, those of you who weren't around for the previous
newsletter may be wondering just what I said about A Peanuts
Christmas, or about other books over the past couple years.
I had fallen behind in keeping the newsletter archives up to
date, but I just caught up by adding the last couple months
worth of newsletters. So you can review my comments from last
month at: http://AAUGH.com/archive/a0210.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------
BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM THE SCHULZ MUSEUM
This coming November 26th would have been Charles Schulz's 80th birthday. To celebrate this, the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California will not only be open on that day (depsite it being a Tuesday, when the museum is normally closed), but admissions will be half price and everything in the museum gift shop will be discounted.
For more on the museum, head to http://www.SchulzMuseum.org
---------------------------------------------------------------
Keep those questions, comments, and email address updates
coming!
--Nat
proprietor
http://AAUGH.com
IN THIS ISSUE:
* CHARLIE BROWN'S THANKSGIVING IS A WEEK EARLY
* NEW CHRISTMAS CARTOONS
* PEANUTS GAME INSTRUCTIONS
* SHOPPING SEASON STARTS EARLY
* NEW PEANUTS ITEMS FOR BABY AND KIDS ROOMS
CHARLIE BROWN'S THANKSGIVING IS A WEEK EARLY
In the U.S., this year's airing of A CHARLIE BROWN
THANKSGIVING come on Thursday, November 21st (that's
tomorrow for those of you who read your email as it
arrives, or a couple days ago for those of you who
wait until the weekend to catch up on email.) It
airs on your local ABC affiliate. This is a special
that spent too many years not being aired, so it's
good to see ABC taking care of it. And speaking of
ABC taking care of things...
--------------------------------------------------------
NEW CHRISTMAS CARTOONS
ABC will air the full-length version of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS once again this year. With ads, that special comes to more than a half an hour. Last year, ABC rounded out the hour with a short documentary. Rather than repeating that, ABC is adding 5 short animated vignettes, each featuring a different Peanuts character, and each based on Schulz strips. So even if you've seen the special endless times, even if you own the video tape or DVD, you'll want to see it this year. It airs December 8th!
(It's still nice to have the DVD, which you can
get at: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00004W5UM )
--------------------------------------------------------
PEANUTS GAME INSTRUCTIONS
For those of you who want to see every possible printed
Peanuts item, here's a minor find: Hasbro has the
instructions to various Peanuts-releated games and toys
online. This includes not only Hasbro product, but also
products by companies now owned by Hasbro, such as
Milton Bradley and Tiger Electronics. Here are links
to some of the Peanuts pieces, in case you're curious
or if you've bought yourself a used game and are missing
the instructions:
Charlie Brown's All-Stars Game
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/CharlieBrown'sAllStarsGame.PDF
Snoopy Board Game
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/SnoopyGame.PDF
Snoopy Card Game
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/SnoopyCardGame.PDF
Snoopy Card Game (1975)
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/SnoopyCardGame1.PDF
Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (1979)
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/SnoopySnowConeMachine(1979).PDF
Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (1992)
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/SnoopySnowConeMachine(1992).PDF
Snoopy's Parachute Catch
http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/SNOOPY.PDF
You need to have the Abode Acrobat Reader program installed
to view any of these. The program can be obtained from
http://www.adobe.com
--------------------------------------------------------
SHOPPING SEASON STARTS EARLY
Within the next couple days, I should have a page of
gift suggestions up at http://AAUGH.com . While it
may seem like the holiday shopping blitz starts earlier
every year, this year there really is a reason. Due
to the difference between the 12 month calendar which
most of us use and the Hebrew calendar (which includes
leap *months* some years!), Hannukah has a habit of
bouncing all around the season. This year it starts
particulary early, November 30th. So don't be mad if
people are pushing gifts early -- and those of you
buying Hannukah presents had better get cracking!
--------------------------------------------------------
NEW PEANUTS ITEMS FOR BABY AND KIDS ROOMS
Just added to AAUGH.com: a couple new items for
the youngest set, decorated with Baby Snoopy/Little
Snoopy. There's a table-and-chairs set for those
1 to 3 years old:
http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B000067PXM
and there are diaper bags available in both
green: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00006L810
and blue: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00006L80Y
--------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's the news for now. Things are pretty quiet on the Peanuts book front, with fewer new books being announced than had been the case for the past couple years. Various things seem to be winding down -- as mentioned last newsletter, Ballantine has announced the last of their sequential strip reprint books. Meanwhile, Little Simon has not announced any further animated adaptations. But there is always more news to come.
There are a few interesting published items currently coming my way via the postal system. With luck, by next newsletter I'll be able to tell you about some of them.
Thanks to everyone for their email updates and
various comments. Keep them coming to nat@AAUGH.com
--Nat
proprietor
http://AAUGH.com
* BIG PEANUTS BOOK NEWS
* CHEAPER CHRISTMAS
* SADLY SELF-SERVING SECTION
* DRABBLE AT THE SCHULZ MUSEUM
Okay, only a brief newsletter this time, but I just had to spread the word. After various clues and hints, Jeannie Schulz (widow of Charles M. Schulz) has now publicly stated that they are working toward a set of books that would reprint all of the Peanuts newspaper strips!
Now don't get too excited: this is not a formal announcement, so while it's something that they're working on, it doesn't mean it will definitely happen. No publisher was announced, nor was any date hinted at, and Mrs. Schulz even pointed out that they're having trouble finding reproducable copies of some of the strips.
When I can scare up more information, I will of course
share it with you.
==========================================================
CHEAPER CHRISTMAS
As I type this, you can get the new strip colleciton
A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS for 40% off the cover price. I'm
not sure how long this will last, so if you've been
thinking about ordering this, now is the time:
http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0345453514
==========================================================
SADLY SELF-SERVING SECTION
Yes, if you click through any link on http://AAUGH.com to the Amazon pages and order anything, AAUGH.com gets some money. No, it doesn't increase how much you pay, and yes, it does help support the site and newsletter.
Those of you who haven't taken advantage of online
gift shopping for the holidays -- it really is handy.
You can order something, have it gift wrapped, and
have it sent to the recipient with a few minutes work,
avoiding the shopping crush and the mailing hassle.
And with the free shipping deals, discount prices, and
(in many states) lack of sales tax, you can often have
a gift-wrapped item delivered for less than it costs to
buy the item yourself, much less wrap, box, and ship it.
==========================================================
DRABBLE AT THE SCHULZ MUSEUM
Kevin Fagan, cartoonist of the syndicated strip Drabble,
will be at the Schulz museum this Saturday, giving a
chalk talk at 1 PM and doing a book signing at 2 PM.
For more info on the museum, see:
http://www.schulzmuseum.org
==========================================================
As I said, a short newsletter. But since I'm shipping it out before midnight, I can still hold up my glass of virtual root beer and toast Mr. Schulz's memory on this, his 80th birthday.
To my fellow U.S. residents, I wish you a happy
Thanksgiving. And to all my readers world round, may
you find peace and joy.
--Nat
proprietor
http://AAUGH.com