A couple of non-Schulz notes

Since I have this audience here, I’m going to exploit it a bit for a good cause. The wife of cartoonist Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo, has a bad health situation that requires ongoing home care. The Sakais have insurance, but this expense is above and beyond what is covered, and it is quite large. So the folks at the Comic Art Professional Society (of which I’m a member) have put together a series of fund-raising eBay auction… and we are auctioning off pieces by some of the biggest names in comics, many created specifically for this auction, others donated by collectors from their collections. We’re right at the end of the first week’s auction, the second week has already begun, and we will keep doing about 30 items a week for months to come (the folks in the comics field have been quite generous; Stan is beloved.) So if the names Jeff Smith, Paul Smith, Mike Mignola, Milton Caniff, Roy Krenkel, Mike Allred, Dave Berg, Craig Thompson, Terry Moore, or Darwyn Cooke mean anything to you go bid! (And those names make you think we’re front-loading the auctions with all the good stuff… no. Boy, no. I’ve seen much of what we’ve gotten for this, there is great stuff throughout.)

And as long as I’m taking your time with non-Schulz stuff, let me note that I am now preselling cases of The Blank Comic Book, which is just what it sounds like: 24 blank white pages, with blank white cardstock covers. These are used by artists to create sketch-covers for sale at conventions, and by educators to give to kids to get them to make comics. 150 of these cost $110 postpaid. More info here.

 

General
Spot the Dog

I publish things. I also research things. And really, the two efforts are often one and the same: I research stuff and find that it’s worth publishing; I publish stuff and in the process I’m doing research. That all just happened for me with a syndicated comics panel called “Spot” …

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Meet Peanuts!

One of the complaints that Schulz had about his strip being named Peanuts against his wishes is that it lead some people to think that one of the characters in the strip was named “Peanuts.” That was brought to mind when I read this particular strip in a book that …

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Be More Charlie Brown impends

I have now received my box of author’s copies of Be More Charlie Brown, which will be officially released next week. This light-hearted self-help book is a follow-up to my earlier (and still available) volume, Be More Snoopy. As I always do with my new Peanuts-related hardcovers, I’m willing to send …