Bits of Peanuts in anthologies

This year’s Kaboom! Summer Blast! comic book, given away at comic book shops yesterday, includes the five-page story How To Be A World-Famous Author by Vicki Scott and Paige Braddock, reprinted from issue 14 of volume 2 of the Kaboom! Peanuts comic book, as well as a one Sunday strip reprint. The new book Alice in Comicland, a collection of Alice In Wonderland appearances in comics form, includes two Peanuts Sunday strips (shot from the original art – the publisher on this is the same one producing the upcoming Peanuts Artist’s Edition) plus Schulz recreation of a page of Alice In Wonderland with Lucy and the Cheshire Beagle, from a 1973 issue of The Cartoonist. Seeing as the Summer Blast was free and the well-produced hardcover Alice book was twenty-some dollars, it’s easier to justify getting the free book just for the Peanuts content… but the Alice book has a lot of other stuff as well, including 12 pages of Walt Kelly… five of which (an adaptation of Humpty Dumpty reciting a poem) have not seen print before.

(By the way, that Peanuts Artist’s Edition is still available on the pre-order deal; Amazon had been a little, shall we say, enthusiastic on when they expected it to ship. It has not yet gotten out the door.)

Classic finds
Review: Christmas Gift Certificates for You

When I ordered a copy of the 1981 Hallmark Peanuts product Christmas Gift Certificates for You, I reckoned it would be one of those novelty coupon books, each page removable and offering the recipient a walk in the snow, help taking down the tree, or some Peanuts-y equivalent thereof. I …

New releases
A pop-up shows up

Here Comes Charlie Brown!: A Peanuts Pop-up, Gene Kannenberg, Jr.’s adaptation of the very first Peanuts strip, is not the first Peanuts book to reprint only a single strip. There was at least one board book that did much the same thing. However, that board book was, at heart, a …

Classic finds
English Phrases to Comfort Your Heart

The next book in my Amazon Japan shipment falls into the adorable category of “Peanuts used to explain American culture”. English Phrases to Comfort Your Heart with Snoopy by Nobu Yamada falls into that category. It also falls into the category of “books which are meant to be destroyed”, as each …