Peanuts by the numbers

My focus is, and always will be, on Peanuts as a work of art. I draw interest and amusement from how that work of art is presented commercially.

But it’s also a matter of business, and not a small business at that. So images like this one being distributed by the new purchaser of much of the Peanuts rights is an interesting reminder of that other end of things… the end that in many ways makes the ongoing presentation of the art possible, but seems so removed from the heart of it. I flinch a bit when 2/3s of the images shown are from the recent Peanuts movie, rather than things drawn by Schulz (and I say that with much respect for the careful effort the moviemakers did indeed put it.)

But none of this gets in the way of the fact that the strip continues to be available to be read, and that interesting things inspired from it continue to be produced.

Click to enlarge.
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 …

New releases
Look! A mook!

Mooks – that is, items with magazine-like content but sold more like a book – are popular in Japan. Many of them come bundled with extra items, and there have been a fair number with Peanuts items. Most often these are bags – a handbag or a tote of some …

New releases
Bringing up the rear

I’m interrupting my coverage of the shipment of books I got from Japan to cover another foreign book that just arrived. Now, I don’t try to collect every foreign Peanuts book. My collection is out of control as it is. I try to find books in languages that I don’t …