The AAUGH blog

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IN THIS ISSUE:
* NEW BRITISH BOOKS ARE OLD U.S. BOOKS
*NEW CD IS OLD MUSIC
*ULTRA-DISCOUNT SHOP IS NO MORE
*SOME THOUGHTS ON CONFUSION
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NEW BRITISH BOOKS ARE OLD U.S. BOOKS
I just laid hands on a couple new British Peanuts titles, and found they were quite familiar.

PEANUTS ANNIVERSARY TREASURY is a reprint of PEANUTS CLASSICS, a U.S. Peanuts book from 1970 (which had previously been released in the U.K. as SNOOPY CLASSICS). This is actually -good- news, because Peanuts Classics (not to be confused with the -line- of books called Peanuts Classics) was quite a book. Over 200 oversized pages (about 8.5 by 12 inches), each of which reprints 5 daily strips or 6 -full color- Sundays, all from the period of 1963-1970. Peanuts Classics was originally a follow=up to Peanuts Treasury, so if you already have Peanuts Treasury you can get this book without duplicating any strips. Peanuts Classics has long been out of print, so this British edition may be a good thing for you to grab.

YOU REALLY DON’T LOOK 50 CHARLIE BROWN is a reprint of the U.S. book YOU REALLY DON’T DON’T LOOK 35, CHARLIE BROWN (which had previously been reworked in the U.K. as YOU DON’T LOOK 40, CHARLIE BROWN, apparently). The publisher has added a few pages of strips toward the end to justify it being a 50th anniversary book. This book does have a lot of Schulz commentary…
but much of that commentary is also reprinted in PEANUTS: A GOLDEN CELEBRATION. This is still a nice book (I was recommending the U.S. version while it was still in print, which it no longer is), but if you buy just one of the British books, spend 25% more and get the book described earlier, which is larger and has color (this book is only black-and-white.)

Both of these books can be ordered through AAUGH.com’s British Shoppe — head on over to http://AAUGH.com and click on the "British Shoppe" link on the left-hand side. True, postage won’t be cheap for those who live in North America…
but as long as you’re ordering, you may want to order a couple of the Snoopy Features books, which don’t have any U.S. equivalents. Now those would be something to show off to your Peanuts collecting friends…

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NEW CD IS OLD MUSIC
Animated Peanuts maven Scott McGuire has landed some info on an upcoming CD release of the original off-broadway cast recording of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Due out in October, this disc will have a pretty keen set of bonus tracks: demo recordings that composer Clark Gestner had sent to Charles Schulz when pitching the idea for a Peanuts musical.

I’m just whetting your appetite now. I’ll let you know when this CD is available for ordering. (And if you’ve never checked out Scott’s website, you should head over to http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html and scope out all the info on Peanuts cartoons!)

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ULTRA-DISCOUNT SHOP IS NO MORE
I’ve closed down AAUGH.com’s ULTRA-discount shop. There just weren’t enough Peanuts books being remaindered any more to make it worthwhile. I will keep an eye out, and if the situation changes, I’ll reopen it.

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SOME THOUGHTS ON CONFUSION
Reflecting on the fact that the PEANUTS ANNIVERSARY TREASURY is the same book as SNOOPY CLASSICS and as PEANUTS CLASSICS (but not the -line- of books called PEANUTS CLASSICS), and -isn’t- the same book as PEANUTS TREASURY (which isn’t the same as the -line=
of books called PEANUTS TREASURY) has left me considering how confusing Peanuts book collecting can be if you don’t pay close attention. With all the hundreds of different Peanuts books out there, it’s not surprising that some have similar names. In the spring, there is a strip reprint book coming out called IT’S A DOG’S LIFE, SNOOPY, which is a completely different book from the 1960s book IT’S A DOG’S LIFE, CHARLIE BROWN, which is only slightly different from the 1970s abridged edition of IT’S A DOG’S LIFE, CHARLIE BROWN…
and all of which are completely different from the British book SNOOPY: "IT’S A DOG’S LIFE".

At first, this sounds like it would only be important to a list-making maniac like myself. (It certainly has befuddled me at times; in the early days of making the list, I made the mistake of assuming IT’S CHOW TIME, SNOOPY was merely a typo for IT’S SHOW TIME, SNOOPY, when they are actually two different books.) However, if you’re buying books in on-line auctions (and if you’re a collector, you should be; prices have certainly calmed down after the high demand earlier this year), you can’t actually look through the book before you buy it. If you’re not absolutely certain what it is you’re getting, I suggest you stop by the AAUGH.com Collector’s Guide. I’m constantly expanding the information available there, and I hope to add an index which will make identifying a given book much simpler. If you can’t figure something out, drop me a line, and I’ll try to answer it to the best of my ability.

(What’s the most confusing Peanuts titles? SNOOPY’S ABC’S and SNOOPY’S ABCS, a pair of kiddie books whose titles are only one apostrophe apart.)

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That’s all the news and rumination for today. Keep your questions coming, and keep thinking good thoughts!
–Nat Gertler, proprietor, http://AAUGH.com

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* PEANUTS TREASURY: NOW AVAILABLE
*IT’S PREORDER TIME
*PEANUTS 2000 — QUITE A BOOK!
*BOOK NEWS FROM THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON
PEANUTS TREASURY NOW AVAILABLE
Regular newsletter readers may remember that I’ve talked about the new edition of the Peanuts Treasury, a big hardcover strip reprint which AAUGH.com couldn’t offer? Well, things have changed! Now we can offer it, and let me tell you, this book is a great deal. It’s a large hardcover (9" by 11") with about 250 pages of strips from 1959 through 1967, a great era in Peanuts. The Sunday strips aren’t in color, alas, but when you consider the price: $9.98 — wow! I’ve been buying these things to give as gifts, even buying spares in case a sudden gift need comes up.

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IT’S PREORDER TIME
With a wave of new books and videos coming out over the next few months, it’s time to preorder so you’re the first one on your block to have them! Head over to http://AAUGH.com and on the front page you’ll find links for: Peanuts 2000 — the new strip reprint book It’s the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown — the new animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making Of A Tradition — book DVDs of three classic Peanuts specials and more! The prices are in place, the discounts are good, so it’s time to get on it!
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PEANUTS 2000 — QUITE A BOOK!
I’m holding in my hands a copy of Peanuts 2000, the new strip collection. Oh, sure, the book won’t be available until early next month — this is one of the perks of being the AAUGH.com guy!
This book has every strip from 1999, plus the 2000 strips. And here’s the big surprise: they’re ALL in color. That’s right, the dailies as well as the Sundays have been colored. Some purists might complain, but it does inded look sharp. And 163 pages of full-color Peanuts is a great deal at the cover price ($11.95 US), and an even better deal if you get it through http://AAUGH.com and thus get your discount.

There is one problem, however. An error has crept into the first printing; they left out the final daily and the final Sunday strips (the ones in which Schulz said goodbye), even though the back claims to include the "unforgettable farewell strip"! The publisher swears that this will be fixed with the second printing. So does that make this first printing a special find for the collector, or does it just make it flawed? That’s for you to decide for yourself.

I saved my copy of the farewell strip, so I’m not worried that it’s missing in the book. This is a keen, keen volume. Rerun is a full-fledged character, taking over the strip in this great run, but your favorites are still there as well. Not just the core crew, either; the Beagle Scouts are there, as are Olaf and Andy, Franklin, Lydia. We have lost love and forgotten book reports. This is good stuff, folks.

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BOOK NEWS FROM THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON
Thanks to some wonderful guests, the two Peanuts panels at the San Diego con went wonderfully. There were a lot of good reminscences about Schulz and the strip, some nice insight, and some laughs. And, most importantly for this newsletter, some news about upcoming books.

On the definite projects list, Ku Liang of Ballantine Books confirmed that they would be reprinting all of the last five full years of Peanuts, one year per book, released in reverse order. (Peanuts 2000, described above, is the first of these books.)

Jean Sagendorph of United Media let us know that the A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making Of A Tradition book is designed to make a matched set with Peanuts: A Golden Celebration, with a silver cover to match the gold cover of the Golden Celebration. This will be one to put under the Christmas tree!
And everyone who has dealt with Chip Kidd in regards to the Art of Peanuts book (due next year) say that he’s gotten access to a lot of things that you’ve never seen in any book before, and with Chip’s abilities as a designer, this should be a keen volume.

In terms of possible books under consideration, they’re once again looking at the possiblity of doing a "complete Peanuts" in some form. Don’t count on it, though; there are a lot of problems with putting together such a project. Also under consideration is a book collecting the comic strips from May 27th, when other cartoonists paid tribute to Schulz and Peanuts. (There are some interesting-but-unlikely other projects under consideration as well; more news on them if they come any closer to reality.)

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That’s all the news for this issue. Keep thinking good thoughts, and let me know if there’s any way that AAUGH.com could serve you better. (We just had someone suggest that we add a page on French-language Peanuts books to the collector’s guide. Anyone second that request?)

–Nat Gertler Main madman http://AAUGH.com