The AAUGH blog

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In this issue:
*NEW PEANUTS BOOKS ON THE WAY
*OLD PEANUTS MOVIES BACK IN PRINT
*A GUIDE TO HUNTING DOWN OLD PEANUTS BOOKS ONLINE
*$15 COUPON ON USED BOOKS
*MINOR STUPID CORRECTION
*SNOOPY MUSIC
*SNOOPY STAMP DUE OUT
*ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: THE BROWNIE BOOK
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NEW PEANUTS BOOKS ON THE WAY
It’s too early to order these, but I thought I’d let you know they’re coming: Simon & Schuster will be release four Peanuts kids books in the fall, under their Little Simon imprint. That’s really good news, because the Peanuts Gang line of kids books has disappeared. The titles are: FRIENDS FOREVER, SNOOPY KICK THE FOOTBALL, CHARLIE BROWN IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS I don’t have much more information on these, I’m afraid. (Seeing yet another book called A Charlie Brown Christmas freaks out ye old Peanuts book cataloger — between the three different standard book adaptations, the book-and-record version, and the recent Making Of…
book, it’s a title that can confuse a lot of people trying to figure out what they own. I wonder if they’re doing a new adaptation, or reprinting one of the earlier ones?) Oh, I do have one curious piece of info: the publisher lists the last two as fiction books priced at $5.99…
but the first two, which are $3.99, are listed as *non-fiction!* I’ll get you more info on these when I can, and I’ll let you know when they’re ready for ordering.
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OLD PEANUTS MOVIES BACK IN PRINT
Remember a couple issues back, when I noted that some of the Peanuts movies on VHS had gone out of print in the US? (You do? Do you spend your time memorizing this newsletter? I can’t even remember what I had for lunch!) Well, they’re coming back into print. It turns out that these titles were changing publisher; they had been put out by Fox, but are now coming out from Paramount (who put out all of the other Peanuts videos.) They’re shipping at the end of May, and you can preorder them now from the front page of http://AAUGH.com
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A GUIDE TO HUNTING DOWN OLD PEANUTS BOOKS ONLINE
People are always asking me "Do you know where I can find this particular Peanuts book?" or "I’m trying to fill the holes in my Peanuts Parade collection, can you help?" Sometimes I can be of help, sometimes I can’t, and sometimes I really don’t have the time (my life is gloriously full.) I had a little time to spare, so I put together a guide on how I find Peanuts books, which should help you find them. Check it out! http://AAUGH.com/guide/shopping.htm
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$15 COUPON ON USED BOOKS
One of the best sites for finding out-of-print Peanuts books is Alibris. Unfortunately, their prices tend to be a bit high. However, with a coupon for $15 off any purchase of $30 or more (and that’s not just limited to Peanuts books, of course), the prices become a lot more reasonable. For more info, surf on over to: http://AAUGH.com/guide/alibris.htm (Act soon! The coupon does eventually expire.)
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MINOR STUPID CORRECTION
In my coverage on It’s A Dog’s Life, Snoopy, I mentioned that certain strips were the first time that I’d seen Schulz reuse art. I meant that it was the first time I’d seen him reuse art *between strips*. There are examples from earlier in the 1990′s where he was reusing art from another panel in the same strip.
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SNOOPY MUSIC
I just added a bunch of CDs to AAUGH.com’s music page. Most of them are a new line of discount disks ($4.97) with titles like "Snoopy’s Beatles" and "Snoopy’s Jazz". I’m not positive what these are. If I had to guess, I’d say they were a repackaging of the Peanuts Classiks On Toys line, which had various works being performed by professional musicians using toy instruments…
but that’s just a guess. Some of the titles seem familiar from the Classiks On Toys line, but some don’t. Also added is Snoopy On Piano, a 50th anniversary tribute from Japanese pianist Takashi Obara. This is an import CD, so it ain’t cheap. These can be found on http://www.aaugh.com/pmusic.htm (AAUGH.com’s UK site does list the Snoopy’s disks, but they’re considerably more expensive than if you order them from the US site…
and the UK site doesn’t have the Obara at all.)
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SNOOPY STAMP DUE OUT
We’re only about 3 weeks away from the May 17th release date of the new US Snoopy stamp. This 34 cent stamp looks a lot like the cover of the new book It’s A Dog’s Life, Snoopy. To take a look at the stamp and to see how to get a First Day Cover (that’s stamp collector talk), head over to: http://www.usps.com/news/2001/philatelic/sr01_034.htm (They’re printing 125 million of these stamps. If you’re looking to get some for yourself, ask your post office clerk for a full "pane" of them — that’s 20 stamps and it includes an illustrated Peanuts header.)
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ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: THE BROWNIE BOOK
Charles Schulz did thousands of Peanuts strips for the newspapers, and if you (somehow) have read them all, you might think that you have seen every Peanuts strip he ever did. But you probably never read the strips he created for The Brownie Book Of Picture-taking. This pamphlet, created in 1955 (making it a very early promotional appearance of Peanuts) was put out by Kodak, teaching folks how to use Brownie cameras. It’s full of Schulz art, both spot illos and full four-panel strips. These weren’t just low-quality pieces whipped off for some quick money; these is high-quality Peanuts material filled with fifties goodness. And now you may be thinking "Oh, no! I’ll never get to see this!" Ah, but there is Kodak collector out there who has permission from Kodak to post images from Kodak promotional materials on her website! When she got her hands on a copy of this rare piece, she threw it on her scanner and put a bunch of scans from it on her site. Check it out: http://www.kodakgirl.com/kgmiscpeanuts.htm
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Well, that’s all the accumulated news I have for you today. I hope you found something useful in this newsletter. Please let me know if you have any praise, problems, profundities, or perplexions! Send your comments to nat@aaugh.com (You can also use that address to let me know if you’re changing your email address! I lose too many readers who simply forget to tell me when they’re changing they’re email.)

–Nat Gertler proprietor http://AAUGH.com

YOU’RE RECEIVING THIS BECAUSE YOUR NAME WAS SUBMITTED FOR A SUBSCRIPTION. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS IN ERROR, WANT TO END YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, OR NEED TO UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS, JUST RESPOND TO THIS AND LET ME KNOW!
In this issue:
*AAUGH.COM UK SITE — NOT THE YUK SITE ANYMORE
*THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN "IT’S A DOG’S LIFE, SNOOPY"
*OUT OF PRINT! AAAAAAUGH!
*A GOLDEN CELEBRATION, A COPPER-PLATED PRICE
*SNOOPY AND WOODSTOCK KITCHEN STUFF
*A FRENCH PEANUTS BOOK GUIDE
*GOT A GIFT CERTIFICATE?
*THE RERUN PROJECT
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AAUGH.COM UK SITE — NOT THE YUK SITE ANYMORE
Okay, I’ll admit it — the AAUGH.com UK site never was very nice. It was something I slammed together quickly so that North American buyers could get British Peanuts books, and UK shoppers could pick up British and American books. But it had little info, was ugly, and was poorly maintained.

Well, I just gave it a major face lift, bring it just about up to par with the US site. It’s broken up into pages, with proper descriptions of the various items. There’s more books (and a lot more CDs) than there were before. To check it out, go to http://AAUGH.com/uk/
(And hey, wouldn’t a UK-only Peanuts book be a great gift for the Peanuts fan who thinks he has everything?)
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THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN "IT’S A DOG’S LIFE, SNOOPY"
The new book "It’s A Dog’s Life, Snoopy" came out today. I’ve talked about it a fair bit in past newsletters, but here are a couple things to look for:
Page 66: The first actual appearance of The Little Red-Haired Girl in the strip! Of course, she’s only seen in silhouette, but still it’s a landmark. Page 45 and 46: For the first time that I can recall, Schulz actually reuses art. While he was usually good at redrawing items, Sally and the kid in the third panel of the April 7th strip are clearly reused not once but twice in the April 8th strip, and twice again on April 9. Similarly, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the beanbag are the same in the last panel of April 7, the first of the 8th, and the first of the 9th.

What, you haven’t ordered this great book yet? Time to do so! In North America, it’s: http://www.aaugh.com/go.htm?0345442695 In the UK, it’s: http://www.aaugh.com/uk/go.htm?0345442695
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OUT OF PRINT! AAAAAAUGH!
The "Kids Book" page of AAUGH.com is empty. Completely empty. The Peanuts Gang books that made up the bulk of that page have fallen out of print. And the number of classic strip reprint books available has shrunk, as more of the Peanuts Classics line fall out of print.

Y’know, I’ve got a bad habit with my personal collection…
I don’t worry too much about getting the currently in-print books, because after all, they’re available. Then they slip out of print before I get around to buyng them, and I have to hunt them down on the used book market, paying premium prices for worn goods. Don’t you follow my bad example!
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A GOLDEN CELEBRATION, A COPPER-PLATED PRICE
Our friends at Book CloseOuts now have remaindered copies of Peanuts: A Golden Celebration (the wonderful large hardcover $45 50th anniversary book) for the low price of $19.95 — even if you already have one, at this price it makes a nice gift. Because these are remaindered copies (which often are returns from bookstores which ordered more copies than they sold), they may be marked with a marker along the top or bottom edge, but other than that they should be in the same condition you’d find them in the bookstore. To get one, surf on over to: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0062702440 — and do it soon, as supplies are limited. (Note: you cannot mix this order with other AAUGH.com orders.)
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SNOOPY AND WOODSTOCK KITCHEN STUFF
Snoopy and Woodstock salt and pepper shakers, and a Snoopy and Woodstock childrens dinnerware set are now available on http://www.aaugh.com/ptoys.htm — plus, the Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker is available again. You can make your kitchen look like it has a Snoopy infestation!
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A FRENCH PEANUTS BOOK GUIDE
There I was, facing the realization that I really ought to do a collectors guide to -French- language Peanuts books, when someone saved me the trouble! Jean Morin has just put up a nice guide at http://geocities.com/lanimatric — check it out, and if you know of any French Peanuts books that he doesn’t list, tell him about them! I’ve been giving him what help I can.
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GOT A GIFT CERTIFICATE?
To answer a question I get from time to time: Yes, you can use Amazon.com gift certificates and coupons when shopping through AAUGH.com. You also get all of Amazon’s offers; at the moment, if you order at least 4 in-stock books (the once marked "Ships in 24 hours"), you don’t have to pay shipping on three of them. (And no, you don’t pay any more by starting your order at AAUGH.com — Amazon charges you their normal price and gives my site a comission, which helps support all my efforts. I even get a cut if you start from my site and end up ordering non-Peanuts materials, so if you’re going to shop Amazon anyway, you might as well start through AAUGH.com.)
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THE RERUN PROJECT
The Rerun Project is an effort that we Peanuts nuts need: an attempt to build a searchable index of strips. This is a fan project, with people volunteering to enter data about strips. Once all the data is put into the system, it’ll become much easier to locate any strip you can think of. Trying to find that strip where Charlie brown learns that his baseball hero has been sent down to the minors? Type in "Shalbotnick, Minors", and the system will tell you what date the strip came out, and what book it can be found in.

Sound great? Well, it’s not ready for use yet. First, they need people to help build the database. If you’re interested in volunteering, check out the Rerun Project site at http://www.manicfan.com/

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Well, that’s about it for today. As usual, feel free to hit me with your questions, complaints, and comments.