The AAUGH blog

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* UPCOMING US AND UK PEANUTS BOOKS
*THE GOOD PRICES ARE BACK
*PLUS COUPONS!
*A PERMANENT PEANUTS BOOK
UPCOMING US AND UK PEANUTS BOOKS
Little Simon has announced the fifth in their new line of U.S. children’s storybooks. A Charlie Brown Valentine will be released in January, 2002. This one is the same price point and format as their adaptations of A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Preumably, it’s an adaptation of the new Peanuts TV special that will air around Valentine’s Day next year. This book is not yet available for preordering (although the other books coming from Little Simon certainly are, and most can be had at a discount: http://AAUGH.com/pkids.htm )

There’s a new line of Peanuts books coming out in England, with four titles to start: Charlie Brown’s Little Book Of Wisdom Snoopy’s Little Book Of Laughter Peppermint Patty’s Little Book Of Blunder Lucy’s Little Book Of Advice
These are slated for October release. I’m not certain what they contain. The books are affordable (two and a half pounds each, which is about $3.50 US), although of course if you’re ordering from the US there will be considerable shipping costs. You can find them in the AAUGH.com UK shop: http://AAUGH.com/uk/ukonly.htm#little
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THE GOOD PRICES ARE BACK
If you shopped at AAUGH.com last week, you may have noticed something sad. No matter what book you went to order, the price was almost always full list price, rather than our usual 10% to 20% off!
Alas, I don’t control the prices. The pricing and order handling is handled by Amazon, and they were experimenting with eliminating most of their discounts and offering free shipping (in certain circumstances.)

I was worried when I saw the new pricing scheme, but figured that I’d be patient and see how you AAUGH.com customers would react. Orders dropped to zero. You can’t get a clearer reaction than that!
Apparently, Amazon found out the same thing. THE DISCOUNTS ARE BACK IN PLACE! I can stop looking for another bookstore to handle the orders, the cat is asleep in the laundry basket, and all is right with the world.
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PLUS COUPONS!
Once again, we have coupons! These are only good for about another week, so use them now. And, as usual, not only are they good on anything in the U.S. AAUGH.com coupon, but also on anything you order from Amazon (except auctions and zshop items) once you click through from AAUGH.com:
For $5 off of any purchase of $35 or more, enter this coupon code during checkout: DEALJULYPACE
For $10 off of a $70 purchase: DEALJULYSALE
Both expire on the 17th of July.

(And hey, if you’re wondering what to buy to round out your order, the price has come down on the Snoopy Tennis cartridge, which works on GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance. It’s now under $20! http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B000059Z7J )
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A PERMANENT PEANUTS BOOK
Leatherbound. Real gold lettering. Archival paper. And a bunch of other fancy features designed to make this book last several lifetimes — it’s the way Easton Press makes special edition books. This time, they’ve turned their sights on Peanuts: A Golden Celebration, that big thick 50th anniversary tome.

Unfortunately, it’s not available through AAUGH.com or from any bookstore. You have to order it from the publisher themselves: 1 (800) 243-5160 during normal business hours. Ask for item 503. It will set you back about a hundred bucks, shipping included, in the US. And tell them AAUGH.com sent you! (Not that they’ll have any idea what that means. I just can’t resist the image of the poor order-taker, after the fifth such call, saying "who is this Ogg Daughtcom guy, anyway?")

But hey, if the normal hardcover edition of the book is good enough for you, that will only set you back about $20 plus shipping from here: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0062702440 (that’s a special link — that deal is not through the normal AAUGH.com links, and the coupon listed above cannot be applied to it. Sorry!)
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That’s enough news for today. It’s time to go feed the cat. As usual, feel free to contact me with your questions and suggestions. (And if anyone has copies of the French, Spanish, or Latin editions of the Peanuts Philosophers book that you would be willing to trade, let me know! In fact, if you have a French edition let me know even if you aren’t willing to trade — I haven’t been able to prove that they actually exist!)

–Nat proprietor, AAUGH.com nat@aaugh.com

Note: To unsubscribe from this newsletter, just respond and let me know. –Nat
IN THIS ISSUE:
* SNOOPY IS IN DA HOUSE (OF REPRESENTATIVES)
*THE RETURN OF A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN
*THE NEXT BOOK — AVAILABLE FOR ORDER
*TEN DOLLAR OFF COUPON FOR AAUGH.COM
*ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: PEANUTS PIRATES STRIKE AGAIN??
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SNOOPY IS IN DA HOUSE (OF REPRESENTATIVES)

I just got word from my contact on the staff of the U.S. House Of Representatives (yes, AAUGH.com does have friends in high places): Today, the House will be taking up a bill to allow the ceremony giving Schulz the Congressional Gold Medal to take place in the Capitol Rotunda! Don’t expect a lot of debate or votes against this one, folks.
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THE RETURN OF A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN
The folks at Metro Books, who last year returned the hardcover collection Peanuts Treasury to print after many years of absence, have done it again. This time, they’ve reissued A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the book version of the film about the spelling bee, in its original large size. This has plenty of images from the film. It does *not*, however, have the lyrics to the songs, so if you’re looking to memorize "I before E", this book won’t help you.

North America: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?1586631888 In the UK: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1586631888
Of course, if you really want to learn the song, just get the video tape of the movie!
North America (NTSC VHS) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00005BCMT
This tape is not available in PAL format in the UK (but if you need something, how about Race For Your Life, CB?: http://www.aaugh.com/uk/go.htm?B00004U8LW )
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THE NEXT BOOK — AVAILABLE FOR ORDER
It’s A Big World, Charlie Brown, the book collecting strips from 1997, is now available for pre-order. Put in your order now, and the book will ship when it’s published in a couple months. (And yes, the discount is already in place. Sometimes when you preorder, you end up ordering at full cover price — but at the moment, this book is offered with a 10% markdown in the UK, and 20% in the US!) So head on over to check it out–or just to take a gander at the cover art…

North America: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0345442709 In the UK: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0345442709
(And ignore the part of the page where it says the author is Charles Chulz. Oy!)
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TEN DOLLAR OFF COUPON FOR AAUGH.COM
If you head over to http://AAUGH.com now, you’ll see an online coupon to save five dollars off any purchase of $35 or more for orders from the US shop (or anything you order from Amazon once you click through, not including zStores or auction items.)

What I’m *not* putting on the site — at least, not yet — is the coupon for $10 off any $65 purchase. With Father’s Day right around the corner, this is a good time to go shopping for books, videos, and electronics — and while you’re at it, preorder yourself It’s A Big World, Charlie Brown! (Please note that only shipments going to the same location count toward the $65.) This coupon works the same way as the one on the site, only the code for it is DEALJUNEHAND
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ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: PEANUTS PIRATES STRIKE AGAIN??
I just received an interesting book from an eBay bid. It was sold as a Japanese comic book with Peanuts material, but unless my eyes deceive me, it’s actually Chinese. (The difference can be hard to tell, since Japanese writing includes a Chinese-derived character set. However, this comic doesn’t seem to have the simpler characters that Japanese uses in addition to the Chinese ones.) And it does indeed have some Peanuts strips in it.

How can I tell it’s a pirated item? Well, for one, there is no visible copyright given to United Feature Syndicate. Even in foreign books, you’ll find a copyright notice in English.

But the more obvious giveaway: the drawings aren’t by Schulz! The strips are genuine Schulz strips, but they’ve been redrawn (presumably traced.) It’s odd that they don’t just reproduce the art directly, as they do in this comic with some art from Mad Magazine, mainly the work of the talented Sergio Aragones. Then again, Sergio has seen his own work redrawn in foreign lands, usually by folks who are trying to pass his work off as their own. In at least one case, however, Sergio’s comic Groo was redrawn by a legitimate licensor who simply didn’t have the appropriate stats to reproduce the work from. (When Sergio pointed out that the stats can be bought from the publisher for $5/page, the licensor replied that he was paying less than that to have it redrawn!) So perhaps they didn’t have clean copies to work from.

Peanutsesque characters are even drawn into the lead story of the comic, with a clearly-Snoopy dog and a Linus-like boy thrown in with the older leads of the story.

Judging from the fashions presented (and the aging of the paper), I’d say this black-and-white comic was published in the early ’70′s. I reckon it was probably a Taiwanese product, but I’ll have to get a Chinese reader to take a look at the indica to see if there are useful details there.
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Well, that’s all the news from Pineview Corners, where all men are invisible, all dogs are fighter pilots, and the children are shorter than the panel border. Tune in next time for more news and weak attempts at humor!
–Nat, nat@aaugh.com proprietor http://AAUGH.com