The AAUGH blog

*CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS DOCUMENTARY
*REVIEW: STATUE BOOK
*PEANUTS GIFT SUGGESTIONS
*ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: BOOKS OF ADS
*A SELF-SERVING PLUG
It’s Thanksgiving as I type these words. I’m taking time to let the turkey settle before I dive into the excessive amounts of pumpkin pie that are on hand. I am thankful for a lot of things, for my life is good and while the world may sometimes show us dark things, we only see them as being dark because they are in stark contrast to all the good that surrounds them. And I’m thankful for the hundreds of you who have subscribed to this newsletter, and given me an excuse to spend my time dealing with Peanuts, rather than the more serious (but no more important) concerns that fill my daily life.
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CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS DOCUMENTARY
Boy, I’m a blockhead. I reported something last newsletter that followed up on an earlier newsletter item — only I had never actually included that earlier "item" in a newsletter. So here goes, a double-shot of good news.

As you know from last newsletter, ABC will airing A Charlie Brown Christmas twice. The first bit of good news about this is that the special will air *uncut* (except, presumably, for chopping the Coke ad out of the credits). Old Peanuts specials are usually cut when they air on TV, because older TV shows ran longer with less time for commercials. For example, more than three minutes were chopped out of last week’s airing of the Thanksgiving special.

Of course, ABC still needs to air the commercials to pay for the show (Welch’s Grape stuff is actually advertising that they will be advertising during the show, because they will run a contest password in their ads.) So the show will run for more than half an hour.

So that brings us to the second bit of good news: filling out the hour will be a new documentary on the making of A Charlie Brown Christmas. This should make a great companion to last year’s book on the making of the Christmas special: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0060198516 (In the UK: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0060198516 )
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REVIEW: STATUE BOOK
A couple newsletters ago, I mentioned a new book with pictures of the Snoopy and Charlie Brown statues that have decorated St. Paul over the past couple summers. Well, now I have my hands on a copy. This is a glossy, full-color book (although some might not consider it a book, since it’s what the industry call "saddle-stitched", a term designed to make "stapled on the spine" sound good), 64 pages long. It’s a double-sided book with two front covers; one side is PEANUTS ON PARADE with 30 pages of Snoopy statue photos, and the other is CHARLIE BROWN AROUND TOWN, with 30 pages of Charlie Brown statues. (The center spread is dedicated to a bio of Schulz, and some drawings of the planned bronze Peanuts statues that will be installed in a St. Paul park.)

The photos are small, with the pages designed to give as much space to the statue’s title, artist, sponsors, and auction price (or, in the case of Charlie Brown statues, a blank slot for the auction price.) Still, the photos are mostly sharp, showing off many of the quite nice statues (and some that are kind of ugly or lose the Peanuts theme, but that’s the joy of art — folks trying things that may or may not work.) There is one particularly frustrating item; for some reason, there is no photo of the Snoopy statue "Welcome Home Woodstock", making the book just barely incomplete.

If you saw the statues, this is a nice keepsake. If you didn’t see the statues, this is a chance to see what they were. Still, $12.95 for 64 pages is a bit steep — and, since it can only be gotten from Camp Snoopy in the Mall Of America, you have to pay full price and sizable shipping costs, bring it too close to $20 for my tastes. But then again, I’m cheap.

One warning: if you want to get this for someone as a present, don’t just have Camp Snoopy to ship the recipient. I had a kindly someone order me a copy…
and when the package arrived, I discovered that I had a receipt with this kindly person’s full credit card info! Alas, I am far too honest a person; otherwise I could right now be installing that TiVo I’ve been lusting after. So if you’re getting it as a gift, have it sent to you, unpack the box, wrap the book, and ship it to your
If you want to order the statue book, head to: http://www.campsnoopy.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=697144 And if you want to buy me a TiVo, head to: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00002SWHH (Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying, right?)
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PEANUTS GIFT SUGGESTIONS
The best Peanuts gifts from the AAUGH.com stores are the incredible-yet-affordable book PEANUTS: THE ART OF CHARLES M. SCHULZ http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0375420975 In the UK: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0375420975 and the 2002 PEANUTS DAY-BY-DAY CALENDAR http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0740715941 In the UK: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0740715941 And remember, the free-shipping-on-orders-over-$99 is still going, but I don’t know for how much longer. Click through on any item from AAUGH.com, order almost any non-toy item from Amazon (the valid items have a picture of a red truck on their catalog page), and have at least $99 of stuff shipped to one address. With free shipping within the US and giftwrapping available, you can send great gifts to your friends and relatives much cheaper than if you had to buy it, wrap it, and ship it yourself (not to mention the sales tax savings if you’re shipping to anywhere but Washington or North Dakota.)

If you’re looking for Peanuts presents that aren’t books or videos, go to http://AAUGH.com/guide/ and click on the picture of Snoopy on the left — that will take you to a store full of Peanuts clothes, memorabilia, and the like.

But if you want to give a really great gift for one of those many people you don’t see often enough: pay them a visit! As I’ve said before, it’s a great time to travel — and it’s always a great time to be with old friends and young relatives.
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ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: BOOKS OF ADS
I have recently obtained a couple of pressbooks for the Peanuts animated feature films. These are books sent out for promoting the film to newspapers. Each includes not only a couple dozen ads in different sizes and formats, a summation of the film’s story, a list of the credits, and keenest of all, articles about the film that the paper can just copy the article, insert the name of the theater and showtimes for the film. Why bother themselves with having to write an accurate, balanced article when they can far more easily run: "Snoopy, Come Home" Expected To Bring Magic To Nation’s Boxoffices Earlier this year, jubilation reigned when theatre exhibitors throughout the country received word from Hollywood that Charles M. Schulz’ second full-length animated feature, "Snoopy, Come Home," would be completed and available to movie patrons this summer…

The "A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN" pressbook includes blurb-ettes on about 6 key Peanuts characters, each with an illustration of the character sitting in a directors-style chair.

There are also promotional ideas for movie theaters that like to go all out. "To celebrate Charlie joining the movie world sponsor a special ‘Charlie Brown Day’ at your local theatre, offering free admission to all persons in your community with the name Charlie Brown" (now there’s a cheap promotion!) "Have a Charlie Brown spelling bee." "A five foot Snoopy costume is available for appearances in conjunction with the engagement of ‘A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN’."
These are curious items, hardly necessary to a Peanuts collection (and a pain to store, since they’re saddle-stiched, 8.8" wide and 14 inches high, and thin, so they tend to bend), but it’s neat to get a look behind the scenes at the promotion of movies.
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SELF-SERVING PLUG
AAUGH.com is far from the only thing I do (and thank goodness for that, because it doesn’t pay anywhere near a full-time wage!) In the past year along, I’ve written three computer-related books, one graphic novel, appeared in two scenes of the upcoming Spider-Man movie (I’ll be too small for you to see, alas), written for websites and magazines, and designed crossword puzzles. However, these things aren’t particularly Peanuts related, so I haven’t promoted them in the newsletter. (I did work on one Peanuts-related project this year, but I’ll have more to say on that when it’s about to be released.)

However, I’ll make an exception to promote one of my projects, because while it is not specifically Peanuts-related, it should be of interest to fans of the comics form. I have been editing together a book of comic book scripts featuring some of the top writers in the comic book field (including a New York Times best-selling author and a famous filmmaker.) I’m proud of this book. It won’t be out until March 2002, but you can find out about it here: http://www.AboutComics.com (Those of you who order comic books through the Previews catalog can find the book in the January catalog, out in late December. For everyone else, I’ll mention the book again when it comes out.)
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Well, that’s all the Peanuts news, notes, and self-serving plugs for now. Do let me know if you’re changing your email address, so I can keep your newsletters coming. (And if you want to stop the newsletters from coming, just let me know and I’ll take you off the list!)

When I have more news, there will be more newsletters. Until then, enjoy your leftovers and your shopping!
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com

*CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING TONIGHT
*CHRISTMAS COMES TWICE THIS YEAR
*ANOTHER KIDS BOOK
*FREE SHIPPING
*POLITICAL PEANUTS SATIRE
*THE ANNUAL QUESTION…
*ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: TRIVIA AND REFERENCE BOOK
Not a lot of news today, but I realized that I’d been so concerned about letting people know what A CB Christmas would be on this year, I forgot to mention the airing of the Thanksgiving special — and since your response to my "Should I send out newsletters less frequently?" question was a resounding "NO!" (one person short of unanimous, in fact!), here it is.
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CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING TONIGHT
Those of you in the U.S. should be able to catch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving tonight on ABC, at the start of the prime-time lineup (that’s 8 PM in most areas, 7 PM in some.)
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CHRISTMAS COMES TWICE THIS YEAR
As long as I’m mentioning the specials: Peanuts animation guru Scott McGuire points out that ABC will air their hour-long double-feature of A CB Christmas and the documentaruy on the making of that special twice, on December 6th and again on the 16th. If you haven’t checked out Scott’s guide to the animated Peanuts, do so at: http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html
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FREE SHIPPING
It’s gift-gathering season again. If you’re looking to get a pile of gifts, head over to AAUGH.com, click on any Peanuts books you want to order, and order them and most other things from the Amazon catalog. Rack up at least $99 in orders of items marked with a red truck picture (that’s most of the items that Amazon has, apart from toys) and get free shipping — that can be a major savings. Note that this is only on orders shipped in a single shipment to a single address within the 48 contiguous United States. (If you live in Hawaii and want to complain about the lack of free shipping, take a walk outside and realize that you get to live in Hawaii, and mellow out. And if you live in Alaska, say "hi" to my mom for me!)

I’m not sure when this offer runs out, so take advantage of it now!
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ANOTHER KIDS BOOK
Joining the list of Little Simon books coming out for kids in June is HERE’S TO YOU, AMERICA! This book is not yet available for preorder. I don’t have a lot of information about this, but what I do have makes me curious: it seems to be in the same format as the recent book adaptations of animated specials. However, there is no special called Here’s To You, America!, unless there’s an upcoming one that I haven’t heard about. Is it something new? Is it perhaps a version of one of the episodes of This Is America, Charlie Brown? I’ll try to find out for you.

You can keep track of upcoming Peanuts books at http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm — in fact, if you go there now you’ll see the new color image of cover to A Charlie Brown Valentine (which can be preordered.)
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POLITICAL PEANUTS SATIRE
While taking a spur-of-the-moment pleasure drive to Northern California last weekend, I listened to an abridged book-on-CD version of Al Franken’s WHY NOT ME?, a book about the famed satirist’s fictional presidential campaign. In the book, the Franken campaign is largely in the pocket of the insurance companies. When it comes time for campaign ads, MetLife arranges for some rather unlikely animated ads featuring the Peanuts characters, a couple of which are described in the book.

This book is an amusing satirical look at campaigns, both at the reality of politics and the truth that most of us are ill-suited for taht world. It came out in 1999, so it’s already available in paperback: Paperback: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0385334540 Hardcover large print: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0786218665 Audio CD: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0553456431 (with this, you get Franken’s fine reading of his own material, but you also put up with the abridgement — although at 6 hours, there is plenty of funny material here.)

And speaking of the trip: it was nice to see that the hotels were nearly full (admittedly, on a holiday weekend.) Still, there are lots of wonderful bargains to be had in travel these days, and this a great time to get out and see the country.
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THE ANNUAL QUESTION…

Around this time of year, I usually get the same question e-mailed to me a couple times: If you go to http://AAUGH.com and click through and order something from Amazon (or if you go to our UK Shoppe at http://AAUGH.com/uk/ and click through and order something from Amazon UK), does AAUGH.com make money? The answer is "yes", even if you don’t end up ordering the book you clicked through on or any other Peanuts book, for that matter. If you click the AAUGH.com link for PEANUTS TREASURY and order it, we get a cut of the money you pay. If you order PEANUTS TREASURY and a waffle iron, we get a cut of the money for both items. In fact, if you end up ordering the waffle iron and not the book, we still get a cut of what you spend. This doesn’t raise the price that you pay at all.

AAUGH.com is not a charity. I like to think of it as both a fan site and a business that makes a profit (although quite a small one for the amount of time that I put into it.) I’m not trying to guilt everyone into starting all of their Amazon orders through AAUGH.com. However, since so many folks ask: yes, those orders do help justify the time and money I spend on the site.
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ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: TRIVIA AND REFERENCE BOOK
In 1986, Henry Holt and Company put out THE PEANUTS TRIVIA & REFERENCE BOOK, edited by Schulz’s son Monty and Jody Millward. It’s hard to call this a reference book, since there really isn’t an organization of information. Instead, it’s a full-length trivia quiz. On each right-hand page there are trivia questions. Turn the page, and you see the strips which contain the answers.

The book is oddly limited in some ways. All of the strips are taken from the Peanuts Parade books, which means it includes no strips from before 1952 or after 1984 (this book was put out in 1986), nor any of the many hundreds of strips that the Parade series skipped over. (The back cover of the book claims that the authors combed through over 12,000 strips to make it, which would barely be true if the Parade books contained all of the strips from those years. They don’t.) Each question is marked with the name of the Parade book where the strip answer can be found, which at least gives the very book-aware some clue as to what period the answer is from. The questions range from the very general ("Who has naturally curly hair?") to ones that are extremely specific to individual strips ("What are the four classic cars Linus’s father has owned?")

It can be fun to pit your mind against this list of Peanuts minutae. Schulz himself took the quiz and missed five questions. (He also provides what appears to be a new cover image for the book, with quizmaster Charlie Brown asking questions of the expert panel of Spike, Woodstock, and Snoopy.)

Long out of print, this book is not easy to come by. It’s all that more elusive because it isn’t listed in most used book catalogs under "Schulz, Charles", but rather under "Schulz, Monte".
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USED BOOK COUPON
I’ve found Alibris to be a handy online used bookstore at times. However, their prices tend to be a bit high. But I’ve got a coupon for you, good for $5 off any purchase of $20 or more. Check it out! http://AAUGH.com/guide/alibris.htm
(And like all online used bookstores, you have to beware of their listings. I was just staring at a Charles Schulz book entry, "Super Times". Never heard of that one. Then I notice that it was published by Determined Production in 1968, and I realized that it was really a misentry of the book "Suppertime!")
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And so wraps up another newsletter. A little info, a little sales pitch (well, more than a little), and a lot of rows of dots. As always, feel free to send me your notes and questions! Now excuse me…
I have to head down to the mailbox to see if my French Peanuts Philosopher book has finally arrived!
–Nat, proprietor http://AAUGH.com

*AN APOLOGY TO NETSCAPE USERS
*THE RETURN OF PARABLES
*PEANUTS STATUE BOOK
*ANIMATED ADAPTATIONS PREORDERABLE
*PEANUTS TREASURIES EVERYWHERE
*BEWARE OF GHOST BOOKS
*BRITISH LITTLE BOOKS
*A USED BOOK TIP
Oh no, not another newsletter! It’s not even a full week since the last one, I know. I really don’t mean these to come out nearly so often — but I don’t want to skip any Peanuts book news, and I don’t want to build up so much news that each newsletter is longer than The Brothers Karamazov. So I need your opinion: do you mind getting the newsletter so often? Would you rather have fewer but longer newsletters? Let me know via email to nat@aaugh.com
AN APOLOGY TO NETSCAPE USERS
Last newsletter, I published some links to books that had preview pages available for online reading. It was only later that I discovered that the preview pages would only be visible to people using certain browsers. My copies of Internet Explorer and Opera would get the preview pages, but my Netscape Navigator would not. I don’t know all of which versions of which browsers would get the pages. I apologize to anyone who clicked through looking for the previews, but couldn’t find them.
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THE RETURN OF PARABLES
When Robert L. Short wrote up his lectures on finding Christian lessons in Peanuts strips, he had a best-seller on his hands: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PEANUTS sold millions upon millions of copies in the 1960s. He followed that book up with THE PARABLES OF PEANUTS, and then (a couple decades later) SHORT MEDITATIONS ON THE BIBLE AND PEANUTS. While Short Meditations is still in print and a new edition of Gospel (same text, new intro) was published a few years back and is still available, the Parables book has been out of print for years. It is being reissued in March of 2002, and you can preorder it from AAUGH.com’s US catlog now: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0060011610
If you want the Gospel book (the best of the three): In the US — http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0664222226 In the UK — http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0664222226
If you want Short Meditations: In the US — http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0664251528 In the UK — http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?0664251528 (Note: That is the US edition being sent through the UK. There was a UK edition of this book, retitled THE BIBLE ACCORDING TO PEANUTS, but it’s out of print.)
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PEANUTS STATUE BOOK
Over the last couple of summers, there have been hundreds of Snoopy and Charlie Brown statues decorated by various artists and displayed all around St. Paul, Minnesota. Now there’s a book with photos of all 203 statues. Unfortunately, I can’t offer it through the AAUGH.com catalog, but if you want a copy, here’s where you can get one: http://www.campsnoopy.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=697144
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ANIMATED ADAPTATIONS PREORDERABLE
Two more of the upcoming kids book adaptations of animated Peanuts specials are now available for preorder from the US catalog: A CHARLIE BROWN VALENTINE (that’s the new special!) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689848218 IT’S THE EASTER BEAGLE, CHARLIE BROWN (new adaptation of a classic) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689848226
However, I’d hold off on preordering this just yet. At the moment, the pre-order is at full cover price. Wait a little while, and they should be preorderable at the usual discounts.
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PEANUTS TREASURIES EVERYWHERE
A new U.K. book (well, it’s actually a reprint, but I’ll get into that in a minute) has just been released, and it’s bound to confuse those of us who keep track of Peanuts books.

You see, this new book is called PEANUTS TREASURY.

But this book has nothing to do with the US book named Peanuts Treasury, a big anthology which came out in 1968 and reprinted strips from 1959-1967. That book was reissued last year, and is still available in both AAUGH.com’s U.S. catalog http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?1586630687 and the UK catalog http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1586630687
Nor should it be confused with the book Snoopy Treasury, which was a UK book that was mostly a reprint of the US Peanuts Treasury volume, with some other pages mixed in.

Nor does it have anything to do with the Peanuts Treasury *series* of US books that reprinted early 1990s strips (which you can find at http://AAUGH.com/pntscat.htm in the U.S. catalog or http://AAUGH.com/uk/usstrips.htm in the UK catalog.)

Nor should it be confused with the current UK book named Peanuts Anniversary Treasury, which reprints the earlier Snoopy Classics, which was a UK book based largely on the US book Peanuts Classics. The Peanuts Anniversary Treasury is only in the UK catalog: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841610216
So what is this new UK book? It’s actually a reprint of a book named PEANUTS AT SCHOOL, which was a UK book which reprinted part of the US book CLASSROOM PEANUTS. That book was a big anthology of strips about attending school, mostly from the 1970s. If you want this book of school strips, you have to order it through the UK catalog: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841610437
(And people wonder why a Peanuts book collectors guide is needed!)
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BEWARE OF GHOST BOOKS
Modern bookstore catalogs are all done via computers, which manage huge lists of books. Because so much is being handled, errors inevitably occur. One of the most frustrating types of errors is when a book that isn’t actually going to exist shows up on the catalog. Maybe the book was something that was planned but was taken off the schedule for some reason. Maybe the book was released under another title, but the only title still lingers. Perhaps the book’s entry was a completely human error in the first place. Whatever the reason, these books appear to exist (generally as "coming soon") but don’t really, so I call them "ghost books." As an author, I’ve even discovered that I’ve been listed as the writer of a ghost book or two over the years.

In the past couple years, there have been a number of Peanuts ghost books. I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing them (generally they are being issued by publishers that are no longer licensing new Peanuts books) and do my best to keep them out of my catalog. That’s why you never saw me listing PEANUTS COLLECTION as coming soon, for example.

However, once you click through my catalog and into Amazon’s, you may be shown some of the ghost books in their list. Every once in a while, I see that one of them has been ordered, and that always saddens me because the person is generally ordering other books at the same time — a shipment that will be held until the ghost books are released, which is never.

Currently, there are two Peanuts ghost books that are haunting Amazon. PEPPERMINT PATTY AND MARCIE and CAPS DON’T WIN BALL GAMES, MARCIE are both clearly supposed to be parts of the Peanuts Gang line, which were a line of kids storybooks put out by Harper Prism but brought to an end a couple years back. The dates that these books are supposedly being released keeps being changed, but they never appear and I would be shocked if they ever did. Don’t order these books — and if you have an order waiting for either of those two books to be released before being shipped, cancel those books from the order.
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BRITISH LITTLE BOOKS
I just received a quartet of new British books. These small paperbacks (a little more than three inches wide and high, 96 pages) have a quote (or paraphrasing) from Peanuts and a picture from the strip on each two-page spread. The pictures are in black on white paper, so they look a little blander than the more colorful look of Happiness Is A Warm Puppy and similar books.

Each book focuses on one character. They’re edited by Gordon Volke, who has put together a number of British Peanuts books, making it all the more surprising when he makes a basic mistake: a couple of the pictures of in LUCY’S LITTLE BOOK OF ADVICE aren’t pictures of Lucy at all — they’re pictures of Violet. My favorite one is the Peppermint Patty one; there just aren’t enough Peppermint Patty products out there!
These small volumes fit neatly in a pocket for some very light reading. They’d be nicely suited for stocking stuffers. They can’t be had through the US catalog, but anyone from anywhere can order them through the UK catalog:
CHARLIE BROWN’S LITTLE BOOK OF WISDOM http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841610992 LUCY’S LITTLE BOOK OF ADVICE http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611018 SNOOPY’S LITTLE BOOK OF LAUGHTER http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?184161100X PEPPERMINT PATTY’S LITTLE BOOK OF BLUNDERS http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611026
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A USED BOOK TIP
Whenever buying used books online (from a bookstore or at auction), you should beware of the description of the book. Even a seasoned book retailer can misdescribe something or even just partially describe it, leaving you uncertain of which Peanuts Treasury you were getting.

If you’re buying foreign language books, however, there is one specific problem to look out for: the book may be in a different language than the seller indicates. Many foreign books are sold by people who do not speak that language that they are in. As such, they may see a Korean book and assume it’s Japanese. I just got a book at auction which the seller indicated was in German. I was a little suspicious — while the cover title SNOOPY didn’t give anything away, it was unlike the German books I had seen. Still, it was a book that I didn’t have, so I bought it. It arrived today. It’s in Dutch (which actually makes me happy; Dutch books are harder to find than German ones!)

For more tips on finding and buying used Peanuts books online, check out http://AAUGH.com/guide/shopping.htm
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That’s the news for now. There’s more Peanuts book news lurking around the corner, I can just smell it! So I’ll see you next issue, whenever that may be. Until then, feel free to send me your comments and your questions (and yes, I still owe a couple of you responses — sorry for the delay, life is overly full!)

Treat your friends well, and call your parents!
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com

*BY SCHULZ OR NOT BY SCHULZ?
*ERRORS IN PEANUTS: THE ART OF CMS
*DISCOUNT CHRISTMAS BOOKS
*PEANUTS BOOK-AND-TAPE SETS
*MORE SAMPLE PAGES ONLINE
*SNOOPY COLORFORMS BOOK
Goodness, hasn’t it only been a week since the last newsletter? Well, yes. But I started putting together a list of the newsbits I had, and realized that there was more than enough to do a full newsletter. Rather than have the next newsletter be overlong, I thought I’d get this out now.
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BY SCHULZ OR NOT BY SCHULZ?
There’s a new booklet coming out called HOW TO DRAW PEANUTS (it’s not yet available through AAUGH.com, but I hope to have it for you soon.) This shows you how to draw a number of the Peanuts characters, using circles and lines. On the cover, it says BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ in nice, big letters. Which is strange because the whole book was written and drawn after Schulz’s death.

The book was actually written and drawn by Matt Busch, a fact that is acknowledged on the indica page of the book. This may comes as a particular surprise to those who recognize Matt’s name, since he’s better known for drawing celebrity likenesses, superheroes, and well-endowed women with minimal clothing. However, he’s a well-rounded talented commercial artist, and does a reasonable job of showing how to draw specific cartoon characters in specific poses.

If you want to see examples of Matt’s usual work, check out http://www.mattbusch.com
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ERRORS IN PEANUTS: THE ART OF CMS
The new book PEANUTS: THE ART OF CHARLES M. SCHULZ is the most beautiful and amazing Peanuts book ever. By reproducing strips from the original art and from old printed paper, and by liberally salting the book with Schulz sketches and images of various Peanuts products, it really is both a strip reprint and a museum exhibit in one. If you haven’t already ordered your copy, rush to do so at http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0375420975
However, as with any work of reasonable complexity, a few small errors crept in. As this will be a book that folks will refer to for years to come, I thought it best to get some corrections out there. Unfortunately, since the pages aren’t numbered, I can’t direct you to the specific pages I’m correcting, but here are the facts:
1) The Li’l Folks appearance of Charlie Brown that they print is neither from 1948 nor is it him "see[ing] print for the first time". This cartoon from July 24, 1949 is at least the fourth appearance of a character named Charlie Brown in Li’l Folks (although the characters are drawn differently from time to time — Li’l Folks didn’t really have continuing named characters.)

2) "they formed a team that put together A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1964." There are two ways to read this — one that the team was formed in 1964, and the other that A CB Christmas was put together in 1964. However, both are wrong. The team was formed working on a documentary in 1963, and work did not commence on A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965. If you don’t believe me on the these, check out Lee Mendelson’s fine book A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making Of A Tradition: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0060198516
3) There’s a sketch of Linus shooting an invisible bow and arrow at Lucy, yelling "TWANG!". The caption states that this sketch is "probably from the mid-1960s". I have to suspect that it’s actually from the mid-1950s, since Linus was used in that pose in the final panel of a Sunday strip from that period. To see the strip, dig out a copy of any of the following books: 1) Good Grief, More Peanuts (The Rinehart & Co or Holt Rinehart Winston edition, not the later Peanuts Classics version issued by Henry Holt.) 2) Peanuts Parade 14: Always Stick Up For The Underbird 3) Peanuts Double Volume #2 4) For The Love Of Peanuts You’ll see that Lucy’s pose is actually much different in the strip — but that’s part of the reason for doing sketches, to work out poses. Of course, it is possible that Schulz did revisit the image and the concept in the 1960s, but if I had to place a bet, it would be on this being a mid-1950s sketch.

These are all very minor points. The text of the book is not what’s important (which is good, because there isn’t that much text!) It’s the pictures that make this book what it is — a wonderful combination of strip reprint book and museum. Get this one, you won’t be sorry! http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0375420975
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DISCOUNT PEANUTS CHRISTMAS BOOKS
Yes, I know, we’re just swerving past Halloween and already I’m talking about Christmas — but I wanted to be sure you were offered these bargains before they sell-out. These are some of those square hardcover Festive Peanuts books that Harper-Collins put out a few years back. These copies are "remaindered", which means they are either extra copies that the publisher gave up on trying to sell, or they were returned from a bookstore because they didn’t sell. Generally, they are in fine condition except for a marker line on the top or bottom of the book used to indicate that they’re remaindered. For this, you’re getting 60% off the cover price. (Note: these links don’t go to the main AAUGH.com store or to Amazon. Instead, they go to another online source we’re affiliated with. As such, you cannot use any Amazon coupons or gift certificates.)

BAH, HUMBUG!: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002252139 IT’S CHRISTMAS: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002250292 SEASON’S GREETINGS: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002250241
This one isn’t a strip reprint. It’s not really a book at all. Instead, it folds out to reveal a series of thick cardboard tree ornaments you can string up and hang on your tree. Quantities are very low on this, so if you want it, get it now! PEANUTS CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT BOOK: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002250446
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PEANUTS BOOK-AND-TAPE SETS
Those of you who have been collecting for a few years or who have haunted the used book sources may have found some Peanuts book-and-tape or book-and-record sets. These generally had book adaptations of animated specials, with audio recordings of the dialog for kids to listen to as they page through the books.

What many folks may not realize is that there are still Peanuts book and tape sets available. These, however, are a bit different. Instead of using animated adaptation books, they use the Peanuts Gang series of storybooks (the stories are taken directly from the strips), packaging the standard release tapes with the book. There are four of them: MY BEST FRIEND, MY BLANKET IT’S BASEBALL SEASON AGAIN! HAVE FUN AT BEANBAG CAMP! CALLING ALL COOKIES!
Unfortunately, these sets aren’t available through AAUGH.com. They’re really meant for sale to educational institutions. TThe readings are done in a special way to help work with students who benefit from special methods of learning reading. For more on these, check out http://www.nrsi.com
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MORE SAMPLE PAGES ONLINE
You can now read online sample pages from WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING CRABBY (strips from 1963-1964) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?080502400X YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, CHARLIE BROWN (late ’60′s-early ’70′s) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0805035737 IT’S GREAT TO BE A SUPERSTAR (late ’60′s-early ’70′s) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0805014772 MY ANXIETIES HAVE ANXIETIES (strips from 1968-1969) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0805016910 MAKE WAY FOR THE KING OF THE JUNGLE (strips from 1989-1990) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0836217888 BEING A DOG IS A FULL-TIME JOB (strips from 1989) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0836217462 So if you don’t have one of those books, go check it out! (And if you like what you see, order it!)
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SNOOPY COLORFORMS BOOK
Most of you probably know about Colorforms, those adhesive, removable vinyl characters that you stick on backdrops. They’ve been offering some Peanuts Colorforms sets recently. Most vital to this newsletter, they’ve offered a Colorforms book called SNOOPY, BEAGLE OF MYSTERY. This book is just coated pages of backgrounds with Snoopy Colorform characters to stick on them. I don’t yet have a reliable online source for these; I’ll let you know when I find something.
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Well, that’s the news for now. With luck, it will be at least a couple weeks before this much news builds up again. I don’t want to overload anyone’s mailbox, but I didn’t want to miss any Peanuts book news either. Okay, I’m a nerd, but I’m a specialty nerd!
If there’s something you need to know or something you want to tell me, drop me a line at nat@aaugh.com
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com