The AAUGH blog

In this issue:
* SNOOPY’S GUIDE TO THE WRITING LIFE
* A MONOPOLY ON THE PEANUTS MARKET
* THE COVER TO A PEANUTS SPECIAL ADAPTATION
* THE HARDCOVER TO A PEANUTS SPECIAL ADAPTATION
* DISCOUNT COUPON
* BRITISH BOOKS A-COMIN’
* AAUGH.COM ARCHIVES ARRIVE
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SNOOPY’S GUIDE TO THE WRITING LIFE

Coming in September is SNOOPY’S GUIDE TO THE WRITING LIFE.
This is a Peanuts book for writers, published by
Writer’s Digest and put together by Schulz’s son, the
novelist Monte Schulz. I don’t have detail on the
contents yet, but with a title like that you know I’ll
need one for myself!

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?1582971943

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A MONOPOLY ON THE PEANUTS MARKET

The classic board game Monopoly is now available in an
all-Peanuts edition. Now instead of moving your little
race car, top hat, or thimble, you can move your dog dish
or psychiatric booth, you can build hotels on
Woodstock’s nest, and pay for landing on the Kite-Eating
Tree spot using money bearing a picture of Snoopy.

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00006416N

On the topic of new Peanuts stuff, I should also mention
that you can now get a My Little Snoopy baby bouncer
seat: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B0000658KS
or a 3-piece bedding set:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00005BSSC

and the Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker is available yet again:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00000IW16

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THE COVER TO A PEANUTS SPECIAL ADAPTATION

I’ev posted a picture of the cover of the new edition
of WHY, CHARLIE BROWN, WHY? at:

http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm

This cover should come as little surprise to those of you
lucky enough to have the hard-to-find original edition of
this adaptation; it’s the same Schulz art with a different
font for the title (and without that "As Seen on CBS-TV"
blurb that afflicted the U.S. edition!) This is a nice
book with original Schulz illustrations and a foreword
by Paul Newman, and it’s worth getting (particularly since
you can currently pre-order it for 30% off the cover
price.)
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THE HARDCOVER TO A PEANUTS SPECIAL ADAPTATION

Now available for preorder is a hardcover edition of
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS. This is basically the same
kid-oriented adaptation that was released last year
in paperback, although the AAUGH.com elves tell me that
the art is being reworked somewhat. You can preorder
this at:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689853572

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DISCOUNT COUPON!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to offer a
discount coupon code, but now I’ve got one:
CHNKBKAMZNLT
What will that one due for you? If you order $35 or more
from the main AAUGH.com store, this will chop $5 off
your total. This deal may have some limitations, and it’s
only good for a limited time — but hey, if you were
thinking of ordering anyway, an extra five bucks off can’t
hurt! When you’re checking out, enter this code into
the field marked "Have a gift certificate or promotional
code?" then click the APPLY button.
———————————————————–
BRITISH BOOKS A-COMIN’

Ravette, the British publisher who offers so many Peanuts
books not sold in US stores, has two more coming in
October. I don’t yet know what these include, but if
you want to preorder them anyway, I won’t stop you!
Each paperback is 96 pages for four-and-a-half pounds.
Given that the price is substantially higher than for
Ravette’s usual strip reprint books, I suspect we’re
getting bigger and/or in color pages. I’ll work on
getting you more detail, of course!
SNOOPY UNLEASHED

http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611549

PASSION FOR PEANUTS

http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611530

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AAUGH.COM ARCHIVES ARRIVE

Over the past year, various fans and researchers have
asked me for an archive of this newsletter. I don’t know
whether they were looking for a historical view of what
was going on with Peanuts books over the past couple
years or just wanted to peruse the various Odd Peanuts
Books entries. However, up until now such an archive has
not been organized.

Now if you surf on over to

http://AAUGH.com/archive/a0001.htm

you will find the archive, starting with the very first
newsletter that was sent out to only half a dozen
subscribers (rather than the hundreds who now get each
issue). I’m not positive that the archives are complete,
but certainly the vast majority of the newsletters are
in this archive.
———————————————————–
Well, that’s all the news for now. No new odd Peanuts
books in the AAUGH.com library worth mentioning (well,
there’s the Korean edition of Happiness Is A Warm Puppy,
which has indica claiming that it’s actually based on
the book Love Is Walking Hand In Hand, but that’s just
the kind of mistake that is made when publishing two
books at once.) I have my elves hard at work hunting
down new Peanuts book news for you. As always, please
feel free to send me any questions or comments, at
nat@AAUGH.com

–Nat
proprietor

http://AAUGH.com

IN THIS ISSUE:

* MORE UPCOMING BRITISH PEANUTS BOOKS

* WHAT WAS FREE IS NOW CHEAPER!

* READY2READ COVER READY2VIEW

* ANOTHER COUPON

* MORE DETAILS ON A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS

* ODD PEANUTS BOOK: THE MOST EXPENSIVE PEANUTS BOOK EVER?

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MORE UPCOMING BRITISH BOOKS

It looks like the fine folks over in England are getting
another batch of books not destined for bookstores in the
States. These are further books in the Little Book series,
in addition to the four mini paperbacks that are already
released. These books are scheduled for October, and are
available for preorder now. They are:

CHARLIE BROWN’S LITTLE BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP

http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611565

PEANUTS LITTLE BOOK OF LIFE

http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611573

SNOOPY’S LITTLE BOOK OF STYLE

http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611581

http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611557

Why are there two links for that last one? I’ve gotten two
different ISBN numbers for that. My guess is that one of
these is supposed to go to a different new book in the
Little Book series. Ravette has recently been issuing
their paperback Peanuts books in groups of 4. I will
try to find out what the real fourth book is and let you
know as soon as I can.

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WHAT WAS FREE IS NOW CHEAPER!

Those of you in the United States ordering from the main
AAUGH.com store may have seen the offer for free “Super
Saver” shipping on orders of $99 or more (with some
restrictions, such as the order has to be a single
shipment.) Well, that deal has just gotten better; now,
you only have to find $49 worth of stuff worth ordering
to qualify for free super saver shipping. This is an
experimental offer and may not last, but at the moment
it’s a good deal!

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READY2READ COVER READY2VIEW

I have the cover to the upcoming Ready2Read kids book
FLYING ACE TO THE RESCUE up at http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm

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ANOTHER COUPON

Here’s a coupon code good through mid-August!

MAPCLEANER35

What will that do for you? If you order $35
or more from the main AAUGH.com store, this will chop
$5 off your total. This deal may have some limitations,
and it’s only good for a limited time — but hey, if you
were thinking of ordering anyway, an extra five bucks off
can’t hurt! When you’re checking out, enter this
code into the field marked “Have a gift certificate or
promotional code?” then click the APPLY button.

————————————————————–

MORE DETAILS ON A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS

I have in front of me the dust jacket for the upcoming
book A Peanuts Christmas. That’s right — I don’t have
the book itself, I merely have the dust jacket. And
that dust jacket makes me want the book all the more.
Why? Because it tells me that this book is supposed to
be “the complete collection of Christmas strips from
1950 to 1999″. Complete. That’s a word I like. We’ll
see if it’s true (covers have promised things before
that the book failed to deliver), but I suspect this
will be a worthwhile book in any case.

The cover price on this hardcover is $25.95, but
currently you can preorder the book for 30% off,
a mere $18.17. (And think about this: order 2 copies,
and you can use the $5 coupon above. Order 3 copies,
and you can also get free shipping. That would be
a copy for yourself plus two copies to use as
Christmas gifts, all delivered to your door when the
book ships in October, all for $49.51!)

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0345453514

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ODD PEANUTS BOOK: THE MOST EXPENSIVE PEANUTS BOOK EVER?

This book — actually a booklet — was mailed out for free,
but there was a major catch. It was only sent to people who
had bought a new car, a new Ford Falcon to be precise.

In the early 1960s, Ford made heavy use of the Peanuts
characters to promote the Falcon line. The earliest Peanuts
animation was in ads for Ford, and Ford had Schulz do
some funny original strips for their print advertising.
I’ve recently obtained copies of the brochures for the
1961 and ’62 Falcon lines, each of which has single-panel
(and occasionally dual-panel) Peanuts gags scattered
throughout.

When you bought your 1963 Falcon (and possibly in other
years as well), Ford Motor Company sent you a
congratulatory letter, a Schulz-illustrated postcard
to send them a list of your friends who might like to
buy a Falcon, and a copy of A SCRAPBOOK ABOUT YOUR
FALCON, a heavy-paper saddle-stitch booklet which,
according to the cover, was “prepared by Charlie
Brown and his friends”. Five Peanuts characters are
used on the front and back covers — Lucy, Pig-Pen,
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Linus. On the front they
are pasting up the title to the booklet, ransom not
style, and on the back they’re talking about how much
they love the Falcon (except for Snoopy, who feels
that “some affection should be left for pets”.)
Across the eight interior pages and the inside
covers are seven little Peanuts gags used to augment
text and pictures discussing what makes your new
Falcon great. Most are, alas, the sort of weak humor
that you get when you need to create some gag that
relates to a specific unfunny topic. For example,
when the book talks about the special orifice that
makes the brakes work so well, we see Charlie Brown
seated behind an office desk, saying “How nice..
every Falcon owner has his own private orifice”
Most of the gags in the ’61 and ’62 model brochures
are of similar nature, and stylistically suggest
the heavy editing hand of marketing copywriters.
Schulz certainly was capable of creating good
special-needs promotional strips, as the Ford print
ads and the Brownie Book Of Picture Taking show.

The scrapbook and the brochures certainly aren’t
“must own” items for Peanuts fans (and a good thing
they aren’t, because they aren’t very common, in my
experience.) These aren’t some treasure trove of
great lost Schulz work, but they do provide some
amusement and are an interesting look at the early
use of the Peanuts characters as spokeskids,
in the days not only before Met Life and Camp Snoopy,
but before A Charlie Brown Christmas, You’re A Good
Man Charlie Brown, and Happiness Is A Warm Puppy
made Peanuts a common site outside of the strip.

————————————————————–

Well, that’s all the news and notes for this issue. Next
time, I should have a look at *another* Peanuts-illustrated
guide to golf, and probably some news about the Schulz
Museum opening. And, of course, any and all upcoming book
info that I can scrape up.

–N

IN THIS ISSUE:
* TWO PEANUTS BOOK FOR VALENTINE’S DAY
*ONE PEANUTS BOOK FOR TURKEY DAY
*THOSE OLD PEANUTS COMIC BOOKS
*A COUPLE QUICK BARGAINS
*LOOK OUT FOR LUCY!
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TWO PEANUTS BOOK FOR VALENTINE’S DAY
Valentine’s Day is coming. Not soon, mind you, but it is coming eventually. There’s no avoiding it. And this time it will be accompanied by two new Peanuts books. A PEANUTS VALENTINE is a hardcover book of romance-and-Valentine-themed strips, coming from Valentine Books…
er, Ballantine Books. Price will be $16.95. And the PEANUTS VALENTINE CRAFT KIT is coming from Little Simon for $7.99. More details when I have them.
……………………………………………………
ONE PEANUTS BOOK FOR TURKEY DAY
The new book adaptation of A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING is now available for preorder. It ships in October: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689850271 As always, if you want to know what Peanuts books are coming up, just stop by: http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm
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THOSE OLD PEANUTS COMIC BOOKS
Many of you have stopped by the AAUGH.com guide to Peanuts comic book magazine appearances: http://AAUGH.com/guide/pcb.htm You may have noticed that the guide was co-created by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, and is based on an article he wrote for the Comics Buyer’s Guide. Well, Doc V has now posted the entire article and some updates; you can read it at: http://www.comicartville.com/peanutscomics.htm
……………………………………………………
A COUPLE QUICK BARGAINS
Most of those bargain books I pointed you to last time sold pretty quickly, but now there are are a couple more: NOW THAT’S PROFOUND CHARLIE BROWN reprints most of the 1991 dailies and a few of the Sundays: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0061075612 I TOLD YOU SO, BLOCKHEAD gives the same treatment to the 1992 strips: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0061075620 Both of these are offered at more than half off the cover by my pals at bookcloseouts, and can’t be mixed in with an order. These are remaindered books, and may have a remaindering mark on the edge.

These are from a series of four books from Harper Collins that cover the years 1991-1994. The third book of the series has been allowed to go out of print, so these books may be fading away. If you don’t have ‘em yet, now is the time to get them. (And if you do have them, now is the time to dance the hula while eating a chalupa. No, it doesn’t make sense to me, either, but I don’t come up with these schedules. I just report them.)
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LOOK OUT FOR LUCY!
In the last two years the city of St. Paul has been invaded by status of Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Now over a hundred different artists have done their takes on Lucy Van Pelt. Starting tomorrow, plaster fussbudgets can be found in 103 locations around the city, with a few more special ones popping up at other times and places. For a map of locations and other information, see: http://webserv8.startribune.com/mcu/clients/i/ilovesaintpaul/lucy/
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Here at AAUGH.com headquarters we’re working on an article about odd Peanuts books for Hogan’s Alley magazine, and putting together a much-requested online archive of this newsletter.

I’ve gotten email asking me when I’ll be on the east coast talking about Peanuts books, and honestly I have no plans for that now — so far, my appearances at the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California are my only scheduled dates. I would be surprised (albeit pleasantly) to be invited to speak elsewhere.

Questions, comments, new e-mail addresses? Just send me a note at nat@aaugh.com
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com