The AAUGH blog

* BACK TO SCHOOL PREORDERS ALREADY

* MORE PEANUTS GHOST BOOKS, ALAS

* ANOTHER LOOK AT THE BRAILLE BOOK

* A PLACE FOR YOUR PEANUTS TOYS

BACK TO SCHOOL PREORDERS ALREADY

Here it is with kids still on winter break, but you can
already preorder IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL, CHARLIE BROWN, the
last book in Ballantine’s series reprinting the final
5 years of the strip. The book won’t ship until July,
but if you order it now you won’t have to worry about
it later (and you won’t be billed until the book
ships.)

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0345452836

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MORE PEANUTS GHOST BOOKS, ALAS

From time to time, books are announced in some form but
never released, and their listings stay in the catalogs
of online bookstores. This has happened previously with
such Peanuts books as PEPPERMINT PATTY AND MARCIE and
CAPS DON’T WIN BALL GAMES, MARCIE, both of which were
intended for a no-longer existent line of books, but
they keep appearing in online listings with updated
release dates. Unfortunately, two more announced books
are now showing signs of being “ghost books”: MY SWEET
BABBOO: PEANUTS ON LOVE and OH FRIENDS OF FRIENDS: PEANUTS
ON FRIENDSHIP, a pair of mini gift books. I really
thought that we’d see these books, since we saw
the covers for them, but their release date has passed,
changed, and passed again without any sign of them
existing. These are phantoms in the system.

If you have an open order that includes either of these
books, you should cancel those books so that the rest
of the order isn’t being held, waiting for these to
arrive.

==============================================================

A PLACE FOR YOUR PEANUTS TOYS

The latest piece of Peanuts furniture for your kid’s
room: A Baby Snoopy toy box! Check it out at:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B000067PXN

(And hey, if you’re thinking of getting some of those
Peaunts baby room products that are listed at
http://AAUGH.com/ptoys.htm , here’s a special deal:
order at least $99 worth of items — either from the list
or other baby items once you click through, they
don’t have to be Snoopy items — then enter the coupon
code WNTRBABYSAVE during checkout and you’ll save $10.
Offer expires Feburary 2nd.)

==============================================================

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE BRAILLE BOOK

Possibly the keenest book in the AAUGH.com reference library
is the Braille edition of SECURITY IS A THUMB AND A BLANKET,
which includes raised pictures in addition to the text. I’ve
talked about this book (and Braille editions of other books
in the series) several time in the newsletter, but I’m not
sure that my descriptions do it justice. So here are links
to a couple of photos of the book:

A text page:

http://AAUGH.com/archive/Braille1.jpg

A picture page:

http://AAUGH.com/archive/Braille2.jpg

Keen, eh?

==============================================================

Well, that’s the last newsletter of aught-two. See you all
next year!

–Nat

proprietor, http://AAUGH.com

nat@AAUGH.com

* STILL TIME FOR GIFTS

* TAKE A LOOK AT JAPANESE BOOKS

* AAUGH.COM LIBRARY COMPLETES A SET

STILL TIME FOR GIFTS

As Christmas approaches, I’d like to point out that there
is still time to order gifts for delivery in time for the
holiday. So head on over to http://AAUGH.com and click
on the items you want. The item description page will
tell you if that item can reach U.S. addresses by December
24th. (Head over now, though — time is running out!)

=================================================================

TAKE A LOOK AT JAPANESE BOOKS

I just discovered that Amazon.co.jp has some of their
ordering instructions available in English. Unfortunately,
their order form is still built specifically for Japanese
names and addresses. But hey, if you want to take a look
at some of the interesting Peanuts books on their site,
here are pictures of some of the more unusual titles I’ve
found. (I wonder what these books contain?)

SNOOPY: AMERICAN SWEETS

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4048535676.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

SITTING TOGETHER, EATING TOGETHER

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4048535242.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

PEANUTS KEY WORDS

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4022576715.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

=================================================================

AAUGH.COM LIBRARY COMPLETES A SET

Just in time for the holidays, I’ve completed my set of
British Snoopy Christmas ornament books. These books are
about 3 inches wide and four inches high, with 16 pages
of story printed on heavy cardboard, like a child’s board
book. Each book has a loop on the top of the spine, so you
can hang it as an ornament (although they are fairly bulky
for ornaments, so it comes as little surprise that one
of my books has parted from its loops.)

Each book has a story written by Gordon Volke, who is the
main Peanuts story author in the UK. The art on these
is Schulz characters reworked and rearranged by LoBianco
Studios, presumably the same LoBiancos who have been
working on U.S. Peanuts kiddie books lately.

There are four books in the set, all released in 1991:

1. No Home For Christmas (story: there’s no good place
to put Woodstock’s nest)

2. Desert Christmas (even with Snoopy visiting, Spike
has trouble feeling Christmassy)

3. Pantomime Puppets (Charlie Brown gets puppets for
Christmas, and everyone helps Snoopy put on a show
using them. They actually use the psychiatrist booth
as the stage!)

4. Saves The Day (the sun melts the snow, causing
a flooding problem. Can Snoopy save the day? Well,
he’d better, or the book will have been mistitled!)

As with most Peanuts storybooks not based on strips,
the joy of the strip doesn’t really come through. But
they are interesting decorations, and how often do
people actually stop and read your Christmas tree?

=================================================================

Well, that’s the last newsletter before Christmas, possibly
the last of 2002. May you all be happy and 2003 be filled
with peace, joy, and lots of Peanuts books!

–Nat, nat@aaugh.com

proprietor

http://AAUGH.com

* CHARLIE BROWN’S CHRISTMAS TALES

* NEW COMICS HISTORY BOOK

* FREE SHIPPING COUNTDOWN

* UPCOMING TITLE NEWS

* ODD PEANUTS BOOK: SNOOPY SPECIAL DEEL

CHARLIE BROWN’S CHRISTMAS TALES

I hope all of my U.S. readers caught last night’s
airing of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, with the new
animated CHARLIE BROWN’S CHRISTMAS TALES after it.
The new cartoons were great. They adapted the
strips well. The material was funny, and most
of the voices were good (although I found Sally’s
voice a bit off.) It was great to see both Rerun
and “Lydia”, who were both well-used in the new
shorts. This may be the best new Peanuts
animation in a long while.

If you missed the show, don’t worry. ABC is
rebroadcasting it on Friday. Check your local
schedule for times.

======================================================

NEW COMICS HISTORY BOOK

Brian Walker, the former director of the International
Museum of Cartoon Art, has a new big thick hardcover
history of comic strips out. THE COMICS: SINCE 1945
includes seven pages of Peanuts reprints. Linus is on
the cover, along with Pogo and Beetle Bailey. A hefty
volume with a cover price of just under $50, you can
save about $15 by ordering through

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0810934817

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FREE SHIPPING COUNTDOWN

If you want to order gifts and take advantage of the
free shipping deal, you need to order by Thursday
to be sure that the gifts will arrive in time.
The free shipping applies only to US orders, only
to certain items (although it’s most of the things
you’re likely to order, both among items listed
on AAUGH.com and on items you find on Amazon after
clicking through), and requires an order of
at least $25 sent to a single U.S. location ($99 in
the case of a toy order). Other conditions apply.
Look for items that say SUPER SAVER SHIPPING on
the catalog page.

There are great deals to be had if you order this
way. For example, I now have this DVD player
heading off to one of my relatives as a gift:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B000066R6J

I might have been able to find the same player
locally for the same price (under $70), but
then I would have had to pay sales tax and shipping
totalling around $15, as well as go through all the
hassle of shipping it. Buying gifts online makes it
all so much easier!

======================================================

UPCOMING TITLE NEWS

As previously announced, shipping before Valentine’s
Day will be the PEANUTS VALENTINE CRAFT KIT. Now we
know what this has: 24 postcards, two sheets of
stickers — and a new book adaptation of the animated
special BE MY VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN (not to be
confused with the adaptation of A CHARLIE BROWN
VALENTINE which was released last year). This is
scheduled for a January release. You can preorder
it now at: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0689850182

Coming up in July (and not yet available for preorder)
are:

CHARLIE BROWN & SNOOPY (a board book)

WOODSTOCK (another board book)

BEAGLE SCOUT SNOOPY (some sort of book for kids, I’m
still researching what kind)

SNOOPY’S DOGHOUSE LIBRARY (a boxed set of kids
books, but I don’t yet know which titles)

If you want to see the list of upcoming Peanuts books,
head to:

http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm

I just added pictures of the Valentine craft kit
and of LOSE THE BLANKET, LINUS. I also took the
little mini gift books OH FRIEND OF FRIENDS and
MY SWEET BABOO off the list, not because they
shipped but because they didn’t. These books
had been rescheduled and missed that date, which
has historically meant that a book is not coming
out at all.

======================================================

ODD PEANUTS BOOK: SNOOPY SPECIAL DEEL

SNOOPY SPECIAL DEEL 2 is a book that I bought from
an online auction, only to discover that the
auctioneer was a subscriber to this newsletter.
This book from the Netherlands collects three
previous Snoopy “Deels” into one extra-thick (or,
as the cover says, “extra dik”) book. And when I say
it collects three books, I don’t mean it reprints them.
I mean they actually took three already-printed
softcover books, covers and all, and wrapped another
cover around them to make this book. This reprints
SNOOPY DEEL 2: SLAAT WEER TOE, DEEL 3: EEN VRIENDJE
HET LEVEN, and DEEL 4:STELT ZIJN EISEN, which makes
me wonder just what was in SNOOPY SPECIAL DEEL 1.
It couldn’t just have contained non-special DEEL 1!

The individual books each reprint 28 Sunday strips
in full color. DEEL 4 has all 1976 strips; the
others are unmarked.

======================================================

That’s it for the news. There will be more soon, I
swear. Until then, keep happy, and keep letting me
know what you think (and what your new email address
will be!)

–Nat

proprietor

http://AAUGH.com

* SCHULZ TRIBUTE BOOK

* REACTION TO THE REPRINT NEWS

* WHAT’S SELLING?

SCHULZ TRIBUTE BOOK

When the newspapers came out on May 27th, 2000, and
the comics pages were filled with strips paying tribute
to Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts, I immediately heard
from folks wanting to know if there would be a book
collecting these strips.

Finally, the answer is “yes”.

You see, the Schulz Museum has been displaying tribute
strips (both those from that day and others, including
original art not created for publication). They have so
many of them that they couldn’t show them all at once,
and are instead running three installations of around 50
strips apiece. The second set of strips goes on display
Dec 12th, 2002 through April 7th, 2003, and the last
batch is up April 11th through August 11th.

And now they’re producing a catalog for the show. For folks
unfamiliar with museum catalogs, they are books that
display the artwork from a museum exhibition. In other
words, this will be a collection of the tribute strips!
The museum folks have worked long and hard asking for
proper permission to reprint these strips.

The catalog will only be sold at the Schulz Museum’s gift
shop (-not- the Snoopy’s Gallery And Gift Shop that is a
couple buildings down). Usually, I grumble a bit when I
tell folks that a new Peanuts book won’t be available
through AAUGH.com, but if this gives me an excuse to
visit the museum again, great! They currently expect the
book to be available by early February.

————————————————————-

REACTION TO THE REPRINT NEWS

Judging from the emails I’ve been getting, some of you are
quite, quite happy that there is some attempt to build
the complete Peanuts strip reprint collection. Here is
exactly what Jean Schulz said during an online chat
session hosted by the Washington Post:

“What we are trying to do is put together a reprint of the
50 years of Peanuts comic strips. Some of them are lost,
and we are trying to find out if we can find some images
of those. This would be a very big undertaking and I see
it in book form, but it could be a DVD at some point.”

Several of you have asked where you might send notes of
encouragement about this project or suggestions on
format. I’d direct them to:

Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates

1 Snoopy Place

Santa Rosa, CA 95403

—————————————————————

WHAT’S SELLING?

Sometimes I’m a little surprised at what AAUGH.com visitors
are buying. While I’m not at all surprised that the
best-selling book of the past couple months is A PEANUTS
CHRISTMAS:

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

However, I’ll admit to being surprised that the best-selling
CD is the one that collects two Royal Guardsmen albums,
Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron and Snoopy And His Friends:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00005J9U0

which is not only outselling any Vince Guaraldi CD of music
from the TV specials, but is actually outselling all of
the Guaraldi CDs combined! I like Snoopy Versus The Red
Baron and Snoopy’s Christmas, but I’m surprised that the
fan base is that strong. This CD is actually the best-selling
item of any type at AAUGH.com

The best-selling toys have been the Great Pumpkin action
figure sets — which are, alas, out of stock now. However,
the Snoopy Dog House Playset from that series is still
in stock:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B000067R0L

The best-selling VHS video is a tie between the movie

A Boy Named Charlie Brown:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00005BCMU

and the Mayflower Voyages episode of the miniseries

This Is America, Charlie Brown:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?6303152767

which is also the bonus track on the best selling
DVD video, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving:

http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?B00004W5UL

We get an interesting mix of other things that people
order once they click through AAUGH.com, including
cookware, New Balance shoes, Cool Hand Luke on DVD,
a Stan Freberg album, and a book of alternate history
fiction stories about the battle at Gettysberg!

—————————————————————

Well, that’s all the news and notes for today. Remember
that A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (with new bonus cartoon
shorts!) airs on Saturday in the US, as the first hour of
ABC’s prime time schedule.

I hope that some of you are having happy Hannukahs and
others are looking to upcoming holidays with eager
anticipation. Let me know if there’s anything I can do
for you!

–Nat

proprietor

http://AAUGH.com

nat@AAUGH.com