The AAUGH blog

In this issue:

* R.I.P. BILL MAULDIN

* BE MY MINI-VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN

* A BIRD WITH A BOOK FOR A BACKPACK?

* LOOKING AT LOOKING FOR LUCY

* BABY SNOOPY BOOKS ARE COMING

* A NEW BOX OF BOOKS

* AN OLD BOX OF BOOKS

* STOP BY AND SEE NAT

R.I.P. BILL MAULDIN

Bill Mauldin, acclaimed wartime and editorial cartoonist,
passed away last week.
Peanuts fans will remember Bill as
the person who Snoopy went to quaff root beer with each
Veterans Day, as well as the only person besides Schulz
known to have drawn for the Peanuts daily strip, drawing
his wartime Willie and Joe characters when they encounter
Snoopy.

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BE MY MINI-VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN

As mentioned in earlier newsletters, the PEANUTS VALENTINE
CRAFT KIT includes a book adapting the animated
TV special BE MY VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN. However, I
should note that while this adaptation is done in the same
style as the other recent adaptations, it’s physically
smaller, only 3/4 the height and width of the other books
in the series.

You can order this here: http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689850182

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A BIRD WITH A BOOK FOR A BACKPACK?

July brings two new Peanuts stuffed animals wearing books
as backpacks. BEAGLE SCOUT SNOOPY, dressed in the Beagle
Scout uniform, has a book about him packing for one of
his hikes. WOODSTOCK has a book about returning from his
annual flight south. The books are permanently attached
to the figures, and each has a velcro closure.

These are not yet available for preorder.

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LOOKING AT LOOKING FOR LUCY

I’ve now got my copy of LOOKING FOR LUCY, the full-color
booklet with pictures of all of the Lucy statues displayed
in St. Paul last summer. Some of the statues are so-so,
some are great. My personal favorites are Lucy with a
strawberry-pattern dress, dipped in chocolate, and Lucy
standing behind the Mona Lisa, sticking her face through.
My biggest disappointment? That none of the artists replaced
the base statue’s thin, happy smile with a the classic big
open yelling mouth.

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BABY SNOOPY BOOKS ARE COMING

Don’t know when, don’t know exactly what, but they are coming.

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A NEW BOX OF BOOKS

Coming in July is the SNOOPY DOGHOUSE LIBRARY, a cardboard
doghouse with a plastic Snoopy permanently attached to
the top. In the doghouse are three board books for the
pre-school set: MEET SNOOPY shows Snoopy in a dozen different
roles, MY FAVORITE THINGS says what makes the characters
happy, and finally there’s SWEET DREAMS, SNOOPY.

This set is not yet available for preorder.

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

AN OLD BOX OF BOOKS

One recent addition to the AAUGH.com reference library is a
boxed set of Peanuts activity books. Normally, books in a
“boxed set” are generally in a slipcase that one puts on the
shelf, moving books in and out through the open end. Not this
one — these four books are boxed in the same sort of box
you’d get a jigsaw puzzle in. You couldn’t fit these books in
a slipcase anyway, since The Charlie Brown Ghostly Word Puzzle
Book and The Peanuts Mystery Maze Book are half the size of
The Lucy Activity Book and The Snoopy Activity Book (and the
smaller books also have fewer pages but the same $1.25 cover
price as the larger books!)

When sold separately, these 1979 books were published by
Determined Productions, the smaller ones distributed
Ottenheimer Publishers Inc., and the larger ones distributed
by the Wonder Books division of Grosset & Dunlap on behalf
of Ottenheimer. When offered in a box, however, they were
offered by Grosset & Dunlap (a Filmways company). I’m
starting to plan the grand Peanuts book database, but I’ll
never figure out what to put the in the Publisher field of
this box’s entry.

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STOP BY AND SEE NAT

In the San Francisco area? Then stop by the Alternative Press
Expo, a comics convention specializing in the smaller
publishers and more personal works. It’s this coming Saturday
and Sunday, February 1 and 2. I’ll be there, selling copies
of my Panel One book of comic book scripts and my The Factor
miniseries, showing previews of Panel Two and my new
Licensable BearTM comic, and generally being a happy guy. Be
sure to say hi! For more info on the convention, surf on over
to http://www.comic-con.org

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Well, that’s the news for now. Yes, it’s heavy with kiddie
books. What can I say, the kiddie book people are putting
out a lot of books!

Got any questions, suggestions, confusions, delusions, or
changes of email address? Email me at nat@AAUGH.com

–Nat

proprietor

http://AAUGH.com

* PEANUTS VALENTINE BOOKS NOW OUT

* BACK IN SCHOOL COVER

* LUCY STATUE BOOK

* QUICK PEANUTS BOOK BARGAINS

* SPECIAL DEAL FOR RED-HEADED LASSES

* REVIEW: PEANUTS LITTLE BOOKS, SERIES TWO

PEANUTS VALENTINE BOOKS NOW OUT

Two Valentine’s Day-themed Peanuts book are now shipping.
A PEANUTS VALENTINE is a hardcover strip collection,
actually a very pretty book with 96 pages about
giving and getting (and not getting) valentines.
For those of you who were concerned after the lackluster
production of the book A Peanuts Christmas, don’t worry,
this is a better book (and it doesn’t have that book’s
annoying false claim of completeness). The strips are
all printed in black and white, but many pages are
decorated with pink hearts and Peanuts characters.
This would make a sweet little gift. Cover price is
$16.95, but you can save more than $5 by ordering it
here:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0345459415

THE PEANUTS VALENTINE CRAFT KIT has 24 postcards, two
sheets of stickers, and a book — the new adaptation
of the TV special BE MY VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN. It
can be ordered here:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689850182

BE MY VALENTINE, CHARLIE BROWN is also on a new DVD,
part of a triple feature with IT’S YOUR FIRST KISS,
CHARLIE BROWN and YOU’RE IN LOVE, CHARLIE BROWN.

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B0000714CP

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BACK TO SCHOOL COVER

The cover to IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL, CHARLIE BROWN, the
upcoming book collecting all the strips from 1995,
can now be seen on the upcoming book list at

http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm

The book ships in July, and you can preorder it now.

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LUCY STATUE BOOK

A booklet with pictures of all of the LOOKING FOR LUCY
statues that were erected in St. Paul last summer is
available. This is a companion to the PEANUTS ON
PARADE/CHARLIE BROWN AROUND TOWN double-booklet that
came out with the Snoopy and CB statues from 2000
and 2001. Unfortunately, it’s not available through
Amazon.com. It’s only available at Camp Snoopy in the
Mall Of America and through their online shop, which
is apt to hit you for steep shipping & handling fees.
(The booklet itself cost about $9.95, but the additional
fees put my order over $17.) To order or to just look
at the cover, head to:

http://www.campsnoopy.com/detail.asp?product_id=751214

If you’re going to order it, get it soon. The previous
book is now unavailable.

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QUICK PEANUTS BOOK BARGAINS

Remaindered Peanuts books available through our friends
at BookCloseOuts:

PEANUTS TREASURY hardcover for $6.99

http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?1586630687

PEANUTS: THE ART OF CHARLES M. SCHULZ hardcover for $12.96

http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0375420975

PEANUTS: LET’S PLAY desk calendar for $1.99

http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0740724010

THE WORLD IS FULL OF MONDAYS paperback for $3.99

http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0061075647

PEANUTS HOME COLLECTION paperback for $10.99

http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?093062582X

Quantities are (very) limited, so get ‘em soon

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SPECIAL DEAL FOR RED-HEADED LASSES

Are you a little red-haired girl? Or even a big
red-haired woman? So long as you’re female and
scarlet-tressed, you get free admission to the
Charles M. Schulz Museum on Valentine’s Day this
year! See http://www.schulzmuseum.com for
location and directions.

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REVIEW: PEANUTS LITTLE BOOKS, SERIES TWO

I just received the second quartet of books in the British
Little Book series. These are miniature books, about
3.5 inches square, that have a quote based on the Peanuts
strips on each left-hand page and an image from the
strip on the right. These could be used as stocking
stuffers or items for kids to carry in their pockets.
Being recycled material, there probably isn’t much here
you haven’t seen before (and if there is, better you
see it in strip form). They’re cute little items, although
cheap productionwise (the printing, done in Malta, uses
very white paper that gives the book a bland feel, and
some of the images show clear signs of being scanned
at the wrong resolution.) These aren’t must-haves,
unless you’re a collecting completist.

Unlike the first batch, this latest batch is edited by
Derrick Bang of the Peanuts Collectors Club. They aren’t
for sale in the U.S., but you can order them from Amazon
UK through these links:

CHARLIE BROWN’S LITTLE BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP

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

SNOOPY’S LITTLE BOOK OF STYLE

http://AAUGH.com/uk/to.htm?184611557

EDUCATING PEANUTS

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

PEANUTS’ LITTLE BOOK OF LIFE

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

(That last title bugs me. The use of the possessive
apostrophe makes it sound like there is a character
or characters named “Peanuts”. Schulz was never
happy with the title of the strip and its use as
a referential to kids.)

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Well, that’s the news for now. I really didn’t do any
post-holiday notes here. I received a few Peanuts
gifts, but the one that made me smile the broadest was
the Schroeder “action figure” that came with a piano.
The best part? There’s a perfectly wonderful little
Beethoven bust that comes with the set, to put on the
piano. It looks exactly what Schulz always drew. I’d
love to have thirty or so of these busts, so that I
could recreate the strip where Lucy smashes Schroeder’s
bust, and Schroeder goes to his closet where we see
row after row of identical busts and pulls a new one
out.

If anyone got Amazon gift credit as a gift: of course
you can use that when shopping through http://AAUGH.com !

There’ll be some big Peanuts book news soon. I can smell
it in the air! Meanwhile, send your queries, concerns,
and new email addresses to Nat@AAUGH.com

(And hey, if anyone is in San Francisco February 1st
or 2nd, you can stop by and say “hi!” to me at the
Alternative Press Expo. For more info, see
http://www.comic-con.org )

–Nat

proprietor

AAUGH.com