The AAUGH Blog

In this issue:

* FIRST, AN EXPLANATION
* COMPLETE PEANUTS VOLUME 1: WOW
* COMPLETE PEANUTS VOLUME 2: COMING
* COMPLETE PEANUTS 1+2: A BOX OF GOODNESS
* OTHER UPCOMING BOOKS
* THE FUTURE OF AAUGH.COM?

FIRST, AN EXPLANATION

A number of you have noticed that it’s been a long time since
the last AAUGH.com newsletter. In fact, some of you assumed
that I’d dropped you off the mailing list, because it can’t
have been that long between newsletters.

The truth is simpler. No newsletters have come out in a
while. AAUGH.com, delightful as it is, is just one portion
of my life, and the other portions have been quite hectic
in recent weeks. I’m still dealing with the aftermath of
24 Hour Comics Day, the international event I spearheaded
(and will do so again next year.) As an editor and publisher,
I’m putting out books at a more rapid clip than ever before.
As a writer, I’ve been working on promotion of my Complete
Idiot’s Guide To Creating Graphic Novels and cutting a
licensing deal for one of my existing projects. And in my
personal life… let’s just say that there are developments
that have demanded considerable focus, and will demand even
more in the days to come. I actually did squeeze in some
time to create a newsletter a few weeks back, and then a
computer kerfaffle caused it to disappear without a trace.
I never intended the gap between issues to be this long,
but at any given moment there was something that needed to
be done -now-.

But I will find the time when I can… so here is a newsletter,
if a short one.

COMPLETE PEANUTS VOLUME 1: WOW

The first volume of The Complete Peanuts has been shipping
for a while, and people seem quite happy with it. The book
hit the New York Times extended best-seller list, coming in
at number 19 on the hardcover fiction list for May 23. While
this is far from the first time that a Peanuts book reached
best-seller status, it should be noted that the publisher,
Fantagraphics, has never hit the charts before with any
project. Reorders are coming in rapidly. People love Peanuts.
Whodda thunk?

If you haven’t gotten one for yourself yet (or need a gift
for someone else!), it’s still at a hearty discount at

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?156097589X

(And yes, I am the Nat Gertler mentioned in the
acknowledgements. No, I’m not employed by the publisher. I
just helped them locate some hard-to-find strips, and field a
few other questions from them. That’s another things that
takes up time these days.)
===============================================================
COMPLETE PEANUTS VOLUME 2: COMING

Volume 2, containing all of the strips from 1953 and 1954
plus an intro by newsman and Peanuts fan Walter Cronkite,
isn’t due until October — but you can preorder it now
and lock in a price of under $20. Or you can just go and
look at Lucy on the cover.

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?1560976144

===============================================================
COMPLETE PEANUTS 1+2: A BOX OF GOODNESS

If you haven’t gotten Volume 1 yet, and can bear to stand
to wait for it, you might want to simply order this boxed
set with 1 and 2 in a simple slip-case. It will ship
around the same time that volume 2 ships:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?1560976322

The good news is that the current pre-order price of the
boxed set is less than volume 1 and volume 2 combined.
The bad news, at least for the collectors among you,
is that the box probably won’t have the first printing
of volume 1, but whatever printing is currently available
of this fast-selling book. (On the other hand, that may
also be an advantage; the book was carefully edited, but
then someone accidentally sent the un-edited versions of
certain text files to the printer, rather than the edited
ones. I don’t yet know if the errors will be corrected
in future printings.)

And to answer the next question: no, from what I hear they
are not currently planning to do a slipcased version every
two books. This is just a push to get people to buy the
first couple volumes as a gift set, and thus hook the
recipient into buying the following 23 volumes.
===============================================================
OTHER UPCOMING BOOKS

Well, the storybook IT’S FATHER’S DAY, CHARLIE BROWN is
already out:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689868197

as is the Baby Snoopy board book COLORS:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689869983

July brings us calendars, both a 365-day calendar:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0740744453

and an 16 month one:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0740744402

plus the storybook GO TO SCHOOL, CHARLIE BROWN

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689868189

August brings the long-awaited, previously-delayed
pop-up book PEANUTS: A POP-UP CELEBRATION
http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689854536 — and if you want
to save more, check out all you can save on the more
expensive limited edition!:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689863896

September has the storybook THE GREAT PUMPKIN STRIKES AGAIN!

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689873395

and TRICK OR TREAT: A PEANUTS HALLOWEEN (which is described
as “a goody bag of comics delights featuring the whole Peanuts
gang!” and featuring “Halloween tips, costume ideas, and
recipes”. It’s also got an intro by R. L. Stine, the guy
behind the Goosebumps series — and who, under the name
Jovial Bob Stine, used to write comics himself)

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0345464133

And then there’s the mini-book with the strange title
MERRY CHRISTMAS, SWEETY! WOOF, WOOF, WOOF!, which is an
odd line of dialog taken from a strip where Snoopy
(dressed as Santa) actually appears to speak.

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0740746480

And October brings the storybook I WANT A DOG FOR CHRISTMAS,
CHARLIE BROWN, which is not yet available for preorder.
===============================================================
THE FUTURE OF AAUGH.COM?

The hecticness that has marked my life lately might calm down
slightly for the next few months, but there are signs that it
will come back strong in the fall and stay for a long while.
I am -considering- phasing out both the AAUGH.com storefront and
the email newsletter. That does not mean my information will
go away, however; the Peanuts book list would remain and continue
to be maintained, and new information would be kept on a blog.
It just means you’d have to go visit the blog from time to
time, rather than getting a newsletter. This would mean that I
would stop making any money from the site, but it also means
considerable less time involved.

None of this is definite. I just thought I’d let you all in on
my thoughts at this stage.

But for now, you’ll continuing getting the newsletter… as
long as you keep sending your email address updates to nat@AAUGH.com
(which is also the address you should use for your comments,
complaints, insults, and such.)

This isn’t spam. You’re getting this email because a
subscription request came apparently from your address.
If you’re receiving this somehow in error or just
want to drop your subscription, send email to
remove@AAUGH.com and be sure to tell us the email address
where you’re receiving the newsletter.

In this issue:
* IT’S THE 1995 STRIPS, CHARLIE BROWN
* REVIEW: TOM EVERHART
* ORDERABLE LI’L FOLKS
* MORE ON “IT’S ONLY A GAME”
* LUCY MUST BE ON DVD
* OTHER PEANUTS BOOK NEWS

IT’S THE 1995 STRIPS, CHARLIE BROWN

I’ll admit it – my best inside elf at Ballantine Books
is no longer on the inside. So when they named their new
strip collection IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, SNOOPY
and promoted it with a focus on Snoopy as the world’s
greatest novelist, I reckoned it was probably a collection
of Snoopy writing strips. Such things have been done
before.

Instead, it turns out to be the book that so many were
waiting for: a collection of all of the strips from
1995. This is the last of Ballantine’s series collecting
the last 5 years of the strip. This time, they are
running all of the strips in black and white, even
the Sunday ones. That doesn’t mean there’s no color
in the book, it’s just not in the strips. The
remaining area of each page is a color design with
the Peanuts characters.

1995 has a fair amount of Rerun strips, with him
seeking companionship of a dog and playing basketball.
It also features a run featuring Charlie Brown as a
surprisingly competent marbles player. Yes, during the
1990s CB was granted success in a surprising number
of ways. We also get the usual sports, Snoopy as
author, lawyer, and flying ace, and the key theological
question: did Jesus have a dog?

You can buy this for $11.95 now (hey, wait, it’s
discounted to $9.56 at the moment!), or you can wait
over a decade for the Complete Peanuts set to get up
to 1995. It’s up to you.

Get it at http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0345442725
========================================================
REVIEW: TOM EVERHART

I stopped by the Charles M. Schulz Museum a couple
weeks back, catching the exhibit of Tom Everhart
Peanuts paintings. You’ve probably seen some of the
images from these, but it really is different seeing
them in person. First off, they’re huge. Secondly,
they’re very textural. The physicality of the paint,
the stamped circles of color, it all enhances the
experience. The exhibit is just about over; if you
want to catch it, get out there quickly, before it’s
replaced by the new exhibit on Peanuts parodies from
Mad magazine. (Of course, that should be interesting
as well!)

The museum put out a catalog of the exhibit. TOM
EVERHART: UNDER THE INFLUENCE is a book with a
foreword by the museum’s director Ruth Gardner
Begell, an intro by Jean Schulz, a six page
article by Everhart about his work with Peanuts,
and an article by Michael Schwaeger, an art
history professor from Sonoma State University.
(It was particularly interesting to read this book
in close succession with the 1995 strips; when
Schwaeger says “Look longer still [at the paintings]
and you notice that many of the compositions, as
well as the characters’ poses and facial expressions,
are a little different – even unfamiliar – from
those you’ve seen in the Peanuts strip” it seems
that he’s unaware that the character images are
taken directly from the strip. Had he read the 1995
strips, he would’ve seen several of the sources
for the Everhart images in the book.)

After that, we get the main attraction: large
color images of the Everhart pictures. A couple of
them are even two-page foldouts.

Should you get this? Maybe. The material is good,
but there’s not much of it. There are only 12 of
those full-color images (although there are some
smaller illustrations along with the articles)
in a paperback book that’s a mere 48 pages for
$30.

Should you buy it? If you’re a big fan of the
Everhart paintings, yup (particularly since the
previous museum catalog of his work, from the
Suntory Museum in Japan, is hard to find at any
price.) If you’re a compulsive Peanuts book nut
like I am, of course you want it. And if money
is no object, then there’s no reason not to.

You can order your copy from the Schulz Museum
website at:

http://schulzmuseum.org/store/books/books.html

========================================================
ORDERABLE LI’L FOLKS

And hey, an even better reason to head over to the
museum website is to pick up LI’L BEGINNINGS, the
book collecting Schulz’s pre-Peanuts cartoons.
Yes, that one’s $30 as well, but at 300 pages
and with hundreds of cartoons, it’s a bit easier
to justify. This is the book I reviewed last
newsletter. They’ve got the book in stock now,
ready to go. Go to the same website address mentioned
above to order it from the museum.
========================================================
MORE ON “IT’S ONLY A GAME”

Some of you responded quite positively to the earlier
announcement that my company, About Comics, would be
releasing a collection of “It’s Only A Game”, Schulz’s
short-lived syndicated comics feature from the late
1950s. (On the other hand, at least one email seemed
to imply that there was no such comic and I was making
it up!)

Well, if you thought that was good news, here’s even
better news for you: Cartoonist Jim Sasseville, who
anonymously collaborated with Schulz on “It’s Only A Game”
for most of its run (and whom some of you know for his work
on the Peanuts comic book magazine stories) is providing
commentary for the book. It will be nice to finally put
his name on this work. Not only that, but editing
the book is Derrick Bang, a name you should recognize
from his work on Li’l Beginnings and 50 Years Of
Happiness, both available through the Schulz Museum
store. All three of us are working hard on making this
a good book.

The details about format, price, and release date are
still being worked out. Keep watching this newsletter
for further info.
========================================================
LUCY MUST BE ON DVD

The DVD release of the recent Peanuts special LUCY MUST
BE TRADED, CHARLIE BROWN is now shipping. This is a longer
version of the special than what saw air. The DVD includes
two other baseball-themed specials, THE CHARLIE BROWN
ALL-STARS (which was one of the early specials — if you
like the quality of the classic holiday specials but haven’t
seen this one, you should) and IT’S SPRING TRAINING,
CHARLIE BROWN. Order them now at:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B000127LYA

========================================================
OTHER PEANUTS BOOK NEWS

Now shipping are:
* The kiddie book adaptation of LUCY MUST BE
TRADED, CHARLIE BROWN

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689865562

* Another baseball-themed storybook for kids (Little
Simon is doing a number of these in roughly the same
format as the animated adaptations, doing either
things that sound like sequels to the animated
specials or which cover holidays that the animated
specials skip), MAKE A TRADE, CHARLIE BROWN:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689865589

* The shaped board book BABY WOODSTOCK’S EASTER
EGGS http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689857829

Announced for September is THE GREAT PUMPKIN STRIKES
AGAIN, another one of those animated sequelly kids
books.
========================================================
And so ends another journey through the AAUGH.com
news. So hey, why don’t you head over to
NAT ADD THIS and order the book of 1995 strips…
and if you’re willing to wait to have it delivered
at the same time as The Complete Peanuts volume 1
(which is at http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?156097589X ),
you can even get free shipping in the U.S. for both.

I’ll be at the WizardWorld Los Angeles comics
convention in Long Beach, California on the 20th
and 21st of this month. If you’re there, stop by
the About Comics table and say hi!

And thanks for keeping me informed of your email
address changes! Keep those coming, folks, as well
as your questions’n'suggestions!

–Nat
proprietor

http://AAUGH.com

Note: you are receiving this newsletter because your address
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THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
LI’L FOLKS IN FEBRUARY
IT’S BASEBALL, CHARLIE BROWN
A BIGGER VALENTINE FOR CHARLIE BROWN
KIDS BOOKS REVIEWS
POP-UP BOOK POPS UP AGAIN
OTHER KIDS BOOKS AVAILABLE

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

I’ve been faced with a dilemma. Many of you know that
I’m a publisher, putting out books and comic books
under the About Comics imprint. As a publisher, I like to
wait until I have all the info I can get before I announce
a project, and pick the time when it will best help sales.

But as the AAUGH.com guy, I like to announce Schulz
projects as soon as possible. You folks like having the
information, and I like bringing it to you. If I knew about
a project coming from some other publisher, I’d announce
it unless I’d promised not to. And even though it may not
be the most prudent move, here goes:

During a creatively fertile period in the late 1950s, Charles
Schulz created another comics feature. “It’s Only A Game”
was a single panel gag comic focused on sports and games.
It ran a little over a year, and to the best of my knowledge,
not a single panel of it has ever been reprinted in a book.

Later this year, that will change.

Details of date and format are still being worked out, but
toward the end of this year, expect the first book ever of
IT’S ONLY A GAME.

Published by About Comics, my company. So forgive me
for feeling this is a big one.
=======================================================
LI’L FOLKS IN FEBRUARY

A release date has now been announced for CHARLES M.
SCHULZ: LI’L BEGINNINGS, the collection of “Li’l
Folks” and other pre-Peanuts cartoons by Schulz. The
book will be available starting February 21, and
can be had purchased only at the Charles M. Schulz
Museum And Research Center or via the museum’s
website.

The museum is making an event out of this. February
21-22 Derrick Bang, who wrote the commentary and
annotations for this book, will be giving talks and
signing the book at the museum. You can see more
about the schedule for these talks as well as take
a look at the cover of the book here:

http://www.schulzmuseum.org/events.html

Now, for you comic fans who may be considering making
a trip out for this, let me give you an added reason.
That same weekend, San Francisco (a mere hour away)
is hosting the Alternative Press Expo, a convention
for the alternative/independent comic book crowd. You
won’t find a lot of superhero material there, but
thee will be lots of creators and publishers of other
sorts of comics.

So you can take a weekend, spend part of it in
Santa Rosa taking in the museum, and spend part
of it in San Francisco taking in APE and the
other unique joys of that city. I know that’s what
I’m going to do. (In fact, if anyone is going to
either event, please feel free to say “hi” if you
see me. I won’t have a table at the convention,
but if you take a look at my photo:

http://AAUGH.com/guide/oddbooks.htm

then you should be able to recognize me.)
=======================================================
IT’S BASEBALL, CHARLIE BROWN

Lately I’ve been fielding questions about whether
the upcoming WHO’S ON FIRST, CHARLIE BROWN? strip
collection is baseball-themed or the long-hoped-for
collection of strips from 1995.

Well, given that the cover says that it features
baseball strips and that it has an intro by
baseball great Cal Ripken, Jr., I think we have
the answer.

This book ships in April. You can pre-order it
now at http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0345464125
=======================================================
A BIGGER VALENTINE FOR CHARLIE BROWN

Peanuts animation expert Scott McGuire, who has
an excellent guide to the various movies, TV
specials and the like at

http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html

brings us interesting news. The newly-released
video version of A CHARLIE BROWN VALENTINE is
actually four minutes longer than what you’ve
seen on TV. The producers actually made a 25
minute special and cut it down to 21 minutes
for TV airing. Apparently, they’ve done this
with other recent specials as well, keeping the
length of the new ones more in line with the
length of the early classic specials. So we can
expect further expanded editions to come.

You can get A CHARLIE BROWN VALENTINE on a
DVD with two other specials at

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B0000E32X4

Or on VHS, without the other specials, at:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B0000E32X6

=======================================================
KIDS BOOKS REVIEWS

BABY SNOOPY’S VALENTINE is a board book about
Baby Snoopy (the infantilized version of
Snoopy made for licensing purposes) bringing
a valentine to Baby Woodstock. The thing
that makes this interesting is that each of
the six thick cardboard pages is a different
shape, making the book as a whole a 3-D
image of Baby Snoopy holding his valentine.
(Snoopy, being younger than normally depicted,
is using valentines here as a friendship
symbol, as opposed to the older Snoopy we
all know for whom valentines represent all
the ladies out there who still have a thing
for him.)

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689857810

SNOOPY’S FEELINGS is another board book. This
one has all the pages shaped the same, but it
has a raised plastic image of Snoopy’s head
on the cover. The inside is just a series of
images showing Snoopy expressing different
feelings – cool, surprised, relaxed, excited,
sad, happy, hungry, satisfied, angry, and
sleepy. (Oh, dang, I gave away the ending!)

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689856628

=======================================================
POP-UP BOOK POPS UP AGAIN

Little Simon had announced PEANUTS: A POP-UP
CELEBERATION, originally planned for sometime
last year. Now it’s back on the schedule,
slated to be released in August. This has
half a dozen pop-ups based on the key tropes
of the strip, accompanied by the strips
that inspired each pop-up. You can preorder
it now at:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689854536

And for those of you willing to spend a bit
of extra money on something rarer, they have
an upscale limited edition of the same book
for $150:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689863896

=======================================================
OTHER KIDS BOOKS AVAILABLE

The storybook THE EASTER BEAGLE RETURNS, scheduled
for February publication, is actually already
shipping:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689865880

You can also now preorder COLORS, a Baby Snoopy
board book about colors, at:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689869983

There are also two storybooks now available
for preorder, IT’S FATHER’S DAY, CHARLIE BROWN:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689868197

and GO TO SCHOOL, CHARLIE BROWN:

http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689868189

Well, that’s the news we have for now. We’ll have
plenty more to come, I’m sure, so keep me up to
date with all your new email addresses. Keep
thinking good thoughts!

–Nat
proprietor

http://AAUGH.com