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In this issue:
*PEANUTS HIT DVD!
*NEW STRIP COLLECTION COMING
*MORE ABOUT PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED BOOKS
*NEW SNOOPY’S LAUGH AND LEARN SERIES
*SCHULZ MUSEUM UNDERWAY
*AAUGH.COM’S BESTSELLERS
*MORE INFO ON THE SAN DIEGO SCHULZ TRIBUTE
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PEANUTS HIT DVD!
A while back, I announced that the upcoming original video IT’S THE PIED PIPER, CHARLIE BROWN would be the first Peanuts release on DVD. As it turns out, it shall not be alone! Several classic Peanuts specials are coming out on DVD as well, each as part of a double feature:
* A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS with IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME AGAIN, CB
*IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN with YOU’RE NOT ELECTED, CB
*A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING with the Mayflower Voyagers episode of THIS IS AMERICA, CB
A gift set with all the DVDs is also planned. Alll the DVDs will be coded for U.S. DVD players, and will not work with most DVD players sold in other countries.
These aren’t available for order yet; they’ll be shipping in September. We will be taking preorders starting about a month before then. I will let you know. I just wanted to give you advanced notice.
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NEW STRIP COLLECTION COMING
Ballantine Books has announced PEANUTS 2000, a new book collecting the final year of strips. For those of you who follow the dates of the strips, yes this does mean that several years of strips have been skipped over since the last sequential volume, and the publisher has changed yet again. (Ballantine Books took over the Fawcett Crest line near the end of its run, so this is not a brand new publisher for the Peanuts line.) This is supposed to have all of the strips from the year. It will ship in September.
I have a link for it on the front page of http://AAUGH.com — there’s not much information there yet, but you can preorder it now.
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MORE ABOUT PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED BOOKS
Peanuts video expert SCOTT McGUIRE has scared up some more info on the upcoming Charlie Brown Christmas book. Apparently, it’s not another adaptation of the animated special. Rather, it’s a book about the making of that special.
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS: THE MAKING OF A TRADITION is written by Lee Mendelson, who produced that special (and all the animated Peanuts which followed it). He had the cooperation of Sparky himself, as well as animator Bill Melendez, in making this book. In it, you’ll read about all the travails involved in convincing the network to go ahead with this revolutionary project, see interviews with the original voice actors, and be treated to a plentitude of pictures. This should be available for ordering within a couple months.
(And hey, if you’re a Peanuts video nut, be sure to stop by Scott’s website at http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html !)
Meanwhile, I’ve learned that CHARLES M. SCHULZ – CONVERSATIONS, the book collecting Schulz interviews, will be available in both hardcover and paperback formats. We have ordering links for these on the front page of http://AAUGH.com — but hold off on ordering for a little while. We should be able to get you a better discount a little closer to the book’s October publishing date.
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NEW SNOOPY’S LAUGH AND LEARN SERIES
I just got my hands on the first couple volumes of SNOOPY’S LAUGHTER AND LEARNING STORY AND ACTIVITY SERIES, a new set of British educational books. These books are printed on heavily laminated paper, so that your child can do the simple learning activities in the book (and even color in the pictures, although many pictures are already in color!) with good markers, and then you can wipe the pages clean and reuse the book. Each book is 16 pages, including the covers, and has a simple story which involves activities for your kids (such as copying letters, recognizing words, etc.) There are four books in the series:
1. READ WITH SNOOPY 2. WRITE WITH SNOOPY 3. COUNT WITH SNOOPY 4. COLOUR WITH SNOOPY (Yes, Colour. It’s British, as I said.)
You can order these books through AAUGH.com’s British shoppe: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nat/pbritish.htm They’re listed in the "Activity and Learning Books" category. They’ll run you about 2 British pounds apiece, which comes to about $3 US — but be aware that there will be a substantial shipping fee as well.
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SCHULZ MUSEUM UNDERWAY
Ground has been broken on construction of the Charles M. Schulz Museum, a museum dedicated to Sparky and his works. For more information, including pictures of what the museum is to look like, surf over to http://www.charlesmschulzmuseum.org
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AAUGH.COM’S BESTSELLERS
The best-selling book for the second quarter of this year was once again PEANUTS: A GOLDEN CELEBRATION, out-stripping the second best seller by two-to-one. This is the third quarter in a row that that book has topped our charts (and deservedly so; it’s a keen volume.)
The best-selling video was IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN — pretty impressive considering that this quarter is as far from Halloween as you can get!
The best-selling toy was SNOOPY IN TEXAS, outselling any of the other toys 3-to-1.
And to show that AAUGH.com is not totally out of step with the rest of the world, let me point out that we didn’t manage to get away from the Harry Potter phenomenon — we did get an order for ONE copy of the new book. (They are very enjoyable books, by the way. If you want to try them, check out the first one:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=059035342X/natgertlerwriterA/
…and if you’re addicted like I am, it’s time to order book 4:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0439139597/natgertlerwriterA/
And now back to the usual Peanuts news….
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MORE INFO ON THE SAN DIEGO SCHULZ TRIBUTE
As mentioned in a previous newsletter, I’ll be moderating two panels on Schulz and Peanuts at Comic-Con International: San Diego, the U.S.’s biggest comic book convention. I’m not certain when the panel on Peanuts history is scheduled for (it will be sometime during the convention’s July 20-23 run), but the Schulz Tribute panel is currently slated for Saturday July 22, running from 10:30 AM to Noon. We don’t have the full line-up of panel members arranged yet, but there are some interesting folks being talked to. Jill Schulz, Sparky’s daughter, has said she will join us on the panel.
For more information about the convention, surf over to http://www.comic-con.org
I hope to see you there!
–Nat Gertler nat@aaugh.com
