*BY SCHULZ OR NOT BY SCHULZ?
*ERRORS IN PEANUTS: THE ART OF CMS
*DISCOUNT CHRISTMAS BOOKS
*PEANUTS BOOK-AND-TAPE SETS
*MORE SAMPLE PAGES ONLINE
*SNOOPY COLORFORMS BOOK
Goodness, hasn’t it only been a week since the last newsletter? Well, yes. But I started putting together a list of the newsbits I had, and realized that there was more than enough to do a full newsletter. Rather than have the next newsletter be overlong, I thought I’d get this out now.
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BY SCHULZ OR NOT BY SCHULZ?
There’s a new booklet coming out called HOW TO DRAW PEANUTS (it’s not yet available through AAUGH.com, but I hope to have it for you soon.) This shows you how to draw a number of the Peanuts characters, using circles and lines. On the cover, it says BY CHARLES M. SCHULZ in nice, big letters. Which is strange because the whole book was written and drawn after Schulz’s death.
The book was actually written and drawn by Matt Busch, a fact that is acknowledged on the indica page of the book. This may comes as a particular surprise to those who recognize Matt’s name, since he’s better known for drawing celebrity likenesses, superheroes, and well-endowed women with minimal clothing. However, he’s a well-rounded talented commercial artist, and does a reasonable job of showing how to draw specific cartoon characters in specific poses.
If you want to see examples of Matt’s usual work, check out http://www.mattbusch.com
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ERRORS IN PEANUTS: THE ART OF CMS
The new book PEANUTS: THE ART OF CHARLES M. SCHULZ is the most beautiful and amazing Peanuts book ever. By reproducing strips from the original art and from old printed paper, and by liberally salting the book with Schulz sketches and images of various Peanuts products, it really is both a strip reprint and a museum exhibit in one. If you haven’t already ordered your copy, rush to do so at http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0375420975
However, as with any work of reasonable complexity, a few small errors crept in. As this will be a book that folks will refer to for years to come, I thought it best to get some corrections out there. Unfortunately, since the pages aren’t numbered, I can’t direct you to the specific pages I’m correcting, but here are the facts:
1) The Li’l Folks appearance of Charlie Brown that they print is neither from 1948 nor is it him "see[ing] print for the first time". This cartoon from July 24, 1949 is at least the fourth appearance of a character named Charlie Brown in Li’l Folks (although the characters are drawn differently from time to time — Li’l Folks didn’t really have continuing named characters.)
2) "they formed a team that put together A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1964." There are two ways to read this — one that the team was formed in 1964, and the other that A CB Christmas was put together in 1964. However, both are wrong. The team was formed working on a documentary in 1963, and work did not commence on A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965. If you don’t believe me on the these, check out Lee Mendelson’s fine book A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making Of A Tradition: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0060198516
3) There’s a sketch of Linus shooting an invisible bow and arrow at Lucy, yelling "TWANG!". The caption states that this sketch is "probably from the mid-1960s". I have to suspect that it’s actually from the mid-1950s, since Linus was used in that pose in the final panel of a Sunday strip from that period. To see the strip, dig out a copy of any of the following books: 1) Good Grief, More Peanuts (The Rinehart & Co or Holt Rinehart Winston edition, not the later Peanuts Classics version issued by Henry Holt.) 2) Peanuts Parade 14: Always Stick Up For The Underbird 3) Peanuts Double Volume #2 4) For The Love Of Peanuts You’ll see that Lucy’s pose is actually much different in the strip — but that’s part of the reason for doing sketches, to work out poses. Of course, it is possible that Schulz did revisit the image and the concept in the 1960s, but if I had to place a bet, it would be on this being a mid-1950s sketch.
These are all very minor points. The text of the book is not what’s important (which is good, because there isn’t that much text!) It’s the pictures that make this book what it is — a wonderful combination of strip reprint book and museum. Get this one, you won’t be sorry! http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0375420975
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DISCOUNT PEANUTS CHRISTMAS BOOKS
Yes, I know, we’re just swerving past Halloween and already I’m talking about Christmas — but I wanted to be sure you were offered these bargains before they sell-out. These are some of those square hardcover Festive Peanuts books that Harper-Collins put out a few years back. These copies are "remaindered", which means they are either extra copies that the publisher gave up on trying to sell, or they were returned from a bookstore because they didn’t sell. Generally, they are in fine condition except for a marker line on the top or bottom of the book used to indicate that they’re remaindered. For this, you’re getting 60% off the cover price. (Note: these links don’t go to the main AAUGH.com store or to Amazon. Instead, they go to another online source we’re affiliated with. As such, you cannot use any Amazon coupons or gift certificates.)
BAH, HUMBUG!: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002252139 IT’S CHRISTMAS: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002250292 SEASON’S GREETINGS: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002250241
This one isn’t a strip reprint. It’s not really a book at all. Instead, it folds out to reveal a series of thick cardboard tree ornaments you can string up and hang on your tree. Quantities are very low on this, so if you want it, get it now! PEANUTS CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT BOOK: http://AAUGH.com/bco.htm?0002250446
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PEANUTS BOOK-AND-TAPE SETS
Those of you who have been collecting for a few years or who have haunted the used book sources may have found some Peanuts book-and-tape or book-and-record sets. These generally had book adaptations of animated specials, with audio recordings of the dialog for kids to listen to as they page through the books.
What many folks may not realize is that there are still Peanuts book and tape sets available. These, however, are a bit different. Instead of using animated adaptation books, they use the Peanuts Gang series of storybooks (the stories are taken directly from the strips), packaging the standard release tapes with the book. There are four of them: MY BEST FRIEND, MY BLANKET IT’S BASEBALL SEASON AGAIN! HAVE FUN AT BEANBAG CAMP! CALLING ALL COOKIES!
Unfortunately, these sets aren’t available through AAUGH.com. They’re really meant for sale to educational institutions. TThe readings are done in a special way to help work with students who benefit from special methods of learning reading. For more on these, check out http://www.nrsi.com
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MORE SAMPLE PAGES ONLINE
You can now read online sample pages from WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING CRABBY (strips from 1963-1964) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?080502400X YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, CHARLIE BROWN (late ’60’s-early ’70’s) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0805035737 IT’S GREAT TO BE A SUPERSTAR (late ’60’s-early ’70’s) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0805014772 MY ANXIETIES HAVE ANXIETIES (strips from 1968-1969) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0805016910 MAKE WAY FOR THE KING OF THE JUNGLE (strips from 1989-1990) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0836217888 BEING A DOG IS A FULL-TIME JOB (strips from 1989) http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0836217462 So if you don’t have one of those books, go check it out! (And if you like what you see, order it!)
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SNOOPY COLORFORMS BOOK
Most of you probably know about Colorforms, those adhesive, removable vinyl characters that you stick on backdrops. They’ve been offering some Peanuts Colorforms sets recently. Most vital to this newsletter, they’ve offered a Colorforms book called SNOOPY, BEAGLE OF MYSTERY. This book is just coated pages of backgrounds with Snoopy Colorform characters to stick on them. I don’t yet have a reliable online source for these; I’ll let you know when I find something.
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Well, that’s the news for now. With luck, it will be at least a couple weeks before this much news builds up again. I don’t want to overload anyone’s mailbox, but I didn’t want to miss any Peanuts book news either. Okay, I’m a nerd, but I’m a specialty nerd!
If there’s something you need to know or something you want to tell me, drop me a line at nat@aaugh.com
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com
