IN THIS ISSUE:
* MORE UPCOMING BRITISH PEANUTS BOOKS
* WHAT WAS FREE IS NOW CHEAPER!
* READY2READ COVER READY2VIEW
* ANOTHER COUPON
* MORE DETAILS ON A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS
* ODD PEANUTS BOOK: THE MOST EXPENSIVE PEANUTS BOOK EVER?
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MORE UPCOMING BRITISH BOOKS
It looks like the fine folks over in England are getting
another batch of books not destined for bookstores in the
States. These are further books in the Little Book series,
in addition to the four mini paperbacks that are already
released. These books are scheduled for October, and are
available for preorder now. They are:
CHARLIE BROWN’S LITTLE BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP
http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611565
PEANUTS LITTLE BOOK OF LIFE
http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611573
SNOOPY’S LITTLE BOOK OF STYLE
http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611581
http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1841611557
Why are there two links for that last one? I’ve gotten two
different ISBN numbers for that. My guess is that one of
these is supposed to go to a different new book in the
Little Book series. Ravette has recently been issuing
their paperback Peanuts books in groups of 4. I will
try to find out what the real fourth book is and let you
know as soon as I can.
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WHAT WAS FREE IS NOW CHEAPER!
Those of you in the United States ordering from the main
AAUGH.com store may have seen the offer for free “Super
Saver” shipping on orders of $99 or more (with some
restrictions, such as the order has to be a single
shipment.) Well, that deal has just gotten better; now,
you only have to find $49 worth of stuff worth ordering
to qualify for free super saver shipping. This is an
experimental offer and may not last, but at the moment
it’s a good deal!
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READY2READ COVER READY2VIEW
I have the cover to the upcoming Ready2Read kids book
FLYING ACE TO THE RESCUE up at http://AAUGH.com/upcoming.htm
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ANOTHER COUPON
Here’s a coupon code good through mid-August!
MAPCLEANER35
What will that do for you? If you order $35
or more from the main AAUGH.com store, this will chop
$5 off your total. This deal may have some limitations,
and it’s only good for a limited time — but hey, if you
were thinking of ordering anyway, an extra five bucks off
can’t hurt! When you’re checking out, enter this
code into the field marked “Have a gift certificate or
promotional code?” then click the APPLY button.
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MORE DETAILS ON A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS
I have in front of me the dust jacket for the upcoming
book A Peanuts Christmas. That’s right — I don’t have
the book itself, I merely have the dust jacket. And
that dust jacket makes me want the book all the more.
Why? Because it tells me that this book is supposed to
be “the complete collection of Christmas strips from
1950 to 1999”. Complete. That’s a word I like. We’ll
see if it’s true (covers have promised things before
that the book failed to deliver), but I suspect this
will be a worthwhile book in any case.
The cover price on this hardcover is $25.95, but
currently you can preorder the book for 30% off,
a mere $18.17. (And think about this: order 2 copies,
and you can use the $5 coupon above. Order 3 copies,
and you can also get free shipping. That would be
a copy for yourself plus two copies to use as
Christmas gifts, all delivered to your door when the
book ships in October, all for $49.51!)
http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?0345453514
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ODD PEANUTS BOOK: THE MOST EXPENSIVE PEANUTS BOOK EVER?
This book — actually a booklet — was mailed out for free,
but there was a major catch. It was only sent to people who
had bought a new car, a new Ford Falcon to be precise.
In the early 1960s, Ford made heavy use of the Peanuts
characters to promote the Falcon line. The earliest Peanuts
animation was in ads for Ford, and Ford had Schulz do
some funny original strips for their print advertising.
I’ve recently obtained copies of the brochures for the
1961 and ’62 Falcon lines, each of which has single-panel
(and occasionally dual-panel) Peanuts gags scattered
throughout.
When you bought your 1963 Falcon (and possibly in other
years as well), Ford Motor Company sent you a
congratulatory letter, a Schulz-illustrated postcard
to send them a list of your friends who might like to
buy a Falcon, and a copy of A SCRAPBOOK ABOUT YOUR
FALCON, a heavy-paper saddle-stitch booklet which,
according to the cover, was “prepared by Charlie
Brown and his friends”. Five Peanuts characters are
used on the front and back covers — Lucy, Pig-Pen,
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Linus. On the front they
are pasting up the title to the booklet, ransom not
style, and on the back they’re talking about how much
they love the Falcon (except for Snoopy, who feels
that “some affection should be left for pets”.)
Across the eight interior pages and the inside
covers are seven little Peanuts gags used to augment
text and pictures discussing what makes your new
Falcon great. Most are, alas, the sort of weak humor
that you get when you need to create some gag that
relates to a specific unfunny topic. For example,
when the book talks about the special orifice that
makes the brakes work so well, we see Charlie Brown
seated behind an office desk, saying “How nice..
every Falcon owner has his own private orifice”
Most of the gags in the ’61 and ’62 model brochures
are of similar nature, and stylistically suggest
the heavy editing hand of marketing copywriters.
Schulz certainly was capable of creating good
special-needs promotional strips, as the Ford print
ads and the Brownie Book Of Picture Taking show.
The scrapbook and the brochures certainly aren’t
“must own” items for Peanuts fans (and a good thing
they aren’t, because they aren’t very common, in my
experience.) These aren’t some treasure trove of
great lost Schulz work, but they do provide some
amusement and are an interesting look at the early
use of the Peanuts characters as spokeskids,
in the days not only before Met Life and Camp Snoopy,
but before A Charlie Brown Christmas, You’re A Good
Man Charlie Brown, and Happiness Is A Warm Puppy
made Peanuts a common site outside of the strip.
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Well, that’s all the news and notes for this issue. Next
time, I should have a look at *another* Peanuts-illustrated
guide to golf, and probably some news about the Schulz
Museum opening. And, of course, any and all upcoming book
info that I can scrape up.
–N
