In this issue:
* UPGRADED ART OF SCHULZ
* ANOTHER CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
* A MONTH O’ PEANUTS CARTOONS
* COLORS FOR KIDS
UPGRADED ART OF SCHULZ
I’ve now had a chance to go page-by-page through the new
paperback edition of PEANUTS: THE ART OF CHARLES M. SCHULZ,
comparing it to the hardcover edition. There is indeed 32
pages of new material added to this version, although 4
existing pages were removed. Does this make it worth getting
the book if you’ve already got the hardcover? Well, I’ll
leave that to you to decide.
Here’s what was removed:
A two-page spread (pages 4-5) of Patty, Lucy,
and Violet confronting Charlie Brown and Snoopy
The 13th and 14th pages from the end, featuring a
Schroeder/Lucy marital dispute and a blow-up of a Sunday
panel
Here’s what was added:
About a third of the way through the book is a group of 16
new pages:
1) A close up of a strip with dialog from an off-panel
adult (the Van Pelts’ mother)
2) Pictures of the Schulz-decorated nursery wall now on
display in the Schulz museum
3) The cover of the first Peanuts comic book
4) Strips from the comic book (daily strips, colorized)
5) A panel of original art
6) Covers of three Peanuts reprint books and a box of
Peanuts napkins
7) A few Sunday strip close-ups
8) An original 1953 Sunday
9) Pictures of early Peanuts dolls from 1958, in packages — these
are the same figures that were already pictured much smaller later
in the book.
10) A couple of color Sundays
11) An original art daily
A second new 16-page section about 2/3s of the way through
features:
1) shots of the Schulz/Peanuts-illustrated Brownie
Book of Picture Taking
2) Panels from a Sunday strip about photography
3) Shots of Ford Falcon promotional material
4) Script and storyboards for the first Peanuts Falcon
commercial (the first animated Peanuts work)
5) A rough for a Ford promotional brochure
6) Sunday panel blow-ups
7) Ceramic Determined Production figurines
8) Two pages of original art from the book
Snoopy And The Red Baron
9) Peanuts music boxes
10) Color Sundays
11) A Peanut toy piano (no, the black keys are not
just painted on)
A new person, Roberta “Bobbie” Miller, was added to
the thank you list
Under the front and back cover flaps are a Sunday
panel close-up and a photo of Schulz, respectively.
In addition, they corrected some of the errors that
popped into the first edition. They didn’t get all
of them; they seem to have been working from a list
I sent them after I first read the book, which makes
me now feel guilty for not having checked every
statement along the way. Anyway, I and the AAUGH.com
fans have found a few more errors in the hardcover
since then (some of them far too late to be fixed in
this edition, including one that I discovered just
yesterday!), and I’ve already located one error in the
additional material. I’ve updated my guide to the errors
to show which are in the hardcover, which are in the
paperback, and which are in both. Head on over to
http://AAUGH.com/guide/errors.htm
Almost any book will have some errors in it, and as far as Peanuts-related errors, these are not egregious. Don’t
let them stand in the way of owning this fine, fine book.
And remember, the paperback is less than $12 for a
well-designed, full-color book over 350 pages long!
Order it from http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0375714634
==============================================================
ANOTHER CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
I just got my hands on Running Press’s new book A CHARLIE
BROWN CHRISTMAS, and yes indeed, it is yet another new
adaptation of that classic TV special! It’s not the
World Press edition with art by Dale Hale. It’s not the
Random House version with pictures taken from the animation.
It’s not the Golden Books edition with reworked Schulz art.
It’s not the Little Simon edition with Paige Braddock art.
It’s not the animation art version that was in A Charlie
Brown Christmas: The Making Of A Tradition. It’s not even
the book-and-records edition.
This time, they got Peter and Nick Lo Bianco to rework
Schulz art, so that the characters look like the later
Schulz style. Caroline Dolan provided the text.
This is a little gift book, about 2 3/4″ wide and
3 1/3″ high, hardcover. It’s 128 pages long, so
even with only about 30 words per page on the text
pages and plenty of pictures, it covers the story
of the special pretty well.
This is designed as being a little gift item. It
has a built-in ribbon bookmark with an inch-long
metal Christmas tree on it. It’s supposed to be
Charlie Brown’s tree, even matches the drawing of
it on the back cover, but the fact that it’s
metalic in color makes me think that maybe it’s
one of those aluminum trees Charlie Brown shunned.
Awww, I’m just picking on it, it’s a nice addition.
The ribbon is a single thread though, rather than
a loop, so you can’t use the book as a Christmas
tree ornament. Well, I suppose you could tie the
ribbon around the branch, but even then the slick
book jacket is likely to slip off, leaving a
bland looking hardcover. You could tape the jacket
to the book, I suppose, or you could display it on
your mantle. It is an attractive little item, and
costs a mere $4.95. Think “stocking stuffer”.
http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0762416017
(Note: beware of ordering used copies. The vendors
are apt to list any edition of A CB Christmas in
as being a used copy of this one. We really cannot
expect most people to know about or care about the
highly varied editions released under this title.
Also, because of the ribbon and the metal weight,
I’d keep this out of the hands of kids who are still
in the stick-it-in-their-mouth phase.)
==============================================================
A MONTH O’ PEANUTS CARTOONS
For those of us in the U.S., we get four prime-time
Peanuts specials over less than a month, including
one brand new show!
First up is A CHARLIE BROWN THANKSGIVING, airing on
November 23rd.
Then on December 2nd comes the double-whammy, A
CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS followed by CHARLIE BROWN’S
CHRISTMAS TALES. For those of you who haven’t caught
Christmas Tales before, do. It’s an entertaining
series of short tales based on strip sequences, a
well-done effort. (Of course, the brilliant folks
at the network have recycled their information for
Christmas Tales, leading them to announce on their
website that these are “never-before-seen”, rather
than something they ran last year.)
On December 9th we get the new special, I WANT A
DOG FOR CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN. As the name implies,
this special focuses on Rerun, and includes Spike!
Truly, a show of the under-represented-on-TV
characters.
All of these air on ABC. Check your local listings
for showtimes.
==============================================================
COLORS FOR KIDS
Little Simon has announced yet another book in their
line of books for the smaller set, this one entitled
simply COLORS. It ships in June, and is not yet
available for order.
==============================================================
Just a quick reminder for those of you in the Los Angeles
are that I’ll be at super*MARKET, the independent comics
festival in UCLA this weekend:
http://students.asucla.ucla.edu/cec/v.01/supermarket/
If you’re there, stop by and say “hi!” I’ll be at the
About Comics booth.
Also, my new comic book, Licensable BearTM, will hit
better-stocked comic shops this coming Wednesday (although
I suspect it may be delayed in the Southwest, due to
shipping problems.) Head on over to
http://www.LicensableBearTM.com to read the free sample
story. (Yeah, this is a Peanuts newsletter and I try to
avoid promoting my own stuff much in it, but I’ve actually
gotten requests from readers asking that I do more of it.)
Meanwhile, keep sending me your news, notes, questions,
quotes, gripes, goats, and changed email addresses!
–Nat
nat@AAUGH.com
