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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
