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In this issue:
* IT’S THE 1995 STRIPS, CHARLIE BROWN
* REVIEW: TOM EVERHART
* ORDERABLE LI’L FOLKS
* MORE ON “IT’S ONLY A GAME”
* LUCY MUST BE ON DVD
* OTHER PEANUTS BOOK NEWS
IT’S THE 1995 STRIPS, CHARLIE BROWN
I’ll admit it – my best inside elf at Ballantine Books
is no longer on the inside. So when they named their new
strip collection IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, SNOOPY
and promoted it with a focus on Snoopy as the world’s
greatest novelist, I reckoned it was probably a collection
of Snoopy writing strips. Such things have been done
before.
Instead, it turns out to be the book that so many were
waiting for: a collection of all of the strips from
1995. This is the last of Ballantine’s series collecting
the last 5 years of the strip. This time, they are
running all of the strips in black and white, even
the Sunday ones. That doesn’t mean there’s no color
in the book, it’s just not in the strips. The
remaining area of each page is a color design with
the Peanuts characters.
1995 has a fair amount of Rerun strips, with him
seeking companionship of a dog and playing basketball.
It also features a run featuring Charlie Brown as a
surprisingly competent marbles player. Yes, during the
1990s CB was granted success in a surprising number
of ways. We also get the usual sports, Snoopy as
author, lawyer, and flying ace, and the key theological
question: did Jesus have a dog?
You can buy this for $11.95 now (hey, wait, it’s
discounted to $9.56 at the moment!), or you can wait
over a decade for the Complete Peanuts set to get up
to 1995. It’s up to you.
Get it at http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0345442725
========================================================
REVIEW: TOM EVERHART
I stopped by the Charles M. Schulz Museum a couple
weeks back, catching the exhibit of Tom Everhart
Peanuts paintings. You’ve probably seen some of the
images from these, but it really is different seeing
them in person. First off, they’re huge. Secondly,
they’re very textural. The physicality of the paint,
the stamped circles of color, it all enhances the
experience. The exhibit is just about over; if you
want to catch it, get out there quickly, before it’s
replaced by the new exhibit on Peanuts parodies from
Mad magazine. (Of course, that should be interesting
as well!)
The museum put out a catalog of the exhibit. TOM
EVERHART: UNDER THE INFLUENCE is a book with a
foreword by the museum’s director Ruth Gardner
Begell, an intro by Jean Schulz, a six page
article by Everhart about his work with Peanuts,
and an article by Michael Schwaeger, an art
history professor from Sonoma State University.
(It was particularly interesting to read this book
in close succession with the 1995 strips; when
Schwaeger says “Look longer still [at the paintings]
and you notice that many of the compositions, as
well as the characters’ poses and facial expressions,
are a little different – even unfamiliar – from
those you’ve seen in the Peanuts strip” it seems
that he’s unaware that the character images are
taken directly from the strip. Had he read the 1995
strips, he would’ve seen several of the sources
for the Everhart images in the book.)
After that, we get the main attraction: large
color images of the Everhart pictures. A couple of
them are even two-page foldouts.
Should you get this? Maybe. The material is good,
but there’s not much of it. There are only 12 of
those full-color images (although there are some
smaller illustrations along with the articles)
in a paperback book that’s a mere 48 pages for
$30.
Should you buy it? If you’re a big fan of the
Everhart paintings, yup (particularly since the
previous museum catalog of his work, from the
Suntory Museum in Japan, is hard to find at any
price.) If you’re a compulsive Peanuts book nut
like I am, of course you want it. And if money
is no object, then there’s no reason not to.
You can order your copy from the Schulz Museum
website at:
http://schulzmuseum.org/store/books/books.html
========================================================
ORDERABLE LI’L FOLKS
And hey, an even better reason to head over to the
museum website is to pick up LI’L BEGINNINGS, the
book collecting Schulz’s pre-Peanuts cartoons.
Yes, that one’s $30 as well, but at 300 pages
and with hundreds of cartoons, it’s a bit easier
to justify. This is the book I reviewed last
newsletter. They’ve got the book in stock now,
ready to go. Go to the same website address mentioned
above to order it from the museum.
========================================================
MORE ON “IT’S ONLY A GAME”
Some of you responded quite positively to the earlier
announcement that my company, About Comics, would be
releasing a collection of “It’s Only A Game”, Schulz’s
short-lived syndicated comics feature from the late
1950s. (On the other hand, at least one email seemed
to imply that there was no such comic and I was making
it up!)
Well, if you thought that was good news, here’s even
better news for you: Cartoonist Jim Sasseville, who
anonymously collaborated with Schulz on “It’s Only A Game”
for most of its run (and whom some of you know for his work
on the Peanuts comic book magazine stories) is providing
commentary for the book. It will be nice to finally put
his name on this work. Not only that, but editing
the book is Derrick Bang, a name you should recognize
from his work on Li’l Beginnings and 50 Years Of
Happiness, both available through the Schulz Museum
store. All three of us are working hard on making this
a good book.
The details about format, price, and release date are
still being worked out. Keep watching this newsletter
for further info.
========================================================
LUCY MUST BE ON DVD
The DVD release of the recent Peanuts special LUCY MUST
BE TRADED, CHARLIE BROWN is now shipping. This is a longer
version of the special than what saw air. The DVD includes
two other baseball-themed specials, THE CHARLIE BROWN
ALL-STARS (which was one of the early specials — if you
like the quality of the classic holiday specials but haven’t
seen this one, you should) and IT’S SPRING TRAINING,
CHARLIE BROWN. Order them now at:
http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B000127LYA
========================================================
OTHER PEANUTS BOOK NEWS
Now shipping are:
* The kiddie book adaptation of LUCY MUST BE
TRADED, CHARLIE BROWN
http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689865562
* Another baseball-themed storybook for kids (Little
Simon is doing a number of these in roughly the same
format as the animated adaptations, doing either
things that sound like sequels to the animated
specials or which cover holidays that the animated
specials skip), MAKE A TRADE, CHARLIE BROWN:
http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689865589
* The shaped board book BABY WOODSTOCK’S EASTER
EGGS http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?0689857829
Announced for September is THE GREAT PUMPKIN STRIKES
AGAIN, another one of those animated sequelly kids
books.
========================================================
And so ends another journey through the AAUGH.com
news. So hey, why don’t you head over to
NAT ADD THIS and order the book of 1995 strips…
and if you’re willing to wait to have it delivered
at the same time as The Complete Peanuts volume 1
(which is at http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?156097589X ),
you can even get free shipping in the U.S. for both.
I’ll be at the WizardWorld Los Angeles comics
convention in Long Beach, California on the 20th
and 21st of this month. If you’re there, stop by
the About Comics table and say hi!
And thanks for keeping me informed of your email
address changes! Keep those coming, folks, as well
as your questions’n’suggestions!
–Nat
proprietor
http://AAUGH.com
