You’ve heard of The Gospel According to Peanuts, and if you paid close attention to the AAUGH.com newsletter, you’ve heard of The Effective Executive According To Peanuts. But the odds are pretty darned good you’ve never heard of The GMP’s According to Peanuts; I know I hadn’t heard of it until I found this piece offered up at auction. What exactly are the GMP’s? Why, the Good Manufacturing Processes for Human Foods, as dictated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, of course. So is this one of those government pamphlets that use Peanuts to explain something? Nope.

You see, there are lots of Peanuts books aimed at special audiences, and this one is aimed very specifically at folks who work in Coca-Cola bottling plants. This 16-page pamphlet features a 52-panel color comics story about Charlie Brown converting his lemonade stand into a lemonade bottling operation. He and his friends have to go through the process of eliminating possible sources of contaminants, including dogs and birds. Below the cartoons is text dealing more specifically with the reality of sanitary procedures in Coke bottling plants.

I haven’t been able to pin a date down for this yet. I know that it was published no earlier than 1971, as there is a 1971 copyright date for the Peanuts characters. But I do know that it was before 1986, since the text refers to Coke being bottled for almost a century, and it would have hit that century mark in 1986. With what little I’ve found out about the regulations it covers, I’m guessing it’s from 1984, but I still have more research to do.

Yes, this is the odd item I’ve been promising you or a while. I hope you agree that this is a weird item indeed. In fact, I’m adding it to the Museum Of Odd Peanuts Books.

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