How to make a Great Pumpkin

Following up on the success of A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition, Lee Mendelson and the folks at Harper are offering up another book on the making of a Peanuts special. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic hits shelves in September.

I’m glad there were years between the release of these books. That means that if they keep on this schedule, I will live to see It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown: The Making of a the Best Ever Animated Arbor Day Special by Default, but will pass on before Snoopy Swings Through the Jungle: The Making of a Mildly Diverting Met Life Ad.

Upcoming releases
A box of squares

This May, Fantagraphics is collecting the various small square Peanuts books they’ve published into a new box set, Peanuts All Year Round Mini Collection. This includes: A Valentine for Charlie Brown — Valentine’s Day and romance strips Batter-Up Charlie Brown! — baseball strips Waiting for the Great Pumpkin — Halloween …

Upcoming releases
Game Day returns

Back in 2020, Fantagraphics dropped Game Day, a boxed set of sports-themes Peanuts strip reprint paperbackss, as a Costco exclusive. Next June it’s coming back, this time in hardcover and available through the usual sources. Designed as a Father’s Day gift, it should be good for anyone who likes Peanuts …

Upcoming releases
An unauthorized? biography

In the past, I’ve talked about the Charles Schulz biographies that are produced as part of bulk lines of biographies for school libraries, very brief, photo-heavy things meant to give kids something to write book reports about. Well ABDO, a company that has produced just such a biography in the …