Snoopy’s lost Christmas Story

Panel from The Christmas StoryJust added to the AAUGH.com Reference Library: the December 1968 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. Why? Because starting on page 46, there’s a four page, twelve panel original Peanuts tale: “The Christmas Story”. As Snoopy listens on, Linus quotes from the bible (the same quote he’d put forth on TV three years earlier) and Lucy muses on Santa. Like the better-known “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking” from five years earlier, this is a “lost” piece of real Schulz, unreprinted in the ensuing years. The story, black linework on colored pages, is such a draw that it’s the focus of the cover.

It’s a nice little piece (although admittedly, I like “Christmas Stocking” better), and given the strong public connection between Peanuts and Christmas, I’m a bit surprised that these works haven’t been put to more use. (Although I did recently learn that “Christmas Stocking” was put to a double use at the time; Charles and Joyce Schulz used extra copies as their Christmas card!)

Uncategorized
Addendum to the The Wolf video

Shortly after I posted the video about the comic strip”The Wolf” which suggested ways in which it set the path for “Peanuts”, my pal and co-writer, Schulz Museum curator Benjamin L. Clark, pointed out something I had missed — while “Willie” had offered strips run in a two-tier format before …

Uncategorized
Unquote alone

The warning signs about the new book Rediscovering the True Meaning of Christmas with A Charlie Brown Christmas”: Celebrating Christmas with a Charlie Brown Touch starts with the title, and its curious use of a single double-quotation mark. That’s part of the name every time it’s listed, whether on the …

Uncategorized
Candidate Snoopy

The promotion of “Snoopy for President” dates back to at least 1961 (possibly earlier, I don’t have great reference on it.) The idea is not limited to US presidential election years, but it does tend to swell then. There was not only merch but newspaper articles on it in 1968. …