Peanuts on DVD and the campaign trail

Taking advantage of the election season, the folks at Warner Home Video are moving the TV special You’re NoYou're Not Elected, Charlie Brown DVD boxt Elected Charlie Brown from its former role as the second feature on Great Pumpkin DVDs to its own lead role on a DVD that comes out in early October. Taking the “bonus feature” slot on that DVD is He’s A Bully, Charlie Brown (that’s the one in which Rerun loses his marbles), making its premiere DVD appearance. Add in a new documentary featurette on the making of He’s Not Elected, and you’ve got a DVD, available for preorder now.

And speaking of the election, you can now vote – for a Peanuts character! The folks behind Rock The Vote have teamed up with the Peanuts gang for the website PeanutsRockTheVote.com! There, you can vote for which Peanuts character you would want to have as president (from a choice of five – but no, this is not a historic election like this year’s main race, so you can’t vote for Franklin or…. um… who’s a particularly old Peanuts character?), see the results from various states, read some election-oriented Peanuts strips, and get info on registering to vote in the real presidential election. (Because let’s face it, this Peanuts thing isn’t a real election. More of a non-binding referendum.)

By the way – when they had that panel of former Peanuts character voice actors at Comic-Con, they rushed them all off afterwards to tape some interview material for upcoming DVDs. They’re putting some effort into these extras. Even so, I wonder just how many times the Making Of can be interesting (although there are some which could be truly different, like It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown.) I hope they find some other extras, like hte Peanuts film strips, and the various odd little bits.

And remember, if you need to find any of the Peanuts cartoons on home video, head over to our list of released shows. I leave up the links to the out-of-print titles, so you can find used copies when no new ones are available.

Upcoming releases
A book I’d not expected to resurface

Back in 2011, Schulz’s granddaughter Dena Hodges issued the first two chapters of  a memoir called In the Shadow of the Family Dog. As I noted in my review at the time, the chapter and the description of the project made it clear that the focus was her relationship with …

Schulz/Peanuts news
New Peanuts podcast

Peanuts fans have had a number of podcasts to listen to over the years. Currently, there’s Unpacking Peanuts (working its way through the Peanuts canon four months per episode), Talking Nuts (working its way through the canon one month per episode), and It’s a Podcast, Charlie Brown (focused on, but …

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 …