The Gospel of Peanuts author passes away

I missed this news when it occurred in July — Robert L. Short, who wrote a series of books looking at biblical themes in Peanuts, passed away.

The three books he wrote about Peanuts, starting with the best-selling The Gospel According To Peanuts, through The Parables of Peanuts, and ending with Short Meditations on the Bible and Peanuts, varied in overall interest for someone coming at them from the angle of being a Peanuts fan. The earliest was really alook at the strip and finding the biblical and values commentary therein, but they slid more into being looks at biblical concepts and finding a strip that simply illustrated the point. But still, it was an interesting angle to take, and it’s worth reading the first one.

I’ve long meant to do more research into this, but I think Short may have launched an industry. Nowadays, books that use some specific pop culture series as the base for looking at some specific discipine – physics in Star Wars, philosophy in Buffy, religion in The Simpsons, and so forth – are pretty common. But did such a form exist in 1965? I’ve seen no sign of it.  I can’t promise it isn’t out there, but I’d be a little surprised if it was. A lot of writers out there may owe him, whether they know it or not.

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 …

Schulz/Peanuts news
Drawing Peanuts

Matt dropped me a line to show me this video that he had made, digging through every documentary source the he could find to clip footage of Charles Schulz drawing, including Schulz’s own commentary. It does get a bit mesmerizing. I kinda prefer that there was more strip work than …

Schulz/Peanuts news
Heads up: Schulzy stuff on CBS Sunday Morning tomorrow

On tomorrow’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning, they’ll be stopping by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and talking to Jeannie as well as my Schulz: 100 Objects collaborator Benjamin L. Clark about Schulz, his work, and the museum! 40 SHARES Share Tweet this thing Follow the AAUGH Blog