More on Nat’s book (note: that’s not “Moron Nat’s book”)
- By : Nat
- Category : Nat news, Upcoming releases
Been a slow news period, but it’s about time to do some more flipping through The Peanuts Collection, the upcoming slipcased hardcover look at Peanuts which I provided the text for. We’re up to page 18 here, and this spread is about advertising and Peanuts. The text talks about some of the Peanuts-centered ad campaigns, and also how advertising has actually helped Peanuts. It’s really the visuals that make this spread. There’s an early ad for Peanuts itself, pictures of some MetLife items, some Dolly Madison ad drawings, and some Schulz sketches for Butternut Bread ads. The biggest shot on the spread is a Peanuts ad for the Ford Mustang.
Suddenly, I can hear a few of you attentive folks sharpening your pencils to write me a corrective email, letting me know that I obviously meant Ford Falcon, as that was the car the Peanuts characters advertised. So let me cut you off by pointing out two things: 1) pencils are a really lousy way to write email, and 2) no, I actually mean Mustang. I was surprised by this one myself when we found it in the Schulz Museum archives.
But this full-color ad piece for the 1965 Mustang serves a double purpose – it’s also a pocket. Reach into it and you can pull out a reduced reproduction of A Scrapbook about Your Falcon, which you have seen discussed previously on this blog and in my online Museum of Odd Peanuts Books.
The next spread is on Snoopy, filled with the history of everyone’s favorite well-eventually-they-decided-he-was-a-beagle. And this spread has a reduced reproduction of the educational Snoopy’s First Code Book tipped in (“tipped in” being publishing talk for “glued to the page”.)
Then there’s a spread on Peanuts in animation, and immediately after that (and very much linked to it), a spread on Peanuts and Christmas. The text talks a lot about A Charlie Brown Christmas, of course, but the pictures bring in not only that, but Peanuts ornaments, a single cartoon from Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking (a 1963 insert in Good Housekeeping magazine), and a removable greeting card. Now, this isn’t the reproduction of some high-print-run Hallmark card; this was a card which Schulz designed custom for the actor who played Schroeder in the San Francisco cast of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown – so if you don’t have one of its original print run of 100, here’s your change to have it.
We’re not halfway through the book yet, but I best get on to other things. But first, since I’ve been talking about removable items, let me bring up a related topic. I’ve already been facing the question coming in via email “if I buy this book, and send it to you, will you sign it and send it back?” Now, I don’t want people sending whole books through the mail – it’s both too much of a chance of getting damaged, and too much of a hassle on this end. With previous books, I’ve been willing to send out signed bookplates – stickers that you stick on the inside front cover (excuse me, “tip in”), and voila, it becomes a signed copy! But for this book with its removable items, I think it might make more sense for people to send me the removable item and a SASE, and I’d sign it and send it back. The first removable item on page 9 should fit easily into a standard envelope, and that would keep things simple. You can let me know what you think of this suggestion by emailing questions@AAUGH.com .
(It is possible I will be doing some signing appearances for this book, but it is not yet definite. If any are scheduled, I will announce it here.)
If you have a favorite bookstore and want to preorder, the ISBN is 978-0316086103 (US edition), 978-1741730685 (Australian edition), or 978-1-84773-827-1 (UK edition.) For those who like to order from your favorite online sites, here are the links:
