They Called Him Sparky
- By : Nat
- Category : Now shipping
Eight years ago, They Called Him Sparky: Friends Reminiscences of Charles Schulz came out. It was a keen little book, with pieces by folks who knew Schulz in his St. Paul days, generally through his faith community, the Church of God. There are reminiscences, photos, correspondence, and cartoons that Schulz drew for his friends. The book is fleshed out with a selection of cartoons that Schulz did for publications of Warner Press (the publishing arm of the Church of God). I said some nice things about it at the time (meant to do a full review, but it looks like I never got around to it.) I thought it a very fine book for those with serious interest in Schulz; instead of being a big bloated biography, it was an intimate little picture of the man.
Unfortunately, this book, self-published by author David Liverett under his Chinaberry House imprint, never received good distribution, and its availability only faded since. The author’s ordering website disappeared; Amazon only had used copies, at about triple the original price. It had never been offered to comic book shops. With my Schulz fan hat on, this bothered me.
With my publisher hat on, however, this looked like an opportunity. So I contacted Mr. Liverett, cut a deal, and now the book is available as an About Comics/Chinaberry House co-publication. You can (and should!) now order it through Amazon; cover price is a mere $14.95 (folks offering used copies have already altered their price to compete with that.) Comic shops can order it through me at wholesale.
