Snoopy in a hit movie

I just got back from seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, and can point out that among the many details slammed into the film, Snoopy makes an appearance in one small way. The opening scene is set in a hospital, and on a patient’s bedside table, a greeting card with Snoopy atop his doghouse can clearly be seen. Of course, this is not the first Peanuts appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as regular readers can remember that there is a similar sighting to be made in Iron Man 3.

In some way, this is part of a circle of inspiration. Snoopy is in Guardians of the Galaxy. One of the film’s main characters is referred to simply as “Rocket” in the comic is inspired by a Beatles song – he’s known as “Rocket Raccoon” in the comics, and his early appearances make clear references to other elements of the song “Rocky Raccoon”. And the Beatles took inspiration from a magazine cover, where they got the title line “Happiness is a Warm Gun”… which is itself a reference to “Happiness is a Warm Puppy”, a line from Peanuts popularized as the title of a best-selling Peanuts book.

Because it is a film starring a character co-created by Jack Kirby (Groot, a humanoid tree creature), and because the Kirby family isn’t compensated for all the billions of dollars of business that is being done off of these movie adaptations, I went and kicked a buck toward the Kirby legacy as part of my campaign, A Buck For Jack.

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