Good Grief! Modern Life!

goodgriefofmodernlifeFor those of you who like an academic bent to the way you think about Peanuts, August brings The Comics of Charles Schulz: The Good Grief of Modern Life. This entry in the Critical Approaches to Comics Artists series has been in the works for a while – the call for papers went out in 2013. This is at least the third book from the University Press of Mississippi on Schulz, but when you have a focus on comics, who can blame you? I’ll see if I can get a rundown of the papers included.

(I sometimes wonder whether, if invited to contribute to volume like this, I’d have anything to put forth. I’m not an academic, my writing tends to be very popular-oriented. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have thoughts on Schulz’s work, of course, but could I make a point worth making with the sort of rigor that’s expected? Ahhh, I don’t see the calls for papers, so I guess I’ll never know!)

Anyway, being an academic book, this has a list price of $65, which is a bit of an ouch. (I have a couple of the contributors on my Facebook friends list. Am I gonna try to score a review copy? You betcha!) But you should click through on the link here, take a look… then finish all your Christmas shopping, and let Amazon provide me with the referral fee! (He says, as he decorates his doghouse in hopes of winning the top prize…)

Upcoming releases
2025 in Peanuts

Happy New Year, all you AAUGH Blog Readers! 2025 has come, like it or not, and it brings with it the 75th anniversary of Peanuts! Now, we’ve seen at least some attempts to play off 0f the big anniversary year since at least last summer, more than a full year …

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 …

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 …