Among the other things that my pal David Folkman has worked on is The Comics: An American Tradition, a newspaper supplement from (if I’m dating this correctly) the early 1970s. This 16 page newsprint item has reprints of comics from across the era of strips (including a 1951 Peanuts strip), with short text pieces. But it’s the museum-themed cover that’s of most interest to me, with a number of artists drawing their characters (although that Hal Foster-signed Prince Valiant is actually drawn by John Cullen Murphy.) And they all drew on the same board. Charles Schulz, who was not local, was the last artist to add his work, and filled the space where Beetle Bailey’s Otto was already looking on, creating a slight interaction (and thus a crossover!) with that character.

I love Snoopy’s masterpiece; his art follows the habit of his novel writing, throwing everything in there. There is both sun and moon, paratrooper and tomahawk-wielding Native American, a log cabin and golf. Snoopy is leaving nothing to chance; whatever element it takes to make a work a masterpiece is somewhere in there!

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