When collecting Peanuts books, there are often times where I have to ask myself “is this a book?” One of these is an odd line of items that Hallmark out out in the 1970s, which I mentioned a couple times over the past decade. They are bound by a single key ring, the pages flip vertically. I just picked up my third of these  (or maybe four, but I can’t find the other one!) This is a book that Hallmark also put out in small, hardcover, definitely-a-book format, The Flying Ace. It’s a strip reprint, and in keyring format the panels reproduced on per page.

It’s only now that I realize that the keyring version actually has one more strip than the hardcover version (which was part of Hallmark’s Thoughtfulness Library imprint), which leads me to suspect that the keyring versions actually came first, and the books are adapted from them. Backing up this suspicion is that I’ve got one keyring book (It’s Only a Game – but it’s a Peanuts book, not a collection of the strip of the same name) that has no corresponding Thoughtfulness Library book that I’ve found.

I don’t see these pop up for sale very often, and at this point, I’m really unsure of how many different titles there are. I know that there are at least three. Or four. (I really need to organize the AAUGH.com Reference Library better. Step one: hit the lottery. Step two: hire someone to do it.) (Okay, I’m going to Vegas in a couple of days. One good jackpot ought to take care of it!)

Share the news!