Now here’s one that I didn’t see coming. With KaBOOM having gotten back into the business of reprinting the Peanuts comic book material, I was wondering if they would do something new, and they are… kinda. They’ve announced a graphic novelization of an existing story – specifically, the film Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown. The script adaptation is by Jason Cooper, and the art by former podcast guest Robert Pope.

The movie was turned into a book back when the 1977 movie was released, a text and animation art version. It may seem an odd choice, doing the third Peanuts movie released. It makes sense to me, though, because Race for Your Life is the most action-filled of the four traditionally-animated Peanuts films. It should take to the comics page a bit better than page after page of spelling bees.

As for the very idea of adapting a movie – there seemed like a growing discomfort from the Peanuts folks over originally stories being done for the comic books. By adapting the film, with its Schulz script, they can create a graphic novel while staying comfortably within the realm of “actual Schulz.”

This book drops in November, for about $10 in a 96-page paperback. Preorderable now.

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