Christmas Is Here is Coming… Again

Upcoming releases

Announced for October is Christmas Is Here! Holiday Gift Set, a boxed set of a book and stuffed Snoopy wearing a cap. This makes me tense on a number of fronts.

  • It’s published by Phoenix International. In the past, when their products show up on Amazon, they don’t always ever actually ship from Amazon, leaving me hunting down another source.
  • The Christmas is Here! title was used for a different Peanuts book last year.
  • This book does not appear in the publisher’s 2020 catalog… but something else I appear to have missed does.
  • These boxed sets take up a lot of valuable shelf space.
  • The book is listed as a “First Look-and-Find.” A previous boxed set they issued has a “Little First Look-and-Find.” How am I supposed to know the order?
  • The book appears to be a rework of the Merry Christmas Charlie Brown Look-and-Find… or should I say another rework, as that book was already reworked as Look-and-Find Peanuts. It would not surprise me in the least if it had the exact same interior as that book.
  • And yet…I will hunt this down and buy it! Because, having a different tile, it is technically a different book to me! Kids, don’t try this mania at home!

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 …

Upcoming releases
Game Day returns

Back in 2020, Fantagraphics dropped Game Day, a boxed set of sports-themes Peanuts strip reprint paperbackss, as a Costco exclusive. Next June it’s coming back, this time in hardcover and available through the usual sources. Designed as a Father’s Day gift, it should be good for anyone who likes Peanuts …