Happiness should be shared

Here is a never-reprinted Peanuts strip we somehow left out of The Complete Peanuts!

That Schulz, what a genius!

(The invocation of capitalized “Happiness” in a 1959 ad, well before “Happiness is a warm puppy” was said in the strip and thus linked Peanuts to the happiness theme, may seem surprising, but the line used, “Happiness should be shared”, is actually a quote from a 1956 strip.)

Picture of a half linus figure holding a Snoopy dispensing tube.

The use of drawn images of Peanuts merch in telling the story does remind me of The Colorful Story of Avon Toys, a 1970s giveaway meant to promote licensed shampoo bottles and the like.

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The first Peanuts ads?

Yesterday, while searching for something else utterly un-Peanuts related, I stumbled across an ad campaign that I don’t think I’d ever heard of before. A series of eight ads for Connecticut Blue Cross ran in newspapers during 1958. By 1958, Peanuts had been used in various commercial ways, like Peanuts …

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A big Peanuts reprint

When I showed off the upcoming Franken-Snoopy items from Hallmark yesterday, I left one out, and it’s a big one — 3000 square inches, to be precise. This blanket is a 50″x60″ reprint of the March 17, 1964 Peanuts strip. I hope they don’t start reprinting all the Sundays like …

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Yes, I got the bloody t-shirt!

The American Red Cross contacts me all the time, with phone calls and emails and the like, asking if I’m ready to give blood again. I donate a pint with reasonable regularity. But this month has been a little nuts, because, while they often have some little thank you gift …