Preview of CB Christmas Stocking

Fantagraphics has put up a nifty preview for Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking, which is due to come out late next month. Go watch it!

I’m quite happy with the result, but it’s always sort of odd to explain my pride in a project like that, because I did, well, the middle bit. Obviously, I am not Charles Schulz (promise!); I did not create the stories. And all that nice graphic polish that the book has? I didn’t do that either, that was done by the fine design folks who work for Fantagraphics. I did the middle part of the work. I was the guy who knew that these two stories were laying around, unreprinted, in almost half-century-old women’s magazines, and who figured out how they might be arranged to make a book. I wrote some “about the story” and “about the author” text, made up a simple digital dummy of the book, and showed it to Peanuts publishers until I found one that agreed with me that this was a worthwhile book. So I’m not the guy who made it good – that’s Schulz. I’m not the guy who made it look good – and I apologize for not having the names of the Fantagraphics designers at hand to cite them each individually. I’m just the guy who made it happen. People have already asked if I would sign copies for them, and I’m a mite confoodled by that (although glad to oblige), because my credit for the book is a vague one.

This nice little gift hardcover is $9.99, and is available for preorder. If you’re thinking of buying them as gifts, do remember that it qualifies for Amazon’s 4-for-3 promotion, which means if you order 4 copies in a single order, you’ll only pay for 3… plus that order come to $29.97, which means it qualifies for their Free Super Saver Shipping in the US.

 

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 …