Obama Pays Tribute to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the ‘Peanuts’ Gang

The New York Times has this article announcing that Obama has written the intro for Complete Peanuts volume 25.This has me doing the Happy AAUGH Blogger dance for several reasons:

  1. I scooped the New York Times! I announced Obama’s introduction weeks ago… and to the best of my knowledge, I was the first human to scrape out that information. When you’re looking for breaking news, turn to the AAUGH Blog first! (For some minuscule subset of “breaking news”.)
  2. The article also talks about Complete Peanuts 26! My project is getting coverage in the New York Times, baybee! (And yes, I scooped the Old Grey Lady on that one, too!)
  3. This is the first place I’ve seen mention rough sales figures for the books. Fifteen to twenty thousand for the stand-alone volumes, plus that much again for the boxed set? That’s quite healthy.
  4. The article starts two sentences in a row with “Still,” which gives the editing nerd in me some exercise in figuring out how to handle it better.

Anyway, it’s a nice piece, and gives some history on the Complete Peanuts project. Go read!

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 …