When things I thought weren’t going to happen happen

It had been so long since the most recent trade paperback volume collecting the Kaboom! Peanuts comic book stories that I was assuming they’d lost either the rights or the will to reprint the remaining issues, an assumption backed by the fact that Kaboom! no longer lists any Peanuts product on their website. But you know what happens when you’re ASSUMING — you’re making an ASS out of U and MING, merciless ruler of the planet Mongo. And so April 2018 will bring us Peanuts Vol. 9, reprinting, presumably, issues 29-32 of volume 2 of the series. That would complete the reprinting of the regular series, but would leave the two “specials” unreprinted; as they were longer than normal issues, they could presumable be combined into a single volume 10. Given the year-and-a-half gap between volumes 8 and 9, I’m not going to bet all my donuts on this ever coming out… but never say never!

(Actually, I’m betting we will see it, because Kaboom! seems to have re-entered the Peanuts business; they also have an upcoming book called Charles M. Schulz’ Charlie Brown, about which I know nothing.)

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 …