The Class of 1950

There was something in the water during the 1950-1951 school year. Peanuts started in October, of course, and is still running strong in reruns after an almost 50 year run. Dennis the Menace started in March of 1951. Not as long-running but strong on the quality scale, King Aroo started in … October or November, I’m forgetting at the moment. But starting this run was the September 4, 1950 launch of Beetle Bailey, another strip still holding itw space in many papers. And now they’re giving that the Complete treatment, with volume 1 covering from the beginning into 1952. I haven’t grabbed up my copy of this yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing it; I’ve not seen more than one or two examples of the strip from before Beetle joined the military, and I’ve always been rather curious about those.

(And if you’re looking for a good gift bargain – today only, the complete Buffy The Vampire Slayer Boxed Set, all seven seasons of the TV show, $69.99 today only. Free shipping even. If I didn’t already own all the seasons separately, I’d be glomming this up. Yes, my tastes do not begin and end at Peanuts.)

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General
On the four panel status

For more than the first three decades of Peanuts, the daily strip was always four panels… well, no, that’s not quite 100% true, as I think of the August 31, 1954 daily strip of Patty jumping rope, but even that had panel breaks at the quarter, half, and three-quarter marks …

General
The 75th Anniversary

I sat down to write a nice, long something on the 75th anniversary of Peanuts, because it’s a 75th anniversary, because this is the official marking of Peanuts being a cultural presence after the end of the strip for half as long as the strip was being made, and because …

Discounts
Big Fantagraphics sale and other Peanuts notes

One thing about the switch from the previous blog-by-mail system to the current one is that if there were multiple blog posts in a day, the old system would send a single digest email while the new one will send an email for each post. Not wanting to flood people’s …