Nat on the radio
I got interviewed about my Peanuts obsession/collection/business by my local NPR station, so my fellow Prius drivers across Ventura County, California (and beyond) got to hear my dulcet tones You can listen to the interview (or read the text version) here.
Maybe it was Woodstock taking the dictation…
First the good news: the Titan Books reprints of classic Peanuts strip collections have taken a step I hadn’t expected: reprinting one of the Peanuts Parade book, the 7″x10″ series that ran 29 volumes, a mix of new reprint volumes and reformatting of previous volumes. Specifically, they’re reprinting And a Woodstock …
Review: Countdown to Christmas!
Countdown to Christmas! With a Story a Day is, to no one’s shock, the Christmas equivalent of Countdown to Halloween! With a Story a Day, providing one themed, illustrated Peanuts story for each day of the month up until the holiday… and as Christmas comes earlier in December than Halloween comes …
Snoopy books: Two new, one old.
Let’s see what’s come in recently. There’s Snoopy’s Happy Tales!, which collects five storybooks into a single hardcover volume. I’ve reviewed most of the stories before, so I’ll just put links to those reviews: A Best Friend for Snoopy Snoopy Takes Off! Woodstock’s First Flight! Snoopy Goes to School Shoot …
More on the Peanuts of Life
So I heard from the curator of the Schulz Museum, the one and only Benjamin L. Clark (oh, okay, those are common names, so there’s probably at least several Benjamin L. Clarks, but only one is the curator of the Schulz Museum. I assume.) He let me know that the …
Peanuts brought to Life
Life magazine regularly puts out specials on various topics, there to focus on (exploit) some popular topic — often the anniversary of some favorite item. So I was surprised to see one on Peanuts at a local grocery this week. There is no big anniversary being celebrated. Sure, we’re getting …
The misrecording of history
We just finished this Peanuts Christmas jigsaw puzzle, which takes element from A Charlie Brown Christmas and kicks out characters like Violet and 5 who actually did the work developing those moves, and replaces them with more popular characters. It’s like when they make the big-screen adaptation of your favorite video …
The Constitution has you vote on a Peanuts character
In 1959, the Constitution called upon Americans to vote for a Peanuts character. Now I should note that this isn’t the United States Constitution. Rather, it was the Atlanta Constitution, a popular newspaper. They wanted 25-words-or-less essays on who your favorite Peanuts character was and why. The winning character would get, …
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 …
Schulz’s Public Spirit No. 1
In January 1962, newspapers began running this Charles Schulz piece promoting… newspapers! Yes, newspapers were very special, and newspapers wanted you to know that. Some papers ran it in full color in the Sunday funnies, others ran it in just black-and-white line art or in greyscale in the main sections. …