Classic finds

Review: Christmas Gift Certificates for You

When I ordered a copy of the 1981 Hallmark Peanuts product Christmas Gift Certificates for You, I reckoned it would be one of those novelty coupon books, each page removable and offering the recipient a walk in the snow, help taking down the tree, or some Peanuts-y equivalent thereof. I …

New releases

A pop-up shows up

Here Comes Charlie Brown!: A Peanuts Pop-up, Gene Kannenberg, Jr.’s adaptation of the very first Peanuts strip, is not the first Peanuts book to reprint only a single strip. There was at least one board book that did much the same thing. However, that board book was, at heart, a …

General

  As these two ads, from 1954 and 1961 respectively, show, Patty and Violet had a rather consistent relationship… living on slightly different planes, and not introducing themselves, but giving a name to each other.

Not That Charlie Brown

Those Other Charles Schulzes

Okay, so I search newspaper archives for unimportant things out of curiosity. And checking for pre-Sparky people named “Charles Schulz”, I found a fair amount, but the one which struck me was this obituary from 1900: It’s just the fact that this Charles Schulz had a son, Charles Schulz, who …

Classic finds

Wheelnuts

 I just picked up the July 1964 issue of Drag Cartoons, a black and white comics magazine focused not on performative gender-bending as the youth must suspect, but on souped-up autos, including not just drag racers but hot rods as well. Did I pick it up because it had a …

Upcoming releases

Peanuts books to buy, and a free one

We’ve got a few more books listed as coming up later this year. There’s no surprise that we’re getting the paperback edition of The Complete Peanuts 1993-1994, and with it, the box set of 1991-1994. After all, these have been coming out like clockwork, and 2025 should bring us the …

Upcoming releases

Mostly recycled Peanuts books

There are some new Peanuts titles showing up in the pipeline. I don’t have covers yet, but the books are simple to explain. Welcome Home, Franklin! adopts the new TV special that will hit Apple TV+ on the 16th. Here’s to You Charlie Brown and You’re the Greatest, Charlie Brown …

Classic finds

Japanese stocking

Over a month after I got a shipment of a handful of Peanuts books from Japan, I am finally getting around to chronicling the last of these. This was one which came as a surprise to me, because I had been under the assumption that the translation of Charles M. Schulz: …

General

The Untouchable Charlie Brown

If you look at this ad, you may be wondering (as I did when I stumbled across it) why Charlie Brown is advertising a television show in 1963… and why, of all shows, he’s advertising The Untouchables. (Or you may be one of the many people now populating the earth too …

General

Peanuts First Edition guide

As proud as I am of my Peanuts Book Collectors Guide, it is not the be-all and end-all guide…. and as much as I have visions of making it so, the real life of being a father of two, the runner of a business, a make of dinners, and a …