Not the anniversary of Woodstock
Various sources will tell you that the April 4, 1967 strip was the first appearance of Woodstock in Peanuts. I’m here to tell you, that ain’t accurate. Yes, there was a bird who came to visit Snoopy on that date, unnamed at the time (as was every Woodstock appearance until …
Passages
Yesterday’s death of Joe Garagiola has me thinking about the ways in which Peanuts is designed for longevity, and the ways in which it’s not. The Peanuts strip was made in and for its time, and while the strip did not flow through current events the way that, say, Doonesbury …
What happiness is, for the record
Once Schulz had established that “Happiness is a Warm Puppy”, many other folks decided to put down their own descriptors. The Beatles famously indicated that “Happiness is a Warm Gun”, and as we’ve covered here before, Johnny Carson opined that “Happiness is a Dry Martini”. But it wasn’t until just …
To Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and especially Lucy
I just ran into a Peanuts reference that I had not remembered in a favorite piece of pop culture, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It’s a second season episode, “The Care and Feeding of Parents”. Bess, the daughter of Phylis, Mary’s downstairs neighbor, is writing a book, and she proposes to dedicate …
Scholastic Snoopy
During this Season of Nigh-Infinite Peanuts Books, I’ve been keeping my eye on the Scholastic Book catalogs, those book order forms that kids bring home from school. After all, they’ve carried Peanuts books in the past, and they frequently have books that tie in with the latest kid films, so …
It’s like Sparky returned to his old gig
Charles Schulz’s lettering style was distinct. I’m used to seeing the work of a lot of professional comic book letterers (from the old days of hand lettering; most of it is done by computer now), but I’m used to seeing each letterer’s work being placed over a range of different …
I am invisible to Amazon
The questionnaire that Amazon asked me to fill out about my recent purchase of a book of Peanuts jigsaw puzzle does not allow for the possibility that I bought it for myself. (Also, the list of 5 possible age ranges tops out at “2+ years”, which admittedly, I am.) Despite …
Libraries have books!
AAUGH Blog reader John pointed out that Peanuts are part of the campaign for September’s National Library Card Month. And since this blog is about the intersection of Peanuts and books, and since libraries have books, it qualifies! Go over to their website and you can check out the posters of Joe …
Birds that Snoopy has imitated
Birds that Snoopy has imitated include: VULTURE PENGUIN FALCON
Going away from Charlie Brown
I’ve only just noticed that the spine of the thirteenth volume of the Complete Peanuts series has Charlie Brown facing the reader, while all the earlier volumes have various characters heading to the left and all the later ones heading toward the right. When the series is done this will …