I recently got the latest two of Fantagraphics small square themed strip reprints, Waiting for the Great Pumpkin and Snoopy’s Thanksgiving. What I find interesting is how different two books designed to be basically the same can be. They both reprint strips in the same format, generally one daily strip on …

After three straight days of receiving packages of Peanuts books, Thursday was a downer… but Friday perked me back up with a nice big case. This turned out to be my comp copies of Classic Peanuts Paint-By-Number Kit, which includes my short book Classic Peanuts: Great Moments. Now, while receiving this makes …

I received no Peanuts books in the mail yesterday. Zero, nada, none. But I should start catching up on the books I received on the previous three days. The box of three books yesterday were all three initial books in the new Little Patriot Press line of Peanuts storybooks. These are …

While looking into Kanrom, the company that published the books I reprinted in Happiness is a Rat Fink and Unhappiness is a Dirty Dog, I discovered that wasn’t the last time that company took on Schulz’s work. In 1971, they put out a booklet (which was much of what they published, …

Part of the avalanche of Peanuts books landing on my doorstep this week is Peanuts: A Scanimation Book. This is one of those books where when you turn the page, a picture animates, like the Peanuts Moving Book I reviewed a few months back. The ten scenes in this book are …

I’ve received my copies of the new gift books Good Grief, It’s Your Birthday! and Cheer Up, Charlie Brown!, both of which are full-color mixtures of relevant quotes and strips. They’re fairly smoothly made, and should serve their purposes as much-more-than-a-card for someone going through something. The Birthday book focuses on quotes …

After the post I made about the various parodies and follow-ups to Happiness is a Warm Puppy (including the two I just reprinted), I received some questions about one that I’d mentioned, but did not show a picture of. Happiness is a Dry Martini is credited to Johnny Carson – yes, the …

WARNING: This piece does include an announcement of something I’ve just published. Back when the Peanuts gift book Happiness is a Warm Puppy was published in 1962, it was huge. Not in size, it’s just about five and a half inches square, but in impact. This little thing spent forty-five weeks …

I just noticed… the surrey on this cover only has three wheels! Seriously unstable. Which is not at all helped by the fact that it’s not connected to any horses, except for the reins in Snoopy’s paw. Unless he has a period-inappropriate seatbelt, this is a disaster just waiting to …

Last week, I got a copy of a Peanuts book I’d not heard of before, called A Friend Is…. Yesterday, I got a copy of a Peanuts book I’d not heard of before, called A Friend Is…., and no, I did not buy the same book twice. In the 1970s, …