Charles M. Schulz is still on our minds here at DogRat.com, and Monte Schulz is still soldiering on over at Cartoon Brew, responding to readers who are just now reading Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis. He says today is his deadline for an essay, some 70 pages long, about the biography to be published in The Comics Journal.
My buddy D. F. Rogers recently made an impulse purchase of a Peanuts Classic Edition reprint of the 1967 book, Happiness Is A Sad Song. A copy of this was a fixture in my sister’s room for many years. One of the “Happiness Is” items that Dennis pointed out is this one, which is also a favorite of mine.
Ignoring the fact that Charlie Brown isn’t in a child safety seat, it’s a very nice sentiment. In 1972, Charles Schulz expanded on the idea in this Sunday comic strip. Click the panels to see the full page.
For Dennis and myself, the best expression of happiness is this one…
Thanks for the support. Coming on the internet to read these posts is a lot of fun. I look forward to it. Regarding my own blog, I actually had a friend start setting one up for a couple of summers ago, but we had problems, then I needed to get back to work, and I sort of forgot about until David’s book reached me. I wanted to do a blog, then, to write a full description of all the problems in it, and, in retrospect, that’s what I ought to have done, because my essay is sort of what I might have done last year. Except, really, the essay is better. Bearing in mind it’s not a book, so even with 36,000 words there were space considerations, I wrote quite a lot of about all the things in Dad’s life that were left out of the book, and I think you’ll be amazed. I would also hope you will find my description of his final illness, how we reacted to it as a family, and how he died, to be poignant. I also think it would be interesting for all of you to see what I really write, aside from my novel “Down By The River,” which wasn’t really representative of what interests me as a writer. But, anyhow, I am curious to have everyone see what I came up with the essay. I didn’t illustrate ALL the mistakes in David’s book, as I’d always thought I would, but instead showed sort of areas of mistakes, and talked a lot about the fictional nature of his book, and tried to show everyone what really interested him, to the final detriment of his portrait of my father.
Monte, thank you for keeping us informed! We sure would appreciate knowing when to expect that issue of TCJ, so that we can run down to the Comics Shop and pick up a copy as soon as it hits the stands. I can sincerely state that I have enjoyed each and every one of your posts on Cartoon Brew and Dograt. They are always insightful, detailed and reasonable. The comments by Jean, Amy and your Dad’s close friends have also been sincere and noteworthy.
You have been “fighting the good fight” and we realize that it has taken valuable time and energy away from your own personal endeavors. I hope that you might consider writing your own blog, so that we can keep abreast of your own creations and activities once this brouhaha eventually settles down. I dare say that your emergence as a “voice” on the web during this whole “Schulz and Peanuts” episode has almost made the book worthwhile – in spite of itself. “Happiness is a new posting by Monte!”
Sorry about your bout with the flu, Monte! The stomach variety is the absolute worst. Hope you’re feeling better now. The interest level in your essay is high, so Groth should print extra copies of The Comics Journal.
It’s my notion that Peanuts fans are of two basic types — the “cartooning fans” and the “character fans.” I am the former. I’m interested in everything from your father’s switch from brush to pen inking, to what he felt worked and didn’t work about certain characters and gags. For example, Pig Pen is great! But he was taken as far as he could go, and had to be retired.
The character-oriented fans, who are hugely into Snoopy and Woodstock for their own sake, and not necessarily how they came into being and were developed, are by far the larger in number. But if anything their interest is, in a way, purer than my own, because they’re relating more to the work itself, and not how it was done.
I love studying the nitty-gritty of the creative process, and the craft that’s involved in realizing it. The only laugh I got out of the Michaelis book was the discussion of how difficult it is to draw Charlie Brown’s head! “Deceptively simple” certainly applies when discussing the work of Charles M. Schulz.
Many of the cartooning fans probably aren’t phased by the controversy surrounding the book. We’re interested in getting the real story. My concern is the effect of the mis-characterization of your father on the other fans, who perhaps associate his image a little too closely with the cuteness of Snoopy and Woodstock. But cartooning fans can sometimes be cynical and tend to assume the worst, while character fans are in general a bright and optimistic bunch. So maybe I’ve got it backwards!
Personally, I think Peppermint Pattie and Marcie are the most interesting characters in the entire run of the strip. It sure seemed to me that G.B. Trudeau borrowed from them outright, back when Joanie Caucus’ daughter JJ was in college, hanging out with Honey, who even looked like Marcie.
“All the children sing …” Throughout most of “Bungalow Bill”, you can clearly hear Yoko caterwauling. I also remember that this is one of the few Beatles songs where they all sing and Ringo’s voice dominates.
Nice to see you pointed out my deadline, Doug! Well, I did manage to shoot the thing off to Gary Groth tonight at about 10pm. He gave me an extra day because one of his other essayists was late, too, and Gary felt sorry for me when I told I came down with a bad stomach flu on Friday morning and had to write all weekend, sick as a dog. But I sucked it up and got it done. Very tough, though. I made more than fifty long distance phone calls, trying to clarify facts in the last two parts, and trying in vain to reach certain people who ended being out of the country at the worse possible time for me. I’m happy with it, though, much more so than I thought I’d be. I think everyone will like it. I did not use one single sentence from my Cartoonbrew posts, which Gary said made me a better man than him; he expected me to use most of them. I assured him this essay is far superior to anything I’ve written there. And I wrote about Dad’s illness and death, which no one else has yet. The essay came out to 73 pages on my Appleworks document, formatted to 112 pages on Word for Gary, and is a bit over 36,000 words. My sister Amy, after hearing the last two paragraphs, told me I need to write a book about Dad. Um, thanks, but no thanks. Anyhow, I appreciate you paying attention to my essay quest! It’s ended at last.
Ha! No, that’s not Monte. It’s a self-portrait, drawn by Charles Schulz. The third book you’re thinking of is undoubtedly “Love Is Walking Hand In Hand.”
Side 1 of the 1968 2-disc record “The Beatles,” the so-called “White Album,” has two cartooning references. One is “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” which I’ve got to believe is a wicked play on “warm puppy,” and the other is the lyric, “So Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes,” in “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.”
Roy Thomas at Marvel Comics has said he assumes the Captain Marvel reference is to the Golden Age character from the publisher Fawcett, but the fact is that in the ’67-’68 time period, Marvel Comics had gotten hold to the rights to the name and had introduced a Captain Marvel of its own, illustrated by Gene Colan and written by Roy. I’m as inclined to assume John Lennon had seen that, as I am to think he was referring to a comic book that hadn’t been published in 15 years.
I lost that book! At any rate, my favorite was Linus waking up and looking at the clock: “Happiness is waking up and seeing you still have two more hours to sleep.” As I recall, we received two or more books one Christmas, one of which was, of course, “Happiness is a Warm Puppy.” Which brings to mind, naturally, John Lennon’s eerie song: “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” I wonder if he was influenced by the Schulz catch phrase! Who drew the sketch on the left? And is it of Monte?