The all-time greatest comic strip
Jimmy Johnson, who for over 20 years has produced Arlo and Janis, one of the very best syndicated comic strips, has added a bit more of his take on the David Michaelis biography Schulz and Peanuts. Jimmy was married to Rheta Grimsley when she wrote Good Grief, the only authorized biography of Charles M. Schulz during his lifetime.
I grabbed this picture from an eBay auction.
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Here’s another installment of Peanuts that I think relates nicely to all of the recent discussion about Charles M. Schulz.
Have you heard me yet on the Shokus Internet Radio calling into Stu’s Show? I’ll post my part of it on Wednesday, after the re-runs of last Wednesday’s program are done.
And have you heard the AARP online audio interview with Schulz biographer David Michaelis? One point he makes is about a Peanuts comic strip with “Snoopy chickening out of giving a speech at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.” Unless Michaelis is referring to a different series than I think, that’s not quite how the story played out. In fact, in his book Michaelis includes a couple of strips from those weeks in 1970, because they introduce a “girl-beagle” that Snoopy pines after. A girl-beagle who apparently represents Charles M. Schulz’s real life object of affection, a woman named Tracey.
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Reading these comic strips in the context of the timeframe, the connection seems pretty clear, and I have to agree with Michaelis about that. However, Monte Schulz’s complaints against the Michaelis book are given great weight by his candid admission that the family knew and accepted that his father’s affair with Tracey would be revealed.
The Daisy Hill Puppy Farm sequence with the unseen girl-beagle won’t be reprinted in The Complete Peanuts for a couple more volumes, so I’ll put it here. The first cartoon is above, and you can read the rest of them by clicking the thumbnail pictures. Isn’t the closing gag in the very last panel laugh-out-loud funny?
Note: If the images look jaggy, your browser is re-sizing. Click again to see them full-size.
Recently, Mr. Media interviewed David Michaelis, author of the controversial and disputed biography Schulz and Peanuts. I featured the interview at this link, which includes some vital commentary by Monte Schulz. And of course a couple of days ago Monte was on Shokus Internet Radio discussing the book, and answering a question submitted by yours truly.
The AARP has now posted its own audio interview with Michaelis. The link is here, but the file can be downloaded, so I’ll also post it here.
I haven’t listened to this at all yet! It’s very late, and I’ll have to do it later. So you may very well hear it before I do.
This is the Classic Peanuts comic strip that was reprinted yesterday. It’s originally from December 7, 1960, and I think it’s very funny.
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I don’t know which book first reprinted this installment, but the next day’s strip appeared in “It’s A Dog’s Life, Charlie Brown” in 1962. The overhead enlargement of what’s being done by the characters is a Schulz device that I particularly enjoy. All of Charlie Brown’s pen/pencil pal gags were done this way, as was Schroeder’s music and Snoopy’s “Dark and Stormy Night” typing.
Schulz not only completely ignored the clichés and conventions of previous comic strips, he created his own wide array of rich and unique cartoon expressions. For example, instead of having characters falling out of the last panel in reaction to the punchline and showing the heels of their shoes, he had the kids flip around in mid-air.
We take these images for granted, because they seem so natural, and there’s a certain comfortable “rightness” about them. Sparky Schulz worked very hard at making it all work so well, and he loved doing it.
Reading Peanuts books on Christmas Days while I was growing up was always an exquisitely enjoyable pleasure. As an adult, reading these same comic strips in The Complete Peanuts collections, I have a greater appreciation for the development of the drawing and the writing and the characters, and they don’t seem childish at all. I guess that’s why some would call it Art.
I did what I promised myself I wouldn’t do, and I called in to “Stu’s Show” on Shokus Internet Radio to talk to Monte Schulz and Mark Evanier about the David Michaelis biography, Schulz and Peanuts. To my amazement I think I didn’t completely blow it, but that’s only because of the topic and the fact I’ve already had some contact with these fine gentlemen.
I will not be posting an audio excerpt from the show until it’s no longer being played on Shokus Internet Radio. The good news is, you have plenty of opportunities to hear it between now and next Tuesday. It will be repeated every evening at 7 PM ET.
I really want you to listen to the entire program, so I won’t even tell you where in it I make my appearance. In fact, I was going to hang up after Monte answered my question, but I was glued to the phone and as a result was able to sneak in an extra comment. Even after that, I was so engrossed in what I heard I again forgot to hang up for a little while!
To my embarrassment, I didn’t say thank you! Many thanks go to Stu Shostak, Mark Evanier, and Monte Schulz.
