Okay, I have one more horror movie to review for the season, but first let's get to a book I recently finished, Action Philosophers, a non-fiction graphic novel providing biographies of forty philosophers, from Ancient Greece to the contemporary world. This book is awfully charming, with cartoony but detailed art from Ryan Dunlavey that adapts itself to each era and location--appearing Chinese for Confucius and Lao Tzu, for instance, or medieval Jewish for Spinoza. The art and dialogue (by writer Fred Van Lente) are clever and fast-paced to the point of hyperactivity, providing a wealth of information but also nearly non-stop humorous references to pop culture, history, other jokes from earlier in the book, even the authors themselves.
I think my favorite philosopher in the book is John Stuart Mill, presented in the style of Peanuts. J.S. Mill is Charlie Brown, with adorable little 19th century sideburns on his bald head, espousing his Utilitarianism to the other skeptical characters. His attempt to teach virtue to Snoopy, who keeps trying to steal the blanket of Jeremy Bentham (in the guise of Linus), is a particular highlight.
And yet, despite the pervading jokiness, the core of the book is serious. This is a real history of philosophy told through a biographic framework, clearly showing how each new era of philosophers have expanded, synthesized, or rejected the work of their predecessors. It starts with the pre-Socratics and ends with Jacques Derrida, and is fairly brilliant at cogently demonstrating in words and pictures even such difficult concepts as the analytic philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
In fact, I'm giving this book one of my coveted Shortcuts to Smartness awards! A Shortcut to Smartness book is one that "so expands your knowledge and understanding in so many areas that it is like a college course in and of itself," and I think that works here. It's graphic novel form would make this readable even for high school students, as it breaks down lots of highly complex ideas to a level that practically anyone could understand. And they would have a lot of fun in learning those ideas, too!
Showing posts with label Peanuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peanuts. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Bleak Peanuts
It's been awhile since I've done a Bleak Peanuts feature, and like the last one, this one also features Spike.
This reminds me of those Garfield-without-Garfield strips that came out in book form several years ago, where we see what a sad, lonely life Jon leads when you take out Garfield's humorous commentary. Schultz doesn't need anybody else to do it for him, though--he's perfectly capable of showing us the pointlessness and despair of existence without help from anybody else, thank you very much.
This reminds me of those Garfield-without-Garfield strips that came out in book form several years ago, where we see what a sad, lonely life Jon leads when you take out Garfield's humorous commentary. Schultz doesn't need anybody else to do it for him, though--he's perfectly capable of showing us the pointlessness and despair of existence without help from anybody else, thank you very much.
Sunday, April 8, 2018
What I'm Reading: Roundup
A quick roundup of some the things I've been reading:
The Reptile Room The second book in the Series of Unfortunate Events series. I read the first one but it must have been before I started this blog as I couldn't find an entry for it.
The series follows the Baudelaire children--14-year-old Violet, who loves inventing; 12-year-old Klaus, who's read thousands of books; and infant Sunny, who has really sharp teeth. The Baudelaire children are orphans and must fend off the dastardly Count Olaf, who wants to worm his way into the great fortune the children are due to inherit when they come of age.
In this book, the children go to live with their kindly Uncle Monty, a herpetologist (snake researcher!). Unfortunately, Uncle Monty has hired a new assistant, Stephano, who is really Count Olaf in disguise, though nobody believes the children when they try to explain this. When Uncle Monty turns up dead of snakebite, it's up to the children to prove Count Olaf is the murderer.
The series specializes in black humor, when horrible things happen to the Baudelaire children with such regularity that it becomes humorous. Maybe it sounds morbid for a kid's series, but my third-grade daughter loves it. It helps that the children are brave and plucky and polite, despite all their misfortune. I think it's great--the author, Lemony Snicket, strikes just the right balance in tone so it's not too scary but not too tame for late elementary-schoolers.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course--The latest book I'm reading in my not-especially effective quest to become a better chess player. This, by Jeremy Silman, is the recommended book for learning about endgames.
What I like about this book is that chapters aren't organized thematically, but rather progress according to your rating level. The first couple chapters cover endgames beginners are mostly likely to encounter, with each succeeding chapter increasing in sophistication. It makes a lot of sense-- you don't have to waste a lot of time early on learning about weird endgame situations you'll hardly ever run into unless you're a grandmaster. Kind of a dry subject, but written with a lot of humor to make it easier to read.
Complete Peanuts: 1989-90 Oh my, Schulz was getting soft in his own age. This volume has tons of sentimental strips with Charlie Brown sitting under a tree with Snoopy or just holding him in his lap, deciding at one point he wants to give up school so he can stay home and keep his dog company. Of course, this doesn't work out. Charlie Brown also finds a girlfriend in this volume! He meets her at summer camp. Unfortunately, he's so nervous when he first meets her he introduces himself as Brownie Charles. Later, at home, he's disappointed when she doesn't write him any letters. But actually, his sister Sally has been telling the postman to take the letters back because no one by the name "Brownie Charles" lives there.
I liked the introduction of a new relative of Snoopy's, Olaf. (Not related to Count Olaf from The Reptile Room, presumably.) There's an ugly dog contest, and Lucy tries to get Snoopy or Spike to enter it, but they refuse. However, there's another brother who just may fit the bill:
There's another good sequence when Marcie is about to crack from the pressure her parents put her under to get good grades in school, and spends a few days at Charlie Brown's house. Still, it seemed like this edition didn't have as many longer story arcs as recent volumes. And, as ever, we're in the slow decline from the strip's heyday that's been going on for at least 15 years. Still, Peanuts on a bad day is better than most comic strips at their best.
The Reptile Room The second book in the Series of Unfortunate Events series. I read the first one but it must have been before I started this blog as I couldn't find an entry for it.
The series follows the Baudelaire children--14-year-old Violet, who loves inventing; 12-year-old Klaus, who's read thousands of books; and infant Sunny, who has really sharp teeth. The Baudelaire children are orphans and must fend off the dastardly Count Olaf, who wants to worm his way into the great fortune the children are due to inherit when they come of age.
In this book, the children go to live with their kindly Uncle Monty, a herpetologist (snake researcher!). Unfortunately, Uncle Monty has hired a new assistant, Stephano, who is really Count Olaf in disguise, though nobody believes the children when they try to explain this. When Uncle Monty turns up dead of snakebite, it's up to the children to prove Count Olaf is the murderer.
The series specializes in black humor, when horrible things happen to the Baudelaire children with such regularity that it becomes humorous. Maybe it sounds morbid for a kid's series, but my third-grade daughter loves it. It helps that the children are brave and plucky and polite, despite all their misfortune. I think it's great--the author, Lemony Snicket, strikes just the right balance in tone so it's not too scary but not too tame for late elementary-schoolers.
Silman's Complete Endgame Course--The latest book I'm reading in my not-especially effective quest to become a better chess player. This, by Jeremy Silman, is the recommended book for learning about endgames.
What I like about this book is that chapters aren't organized thematically, but rather progress according to your rating level. The first couple chapters cover endgames beginners are mostly likely to encounter, with each succeeding chapter increasing in sophistication. It makes a lot of sense-- you don't have to waste a lot of time early on learning about weird endgame situations you'll hardly ever run into unless you're a grandmaster. Kind of a dry subject, but written with a lot of humor to make it easier to read.
Complete Peanuts: 1989-90 Oh my, Schulz was getting soft in his own age. This volume has tons of sentimental strips with Charlie Brown sitting under a tree with Snoopy or just holding him in his lap, deciding at one point he wants to give up school so he can stay home and keep his dog company. Of course, this doesn't work out. Charlie Brown also finds a girlfriend in this volume! He meets her at summer camp. Unfortunately, he's so nervous when he first meets her he introduces himself as Brownie Charles. Later, at home, he's disappointed when she doesn't write him any letters. But actually, his sister Sally has been telling the postman to take the letters back because no one by the name "Brownie Charles" lives there.
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| Sally's not impressed |
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| Is this dog ugly enough to win? |
Monday, March 6, 2017
What I'm Reading: Roundup
Fatal, But Not Serious A novel by my friend, Frederick Lewis! I think the closest comparable for this book is A Confederacy of Dunces. Both drop a lot of ridiculous characters against a Southern backdrop with hilarious results. Fatal, But Not Serious pits the salt-of-the-earth residents of Williams Island, a fictitious barrier island off the coast of Georgia, against a sham environmental organization that wants the government to remove the island's residents so it can build a sustainable eco-lodge for tourists.
The novel has a deft sense of comic timing and effectively builds the conflict between the island's residents and the environmentalists, who resort to increasingly underhanded means to get the residents to leave. I think my favorite part was when a Brazilian woodpecker, painted to look like the nearly-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker that hasn't been seen on Williams Island in decades, becomes a media sensation and is chopped up in the rotor blade of a cable television camera drone that's tracking its every movement.
What I would like to see in Mr. Lewis's next book is more emphasis on developing characters. Going back to A Confederacy of Dunces, yes the characters were ridiculous, but Ignatius J. Reilly and the others were also believable (to an extent) and sympathetic, with their own foibles and complexities. The characters in Fatal, But Not Serious are more two-dimensional. Nor need it come at the cost of the sharp political satire--Primary Colors comes to mind as a political satire that managed quite a bit of subtlety in its characterization. Mr. Lewis shows a lot of promise and I'd like to see what he manages next.
Complete Peanuts Volume 26 Okay, I've skipped ahead to the final book in this series, because I'm afraid this one will not be in print long. The Complete Peanuts is a noble project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. (I have previously reviewed the 1977-78 volume here, the 1979-80 volume here, the 1981-82 volume here, 1983-84 volume here, the 1985-86 volume here, and the 1987-88 volume here.)
The series finished the regular run of strips with Volume 25, with Volume 26 containing ephemera--ads, short books, and related artwork that appeared in various media. The highlight to my mind is the comics that appeared in a late 1950s comic book series by Dell. While most of the strips were done by other artists, Schulz did a few himself, and these definitely have the flavor of late 1950s Peanuts. In fact, they read rather like lost Sunday strips. Apparently they have never been reprinted before now.
Some fun things in this book, but this volume is definitely for the completists rather than the general reader.
The novel has a deft sense of comic timing and effectively builds the conflict between the island's residents and the environmentalists, who resort to increasingly underhanded means to get the residents to leave. I think my favorite part was when a Brazilian woodpecker, painted to look like the nearly-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker that hasn't been seen on Williams Island in decades, becomes a media sensation and is chopped up in the rotor blade of a cable television camera drone that's tracking its every movement.
What I would like to see in Mr. Lewis's next book is more emphasis on developing characters. Going back to A Confederacy of Dunces, yes the characters were ridiculous, but Ignatius J. Reilly and the others were also believable (to an extent) and sympathetic, with their own foibles and complexities. The characters in Fatal, But Not Serious are more two-dimensional. Nor need it come at the cost of the sharp political satire--Primary Colors comes to mind as a political satire that managed quite a bit of subtlety in its characterization. Mr. Lewis shows a lot of promise and I'd like to see what he manages next.
Complete Peanuts Volume 26 Okay, I've skipped ahead to the final book in this series, because I'm afraid this one will not be in print long. The Complete Peanuts is a noble project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. (I have previously reviewed the 1977-78 volume here, the 1979-80 volume here, the 1981-82 volume here, 1983-84 volume here, the 1985-86 volume here, and the 1987-88 volume here.)
The series finished the regular run of strips with Volume 25, with Volume 26 containing ephemera--ads, short books, and related artwork that appeared in various media. The highlight to my mind is the comics that appeared in a late 1950s comic book series by Dell. While most of the strips were done by other artists, Schulz did a few himself, and these definitely have the flavor of late 1950s Peanuts. In fact, they read rather like lost Sunday strips. Apparently they have never been reprinted before now.
Some fun things in this book, but this volume is definitely for the completists rather than the general reader.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
What I'm Reading: Complete Peanuts, 1987-88
The Complete Peanuts is a noble project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. The project actually finished recently with volume 26, but I'm a little behind and have only reached 1987-88. I've reviewed five previous volumes of the Complete Peanuts: the 1977-78 volume here, the 1979-80 volume here, the 1981-82 volume here, 1983-84 volume here, and the 1985-86 volume here.
This volume continues following the strip during its gentle decline into old age. The first half of the book has surprisingly few long story arcs, but plenty of the dull strips about Snoopy's brother Spike, who lives in the desert near Needles, CA, and doesn't do a whole lot. I don't object to the occasional strip with him, but does he have to come back so often? How many cactus jokes can Schulz give us? In the second half of the book we get a few longer arcs, including one where Snoopy heard a rumor that the summer Olympics have been moved to Needles and decides to go visit his brother to help him sell souvenirs. Of course, the Olympics did not really move from the actual location that year (Seoul, South Korea), and Snoopy soon returns home.
There a couple more interesting arcs. One is when Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty decide to trade their useless right fielders: Marcie and Lucy. So convinced is she that Marcie is the worst baseball player on the planet, Peppermint Patty throws in a pizza with the deal, only to discover that nope, Lucy's even worse. Too late, Charlie Brown already ate the pizza! But even so, they do decide to trade back.
In another story arc, Sally volunteers to write the Christmas play for her school, only to write a part for Geronimo instead of Gabriel. When she corrects her mistake in the script, the kid who was going to play Geronimo feels cheated, but the argument is moot when the school board cancels the play altogether for being controversial. Schulz doesn't spell it out, but I suppose the controversy is putting on a religious play in a public school. In any case, Sally's relieved because now she doesn't have to deal with the Geronimo kid.
There's also a new character who's fairly delightful (although I think she was actually introduced in the last volume), Lydia. Lydia sits behind Linus in class and he has fallen in love with her, a condition she uses to continually bedevil him. At first she refuses to tell him her actual name, going through Sarah, Melissa, and so on. (But wouldn't Linus know her real name from the teacher calling roll at the beginning of the day? Never mind.) Whenever Linus asks her if she wants to do something with him, she asks if he isn't too old for her. Later, they exchange addresses for sending each other Christmas cards, only Lydia gives Linus the wrong address and his card is returned. She's out-Christmased him! Of course all this drives Linus crazy, but when Lucy asks why he bothers to have anything to do with her, he admits that he finds her fascinating.
This is actually a little livelier than the last volume, and I noticed a number of strips where Schulz puts in a level of effort on the art we haven't seen in a while. Still, it doesn't approach the great strips from the Peanuts heyday from the mid-1950s to the early 70s. This one is more for completists then general Peanuts fans.
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| Marcie learns what it's like |
This volume continues following the strip during its gentle decline into old age. The first half of the book has surprisingly few long story arcs, but plenty of the dull strips about Snoopy's brother Spike, who lives in the desert near Needles, CA, and doesn't do a whole lot. I don't object to the occasional strip with him, but does he have to come back so often? How many cactus jokes can Schulz give us? In the second half of the book we get a few longer arcs, including one where Snoopy heard a rumor that the summer Olympics have been moved to Needles and decides to go visit his brother to help him sell souvenirs. Of course, the Olympics did not really move from the actual location that year (Seoul, South Korea), and Snoopy soon returns home.
There a couple more interesting arcs. One is when Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty decide to trade their useless right fielders: Marcie and Lucy. So convinced is she that Marcie is the worst baseball player on the planet, Peppermint Patty throws in a pizza with the deal, only to discover that nope, Lucy's even worse. Too late, Charlie Brown already ate the pizza! But even so, they do decide to trade back.
In another story arc, Sally volunteers to write the Christmas play for her school, only to write a part for Geronimo instead of Gabriel. When she corrects her mistake in the script, the kid who was going to play Geronimo feels cheated, but the argument is moot when the school board cancels the play altogether for being controversial. Schulz doesn't spell it out, but I suppose the controversy is putting on a religious play in a public school. In any case, Sally's relieved because now she doesn't have to deal with the Geronimo kid.
There's also a new character who's fairly delightful (although I think she was actually introduced in the last volume), Lydia. Lydia sits behind Linus in class and he has fallen in love with her, a condition she uses to continually bedevil him. At first she refuses to tell him her actual name, going through Sarah, Melissa, and so on. (But wouldn't Linus know her real name from the teacher calling roll at the beginning of the day? Never mind.) Whenever Linus asks her if she wants to do something with him, she asks if he isn't too old for her. Later, they exchange addresses for sending each other Christmas cards, only Lydia gives Linus the wrong address and his card is returned. She's out-Christmased him! Of course all this drives Linus crazy, but when Lucy asks why he bothers to have anything to do with her, he admits that he finds her fascinating.
This is actually a little livelier than the last volume, and I noticed a number of strips where Schulz puts in a level of effort on the art we haven't seen in a while. Still, it doesn't approach the great strips from the Peanuts heyday from the mid-1950s to the early 70s. This one is more for completists then general Peanuts fans.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
What I'm Reading: Roundup
Complete Peanuts, 1985-86 The Complete Peanuts is a noble project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. The project is now nearly finished, having reached the late 1990s, but I'm a little behind and have only reached 1985-86. I've reviewed four previous volumes of the Complete Peanuts: the 1977-78 volume here, the 1979-80 volume here, the 1981-82 volume here, and the 1983-84 volume here.
Definitely starting to lose its sharpness here. Lots and lots of strips with Spike in the desert or Snoopy leading the Beagle Scouts on hikes. My personal favorite strip is up above. Don't worry, Lucy, we all feel the same way! (Notice also the first panel, where we get a rarely-seen three-quarters view of the classroom.)
Another highlight was the annual visit to summer camp, which in 1986 took the gang to a wilderness survival camp where they had to dress in camouflage and learn to eat grass. I also liked a week-long arc from 1985 where Peppermint Patty and Marcie decide they'll be "mallies," hanging around the mall and looking fashionable. Schulz would have been 63 and 64 at the times these strips were published, but he remained admirably up to date on societal trends. Yet, though still capable of quality, Peanuts was clearly in its long, slow decline by this point.
Conan the Slayer New Conan series from the Dark Horse comics company. I wrote about a previous Conan series Dark Horse put out in 2012, Conan the Avenger, here. Conan's one of those characters I don't have to follow all the time, but I do like to check in on him every once in a while. The first issue of this new series was one of the most brutal Conan comics I've ever read. I mean, he was really in a bad mood. I like it, and I think I'll stick with this new one for a while.
Hip Hop Family Tree A comic series written, drawn, inked, and colored by Ed Piskor, and a real work of love. Follows the history of hip hip and rap music from its early days in the mid-1970s. The latest issue, #11, has reached the mid-1980s and the second-generation of rap artists, the first ones to gain nation-wide attention: Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys.
Oddly, these issues are expanded versions of comics that have already appeared in hardcover form (usually the floppies appear first, only to be collected later). At the end of a couple of issues, Piskor has included all his sources for the information and visuals. He's really done an astounding amount of work to get everything just right--the faces, the cityscapes, the clothes. One thing I like is that he also imitates the look of comics from the time period--the art and page layout styles, the washed-out colors created by the cheaper paper and printing processes of the time.
I'm not sure this would be of much interest to somebody who didn't like hip hop, yet it's so well-done I feel like anybody would like it if they gave it a chance. Let's say it would help to be a rap fan, but only a low threshold of fandom is necessary to enjoy it.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Peanuts in Real Life
I must have the exact conversation presented in this May, 1956, Peanuts strip at least three times a week:
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Bleak Peanuts
When I reviewed the Complete Peanuts Vol. 1983-84, I promised a strip in there was slated for this blog's Bleak Peanuts feature. Well, it's a couple months later, but here it is:
Spike, of course, is Snoopy's brother who lives in the desert near Needles, California. In the 1980s he became a frequent guest star in the strip, displaying a sort of wry fatalism about his desert life among the cacti. Most of his strips have him forming clubs or making friends with the cacti, or writing letters to Snoopy of the humorous minutiae of his arid environment.
But this strip from October 1984 (and a few others that appeared in the couple weeks following), are a little different. That Ha! at the end is not much of a punchline, is it? How did Spike arrive in the desert, anyway? After all, he was raised at the Daisy Hill puppy farm just like Snoopy and his other siblings.
Well, clearly, he must have been adopted but his new family decided they couldn't or didn't feel like taking care of him, so they dropped him off in the desert to die or scratch out whatever existence he could. And ever since then, Spike's been waiting out his boring existence, hoping, as we see here, for some new owner to pick him and take him with her, somebody to love him and provide him the shelter and food that he cannot provide for himself.
The bleakness here may not be quite as obvious as some of the others, but once you understand the situation, this one cuts to the bone.
Spike, of course, is Snoopy's brother who lives in the desert near Needles, California. In the 1980s he became a frequent guest star in the strip, displaying a sort of wry fatalism about his desert life among the cacti. Most of his strips have him forming clubs or making friends with the cacti, or writing letters to Snoopy of the humorous minutiae of his arid environment.
But this strip from October 1984 (and a few others that appeared in the couple weeks following), are a little different. That Ha! at the end is not much of a punchline, is it? How did Spike arrive in the desert, anyway? After all, he was raised at the Daisy Hill puppy farm just like Snoopy and his other siblings.
Well, clearly, he must have been adopted but his new family decided they couldn't or didn't feel like taking care of him, so they dropped him off in the desert to die or scratch out whatever existence he could. And ever since then, Spike's been waiting out his boring existence, hoping, as we see here, for some new owner to pick him and take him with her, somebody to love him and provide him the shelter and food that he cannot provide for himself.
The bleakness here may not be quite as obvious as some of the others, but once you understand the situation, this one cuts to the bone.
Friday, January 29, 2016
What I'm Reading: Complete Peanuts, 1983-84
The Complete Peanuts is a noble project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. The project is now nearly finished, having reached the mid-1990s, but I'm a little behind and have only reached 1983-84. I've reviewed three previous volumes of the Complete Peanuts, the 1977-78 volume here, the 1979-80 volume here, and the 1981-82 volume here.
This one seemed to have fewer long-running arcs than previous volumes, although Schulz does try something I haven't seen before from him. After Peppermint Patty fails her grade, her dad decides to take her to Paris for the summer as an educational trip. Throughout the summer, the other characters receive a postcard from her perhaps once or twice a week, usually featuring a humorous picture of Patty in front of the Eiffel Tower or sitting in a cafe or something similar. Sprinkling these strips throughout the summer actually produces a nice little rhythm. At the end of the summer, she returns but, suffering from jet lag, keeps waking Marcie and Charlie Brown up with phone calls or house visits in the middle of the night. Back in school, her old desk produces "ghost snores" even though she's not sitting there any longer, frightening the teacher into moving her up to the proper grade.
There's another sequence near the beginning of the book that I remember well from reading the Peanuts reprint books when I was a kid. Sally expects a Valentine's Day card from her Sweet Babboo, Linus, though he has no intention of sending her one and makes that quite clear to her. When the holiday passes without receiving a card she is heartbroken. Charlie Brown feels he has to punch Linus to avenge his sister's honor, but doesn't really want to do it because he knows how delusional she is. Instead, he holds out his fist and asks Linus to run into it. That produces this result:
When I was eight years old, that was the height of humor. Okay, it's pretty funny now, too!
One thing that detracts from this volume is an excessive reliance on strips with Spike, Snoopy's desert -dwelling cousin. The Spike strips are rarely funny or interesting (although there is one sequence that produced a contender for my Bleak Peanuts feature). Unfortunately, Spike is a permanent fixture in Peanuts at this point.
This is late Peanuts, still well-done but not as sharp as the earlier years. This volume is more for the completist, which I guess I am. For a general reader who just wants to read some funny Peanuts strips, I would turn to one of the volumes from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.
This one seemed to have fewer long-running arcs than previous volumes, although Schulz does try something I haven't seen before from him. After Peppermint Patty fails her grade, her dad decides to take her to Paris for the summer as an educational trip. Throughout the summer, the other characters receive a postcard from her perhaps once or twice a week, usually featuring a humorous picture of Patty in front of the Eiffel Tower or sitting in a cafe or something similar. Sprinkling these strips throughout the summer actually produces a nice little rhythm. At the end of the summer, she returns but, suffering from jet lag, keeps waking Marcie and Charlie Brown up with phone calls or house visits in the middle of the night. Back in school, her old desk produces "ghost snores" even though she's not sitting there any longer, frightening the teacher into moving her up to the proper grade.
There's another sequence near the beginning of the book that I remember well from reading the Peanuts reprint books when I was a kid. Sally expects a Valentine's Day card from her Sweet Babboo, Linus, though he has no intention of sending her one and makes that quite clear to her. When the holiday passes without receiving a card she is heartbroken. Charlie Brown feels he has to punch Linus to avenge his sister's honor, but doesn't really want to do it because he knows how delusional she is. Instead, he holds out his fist and asks Linus to run into it. That produces this result:
When I was eight years old, that was the height of humor. Okay, it's pretty funny now, too!
One thing that detracts from this volume is an excessive reliance on strips with Spike, Snoopy's desert -dwelling cousin. The Spike strips are rarely funny or interesting (although there is one sequence that produced a contender for my Bleak Peanuts feature). Unfortunately, Spike is a permanent fixture in Peanuts at this point.
This is late Peanuts, still well-done but not as sharp as the earlier years. This volume is more for the completist, which I guess I am. For a general reader who just wants to read some funny Peanuts strips, I would turn to one of the volumes from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
This Sunday strip from March 1954 shows Charlie Brown at his most impotent:
I really feel for him here. I mean, he could slug Patty, but I bet he's already internalized a code against hitting girls. What can he do but rage silently, and push it down inside?
I really feel for him here. I mean, he could slug Patty, but I bet he's already internalized a code against hitting girls. What can he do but rage silently, and push it down inside?
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
This one, from June 1953, is perhaps not as bleak as some of the other strips I've posted, mainly because Charlie Brown brings this on to himself to a large extent.
That's what you get for being passive-aggressive Charlie Brown!
That's what you get for being passive-aggressive Charlie Brown!
Friday, November 13, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
One from March 1953. This 1953-54 period seems like a rich one for my feature. I suppose Schulz didn't quite have the right modulation down yet for the tone of the strip.
Good Lord, look at Charlie Brown's expression in the second panel. Man, he's taking it hard. And the final panel. That's not just the sound of losing a marble. That's the sound of every date for which he'll ever be turned down, every promotion he'll ever be passed over for, every disappointment reverberating through his entire life. No wonder he can't sleep.
Good Lord, look at Charlie Brown's expression in the second panel. Man, he's taking it hard. And the final panel. That's not just the sound of losing a marble. That's the sound of every date for which he'll ever be turned down, every promotion he'll ever be passed over for, every disappointment reverberating through his entire life. No wonder he can't sleep.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
A little something different this time, with a January 1975 strip focusing on Peppermint Patty rather than Charlie Brown:
This might not immediately strike you as being so bleak as some of the other strips. It ends with a moderately humorous punchline, rather sitcom-esque in its timing. And this strips also sets up one of the all-time funny sequences in Peanuts, when Snoopy stays in Peppermint Patty's guest bedroom as a watchdog (sorry, Watch-Beagle!) but proves unable to defend her house when thieves break in because he's trapped by the extremely wavy waterbed.
But think about all the strips where Peppermint Patty falls asleep in class, and gets poor grades. You might have thought it's just because she's athletic, not academic, and finds school boring and pointless. Maybe she's a little lazy too, and doesn't try very hard in class.
But here we learn differently. She's tired all the time because her dad (we know from earlier strips he's a single parent) has to work nights and doesn't get back until 2AM. She's scared to be home alone at night, and turns on the TV as a distraction. Puts all those strips about falling asleep in class in a different light, doesn't it?
To tell you the truth, for me, it puts her whole character in a different light. All that bravado she presents to the world is a false front. She really feels vulnerable, and opens up here to the single person she can trust with her feelings: Charlie Brown.
This might not immediately strike you as being so bleak as some of the other strips. It ends with a moderately humorous punchline, rather sitcom-esque in its timing. And this strips also sets up one of the all-time funny sequences in Peanuts, when Snoopy stays in Peppermint Patty's guest bedroom as a watchdog (sorry, Watch-Beagle!) but proves unable to defend her house when thieves break in because he's trapped by the extremely wavy waterbed.
But think about all the strips where Peppermint Patty falls asleep in class, and gets poor grades. You might have thought it's just because she's athletic, not academic, and finds school boring and pointless. Maybe she's a little lazy too, and doesn't try very hard in class.
But here we learn differently. She's tired all the time because her dad (we know from earlier strips he's a single parent) has to work nights and doesn't get back until 2AM. She's scared to be home alone at night, and turns on the TV as a distraction. Puts all those strips about falling asleep in class in a different light, doesn't it?
To tell you the truth, for me, it puts her whole character in a different light. All that bravado she presents to the world is a false front. She really feels vulnerable, and opens up here to the single person she can trust with her feelings: Charlie Brown.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
There are plenty of strips with Charlie Brown striking out, but this one from June 1967 seems harsher than most:
I think it's the irony of the camp sign at the end that does it. Sure, that's the source of the joke, but it's also the source of the cruelty. It's not just that Charlie Brown struck out and the other kids mocked him, it's that so much more was promised to him that he didn't receive.
I think it's the irony of the camp sign at the end that does it. Sure, that's the source of the joke, but it's also the source of the cruelty. It's not just that Charlie Brown struck out and the other kids mocked him, it's that so much more was promised to him that he didn't receive.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
In his introduction to the first volume of the collected Peanuts, Garrison Keillor mentions this February 1954 strip as his favorite:
I can see why. That petty jealousy that you shouldn't feel, but you do anyway, seems like something a lot of Keillor's characters in Lake Wobegon feel. A quiet jealousy that worms its way into your brain and prevents you from finding real happiness.
What I like is that there's a real joke here, too. I laugh when I get to the end and I see Charlie Brown watching that pitiful little train go around in a circle. Oh, how we've all felt that way.
I can see why. That petty jealousy that you shouldn't feel, but you do anyway, seems like something a lot of Keillor's characters in Lake Wobegon feel. A quiet jealousy that worms its way into your brain and prevents you from finding real happiness.
What I like is that there's a real joke here, too. I laugh when I get to the end and I see Charlie Brown watching that pitiful little train go around in a circle. Oh, how we've all felt that way.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
Here's one from April 1953.
Very noir-ish. Charlie Brown looks like he's ready to walk back to the office and wait for a dame to come to him with a new case. I think the lack of dialogue is what really sells this one. We're all alone in the universe, aren't we?
Very noir-ish. Charlie Brown looks like he's ready to walk back to the office and wait for a dame to come to him with a new case. I think the lack of dialogue is what really sells this one. We're all alone in the universe, aren't we?
Friday, October 2, 2015
Bleak Peanuts
Of course, Peanuts was all about the psychological hang-ups of its characters, but usually this was expressed in a pretty humorous way. Sometimes, though, the veneer of humor didn't quite take, revealing the underlying bleakness. Here's an example, from November 1961:
I feel for Charlie Brown, here. I've been in this situation before. Not much of a joke in this one, is there?
I'll probably do some more of these strips in the future. Let's call this feature "Bleak Peanuts."
I feel for Charlie Brown, here. I've been in this situation before. Not much of a joke in this one, is there?
I'll probably do some more of these strips in the future. Let's call this feature "Bleak Peanuts."
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
My Favorite Peanuts Strip
Still experimenting/enjoying the new scanner. Here's my favorite Peanuts strip of all time, a Sunday strip from August 1960:
Saturday, September 13, 2014
What I'm Reading: Complete Peanuts, 1981-82
The Complete Peanuts is a noble project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. The project is now up to the early 1990s, but I'm a little behind and have only reached 1981-82. I've reviewed two previous volumes of the Complete Peanuts, the 1977-78 volume here, and the 1979-80 volume here.
The volume continues the trend of the previous two in that each one is just a little less sharp than the one before, the long-running gags a little more tired, the new ideas a little less inspired. For instance, there's only one new character introduced here--Marbles, another of Snoopy's brothers. I'm pretty sure more members of Snoopy's family are not what the strip needs at this point. Anyway, Marbles is a down-to-earth dog, and is fairly mystified by his visit to Snoopy and his constant imaginative antics. He doesn't have much personality and I'm not sure he ever showed up again.
Much funnier is a sequence in which Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty enter a bowling tournament. Patty lords her high average and correspondingly high handicap over Charlie Brown's more modest handicap. They both wonder at the identity of the terrible bowler with an average score of one, only to find Snoopy nonchalantly strolling in. Unexpectedly, Charlie Brown leads the tournament, but in the final frame he's so nervous he bowls the ball out the front door. It rolls across the parking lot and through a pumpkin patch where Linus and Sally are waiting for the Great Pumpkin to show up. When Linus is knocked out by the bowling ball, he assumes he fainted on seeing the arrival of his hero. Good stuff with some well-timed punchlines, and really rewards a familiarity with the strip's recurring themes.
Other highlights are a long-ish sequence re-uniting Snoopy and his tennis doubles partner, Molly Volley, and one of my favorite on-going gags, Snoopy's hobby as a hack writer and his never-ending quest to get published (I guess I can identify!).
Still, we're well into the twilight years here. Unless a reader is interested for some reason in one of the particular strips or sequences in this volume, I'd recommend one of the older books. For me, the best ones are from the 1960s, with the strip maintaining a pretty high degree of quality through the 1973-74 volume. I suppose I'll get the next one, but as with the previous couple, I'm really not sure if I'm going to follow this through all the way to the end.
The volume continues the trend of the previous two in that each one is just a little less sharp than the one before, the long-running gags a little more tired, the new ideas a little less inspired. For instance, there's only one new character introduced here--Marbles, another of Snoopy's brothers. I'm pretty sure more members of Snoopy's family are not what the strip needs at this point. Anyway, Marbles is a down-to-earth dog, and is fairly mystified by his visit to Snoopy and his constant imaginative antics. He doesn't have much personality and I'm not sure he ever showed up again.
Much funnier is a sequence in which Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty enter a bowling tournament. Patty lords her high average and correspondingly high handicap over Charlie Brown's more modest handicap. They both wonder at the identity of the terrible bowler with an average score of one, only to find Snoopy nonchalantly strolling in. Unexpectedly, Charlie Brown leads the tournament, but in the final frame he's so nervous he bowls the ball out the front door. It rolls across the parking lot and through a pumpkin patch where Linus and Sally are waiting for the Great Pumpkin to show up. When Linus is knocked out by the bowling ball, he assumes he fainted on seeing the arrival of his hero. Good stuff with some well-timed punchlines, and really rewards a familiarity with the strip's recurring themes.
Other highlights are a long-ish sequence re-uniting Snoopy and his tennis doubles partner, Molly Volley, and one of my favorite on-going gags, Snoopy's hobby as a hack writer and his never-ending quest to get published (I guess I can identify!).
Still, we're well into the twilight years here. Unless a reader is interested for some reason in one of the particular strips or sequences in this volume, I'd recommend one of the older books. For me, the best ones are from the 1960s, with the strip maintaining a pretty high degree of quality through the 1973-74 volume. I suppose I'll get the next one, but as with the previous couple, I'm really not sure if I'm going to follow this through all the way to the end.
Monday, September 2, 2013
What I'm Reading: Complete Peanuts, 1979-80
So this is the second volume of the Complete Peanuts I've read in the past few months. The Complete Peanuts is a project to publish every strip of Charles Schulz's Peanuts, from its inception in 1951 to its final panel in 2000. It's a gargantuan undertaking, and a new volume covering two years is issued every six months. The project is now up to the late 1980s, but I'm a little behind and have only reached 1979-80. (See here for my review of the 1977-78 volume.)
This volume introduces only one new character, Henrietta, a girl bird who joins Snoopy's Beagle Scout troop for their hikes. She figures prominently in the book's longest sequence, a six-week (!) arc of strips when she and another of the birds get tired of camping with Snoopy one night and go into town, where they get into a fight with some bluejays. Charlie Brown gets a call to come bail Henrietta out of jail. Walking her back to rejoin the Beagle Scout troop, he gets lost in the woods and Peppermint Patty and Marcie have to go searching for them. Of course they all manage to find each other, with Snoopy, who in story time has been gone from home just two or three days, only vaguely remembering "that round-headed kid" when he encounters Charlie Brown.
Another lengthy sequence is an unusually somber arc where Charlie Brown feels woozy and checks himself into the emergency room. The problem may be that he's been hit on the head with too many fly balls. During his stay in the hospital, the other characters react to his illness. Sally moves her stuff into his room, Peppermint Patty and Marcie wait on a bench outside the hospital, and Lucy uncharacteristically grieves that he might not come back. As Schroeder points out to her, "It's interesting that you should cry over him when you're the one who always treated him so mean." So distraught is she, that she promises when he gets out, she'll hold the football and really, truly let him kick it. The punchline is that when he does get out and she holds the football, he misses entirely and kicks her in the hand, requiring her to get a cast.
Not as solid as the 1977-78 volume, but still pretty good. Schulz isn't quite sure what to do with his new character, Eudora (introduced in 1978), and some of the running gags, especially with Peppermint Patty's poor grades, are getting pretty threadbare. Still, the two sequences described here, and a couple other long-ish ones, are quite entertaining. As with the past few volumes, I have to ask myself after this one whether I'll get the next volume. The answer this time is yes--I bought this and the 1981-82 volume as a set to save money. After that, we'll see. The strip has started its slow decline--it's still good at this point, but each new year of strips brings less delight than the last.
This volume introduces only one new character, Henrietta, a girl bird who joins Snoopy's Beagle Scout troop for their hikes. She figures prominently in the book's longest sequence, a six-week (!) arc of strips when she and another of the birds get tired of camping with Snoopy one night and go into town, where they get into a fight with some bluejays. Charlie Brown gets a call to come bail Henrietta out of jail. Walking her back to rejoin the Beagle Scout troop, he gets lost in the woods and Peppermint Patty and Marcie have to go searching for them. Of course they all manage to find each other, with Snoopy, who in story time has been gone from home just two or three days, only vaguely remembering "that round-headed kid" when he encounters Charlie Brown.
Another lengthy sequence is an unusually somber arc where Charlie Brown feels woozy and checks himself into the emergency room. The problem may be that he's been hit on the head with too many fly balls. During his stay in the hospital, the other characters react to his illness. Sally moves her stuff into his room, Peppermint Patty and Marcie wait on a bench outside the hospital, and Lucy uncharacteristically grieves that he might not come back. As Schroeder points out to her, "It's interesting that you should cry over him when you're the one who always treated him so mean." So distraught is she, that she promises when he gets out, she'll hold the football and really, truly let him kick it. The punchline is that when he does get out and she holds the football, he misses entirely and kicks her in the hand, requiring her to get a cast.
Not as solid as the 1977-78 volume, but still pretty good. Schulz isn't quite sure what to do with his new character, Eudora (introduced in 1978), and some of the running gags, especially with Peppermint Patty's poor grades, are getting pretty threadbare. Still, the two sequences described here, and a couple other long-ish ones, are quite entertaining. As with the past few volumes, I have to ask myself after this one whether I'll get the next volume. The answer this time is yes--I bought this and the 1981-82 volume as a set to save money. After that, we'll see. The strip has started its slow decline--it's still good at this point, but each new year of strips brings less delight than the last.
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