Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. Today. We are looking at the second half of 1983. I'll be your host for the proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. I did the Amelia Rules series, Seven Good Reasons Not To Grow Up, and The Dumbest Idea Ever.
Joining me, as always, are my pals, co hosts, and fellow cartoonists. First, he's a playwright and a composer, both for the man, complicated people, as well as for this very podcast. He's the original editor of Amelia Rules, the co creator of the original comic Book Price Guide, and the creator of such great strips as Atrange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells, and Tangled River. It's Michael Cohen,
Michael: say hey.
Jimmy: And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the current creator of the Instagram sensation Sweetest Beasts. It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello
Jimmy: Guys, we are in 1983. It's the second half. I think we had a lot of preamble up at the top last time. Do either of you guys have anything you want to get off your chest here at the top before we hit the strips?
Michael: I'll do an amble when it's time to amble. I don't preamble.
Jimmy: How about you, Harold? Do you have…?
Harold: For those of you who are online when we are going through this podcast, there is a really wonderful timeline of Schulz's life, that comes through the Schulz museum. And I was just checking. Every year, I check to see what's going on in that year, if anything, that they list. And there's a lot going on in 1983 that I thought was worth, mentioning. So all these different forms of Peanuts are debuting, or things that Schulz is doing, are debuting this year. So the special, What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown, which was a world war one and world war two, very unusual animated, special, and I believe it got the Peabody Award. It's about the kids going to these places to learn about what was sacrificed by these soldiers in World War one and world War two seems like an incredibly hard thing to do right with just kids. But, you know, he pulled it off and got a lot of acclaim, a little more somber Peanuts than what she might normally experience. And then on the sports side, he hosted the women's tennis classic Snoopy Cup, I think, which was for famous tennis players who maybe weren't at the top of their game in 1983, but were well known and were still. People love to watch them play. And so he hosted that for a few years at the ice arena.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Harold: also in spring, they added a gift shop to the Empire Ice arena, Redwood Empire. So that's going on. And Knott's Berry Farm is opening up Camp Snoopy and then the west end of London Snoopy, the musical debuts. So that's a ton of different things going on in Schulz's life. So you can imagine how much is swirling around him making, the strip this year. That is not the strip. So I don't know. And that's going to continue because I think Peanuts, we were talking about how culturally Peanuts was making huge impact, starting maybe in the late fifties and then just growing and growing and growing. And it's like this juggernaut that I think by 1983, it's maybe at a peak, right? Or maybe it's going to get even bigger in people's minds, collective minds. But as we were saying, also maybe less and less of that is actually the experience of the strip because there are all these other ways you can interact with Peanuts, including the merchandise and the greeting cards and all of that.
Jimmy: Yeah. Wow, that is an incredible year. I mean, if you. This is after his peak, by the way, you know. Right. In most people's minds, like, he's just doing. This is one year. This is like a decade for most people to do all that sort of stuff.
Harold: Oh, yeah. Easily, if a lifetime.
Jimmy: Right, right. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Well, way to go, Sparky. It's an impressive feat, no matter how you, how you slice it. So what do you think? Shall we, Shall we get to those strips?
Michael: Yep.
Jimmy: All right. So if, you guys are out there listening and you want to follow along, there's a couple ways you can do it. The first thing you could do is head on over to our website, UnpackingPeanuts.com, and sign up for the great Peanuts reread. That will get you an email once a month from us that will let you know what, as to the best of our abilities. Cause sometimes we call audibles, but it'll get you let you know what comic strips we're going to be discussing in, upcoming episodes. And then if you want to read them and read every single one, which is what we're encouraging everyone to do, you could do it for free on gocomics.com They have every strip up there. You just type in the word Peanuts in the search bar. And type in the date. And away you go. You'll be able to read every one of the strips along with us. So, with all that said, how about we go ahead and start, the strips?
Harold: All right.
Michael: Sure.
June 27. Snoopy and Woodstock are atop a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. It's the Pacific Ocean. And Woodstock, is taking photographs. And Snoopy says, beautiful, isn't it? Maybe when we get back, you can sell some of your photographs to a wildlife magazine. And Woodstock is just clicking away. Then they turn away from the ocean and begin walking down, a trail. Woodstock chirp something. And Snoopy says, what's wildlife? You’re wildlife. And then in the final panel, Snoopy says, I'm what you call semi wildlife.
Jimmy: So I picked this. And actually, just the next one, the 28th. We don't necessarily have to, read that one, but I think he was out there. this is very reminiscent after I was the artist in residence at the Schulz museum. The whole family, we took a ride up the Pacific coast. And this very much reminds me of, of those ocean views along the northern California coast. I think he must have been out there doing some real life drawing.
Michael: Yeah, I'm trying to picture him with his easel set up and palette.
Jimmy: And a stuffed Snoopy.
Michael: Yeah. No, I mean, it's clearly, clearly northern California coast. It's very windy there. The trees get all twisted up, and, you can see that. And, yeah, it's definitely. He's putting more energy into that background than he usually does.
Harold: Yeah, I bet that ranger Rick would have taken some of Woodstock's photos, except for the fact that they're probably on two millimeter film.
Liz: But isn't it Olivier? I mean, in the next strip, it's Olivier with the camera.
Jimmy: Oh, it's Olivier. Whatever. I just wanted to say how nice the rocks were.
Harold: Ah, well, yes, Olivier kept the photographer.
Jimmy: Every Peanuts fan knows Olivier is the photographer, for God's sake.
July 13. We're in the middle of a sequence here where, Marcie and Peppermint Patty are off to camp. And, Marcie, still showing that she has a crush on good old Charles, is writing him a letter. She writes to him, dear Charles, I think about you every day. Peppermint Patty comes up and witnesses this and says, Marcie, you can't tell Chuck that. He'll get the big head. And Marcie says, can I tell him I think about him every other day? Peppermint Patty says, no, that's still too often. So Marcie starts again. Dear Charles, I think about you every third day.
Jimmy: What's with the big head?
Harold: I love the big head. It's like Martha Ray, it's me, Martha Ray, the big mouth. yeah, I don't know. The big head.
Jimmy: The big head.
Michael: Okay, well, this is my amble right right now, because this next sequence, and we picked a lot of them in this next sequence, I think it's really gonna, could, turn the strip upside down.
Harold: How so?
Michael: Well, if two of the main characters suddenly are in love with Charlie Brown and are acting as rivals, it would change the dynamics of a lot of the main characters.
Michael: And you'll see as it develops. But, it got me thinking about how comic strips and comic books are somewhat different than movies and novels because they're serialized. And so sometimes what seems like a good idea at the moment, you can realize that, oh, this is going to totally change everything. And so often if you're a superhero editor, the solution is after you kill a character is, oh, just bring them back.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: So you can't undo it. Schulz's solution to this is generally to ignore it.
Michael: It's really strange because this, you'll see, because, you know, Marcie and Peppermint Patty had a very stable relationship and this puts them sort of on even levels for the first time. And some possible conflict, which would totally change the strip. But you'll see as we go that this whole thing kind of disappears and maybe it comes back, but it's, it does not change the strip.
Harold: Do you think it enriches the strip in some way, Michael? Or do you think it endangers the strip?
Michael: Well, for me it would enrich it, but I think when you're doing a daily strip, you have to think about new readers. You have to think about people not reading every, every day. Maybe some people just read the Sundays. I think he decided after this sequence is over that maybe he better just go back to the status quo.
Harold: He seems to do that a lot. He'll go out on a limb and then he'll kind of inch his way back and then he'll do it again two years later, like, oh, he's going to revisit this.
Michael: Yeah, there's no canon with Peanuts.
Jimmy: Right? Yeah. And I think that I picked some of these strips and I do like this sequence a lot.
Harold: Me too.
Jimmy: it's some great cartooning and stuff, I do think, though, and it goes back to like when Linus was doing the Christmas thing every single year. It's like okay. Yeah. But. But we kind of got it a little bit, and I feel that this was like, like Michael saying, if we. If we now just devoted, like. Okay. The number one thing about Marcie is that she is in love with Charlie Brown, and Peppermint Patti is angry about it. Yeah. That is a completely different thing. And he obviously does have to back off it by the end. And at least even. Even though it never goes away, like you say, it's. It's kind of put off to the side, which I think works fine.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: But I do, I always like it when strips kind of move ahead with the plot.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. And this seems unique this year. This. This really is the thing that develops a character in a way that we haven't seen before.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: I think the characters and their relationships.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: It wasn't. I don't think he actually hinted at it coming very much, so this was kind of a surprise, but shook things up, which I think is good.
Harold: Mm
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: I agree.
July 14. Charlie Brown's reading a letter at the old mailbox, and Sally comes up and asks him, you got another letter from Marcie. Is she still lonely? Then Charlie Brown looks at it and says she wants to know why I didn't answer her last letter. Sally is outraged by this and screams, you didn't answer her letter. Charlie Brown says, I didn't know what to say. And Sally says, I think I'm going to kick you. And then I know it's going to feel so good, I'm going to kick you again.
Michael: She's really an advocate for getting him to react to what's going on.
Jimmy: Yeah, she really is.
Harold: Yeah. Which I love about Sally. I mean, she's grown into this role. The little sister, all of a sudden has some wisdom to share with Charlie Brown and some things to get him to move along as a person.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: And the other thing is, Charlie Brown has sat at that mailbox for years hoping to get a love letter, and.
Jimmy: He gets a love letter.
Harold: He gets this lovely, and he doesn't know what on earth to do with it. I totally relate to this. I totally relate to the not responding to the thing. I don't know how to respond to and being. And really not focusing on. Well, if I don't respond, that's.
Jimmy: That's a terrible response.
Harold: Terrible. Yeah. It's like not doing something is terrible. And seeing Charlie Brown doing this, I totally believe this with his character and where we've seen him go, in a lot of ways, he's matured, but in a lot of ways. He's also. He's just kind of. He's disconnected. Right. And, so he's not doing the right thing. And to see that Schulz through another character is like yelling at Charlie Brown, hey, get it together. You're better than this. You got to do something. I think it's pretty neat.
Jimmy: Yeah, I do, too. It's really, really interesting stuff.
July 18. Okay, so, now, in the sequence, Marcie has finally received a letter from Charlie Brown. Peppermint Patty, however, has not. So Peppermint Patty's very upset. She's sitting at the end of the dock, on the camp lake. And, she says to Marcie, don't talk to me, Marcie. And Marcia says, what did I do, sir? Peppermint Patty with a look of absolute just-- I don't even know how you would describe that.
Harold: Just sulking.
Jimmy: Yeah. Angry. Deep in this sulk. Right. And she says, you got a letter from Chuck, and I didn't, and I was the one who felt sorry for you when you were lonely. Then there's a silent panel as Marcie stares out at the lake, and Peppermint Patty continues to sulky. And then in the fourth panel, Marcie says, would you like to push me into the lake, sir?
Harold: I love Marcie.
Jimmy: I do, too. More of these really, detailed and elaborate backgrounds, but you can tell that these are not referenced, don't you think?
Michael: Yeah. Well, he's done the dock many times.
Jimmy: Yeah. And, like, the mountains in the background.
Harold: Why do you say, what is it when you look at this that says, this is not referenced?
Jimmy: That looks like a mountain? That would be in Japan or something? Like, where are they sitting that has that.
Harold: Oh, this wouldn't be like northern California or something?
Jimmy: No.
Michael: It doesn't look like you're not in Minnesota anymore.
Jimmy: No. Yeah, it's a. It's a very exotic. But until they are. Yeah. until they are. I love the water, the way he draws the little ripples around the. The posts.
Harold: I want to ask you, so, where those posts are, does that make sense to you in perspective? It just seems a little.
Jimmy: Does what makes sense?
Harold: The posts that are in the water, that they're sitting on, on this little pier in the third panel, for, some reason, I get this weird mc escher ish thing with. It looks like the front two posts. We're looking at it, like, head on, but then it's at this great angle going backward, and you only see one post behind.
Michael: It's one of those three post docks.
Jimmy: Oh, the famous three post that's all you need. Yeah, they're very stable.
Michael: No problem.
Jimmy: Yeah, they're like, look, we're gonna have to cut corners somewhere.
Harold: That's right. This camp cannot just go on as it is with, all this expenditure. But it is beautiful, beautifully drawn, and he's doing with a lot of care. And again, he did this with the other sequence with Marcie and Peppermint Patty outside in the hospital. Some of the most detailed art that he had done in a long, long time. These particular sequences seem to mean a lot to Schulz.
Jimmy: Yes, very much. Very much.
Harold: It's grounding it in some sort of a reality, and it gives it some gravitas.
Jimmy: And it continues.
July 19. Okay, so now Charlie Brown, receives another letter, and he says to Sally, I can't believe it. Now Peppermint Patty is mad at me because I didn't answer her letter. Charlie Brown kicks his head back and screams to the sky, I hate writing letters. Then in panel three, we see him smudge his way through trying to write a letter to Peppermint Patty. Dear Patty is all smudged out. And then, Sally in the last panel says, don't give up. Smudge your way through.
Harold: Go, Sally.
Michael: Hence, email.
Jimmy: I still don't understand why in 1983, no one has helped Charlie Brown out with an erasable pen.
Harold: Well, didn't he become a pencil pal instead of a pen pal? He loved writing letters. He used to have a far away pen pal. Charlie Brat is changing here.
Jimmy: Yeah. And here we see
July 20. Peppermint Patty receives that letter, and she says, hey, look here. I got a letter from Chuck. How about that? She's showing it to Marcie, and she continues. It sure has a lot of smudges, though, doesn't it? Old Chuck's not much for writing with ink. Peppermint Patty says to Marcie, I gotta write and tell him I'm not mad anymore. Then she says to Marcie, maybe I should call him by a cute nickname. And Marcie replies, how about dear Smudgy?
Harold: Nailed it.
Jimmy: Nailed it. See? And this shows what Michael is saying about their stable relationship, too, in that even though they are in the midst of a bit of a competition for Charlie Brown, Marcie is still, like, friendly, happy, helping Peppermint Patty out. You know, there doesn't seem to be as much jealous on Peppermint Patty or on, Marcie's part at this point.
Harold: Yeah, there's something about Marcie where she's. She can sometimes see where someone is coming from. And what would be helpful to them. And even at her, it's like shoving her into the lake. You know, she can deal with that if she can help a friend out. If you want to shove me into the lake, I'll just swim back up. I'll be wet. I'll change my clothes, and maybe you'll be happy. I'm a good friend.
Jimmy: He's really, really into Marcie for these last couple years. He's getting a lot of inspiration from her. Yes, it's really cool to see. And now,
July 22, we have a tour de force of lettering as letters, are flying back and forth. In panel one, Marcie, in her very neat handwriting, writes, dear Charles, only one more day of camp, then we can be together again. Second one, Peppermint Patty, says, hi, chuck. Tomorrow we go home. How about me coming over to see you? And in the third panel, Snoopy watches as Charlie Brown writes, dear Marcie and Patty, I won't be here when you get home. I've enlisted in the navy for 200 years, which shocks Snoopy.
Harold: I love the three different styles of handwriting that he's going to make up here.
Jimmy: Brilliant. Love, love it. I also love that it's, you know, dear Marcie, dear Charles. But it's Hi, Chuck. That's great.
Harold: Yeah. No, I thought Peppermint Patty would have not done cursive, but maybe she's just trying to stay in the groove of what other people are doing. I don't know.
Jimmy: You know, back then, that was the thing, right? You know, everybody wrote in cursive in school anyway.
Harold: Yeah. I hope. I hope kids can read cursive now. At least they have a lot of. That's the important thing. They don't have to write it. But there's a lot of stuff you want to be able to read. It's like losing a piece of the world if you can't read cursive writing.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. No. like, my kids are an anomaly among their friends at college. I prefer being able to read cursive because, of course, they went to catholic school, and catholic school will be the last bastion of teaching the Palmer method. Right?
Harold: So spend two days learning cursive so you can at least read some handwriting. You know, there's a love letters from your grandmother to your grandfather, and you'll never be able. It's like, what is this hieroglyphic?
Jimmy: Well, hey, that's a service. No, actually, you know what'll happen? You'll point your phone at it and it'll translate it. That's what will happen. Yeah. There's no warning you can give people. You know, if you'll do this someday, it won't matter because. Oh, like, well, something digital will fix it.
Harold: Okay.
Jimmy: So, yeah. So, yeah, so that's, That wraps up the. The, ending. Like Michael said, Charlie Brown just decides he's gonna avoid it, which goes back to his His wishy washiness, which is really, I think, the core of his. Of his, you know, being at this point, he's afraid to make a decision, or he's afraid to hurt one or both of them, so he'd rather just ignore it. Yeah.
Michael: And next time we see him, he'll be off the coast of Japan.
Jimmy: That's right.
Harold: You know, looking back on this sequence, I love that he does this in a way that you tend to really care for all of the characters. You know, they're doing things that aren't obviously not perfect. They're all, in their own way, flawed and quirky, but you really kind of love all of them as they're trying to find a way to interact with each other. And I love Sally's role in this. I love Marcie showing all these different sides of herself to Chuck and to Peppermint Patty, and then Peppermint Patty showing where she is in terms of relationship with Charlie Brown, but also that she has no trouble continuing this relationship with Marcie, really, given all this stuff that's happening. There's so many things going on here, and it just makes them all. All of them, to me, more likable than they were before I read the sequence. And that's masterful.
Jimmy: Yes, it really is. It's amazing writing. Yeah.
July 25, Linus comes up to Snoopy, who's lying atop his doghouse, and he says to him, remember, buildings may crumble, but wisdom is eternal. And then in panel three, Snoopy's doghouse does indeed crumble to the ground, sending Snoopy flying. Then Snoopy, lying atop a pile of old wood, now says, I hate sayings like that.
Harold: This, to me, is the perfect 1983 version of Jimmy's theory, that Charles Schulz is a character in the strip. Linus could just say something, and the next thing you know, it actually happens, improbably in this hilarious third panel where you see, you know, Snoopy's butt flying, little paws flayed out. And when this huge pile of. And the fact that the wood looks like it's aged about 100 years from panel to panel, there's something about that, again, that's. That's also uniquely Schulz. Right.
Harold: I can't think of another artist who does this so well that it just doesn't feel weird or surreal or ironic. It just is in Schulz's world. And I can't think of another artist who does this sort of thing successfully like this. There's usually like, when I see things like this, usually they're, they're cynical or they're, you know, the improbability kind of takes you away from the characters. And maybe that happens to some people who read something like this, but, to me, I can't even describe it, but it just feels like you're in this world where anything can happen. But it's, but it's, it's got its own logic. And again, it's, it's Schulz intervening into the strip to do something hilarious. And we've seen enough of it that it's not inconsistent.
Harold: I don't know, it's. I like it.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's great. Absolutely great. And very funny. And great drawing.
July 27. Sally is, writing away on a piece of paper, and she's writing TBA. TBA. TBA TBA. TBA. TBA. Charlie Brown comes up and looks at this, and Sally says, I'm practicing my TBAs. Charlie Brown says, TBAs, Sally says, to be announced. And then in the last panel, she says, if anything around here is to be announced, I'll be ready.
Jimmy: I don't know why I picked that one.
Michael: I don't know why you picked that one.
Harold: You like TBAs now?
Jimmy: Do you know? I think I picked that. Sometimes when I'm looking at these, I give you the date, and I think you give you the date of the one above or below the one I actually mean. But that's what gave our listeners the chance to enjoy this reading of the TBA strip.
July 31. Woodstock is in a tiny little boat out on, what looks like a rough sea, or like just an average sea, I guess. It's not rough, but, ah, in panel two, we see it's actually him just sailing in Snoopy's supper, dish. And he's sailing one way and then sails the other way. And Snoopy says, it seems to be a nice day for sailing as he watches Woodstock go back and forth in the supper dish. And there's actually, of course, no room. It's just him spinning from direction to direction. And then Snoopy says to him, but you know what you should look out for? And he blows a big gust of wind at Woodstock. And, he says, which sends him spinning around. And then Snoopy says, sudden squalls.
Jimmy: I love Woodstock's hat. It's cute, the little paper hat.
Michael: It looks like Woodstock's the one who joined the navy.
Harold: Yeah. He's wearing a little sailboat hat in his sailboat.
Jimmy: Yeah. That's true. That's very strange.
Harold: Do you guys used to make those little sailboats with--
Jimmy: I was just gonna say yeah. Ah. Oh, absolutely.
Harold: Yeah, we did. Takes you back.
Jimmy: Yeah. we're more of a, paper airplane sort of community. But we did do boats occasionally.
Harold: Looking at this strip, one of the things that stood out to me was, other than Snoopy's ears, there's really not a lot of black spotting in this Sunday. And so you're just seeing the line art. And some of it is relatively kind of thin line. And that stood out to me. I'd be interested to see this one, like, the actual original for this strip. Because it's so spare.
Jimmy: Yeah. This is another thing that, like, I wouldn't want to draw. Because it's essentially the same panel seven times. It's you're just changing, really, Woodstock direction. And then, you know, in two of them, you're changing Snoopy's expression. But that's it.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: So it would be a tedious day to draw.
Harold: This actually might be kind of fast. I don't know.
Jimmy: yeah, maybe. But it might yeah, it might be fast.
Harold: That's true.
Jimmy: But it might, like, for me, it would drag me down. If I had to draw the same thing that many times. It'd take me longer because I'd put it off in a while.
Harold: Yeah. Come back, do a panel. Then do another page or something and come back.
August 8. We're in the Van Pelt household. And, Linus is just, sitting there reading a book in an easy chair, trying to mind his own business. And Lucy comes up and says, it's very strange. It happens just by looking at you. Linus, without looking up from his book, says, what happens? And Lucy says, I can feel criticism coming on.
Michael: Yep.
Harold: Certain people.
Liz: did you pick this?
Michael: Yes. If you don't know, if you don't have anything to say, criticize.
Jimmy: Absolutely. Well, this is Lucy in prime Lucy mode. And as much as we're talking about people changing and character growth and stuff. There's also something to be said for continuing with immaculate consistency.
Michael: Yep. That is true. And we have the little strange, black top of the wall.
Harold: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Again.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: He's yeah. It looks like they might be in the treetops in panel three, the little.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Black shading, I think it's implying
Michael: The light is illuminating it.
Harold: But even that's odd because the lamp, maybe the lamp's not on. There's an overhead light that's on, but the lamp doesn't seem to be brightening up that little corner where it is.
Jimmy: Yeah, no, it's more, it would like, be like an underfoot light. I mean, it's, it would have to, if you were going to show the lamp lighting, it would. The whole right side would be light. And, you know, you do a circle off or cross hatch circle off to the left. But, yeah, he's just, just kind of doing that. I don't know.
Harold: I want to ask you guys about Lucy. You were saying? It's kind of classic Lucy. Do you, does she feel a little different, this is a slightly different Lucy than, say, from the sixties. Does she feel different in any way that, has she mellowed or is she.
Jimmy: I think they've all mellowed.
Michael: A little self reflective here. She's actually thinking about what she's feeling rather than just opening her mouth.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: Yeah, she's still Lucy, but there's something kind of centered about her that, she was just a little more like a wild card back in the day, and now it doesn't seem quite that much. She's still crabby. She's still, you know, she can still really get upset, but there seems to be this, I don't know, it feels grounded. She feels grounded to me in a way that we haven't seen before.
Jimmy: Yeah. Well, maybe it's just because she has come to accept who she is so she's more calm in her crabbiness and, you know, content in her criticisms.
Harold: Yeah, she's maybe. Yeah, maybe she's accepted and understands herself a little bit better. I don't know. Not about Linus, but.
August 27, Snoopy is the vulture again. He's atop one of the classic Schulz scraggly trees, and he thinks to himself, in the old days, vultures used to sit on branches waiting for victims. Then in panel two, we see a, concerned looking Snoopy as the branch that he's on slowly starts to bend over, taking, him with it. And then in panel four, he is, the tree is completely bent over in a U, and his head is on the ground. And he thinks to himself, in the old days, they had stronger branches.
Jimmy: Now, in the old days, do you think he means the earlier days of the strip?
Michael: Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, he had to be thinking about that because his. His current design for Snoopy's face isn't so good for vulturing. It's not as bendable.
Harold: Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: I, think those panels, two and three, those are kind of strange looking Snoopies. The head, especially.
Harold: Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy: but, boy, he has a soft spot for this vulture.
Michael: I can understand it.
Jimmy: It's your fave.
Harold: One of the things that I didn't know about birds is that how do they sleep in a tree? And probably most people know this, but I didn't know this until recently. The natural thing for them with their, you know, to hold on to the branch is that you have to actually flex your muscles to release. But the natural thing is to be closed. So if you're sleeping, unless you actively try to open, you know, the talons or whatever, you don't. You don't go anywhere. I think there's a mystery of Snoopy that's been revealed, possibly in panel four here, because he is almost upside down and he's not quite on the ground with his head, except maybe his m ears. And I see his little tail is actually the thing that's holding him onto that tree. So he.
Jimmy: Oh, that's crazy. Boy, you have to really look close.
Harold: That's the Snoopy, that's the Snoopy way of staying on a tree.
Jimmy: Brilliant. Well, you know, Schulz said that about when he read that about birds. That's what made him, able to justify how Snoopy stays on the doghouse, that his ears perform that function and lock onto the sides.
Harold: Makes total sense.
Jimmy: Oh, total sense.
Harold: It's just physics.
Jimmy: You know what else is physics? After you do this for a while, you need to take a break, you know, for God's sake, you got to replenish. You got to get a snack and a delicious beverage. So we're going to do that now. And then we'll come back on the other side and finish, these strips. So catch you on the other side.
BREAK
VO: Hi, everyone. I just want to take a moment to remind you that all three hosts are cartoonists themselves. And there were is available for sale. You can find links to purchase books by Jimmy, Harold and Michael on our website. You can also support the show on Patreon or buy us a mud pie. Check out the store link on Unpackingpanuts.com.
Jimmy: And we're back. Nothing in the mailbox today, Liz? Nope.
Liz: They're ignoring us. It's like Marcie and Peppermint Patty.
Jimmy: Aw, that's so sad. We're waiting well, we did hear this is pretty exciting. We have the, the resolution of a mystery.
Harold: What's that?
Jimmy: A couple episodes ago, we had listener 518 call in with his epic, guess of the anger and happiness index where he nailed the anger on the nose. He has revealed his identity. Jason. So if you guys want to, you know, contribute, if you want to write a letter to us, you can do it via email. We're UnpackingPeanuts@gmail.com. We would absolutely love to hear from you. We read as many of the letters as we can on the show. And, you can also, if you want to, you can call the Unpacking Peanuts hotline, which number is 717-219-4162 and.
Harold: If you want to write us in with a dip pen, you can scan at that and send it to us as well. Oh, yeah.
Jimmy: If anybody's out. Oh, that's great.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: If anybody's out there wants to write us in cursive or with a dip, that would be fabulous. So you could scan it and shoot it off to the, to the website. Yeah. And on the hotline, you can. You can leave your voice message. That's what I want to hear. We're happy that we're always getting texts, and that's great. Love to get some texts, but, you know, I want to hear your voices. because when I don't hear, I worry.
Harold: Oh, and while we're out on the Anger and Happiness thing, do you want to take a look? The magical world of anger and happiness in 1983?
Jimmy: Okay.
Harold: No, but we're gonna do it anyway.
Jimmy: Oh, no, I was. I was merely taking a sip of iced tea.
Harold: Oh, well, here we go. All right, so for the anger index in 1982, we were at 101 strips that had characters showing anger and. Oh, no, no, sorry. We had 75.
Jimmy: 75.
Harold: So that was a, pretty low. I think that was among the lower of the Schulz anger years. How did this year feel to you? Did it feel, less anger, more anger?
Jimmy: It's rage filled. No, I do think it's going to be slightly up on anger. I think we're going to go up three.
Harold: Okay.
Jimmy: What was it, 75? It's like 78 now or something like that.
Harold: It'll be 78. Three additional? Yeah.
Michael: Oh, I'll go down a couple. Let's do 70.
Harold: All right. Okay. The actual number is a, by far, an all time low. Only 48 strips.
Jimmy: Whoa.
Harold: 13%. One in eight strips showed someone showing some anger. So what's going on with.
Jimmy: Well, I mean, that is. That's really interesting because that actually makes this whole exercise kind of worthwhile, because it really does show that there is a tonal shift going on.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: What's interesting is it's not away from the heart of the strip, which is, in a lot of ways, sadness, longing, missed opportunities. It's not taking away from that, but it's taking, the yelling is less a part of it, you know, the punching and all that kind of stuff.
Harold: Yeah, I mean, he's been under, like, a hundred since 1971. He has not gone over 100 since 1971. And I think, the peak that we counted was, like, 100 and 162 in the fifties. So that's quite a shift in the world of crazy theories. I have a crazy theory as to maybe why things are less angry. As we know, Schulz just had heart surgery, and he had to change his diet. Now, sometimes a change in diet can kind of balance things out. And who knows?
Jimmy: I feel like this is pointed at me. I really do.
Harold: How so, Jimmy?
Jimmy: No, you know, I think I'm going to get some, backhanded criticism here, but I'm ready for it. Go ahead.
Harold: No, but, I mean, I've definitely noticed this for myself. You know, if what I eat changes, how I feel changes and how I react to things changes. And Schulz probably did have very big. We saw a lot of longing for food strips earlier.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Because he's probably living on fewer doughnuts and less pizza than less energy.
Michael: And yelling is just tires you out, right?
Jimmy: It's not worth it.
Harold: All right.
Jimmy: I just wish someone would have told me that shotgunning Coca Cola's at 02:00 a.m. Was bad for you.
Harold: I know. It's just people don't think.
Jimmy: I mean, you know, I think you're probably right about that.
Harold: And we'll go back to happiness. We were at 101 strips with happiness versus, 75 last year. where do you think we are on happiness in 1983?
Jimmy: I think it's going to stay steady.
Harold: Okay.
Michael: Yeah, sounds about right.
Harold: Okay. And it pretty much is. It's 108, just up seven strips. So 30% of the strips are showing happiness. The ratio of happiness to, anger is at also all time high. There's more than twice as many that show a character being happy. Now, even the ones. It's really hard to count these sometimes. That because the subtlety of Schulz's expressions and what he's doing with the characters is also at an all time high. So even if someone is happy or angry, it's really a subtle thing he has mastered these characters and their expressions. It's pretty crazy, the subtlety of emotion that he can express in the strip. Yeah, absolutely.
Michael: I still pine for the angry Peanuts.
Jimmy: You're like, oh, yeah. You gotta have a little anger now and again, right?
Harold: Yeah. Well placed anger. This this year, I will say, like that sequence with Sally yelling at Charlie Brown. She's gonna kick it and kick him again.
Jimmy: Well, very interesting. All right. So, we will have to check in next year and see where we're at on that. And just so you know, I'm going back to eating crap. Cause when I was peak. All right.
August 28. Sally and Lucy are, talking together outside. And Sally says to Lucy, but he's your little brother. And Lucy says, so I outrank him. And then we see that they're walking over to Rerun, who is playing by himself in a sandbox with the little jack in the box next to him, which we have seen the jack in the box earlier this year. So then, Lucy approaches him and says, okay, Rerun out. Sally and I want to play in the sandbox for a while. She continues, there's not room for all of us, so you'll have to leave. There's two of us, and there's only one of you. Re run thinks for a moment, then turns to his little jack in the box, cranks it, sending the little notes out, and then, boing. The little jack in the box pops out, and it leaves, now two people in the sandbox. Rerun and his friend in the jack in the box.
Harold: It looks kind of like Woodstock wearing a party hat.
Jimmy: That's what I would say, really? In the jack in the box. It looks like Woodstock. It's so weird. Or is that not weird? I just think it's weird.
Harold: I don't know. I love this strip. And I know there's a lot of Rerun to come in the last 20 years of Peanuts. And it's still confusing because Schulz's drawing Rerun’s hair very close to the way he draws Linus's hair. And he still has that indentation in his forehead. So it's especially in the dailies when we're not told to Rerun. It's super confusing for someone who's just casually coming in and going. But I like seeing this version of Rerun that has a very subtly different attitude than Linus. He's not as crazy out there as Linus as can be sometimes. How do you even describe what, words would you use to describe him in this sequence?
Michael: Well, the thing is, he didn't have much to differentiate him from Linus, up to this point. I mean, we really only saw him riding on the back of the bike. And I think Schulz was thinking, okay, I need to develop some distinct Reruns things. And I think the jack in the box was what he hit on.
Harold: Yeah, I love the. I love his expression.
Jimmy: No, I personally think he is. He's searching, you know? And the quiet part of Rerun while he's doing this stuff, and you're saying he's not is out there. I think it's so Schulz can reserve until he knows what he's doing. Yeah. He's just. He's very, very trepidatious about adding these little things to his character.
Michael: And Rerun hasn't yet spoken, I think.
Harold: Is that right?
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. No, he said, yeah, he's talked on the back of the bike. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael: No, he thinks. He thinks.
Jimmy: No, I couldn't swear to you either way.
Michael: Okay, well, let's check it next time he's on the bike.
Harold: Yeah. Because, it's interesting also the Lucy dynamic with Rerun. It seems like they say when parents have children and you're the, you know, the second or the third child, that the parents seem to kind of back off a little bit in many cases, and you're not as hovered over because, you know, it's not as scary to be a parent the first time. And so younger kids often have a little more freedom. Not across the board, but that seems to be often the case. And then I look at Lucy and her relationship to Rerun. Rerun's not quite the threat or the focus of Lucy because they're not in the same worlds as much.
Harold: And so Rerun seems to have a little more freedom with Lucy to be himself, and she's less likely to really threaten him. And that brings out something different in his personality, the fact that he's willing to do his jack in the box thing to, even out the score between Lucy and Sally in the sandbox. And I love the little look on his face with those closed eyes that he's just kind of proudly sitting there like, I will maintain my space here in the sandbox with a little smiling, Woodstocky Jack in the box is adorable. But I like this Rerun, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.
Jimmy: He ends up being one of my favorite characters, but it is wild to watch how long it takes Schulz to find him, both visually and as a character. But when he does, it's it's really good stuff. Yeah. And his major thing he is going to have to figure out is the hair, because that's going to be the number one thing that's going to distinguish him. Eventually. He even gets a little outfit with overalls and stuff that distinguish him. But the hair becomes one of the big ways.
September 26. Okay, what now? Okay, this is the middle of a long sequence where Peppermint Patty and Snoopy have gone to a sleep disorder clinic because, Peppermint Patty, of course, has been falling asleep in class. So here we are. She's back from the clinic, and she's in school with Marcie, and she says to her teacher, yes, ma'am, I'm back. I went to a sleep disorders center, and they said, I'm okay. She continues, they said, I don't have narcolepsy. And the reason I fall asleep in class is I stay up too late at night. Then Marcie whispers to Peppermint Patty, I don't think she can hear you, sir. Peppermint Patty says, what? And Marcie says, she's asleep.
So, Michael, you have talked about how important sleep was to Peanuts. What do you think about this? This is like an all sleep centered sequence.
Michael: No, no. It's clear that sleep is one of the main themes of Peanuts. it's so important to everybody.
Jimmy: It really is so straight. Well, I mean, you know, I love sleep myself. I can't, I can't say I blame them, but, yeah, it is one of the great rewards. The food reward, the sleep reward. Those are great.
Harold: So, Michael, what did you think of this sequence where Snoopy is going with Peppermint Patty to the sleep disorder clinic and they're treating him? Did that. Did that work for you?
Michael: Not so much. yeah, I think it just went on too long.
Jimmy: It was very long. Now, do we have any idea what caused this? Is there anything on Schulz timeline that said he was dealing with sleep disorders in some way? Because this is really specific.
Harold: Well, we've heard stories of Schulz. He'd say. I would just. I lay awake, at night, like you see Charlie Brown and asking these deep, dark, night of the soul questions, you know? So it's obviously a part of Schulz that he. He deals with this sort of thing. Maybe he. Maybe he did go somewhere. And, hey, maybe that's also part of the reason why the anger goes down. Maybe he got some help. Who knows? But I don't. I've not heard of anything about him actually getting treatment.
Michael: Well, I wonder, because I have a cousin who lives very close to where Schulz lived, and she has narcolepsy. So maybe it's something in the environment.
Harold: Maybe so, it's in the water.
Jimmy: It's just too beautiful there. It's like, you know, this must be a dream. Very strange.
Harold: I actually met a guy, I've been out on the streets of Manhattan at the Metropolitan museum. I was out there four days in a row, from Thursday through Sunday before we recorded this. And I'm on the sidewalk selling my books, and I meet the most interesting people because this is the upper east side of Manhattan. Lots of locals drop by. And so I've met guys who've worked in animation. I've met people who work, who were. I met the guy who was the co inventor of the tickle me Elmo doll. That, was pretty fun. And there was one guy, named, Jerry Neary, I don't think you'll mind me mentioning him, who said he worked with Schulz for a long time.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Nice.
Jimmy: Oh, that's really cool. Strange, the people you meet on the sidewalks of Manhattan in your roaming comic book store.
Harold: I know. It's crazy. It's a lot of fun. It's nice to be fun, to be a non sequitur on the Metropolitan museum sidewalk. Never know who you'll meet. But I will be-- if anybody's in the Chicago area. I feel like I'm doing a plug on the Tonight show, but the Chicagoland area, I will be.
Jimmy: You'll be playing at chuckles comedy hut.
Harold: April 26 through 28th. I will be at the National Cartoonist Society booth, off and on, the 26th through the 28th, of April.
Jimmy: Nice.
Michael: If any of you are in downtown, Jesi on, April 13 at the independent comic con, I'll be walking the floor, so just say hi.
Harold: Cool.
Jimmy: And if, any of you are in my living room, you might see me there. Otherwise, we'll just have to meet every week right here.
Liz: And I'm going to be at The Podcast Show in London on May 22 and 23rd.
Harold: Very cool.
Jimmy: Everybody's going places. I'm not going anywhere,
Harold: Jimmy you're always going places.
Jimmy: I'm going places, baby. All right. And right now, we're going to
October 12. Snoopy and Woodstock are atop the old doghouse. And Woodstock is, chirping away. He's pining for someone, it appears. And Snoopy thinks, slash says to Woodstock, you like her, huh? Huh? Well, how are you going to meet her? Can you do a mating dance? And then in panel three, Woodstock attempts the mating dance. And panel four, Snoopy says, maybe you should just call her on the phone.
Harold: I want panel three on a t shirt.
Jimmy: That's a great one.
Harold: His little stoic dance is delightful.
Jimmy: So funny. Just really, really cute drawing.
Harold: And that's the only reason I picked that one, was for that panel three. I love that.
October 16. Oh, we we rarely pick a, football strip, but here we are in the first panel. Charlie Brown is looking off panel left, and he says, she's got to be kidding. She must think I'm really dumb. Then in the third panel, we see Lucy with a big smile on her face, holding the old football. And she says, here we go, Charlie Brown. I'll hold the ball, and you come running up and kick it. Charlie Brown says, what you really mean is you'll pull the ball away and I'll land on my back and kill myself. Well, I have news for you. Never again. Forget it. Lucy is upset by this. She says, wait. Charlie Brown says, I said, forget it. I'm just glad you're the only person in the world who thinks I'm dumb enough to fall for that trick again. But then in the last panel, we see a whole group of people with their footballs ready for Charlie Brown to try to kick it. And it's Snoopy, Woodstock, Sally Peppermint, Patty and Marcie.
Harold: Who would you pick to kick?
Michael: Well, you’d kick Woodstock..
Jimmy: Look at the tiny little football Woodstock has.
Harold: I might choose Marcie. I might have a shot. I don't know.
Jimmy: Yeah, but you never know with the look on Marcie's face.
Michael: It’s like a twilight zone. And I picked it because I'm not a huge fan of the football strips, but this is the one time he didn't go for it. He wasn't a dupe.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: yeah. He got away maybe for a year. That's wonderful. See, this has really been Charlie Brown's years.
Jimmy: Things are. Things are happening.
Harold: Inching forward for him.
Jimmy: Girls like him. It's all happening.
November 4. Spike, is here. This was a long sequence of Spike and Snoopy visiting. And we, seem to be developing a thing where Spike is, or Snoopy is entertained by Spike's strange, surreal, non sequitur stories. So Snoopy says to Spike, on top of the doghouse, peculiar things happen to you, don't they, Spike? And Spike says, like, one day I was passing this golf club and I saw a sign on the door. And the sign says, as we see in panel three, no spikes allowed in clubhouse. And then in panel four, Spike says to Snoopy, how did they know my name?
Michael: This is really strange because it didn't occur to me when I first read it, but has he ever done a flashback like that?
Jimmy: I was just gonna say this would be, we were talking about the other week. Of all the different ways Schulz can use four panels to set up a strip. We've never had, I don't think. Anyway, a flash, a flashback, or a flat cut to another location like that from another time, it's really, really, different.
Michael: He might have tried Spike describing.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: And maybe that got too wordy or it didn't have any punch.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. And what do you think about the shading on the doghouse? That's a new thing too, right?
Jimmy: Yep.
Harold: There's this weird scraggly black pen line coloring the doghouse that they're sitting on. Never seen that before.
Michael: Well, I noticed he's, some of these trips. I did notice he's is spotting blacks. It was very apparent. I don't know if you want to go back. The one with Rerun, the trees in the background are stark black, which they're usually dark black. But if you look at those panels, they're balancing Lucy's hair.
Jimmy: umhmm
Michael: So maybe he's thinking a little bit more about light and dark balance and.
Jimmy: The strips, I think, because especially, I imagine there's a part of him that is a little bit. Not a little bit. Maybe. Maybe a lot self conscious and worried about the shake, the tremor that he has. And he's trying to put extra effort in to really make the pages look good because he doesn't have that effortless glide that he had that carried it for so long. Because I think you're right. There is a definite. I was actually going to mention that tree because it doesn't look like Schulz. It totally doesn't.
November 9. Peppermint Patty is asleep at her desk. Actually, her head is leaning all the way back onto Marcie's desk. In panel two, Marcie takes off her glasses and then puts them on Peppermint Patty as Patty's asleep. And then when Peppermint Patty wakes up, she's wearing Marcie's glasses and says, where'd everybody go?
Michael: Yeah, Marcie. This is a little bit playful for her.
Jimmy: It really is. Yeah.
Harold: It's cool to see her eyes.
Jimmy: That's why I picked it, just to see the drawing of her with the little polka dot eyes and the fact that they're so small, it indicates almost like, bad vision.
Harold: Right. She's near, maybe just somehow suggests that she's nearsighted and. Or either that or she's just a John Lennon fan.
Jimmy: Yeah, she could be just a John Lennon fan.
Harold: Or Harold Lloyd.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Peppermint Patty really has the John look in the last one.
Harold: Right?
November 15, Peppermint Patty's at the desk again. And she says, I know the answer. And then, panel two. Yes, ma'am, I do. And she says that she hops on Marcie's desk and puts her hand over Marcie's mouth. So Marcie doesn't answer. Then she leaps in front of her and covers Franklin's mouth and says, the answer is five. And then, proud as punch, she says, and I was the only one who knew it.
Michael: Now, I think Schulz is looking for ways to feature some of his, some of these characters he introduced in the last ten years. More. Yeah, I don't think he's established that Franklin sits in front of Peppermint Patty, but in the next bunch of strips he is. And, I think Franklin's been pretty much ignored. And so this is a way of getting him into more strips.
Jimmy: Yeah, there really is that feeling that there is a separate substrip in this. That's Peppermint Patti's strip. That looks different, the world's different, the characters are different. That alone is such an accomplishment that he has all of these characters that he could really fill out multiple comic strips with them.
Harold: Right. And the fact that the answer is five, the question was, who is the kid in that other neighborhood who never shows up in the strip? Two sisters.
December 16. This is a sequence where Sally is really worried about learning her line for the Christmas play. And she's explaining this to Charlie Brown, who's standing there holding a hockey stick. She says to him, this is what I have to do in the Christmas play, when the sheep are through dancing, I come out and say, hark. Then Harold angel starts to sing, and Charlie Brown asks her, Harold angel. It's right here in the script, she says.
Michael: I think Harold's got a new nickname, Harold angel.
Harold: Hey, I mean, I can't have any trouble with a strip that has Harold angel and dancing sheep. So I'm all for this.
Jimmy: Okay, so I have a theory about this.
Jimmy: And if anybody has seen, Boom Studios, a few years ago for the 65th anniversary of Peanuts, put together a, book of just a bunch of different cartoonists doing their take on Peanuts. And I got to do a ten page story in it. And, I reference Harold Angel when all the kids are singing. I used the scene from Charlie Brown Christmas where they all sing hark the herald angel sing. but I spelled it Harold angel. And I really think that the reason this came up all these years later is Schulz heard the way the kids sing it in the famous Christmas special and always thought it sounded like Harold angels, and that's why he's doing this.
Harold: that's interesting. Yeah. Well, I've seen, I don't know which Christmas special. I know we have some listeners who do that has this sequence. I just saw this, this last Christmas, actually. I think for the, maybe for the first time or the first time in a long time, this whole sequence remembered the whole, the Harold angel thing. And the way the storyline goes is, it's so bizarre. But Sally is up on the stage. She's worried about remembering her line. And, instead of saying her one word, hark, she says hockey stick, which is, that's just so bizarre to me. Yeah, she says hockey stick.
Jimmy: And, I guess it's supposed to because Charlie Brown is holding a hockey stick while she's trying to memorize this thing.
Harold: I guess that's the way Sally's mind works, right?
Jimmy: I like so much of the strip, but the hockey stick punchline is, well, is weird.
Michael: Okay, I've heard this somewhere. Kids were not allowed to say the word hell. It was forbidden.
Jimmy: Oh.
Michael: And so adults, adults weren't supposed to say it either in the presence of kids. So they would say H E double hockey sticks.
Jimmy: Right. So it's almost like it's coming off like a, like almost like a swear that she just runs out and yells hockey stick.
Michael: I don't know. It's, it's weird.
Jimmy: It's really, really weird. And the fact that this was turned into an animation, is doubly weird. But I think it's because the stuff that goes around hockey stick is really good. I love the Harold Ansel stuff. I love her practicing. All of that stuff's good. It's just weird that the word was hockey stick. Unless they, I guess you would have had to build it, like, really, really in the reader's mind, somehow cement the fact that she was practicing this with hockey sticks around. But that's very strange.
Liz: And I just want to point out that your Boom Studios story is in the obscurities page.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah.
Michael: And it's a really great story.
Jimmy: Oh, well, thanks.
Michael: Yeah. But also read the Evan Dorkin one.
Jimmy: Actually. Yeah. If you get the whole thing, you should get the whole thing. It's really good.
Michael: No, the book's very, really good. Jimmy's is a highlight. But also, Evan Dorkin does his HP Lovecraft version of Peanuts.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's, I think it's just called Peanuts, a tribute to Charles M. Schulz. It, has a realistic drawing of Charlie Brown and Snoopy on the cover Like, they look like a real boy and a real dog, which is very unsettling.
That brings us to Christmas Eve, December 24. Charlie Brown is on the phone, and he says, I don't know. I didn't see the rest of the play. As soon as sally said hockey stick and everyone laughed, I left. She gets everything mixed up. She even thought someone named Harold angel was going to sing. Then she says, excuse me, somebody's at the door. And then in panel four, we see him answering the door, and there's a kid in a sporting little hat, and he says, hi, is Sally home? My name is Harold Angel.
Harold: Charlie Brown-- the look on Charlie Brown's face.
Michael: The suitor. Her first suitor.
Jimmy: Yeah, Harold Angel's got a great look. I think that's a great, character design.
Harold: Yeah. he's got a nice approachable hat.
Jimmy: Gotta have an approachable hat.
Harold: But I have an alternate fourth panel for this.
Jimmy: Okay.
Harold: I would love to see just a hockey stick sitting there saying to Charlie brown, hark.
Jimmy: So, guys, that brings us to 1983, the end of 83, I think. It was actually a really fun year. I'm still enjoying, all of these strips. The weird ones, the off ones, the great ones. they're all fun for me. So before we sign off, I'm going to want you guys to give me your most valuable peanut and then your strip of the year. But before we do that, I just want, to talk to you characters out there. If you want to keep this conversation going, you can always email us through our website. We are Unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. And you can also, go ahead and follow us on social media. We are unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads and unpackingpanuts on Facebook, blue sky, and YouTube. If you want to support the show, there's a bunch of different ways you can do it. You can chip in on our patreon. You could give us a one time donation, mud pie, we call it through our website. you could buy a t shirt, or you could go to our store and buy one of our books, because Michael, Harold, and I are all cartoonists, and we would love for you to check out our work.
So with all that out of the way, how about your strip of the year and your mvp. Harold, why don't you go first?
Harold: Okay. I think my strip of the year, there was not one that just jumped out at me, but I really do love this little sandbox sequence with Lucy, Sally, Rerun and his jack in the box. It's really nicely drawn. I love to see this part of Rerun's personality be introduced. And for Peanut of the year, this year really was a well balanced year. There's so many things going on with so many characters. I'm going to give it to the one, I think, who moved the needle or forced the situation forward. That'd be Sally with Charlie brown and getting him to write to his two friends at camp.
Jimmy: That's good. That's a good one. Michael, how about you?
Michael: Well, I would say due to that whole sequence of at camp with, Marcie and Peppermint Patty, I will give it to Marcie again because I gave it to her last year, but strip of the year because there wasn't one in particular from that sequence that stuck out for me. But, I'll give it to the biggest laugh, which is Woodstock doing his funny little mating dance, October 12.
Jimmy: Oh, that's a great pick. I'm going to go ahead and give Charlie Brown MVP because it seems like so much of it is revolving around him. He, of course, is not doing anything, but all the activity, is really moving around him this year. And so for the strip of the year, I'm going to pick October 16, the football one, because I think that is actually a classic football gag. I like that. As Michael said, Charlie Brown doesn't fall for it. And I love the panel of all of them holding the footballs with the smiles on their face, or Charlie Brown.
Harold: Tried six times and landed on his back six times.
Jimmy: We don't know what happened. Yeah. Either way, it's great, you know? Right, right.
Harold: Rife with possibility.
Jimmy: All right, well, so that brings us to the end of 1983. next year, I guess, big brother will be watching us as we, head into 1984. I love doing this podcast. I love that so many new people are finding it, and I love talking about Peanuts with my pals every single week. So thank you for being a part of that. Come back again next week and, we'll do it all again. Until then, for Michael, Harold and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Liz, Harold, and Michael: Yes Be of good cheer.
Liz: Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen and Harold Bacholtz. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen additional voiceover by Aziza Shukrala Clark for more from the show, follow unpacked Peanuts on Instagram and threads Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, blue Sky, and YouTube. For more about jimmy, Michael, and harold, visit UnpackingPeanuts.com. Have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
Jimmy: I got nothing.