Jimmy:. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. Today. We're finishing up 1986, or at least we think we're finishing up 1986. I'll be, your host for the proceedings. I'm also a cartoonist. My name's Jimmy Gownley. I did books like Amelia, 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 band complicated people, as well as for this very podcast. He's the original editor of Amelia Rules, the co creator of the first ever comic book Price Guide, and the creator of such great strips, as strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells and Tangled River. Michael Cohen,
Micheal: 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 creator of the instagram sensation sweetest beasts. It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello.
Jimmy: So, guys, since, it's, episode three here of 1986, and we haven't done the anger and happiness index, why don't we start off with that? Harold, what do you got for us?
Harold: Okay, well, what do you guys think about this year? Is it pretty much, changing from previous year, has a different vibe or feel to it, or does it seem like it's even keel? Or what's the vibe for anger this year?
Michael: I didn't get anything particular. I think I'd just go for roughly what we had last year.
Jimmy: Okay, Jimmy, I'm gonna say the same. I think it's the same.
Harold: Well, you guys are right. We had 70 strips with characters showing anger in 1985, and we had 74 in 1986, so that's. That's pretty even keel, I think it was. You know, is it 81 the year before? So he's, you know, he's pretty much in the same space when it comes to character, emotions. How, about happiness? Does it. Does it seem like that is changing, or do you think that is, pretty much.
Jimmy: No, I feel it's the same. I think it's about the same. I don't feel a huge shift from last year to this year.
Michael: Same.
Harold: you're right again. It's 113 happy strips, a lot more than anger strips, which has been a trend for quite a while. It was 108 and 85, 112 and 84. So very consistent. Although, I must say there is a little bit of a change. the particular character this year was, happy in every single strip that character appeared. Can anyone guess who that is?
Michael: Who's happy this year?
Harold: Someone was happy in every single strip.
Jimmy: I am going to say it's gotta be tapioca pudding.
Harold: You got it in one. Tapioca Pudding really moved the numbers for Schulz and happiness this year, which would suggest otherwise it would have been a little bit down. But, yeah, we haven't met on the podcast tapioca pudding, but, she is coming, and, boy, if you've never experienced tapioca pudding, you're in for a treat.
Jimmy: Do you guys like tapioca pudding? I mean, the actual pudding?
Michael: You could barely remember it.
Harold: no, I like the watch.
Liz: I like bubble tea, which has the tapiocas in it, but I don't like it in pudding.
Harold: Yeah, isn't it weird that the pudding kind of went out of style when any other pudding was available, but then you start dropping it into tea and. Oh, boy, it's a thing.
Jimmy: Very strange. All right, well, with that in mind, let's hit the strips
July 6. It's a Sunday. Peppermint Patty is riding her dad at home. Dear dad. Well, here we are at camp remote. Marcie, sitting next to her, says, I think they pronounce it remote, sir. Now they're walking, and Marcie says to her, which reminds me, I have a problem of my own. Now they're in the mess hall eating lunch. I swear, sir, that I can hardly stand it. I may just push him in the lake or something. Now they're walking outside the mess hall. After all, I came to camp to have a good time, didn't I? Why should I put up with him? And now they're out by the dock, and Marcie, spies who she was talking about. Look, there he is. I'll show you. Hey, kid, says Marcie. And the kid is just standing at the end of the dock, and he says, what? Marcie? That did it. And he yells, aug. And she pushes him into the lake. And then Marcie says to Peppermint Patty, see, he keeps talking to me.
Michael: This is the rare case where the best punchline’s in the first panel.
Harold: I love the little drawing of this poor kid just hanging onto the end of the dock in the last, animal soaking wet.
Jimmy: Oh, my gosh. You know, I didn't even notice him there. I did not notice the little kid crawling out of the water.
Harold: Oh, yeah. What is going on with Marcie? Here she is, just reading. Reading his signals.
Michael: Well, this is part of a sequence, right? We. He was in the previous couple of strips, right?
Harold: No, earlier years. There was, there was or there was a kid like him. Oh, is it a different kid in the previous, summer camp?
Michael: Kind of distinctive hairstyle?
Harold: Mm Makes me think of Roy, a blonde Roy.
Michael: Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: Definitely has as Roy vibes. That's where all those characters, Charlie Brown.
Michael: With, with a rooster thing on his head.
July 9. the kids are at camp now, and this is a survival camp. And we see Sally in panel one. She is covered head to toe in her camouflage outfit, and she says, what kind of clothes are these? I feel ridiculous. And Lina says, these are camouflage suits. If you wear a camouflage suit, no one can see you. Then the last panel, Sally's looking at herself in a little hand mirror, and she says, I spent all my life trying to be seen, and now they want me not to be seen.
Michael: This is a good sequence. It's mostly Linus and Sally who haven't been interacting much lately.
Jimmy: I forgot how big the survival stuff was in the eighties, like post Rambo.
Harold: Oh, man.
Jimmy: Got every, lots of kids in my area where I grew up, we had wore a, camouflage. I never had anything, but they were all.
Michael: But they actually went out shooting squirrels and stuff.
Jimmy: Yeah, but also just walked around wearing it, too.
Harold: This does suggest that, something about the parents of this neighborhood, they seem to get together and decide somebody is a ringleader, I think, and is getting the other parents to sign all of the kids up to go to this camp. They probably get a discount on the bus. Either that or neighborhood watch is sponsoring them going into this survival camp. I don't know.
Jimmy: It's funny, we, One of the big highlights of, like, summer was there was a place called the hometown auction, and it was like a flea market. And that was the closest place I could go to get comic books, like alternative comic books from the comic book stores. And you could also get a survival knife there because they'd all kind of like, you get like throwing stars and nunchucks and I got one.
Harold: Oh, and throwing stars are creepy.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. Well, the survival night originally sold for $65, according to the box, but it was yours for a low, low price of 5.95.
Harold: Wow. Well, that's a discount.
Jimmy: You cannot cut anything if your life depended on it. But it had a compass in the pommel.
Harold: Nice.
Jimmy: You could take the pommel off, and it had, a needle and thread, you know, in case you needed to stitch up a wound. It had a tiny little wire for cutting down trees.
Harold: but it didn't actually work. Did the compass like have north east, west and George or something?
Jimmy: Yeah. The compass was vague at best. It just gave general suggestions. But it was cool because you could keep it on your belt and feel like Frodo for a while.
Harold: General suggestions? It's like, try again.
Jimmy: Yeah, right.
Harold: It was.
Jimmy: Yes. It was a magic eight file, actually.
Harold: Wow, that's crazy.
Jimmy: And a little sharpening stone. That did not sharpen anything.
Harold: I remember in the early nineties going into Times Square, with somebody on a work outing and we went into one of those. This was a very different Times Square than anybody who's been there today. And they had this shop that had like swords that were probably, you know, 4ft long and they had throwing stars for sale there. And, the lady I was with was asking to bring all these things down. And there's this guy's like, oh, yeah, can I wield that sword? And the guys bring it down. He's like just running this sword around in the air and it's like, I don't think I want to be in here any longer.
Liz: Michael had a bunch of swords.
Michael: we had our magic blades.
Liz: And didn't you have a bazooka at one point from your dad's store?
Michael: No, I had a tank periscope.
Harold: Wow.
Jimmy: A tank periscope. Oh, that's cool.
Harold: Wow.
Jimmy: Ah.
Harold: How big was that?
Michael: It was a box around the size of a cereal box. And there's a little okay thing. You're looking in the bottom and you can see out the top. I mean, it's a little lens so you look in the bottom but you hold the top up over the edge. Anyway, that was fun. I don't know what happened to them. Yeah, threw it away.
July 13, it's a Sunday page and Charlie Brown is sitting out on a log at night, it looks like. And, I'm looking at in black and white. And then on tier two, it starts up with Peppermint. Patty and Marcie sitting on the dock at camp looking out across the water. And Marcie says, there's a boys camp across the lake. Sir, do you think Charles is there? And then Marcie yells out, Charles, are you over there, Pepper? And Patty is upset and she says, Marcie, that's embarrassing. But Marcie doesn't mind. She keeps yelling, if you're there, give us a call. Then Pepper. And Patty says, they probably wouldn't let him use the phone. Marcie. And then Marcie yells, send us a postcard. And Peppermint Patty says a postcard would take a week to get here. Then Marcie yells, then send us a message by personal courier. Peppermint Patty says, personal courier. And then the last panel we see Charlie Brown has apparently done just that with Snoopy arriving with a message wearing a little hat.
Harold: Little messenger hat.
Jimmy: I like the, drawing of the camp. I especially like that next to last panel.
Harold: Oh, it's beautiful. That is one of the most detailed panels I remember him ever drawing. It's got a lot of detail. You got the ripples of the water around the, edges of the dock. You have this really nicely done boat. I was wondering, he has that tremor, as we've been talking about. But at least in the version I'm looking at with that that boat that has these parallel, curved lines that's like one of those wooden rowboats. It looked incredibly clean. I'm wondering if he used, what do they call those flexible curve.
Jimmy: Oh, french curve.
Harold: A french curve to kind of help him on that one. Because that's not easy thing to draw with a tremor. And it seemed like he wanted to make it look really, really nice.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. It's hard to ink with a french curve if he was doing that. Especially with no prize, no, practice. I mean, I can't even imagine.
Harold: Oh, no, they're hard. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. Especially if it did. We've using a dip pen. Because if you have any kind of. If you. If you hold it wrong and there's a little bit of space in between.
Harold: The French run under the french curve. Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: Just.
Harold: You have a Charlie Brown smudge. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. Who? And Charlie Brown still sticking with whatever pen he's using here in 1986. He is still smudging like it's amazing.
July 20. Snoopy is sneaking, out. He's peeking out from behind a little end table. And then in the next panel, he's scurrying along on the floor, on his belly. And then, the Sunday strip really starts up on the next tier with him about to bite it out of Linus's hand. And he says, watch it, beagle. If you touch this blanket, I'll destroy you. Linus continues, I'll destroy you and all your cousins and the place where you were born and all the records at the courthouse. Small craft warnings will be posted along both coasts. I will pounce on you like the last days of Pompeii. So back off. And then Snoopy, who has been frozen there with his mouth open this whole time, backs off for one panel. And the next panel he backs right out of the house, across the yard, past Lucy, and right back up to his doghouse, where, lying on top, he thinks to himself, when I back off, I back off.
Michael: That is good cartooning, isn't it? To, have a dog lying on his stomach, pushing with his back legs backwards. But it reads really easy.
Jimmy: It does. And that seems like an impossible thing to draw. . Yeah, it really does. And it's just funny that he goes all the way back out to his doghouse. I really like that.
Harold: Yeah, that's great. I went back and looked in the the online version that I was looking at that Michael compiled for us to the Fantagraphics book. And those lines on the boat, that little rowboat, are hand drawn, and they do have a tremor to them. It's amazing how it disappears in the reproduction when, it's online. And probably also was disappearing somewhat in the newspaper because back then, they were using those old web plates that were kind of muddied things a little bit. But again, just shows what this guy knows about reproduction.
Michael: This is also a scenario we haven't seen in, like, 20 years, where Snoopy was obsessed with grabbing the blanket.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Which kind of disappeared because Linus supposedly stopped sucking his thumb and holding the blanket.
Harold: Maybe he doesn't do it in public anymore.
Jimmy: Yeah, I think it's just that he doesn't do it in public. He never publicly, he never renounces it. But, yeah, he does it. He does draw it a lot less. I know that Schulz even mentions that in the, Gary Groth interview, which comes out in 97, I think. So about a decade ahead of this. But he was even then thinking he was. Never have Linus renounced the blanket outright.
Harold: I.
Jimmy: You, can, definitely see the tremor, though, in this. You know, obviously those fence posts on that last tier, that'll get you.
Harold: Yeah.
July 21. Peppermint Patty's on the phone, and, she's calling someone and she says, yeah, my dad and our teacher think maybe I need a tutor. Well, you know, to help me get a better start in school this year, she continues. But then in the third panel, whoops, someone's at the door. It's probably my tutor, pepper. And Patty opens the door, and it is, in fact, her tutor. And the kid just says, hi, are you the dumb one?
Michael: This is a new character.
Jimmy: I don't know if he really made me laugh. Just, hi, are you the dumb one?
Harold: So this is Maynard, and he's, a character design. Schulz has been doing a lot of things with eyes. This past year in particular, he's some really unusual eye choices. He started to kind of with spike, and now we're seeing character expressions, even for the regular characters, that sometimes are a little off putting. To me, they're just a little, I don't know, sometimes he'll use really, really, rough lines because usually his eyes traditionally were very crisp. It's like he made sure that he had a very crisp looking pupil for an eye or whatever. Now he's got some really odd looking eyes that he's drawing, including ones that look very shaky. When some character is frustrated or depressed or whatever, they're really, they're sad or something about something. He's trying to convey that emotion through a roughness of line. Now here you've got this kind of half opened eye. If you imagine a garfield eye where you erased the top hemisphere. Yeah.
Jimmy: It's a Doonesbury look. Really flat top.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: and the curve underneath.
Harold: And this is something I remember from, getting around this time in comic strips, there was a lot, there were a lot of characters who had the kind of the half opened eye like Garfield and Doonesbury, where the characters look like they're just kind of bored with life. And I didn't like it. I remember I did not like it and wasn't really particularly happy to see it in here as well.
Jimmy: Oh, really? I love that look. I think it's a good look. I don't think it's bored with, like, this kid seems that life so much as it's a certain cynicism, which you also might not like.
Michael: But I feel it's the snob. I mean, it really. He's looking down at her.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: No, he's looking up.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: but you don't see the eyebrow. So that's. I find that a little curious.
Harold: Well, there is. Do you think it's an eyebrow? It's. He's got some really weird nesty hair, which we're going to see later in, in another character, Rerun. but the, it almost looks like he has two eyebrows to me.
Michael: Yeah, I thought that was just stray hairs.
Jimmy: Yeah, I thought that was stray hair. But it could be, you know, that's always also tough too, because it could be that the eyebrow is meant by like, the lid of the eyebrow and one, become one in the cartoon, you know, as if the brow is furrowed to give that.
Michael: But his personality reads clearly.
Jimmy: Yes, exactly. And I think it would clear, it would clog it up if you drew another line on top of that. I think it does read clearly.
Harold: Yeah, it looks like Schulz is. He's giving him, like, a double brow, because I'm looking at future strips, and he always has those two lines. And if he's. If he's a little upset, they drop down. So it's an interesting choice. I've never seen anybody do that to represent an eyebrow before.
Jimmy: So you think the second one is, like, on the other side of his head, like, his other eye.
Harold: It's almost suggesting, like, a furrow, but there's not a line, a curved line, to connect the two around the top of his head to make it look like a furrow. But it gives extra, this extra expression, and I guess it kind of adds to that kind of haughty feel.
July 30. So this is the end of that sequence, and Peppermint Patty is calling Charlie Brown to tell him how it went. And she says, so I don't have a tutor anymore, Chuck. Do you think I'm dumb, Chuck? Charlie Brown says, no, not at all. Actually, I think you're very smart. This thrills Peppermint Patty, who says, that's nice, chuck. That's really nice. That's sweet and really nice. And then last panel deflated. Peppermint Patty says, sometimes I wish I couldn't strike you out on three straight pitches.
Harold: That's great.
Jimmy: that's a callback. She has often said, well, not often, but several times said, you know, she can strike Charlie Brown out on three straight pitches.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: He could have been the perfect boyfriend. Except for that.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. And he's right. You know, she is. She is smart. She's got, I mean, that whole thing on the dock with Marcie where Marcie's doing all these impractical suggestions for Charlie Brown to get in touch with her. And Peppermint patty, she's on it. Oh, you can't send a mail, a postcard. It's gonna take too long.
Michael: Except she went to dog training school and didn't realize it.
Harold: Well, there's that.
Jimmy: What do you think of all the black? It looks like Milt Caniff black he's using in this, not filling it all in, you know what I mean? I guess that looks like a leather chair Charlie Brown's on almost or something.
Harold: I'd say the Charlie Brown chair is the one that works the least well for me.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: A little too random in the shading.
Jimmy: Yeah.
September 4. Okay, now, here we are. Here is the big moment. New character alert. It's Tapioca Pudding. So she's standing in front of class, and she says, good morning. I'm new here in this school. I shall now introduce myself. And she does in panel two, my name is Tapioca Pudding. With my name, my blonde hair, and my smile, my dad says we can make a million dollars. And then in the last panel, she says directly to Linus, apparently, who's sitting in his desk. My dad is in licensing.
Michael: This almost reads to me. When I saw this, I went like, no, this can't be true. This is almost like a Mad Magazine parody of Peanuts.
Harold: Right? Yeah. That Schulz is doing it himself is pretty neat. I really enjoy, it's a repetitive sequence, but it didn't get old for me.
Michael: But also, I mean, just, this was Frieda's schtick.
Harold: Mm
Michael: When the in Frieda was introduced, all she had was talking about her curly hair and everyone she met. She talked about her naturally curly hair, and this caused naturally curly hair. And is talking about her hair.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. And that gigantic smile. And it's funny, we know that Schulz was getting a little bit of heat for the licensing. It may be in smaller circles, but he was probably getting back to him that certain cartoonists were like, he's, you know, he's selling out or whatever. And it's interesting to show that Schulz is like, I'm not interested in the licensing. The licensing is the least interesting thing to me. And anybody who's into licensing is a little messed up.
Jimmy: Yeah, he seems extremely pointed. I mean, you know, it feels like he was definitely having a bad day about licensing for a couple bad days.
Harold: Right. And we talked about this before that the version of Peanuts that you experience in licensing, if you never read the strip, is much different than the feeling of the strip that you get if you just read the strip. and her gigantic smile and, you know, when she presents herself to the world, my name is Tapioca Pudding, she's got her arms outstretched. She looks like a little plush toy, you know, a little doll. And I think it's, I think it, I think it's funny and fascinating. And I think this was actually probably a smart move for Schulz to do that. If this is how he was feeling about it. He didn't really say anything. He's making fun of it at the same time. He's not. I wouldn't be happy, obviously not going to stop doing the licensing.
Michael: I wouldn't be happy if she was a regular character.
Jimmy: No. I don't even feel like he intended her to be an ongoing thing. It feels like, this feels like Joe rich kid, like, hey, I'm coming in here to do my bit.
Harold: Well, he's done that so much with recent characters. They are. So, one note. You got Maynard the tutor. you're not seeing sides of characters the way we've gotten to know Linus and Lucy and Snoopy and Charlie Brown and Peppermint.
Michael: It's like a one week affair here.
Harold: Yeah. It seems like as he was developing new characters less and less, maybe because it wasn't necessary, because he had these nuanced characters that whenever he introduced somebody else, it had to represent something they didn't have. And so is one thing, you know, and happy oka pudding obviously could have developed a real personality and had a few more things going forward. But that's not what Schulz is doing.
Michael: She does have the unique ability to levitate, though.
Harold: Yeah, right.
Michael: I mean, and the second one, too. The Linus is sitting. You don't see the bottom of the desk, but you see her feet at the same level as the middle of the desk.
Jimmy: Yeah, that doesn't bother me. Cause it's just faked perspective. But the third, the last one, she's definitely floating at his mid, of his desk. Or at least it looks to me more that way. But what are you gonna do?
September 6. There's more Tapioca Pudding. She comes up to Snoopy and says, hi, my name is Tapioca Pudding. Someday, wouldn't you like to own a lunchbox or t shirt with my picture on it? Snoopy just walks away looking a little dismayed, and tapioca yells after him. Licensing is very big these days.
Michael: So each of us picked different. Well, I picked one, and Harold picked the other. She. I don't think she's worth two, but she's got.
Jimmy: Well, there's three, because here's
September 12. Charlie Brown's watching tv. He's in the beanbag chair, and Sally says to him, I can't believe it. I just saw Linus walking along with that great jelly person. Charlie Brown says, her name is Tapioca Pudding. Sally yells, Tapioca Pudding. Blueberry muffin. What's she doing with my boyfriend? Charlie Brown, not really reacting to any of this, says from his beanbag chair, I didn't know you were the jealous type. And then an irate Sally, red faced with rage, says, I keep it all inside.
Michael: Yeah, this is. This is a real anger.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Ah, I've never seen anyone so angry.
Harold: Oh, she is seething. Yeah. No. Tapioca Pudding. Blueberry muffin. Yeah. Was this the era of strawberry shortcake? The little doll? Strawberry Shortcake.
Jimmy: Yes. It was. Oh, yes, it was. Right. Let's see. When that show and stuff was on, it started.
Harold: I think it started as, like, did it start as a doll or something? And then, and it genuinely was a licensing thing where I, maybe. Let me check on this, make sure I'm right about this. But I got the feeling like every once in a while somebody comes up with a doll and then they try to build the world around it. But it's from a toy company instead of a creator of a character.
Jimmy: no. Originally comes from greeting cards.
Harold: Interesting. So I'm guessing there was maybe, but was a singular person who had an Idea and then some greeting card company maybe took them on.
Jimmy: Strawberry Shortcake is a cartoon character used in greeting card. This is from Wikipedia. Strawberry Shortcake is a cartoon character used in greeting cards. Originally published by American Greetings, the line was later expanded to include dolls, posters, and etcetera. Muriel Farion is the illustrator who did the concept art in the late seventies.
Harold: Okay, so somebody genuinely did create this as their own thing to represent something. Probably not. It wasn't coming from a corporate, hey, we need a food based. We need a food based toy.
Jimmy: No, it was, the american greetings requested them to make this.
Harold: Well, it's interesting. It says it was originally created by Barbie Sargent, who was working as a freelance artist for american greetings. So she was maybe pitching ideas to them. I don't know. And the fascinating thing on Wikipedia is that the creator is not highlighted in blue. So there's no link to Barbie Sargent. There's no story about Barbie Sargent. It's all about the corporate strawberry shortcake. Interesting. Oh, and the creator did not do the finished art. That's also interesting. So, yeah, maybe it was sold as a. Hey, here's a property.
Jimmy: Yeah. Rex Connor's American Greetings staff art director knew the card was popular, determined this was due to the strawberry motif, so he requested to create four cards with a strawberry outfit. Yeah, it's just something that grew out of the, you know, day to day stuff of american greetings, I guess. Moving on. So that's, Tapioca pudding is something else.
September 23, Linus and Sally are hanging out at the thinking wall, and Linus says, did you know I have an uncle who's in a stage play? He says, an actor's biggest fear is being in a turkey that folds. Or the third panel. They think about it, and then Sally says to Linus, how do you fold a turkey?
Michael: English is such a great language. Mostly it doesn't make any sense.
Jimmy: And I was thinking. Cause you said that when we were talking about she's a real sharp mother.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: And I was thinking there's a bunch of other versions of sharp that we didn't even mention that, it could have meant in that episode. It really is a crazy language.
Harold: Yeah. This one made me laugh out loud just looking at Sally asking, how do you fold a turkey? It's great.
Michael: We're seeing a lot of Linus and Sally this year.
Harold: Yeah, it's nice.
Jimmy: It is nice. Well, how about we take a break here right now and then, come back in a few and, finish up 1986, get our vip's and, strips of the year, etcetera. Sound good?
Harold: Sounds sure.
Jimmy: All right, we'll be right back.
BREAK
VO: Hi, everyone. Have you seen the latest anger and happiness index? Have you admired the photo of Jimmy as Luke Skywalker? Or read the details of how Michael co created the first comic book Price guide? Just about every little known subject we mention is referenced on the Unpacking Peanuts website. Peanuts obscurities are explained further and other stories are expanded more than you ever wanted to know, from Albert Payson Terhune to Zipatone, Annette Funicello to Zorba the Greek. Check it all out@unpackingpeanuts.com. slash obscurities.
Jimmy: All. Ah, right. And we are back. So, Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox. Do we got anything?
Liz: We do. We heard from a couple of our regular listeners. Paulie Baer writes and says, please tell Jimmy that I'd love to hear his take on or have a conversation about the BD in a rock arc from Doonesbury someday.
Jimmy: Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, we should do that. I love it. It's real good.
Michael: Is that an arc or is that, just like an ongoing sequence for years?
Jimmy: Yeah, but I'm talking specifically about the part where, bD gets wounded. And it does go on. but you can write, you can follow it as a story. It's real good.
Michael: Okay. I only know the Vietnam stuff. I don't think I knew the Iraq stuff.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, I read it religiously. Then it was a part of the website slate, and it come up every day, and I thought it was really, really good.
Harold: So. Yeah.
Jimmy: Well, Great. Well, thanks. Maybe we can, find a way to sneak that in at some point.
Liz: And he adds, thanks again to all of you. I'm still very much at the beginning of the process of learning about how cartooning works. And every episode.
Jimmy: Me too, buddy.
Harold: Me too.
Liz: And every episode you do brings me a little bit further along, making me want to learn a whole lot more. Be of good cheer.
Jimmy: Be of good cheer, Paul.
Harold: Cheer.
Liz: And then Puey McCleary, who told us his Idea for the Peanuts Gallic wars strip. And you told him to go off and, make the cartoon. He says, you mean I have to be the one to draw Snoopy's memories of fighting in the gallic wars just because it was my dumb Idea?
Jimmy: Yes, that's how it works.
Liz: So he writes it, he sends us a script, and I will talk about it. I will try to do it justice. It's a Sunday, so it has the throwaway panels. And he goes, okay, anyway, the name of the comic would be not peanuts, as Di penates were the little household gods in those times. And here's how a Sunday strip could go. Panel one, title penates. Panel two, Snoopy says, hail Caesar, fellow legionnaires. He continues. Here's Snoopy the centurion, posing beside the newly built roman fortress. Panel three, he says, by Hercules. We sure build a lot of fortresses and bridges in the army. Then he says, now I'm part of the dawn patrol. We're out to hunt down Lord Verkinjetorix and his druids. Next panel, I cross over the enemy lines. I see a network of wicker men and obelisks. Suddenly, blue painted gulls appear. They're everywhere. I lift up my gladius and shield the next panel. You see Linus stabbing with a toy sword. Stab, stab, stab. Then Snoopy falls off his doghouse and says, it'd be safer if I just became a gladiator.
Jimmy: Aw. nice. Wow.
Harold: Good job, Snoopius.
Michael: Yeah, go for it. Deal, with the lawyers later.
Jimmy: Exactly. Is that it that we got?
Liz: Yep, yep, that's it.
Michael: Well, you can get away with fanfic if you don't draw it, I think.
Jimmy: Ah.
Michael: Oh, you can.
Jimmy: They don't even. They barely police anything, these. I'm not. They. I don't. You know, I'm not saying Peanuts. I don't.
Harold: Jimmy Gownley is not a lawyer. Is not offering legal advice.
Jimmy: I am not a legal professional. But you obviously see, I mean, tons of bootleg stuff online. Everything on a convention, all those fan art is just. I think at some point they realized it's unpoleasable. So we're just going to assume it's, marketing.
Michael: As long as you don't make money, you're probably okay.
Harold: Can you imagine a prison full of fanfic artists?
Jimmy: It would be amazing. I remember going to Baltimore once. And seeing someone had, like a. It was like four booths, you know, put together, like, a quadrant of tables. I mean, I don't know how much that must have cost, but it was like, you know, photographs from movie stills that were just, like, highly contrasted out in Photoshop and then put, like, slapped color behind it. And that was, like, their fan art booth, but it was just, like, photos of Harrison Ford, photos of, you know, Elijah Wood or whatever. It's really strange. And nobody stops that. And. But why someone would do that is weird, right?
Harold: Well, I guess they thought it would sell.
Jimmy: They thought it would sell. Yeah, I bet it did not.
All right, if you wanted to give us a call, you could always call us. And that number is 717-219-4162 and I love hearing your voice. You could call, you could leave a message, but when I don't hear, I worry. So. So give us a ringy dinghy there. And of course, you can also write us, you can email us through our website. We're unpackingpanutsmail.com. and, you can also just keep the conversation going on social media. We're unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads.
Liz: Yep.
Jimmy: And we are unpacking peanuts on Facebook, blue sky, and YouTube.
Liz: Bravo.
Jimmy: Nailed it. All right, let's get back to the strips. And I didn't say this at the beginning, but if you want to follow along with us, you go over to gocomics.com, comma, type in Peanuts 19, 86. And, that'll take you to these strips. And then you type in the date, I say, and you could read along with us. And it's all for free, which is amazing.
Liz: And it's just a couple of weeks before the debut of Tanner Rocks, right?
Jimmy: Oh, it's just.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: So just in eight days, my new comic book, Tanner Rocks, well, it's part of Gville, comics substack. You will be able to get a new monthly comic book from me for free, delivered directly to your inbox every month. It's starting with Tanner Rocks, and then it's moving on to doing my, serializing my next graphic novel, which is in the real dark night, a book about combating depression with creativity. And hopefully it's funny and you can get them for free. Gvillecomics dot substack.com g v I l l e thanks for the reminder.
Liz: Looking forward.
Jimmy: All right, let's get back to the strips.
October 12. Symbolic, panel there. Semi disturbing one of Charlie Brown and Sally as ice cream cones and then, in panel two, it picks up. They're ordering ice cream. And they say, dad says when he was little, ice cream cones were only a dime. And then the strip really starts in the next tier, as Charlie Brown says, I see they have butter pecan. And Sally says, what if I order it and don't like it? And Charlie Brown says, you could try pistachio almond. And Sally says, what if I ordered it and don't like it? And Charlie Brown says, how about mint chocolate chip? Sally says, what if I order it and don't like it? Then Sally says, I think I'd better just have vanilla. Then they walk out enjoying their little ice cream cones. And then Charlie Brown turns to his sister and says, what's the matter? And Sally says, I don't like it.
Michael: Vanilla is way weird.
Jimmy: What?
Michael: No, vanilla just. That's an extreme flavor. When did weird ice cream flavors come? Come about what year?
Jimmy: 1984.
Michael: I don't know.
Liz: What do you think is a weird ice cream flavor?
Michael: Well, Baskin & Robbins, I mean. I mean, I don't remember pistachio almond even existing. Or, butter pecan.
Liz: Butter pecan.
Harold: Butter pecan was around for quite a while.
Liz: Butter almond is better.
Jimmy: Pistachio was huge. Everything was pistachio for years. And then I, can.
Harold: They would always color it red for no good reason. I don't know.
Jimmy: Really?
Harold: Well, no, you don't. You didn't grow up in the era. Those red pistachios, they would in the.
Liz: Shells, but not the ice cream.
Jimmy: Yeah. The ice cream was green. Well, I know what you're talking about. There would be these quarter. There were machines, and you'd put a quarter in, and out would come a handful of red dyed, red pistachio nuts dyed with red dyed number five. And you could not just separate them from the shells without it being all over your hands. Right? Is that what you mean?
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. Oh, there you go. Now, there's all kinds of great flavors. Michael, you gotta get out there and give Moose Tracks a try.
Michael: We had neapolitan, which is like three flavors.
Jimmy: Yeah. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry.
Michael: Yeah, that was it.
Harold: I think she should have gotten tapioca flavor.
October 16. Marcie is out. and she has been playing football with, with Peppermint Patty. And in this instance, she has actually tied a little bow around the football just to make it a little prettier. And she says to Peppermint Patty, I'll hold the ball, sir, and you kick it. Peppermint Patty in panel two says Marcie, I'm not going to kick a ball that has a cute ribbon tied around it. And then in the next panel, Marcie says, I'll bet the icebox would. And Peppermint Patty says, refrigerator, to which Marcie says, whatever.
Harold: So that could be an obscurity.
Jimmy: I assume this is an obscurity.
Michael: for me, it sure is.
Jimmy: Peanut Obscurities Explained.
Harold: Well, refrigerator Perry, right?
Jimmy: That's correct. And this was the year that the. The Chicago. He played for the Chicago Bears, and he was like a media star, and he was just huge.
Harold: Just a huge, huge guy. Literally.
Jimmy: Yes, yes. And even scored in the super bowl, which always annoyed me, because they had Walter Payton, who was. Who, like, carried the team, didn't score, but it was, it was a big novelty to let fridge get a touchdown in the Super bowl.
Michael: And whatever is always funny.
Jimmy: Whatever.
Harold: Whatever.
Michael: It's just a great thing. What a great thing.
Jimmy: Oh, whatever.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yes, I do think it's funny.
Liz: And are those quotation marks necessary?
Jimmy: Well, you know, in this instance, I don't know, but I like it. It's good to have quotation marks whenever you can, even if it's a gray area.
Harold: Yeah, it's a good hint if you don't know what on earth he's referring to.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
October 26, creeping up on Halloween, and we see a Pumpkin is one of those symbolic panels, because it's a Sunday, and the Pumpkin is apparently singing my way by Frank Sinatra, and I did it my way, it says. And then the next panel, we see Peppermint Patty and Linus are out in the Pumpkin patch, and Linus says, this is it. Linus continues. On Halloween, the great Pumpkin rises from the Pumpkin patch and flies through the air with toys for all the children in the world. And pepper and Patty says, I believe you. And then she continues, and you know what happens on secretary's day? The great secretary rises from her desk and rides through the city in a taxi cab with notepads for all the secretaries everywhere. And on, grandparents day, the great grandmother rises out of her condominium with cookies for all the grandchildren in the world. Then Peppermint Patty loses it, ha ha ha. Which causes Linus to reach over, pick up a Pumpkin, and plop it, smack it down on Peppermint Patty's head, leaving her there with a pumpkin head as she says, wait, let me tell you about mother in law's day. Where'd he go?
Harold: I like that great grandmother.
Michael: That's pretty good sarcasm.
Jimmy: Yeah, real good. But I like that she's out there, too, still having something to do. Oh, and
October 31. It's time to check in with good old Spike. Spike's out in the desert, and he's writing his brother a letter. Dear Snoopy, just a few lines to let you know what our cactus club has been doing. Last night, we had a new kind of marshmallow roast. In the last panel, we see Spike sitting there with a wicked grin on his face, looking at a marshmallow, and he, writes to Snoopy. We all sat around and insulted a marshmallow.
Harold: Here's the english language for you again. Yeah, I picked this one, too, and when I saw you had already selected it, so it. Yeah, and it's funny. Roasts are still around, but they're not nearly as part, of the culture as they used to be. I guess because people are so sensitive these days, it's hard to get away with a roast and do it in a way that everyone's okay with.
Jimmy: Yeah, I know. There was a Tom Brady one recently that I think went askew. I don't. Yeah, I don't know anything about. I'm not 100% sure what exactly happened to. But, yeah, I never got the appeal of them.
Harold: Oh, man. Yeah. Because then, was it Sunday nights? They would have, they would have Dean Martin celebrity roasts, and you would have a panel of these, these famous comedians all sitting at a table facing you, and then someone would come up to the dais or whatever, and then they would take turns insulting this guy while he's supposed to laugh uproariously whatever terrible thing you're saying about him. I got to write on a mystery science theater sketch that was doing a roast.
Jimmy: Well, if you want to. Want to watch a really, really funny roast, watch Norm MacDonald. I believe it's the Bob Saget roast. And, he just does, like, corny jokes that you would read out, of. Have you seen that? And then for the rest of the roast.
Harold: Oh, my God.
Jimmy: Reads the newspaper. Really funny.
Harold: That was wonderful.
Liz: There's a wonderful show on now called Hacks. Have you seen Hacks? Where Jean Smart plays an old fashioned comic who gets sort of renewed by a young comedy writer, and they did a great roast episode. So watch Hacks.
Harold: Oh, neat Hacks. Jean's smart. Great.
Liz: Yeah, she's great.
November 1. Charlie Brown is making some food for Snoopy, and, that's what he does for three panels. He makes it, then he carries it outside then he presents it to Snoopy and then in the fourth panel, Snoopy looks at him and says, hum baby.
Michael: Totally.
Harold: Okay, how about that for an obscurity over my head?
Michael: I could not figure this out in a, thousand years.
Harold: Yeah, I had to look this one up. Did you know this, Jimmy? Did you know what on earth this was referred to?
Jimmy: I've heard people say hum baby. But I don't know, I don't know what that it was from something.
Harold: So apparently the San Francisco Giants manager Roger Craig was famous for saying hum baby, Roger. And it was an old baseball term where you were essentially encouraging, usually a pitcher to just do a particularly amazing or good pitch. But apparently Roger Craig was a really genial guy and it got a, became incredibly catching when.
Michael: who would go around quoting old baseball players say hey, all right.
Harold: Hum, baby.
Jimmy: Now I remember. You would if you'd stand, I don't know if this is what it is, but I remember when you'd play baseball, if you were standing behind the pitcher, you'd go like, you know, hum baby. Hum baby. Like that kind of thing. Like, you know, come on, he's no better. He's no batter. baby, that, is that what he's talking about?
Michael: Is that what they're saying?
Harold: You know, I think there are, there were different versions of it. Some, someone said, you know, it has to do with your. Yeah, you're encouraging to put a little more mustard on the fastball, that sort of thing. Yeah.
Michael: Weird.
Jimmy: Interesting.
Michael: I guess it was popular.
Harold: Yeah. But it's interesting that that was probably a regional one. Every once in a while we find Schulz doing these California regional jokes and I'm assuming he knows it's not national, right? but he doesn't care, right?
Jimmy: Right. Yeah. You could afford to throw one or two away out of 365 in a year.
Liz: Maybe he met him at a party or something like that and wanted to do a shout out.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: And it's kind of cute to see Snoopy looking at his bowl full of dog food going hum baby.
November 26, Linus turns the tv on and then he sits there in his beanbag chair and he watches the news and says, boy, have we got bad news for you tonight. I Linus says to the tv, how bad is it? And the tv says back to him, we're not even going to give you the details at eleven. Which sends Linus, ducking in his beanbag chair.
Michael: Yeah. He does that little flip even though he's lying down.
Harold: Yeah. The rare feet up in the air classic cartooning pose. I love that.
Jimmy: Very cute.
Michael: I did notice, I looked at, there were some later strips I saw, and he changes the Zipatone pattern later. This one is much darker than the one he uses later.
Harold: I bet he saw how muddy it was printing in the newspaper, and he toned it back, pardon the pun.
Michael: This is kind of the cerebus zip, isn't it?
Jimmy: Well, the thing I was gonna say, I don't. You can't tell by looking at it on go comics because it's a scan of a scan. But you have to really be careful with this because the closer the dots are together, the darker the Zipatone looks. However, when it prints, you get dot bleed. Where? It's just that, you know, you might be indicating the dot is only this big in radius, but as soon as the ink hits the paper, it expands a microscopic amount. But that adds up.
Harold: Yeah. And gocomics.com, if you see the copyright symbol there on the left, you can see how incredibly muddy that got.
Jimmy: Yeah.
December 8. Linus looks, like he's watching the tv, but he's actually watching the dryer. And he says to himself, watching your blanket tumbling around in the dryer is scary. What if it never comes out? What if it's destroyed? I shouldn't be watching. And then the last panel, he says it's not suitable viewing for children.
Jimmy: That was a big Amelia line.
Michael: I thought this was the Rerun at first. He looks a little younger here.
Harold: Yeah, he does.
Liz: What about Amelia?
Jimmy: I used to say, you know, childhood isn't suitable for children. I think there's a line specifically in Amelia where she says that, but I know I used to say it in, interviews because it was a good line that always got pulled out.
Liz: I don't think I ever washed my blanket. I think that that would have messed up its texture.
Jimmy: Yeah. Its vibe.
Harold: Is it kind of like those iron skillets where you're supposed to season the skillet of. Yeah. Yeah.
December 28. It's a Sunday. We picked a lot of Sundays this week. And we have a symbolic panel of the various beagle scouts and Sally and Snoopy on a Christmas tree as ornaments. And then when it really starts up, we look at Sally, who was looking at a Christmas tree with a quizzical expression on her face, and she goes in to see her brother Charlie Brown, and says, where are all the candy canes? And Charlie Brown says, the what? And Sally says, the candy canes that were on the tree, they're gone. And Charlie Brown says, have you looked outside. Sally says outside. And she does, in fact, look outside. And then we see Snoopy. And three of the beagle scouts are using them as putting on the Ritz canes and doing a little top hat dance.
Michael: Cute. Very cute.
Jimmy: It is very cute.
Harold: Cute. Yeah. Well, we know where they got the canes. We don't know where they got the bowtie and the top hats.
Jimmy: Well, everybody has those laying around. They're just ready to go.
Harold: I, love the way that Schulz draws the Christmas tree in the third panel where it's, you just see the, the outline of the branches. And then he's floating all of these ornaments on the tree, but he only shows the branches coming out in profile, and it's just in black and white. It's a really cool look.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. I love the little ornaments that he's drawn to the little rocking horse and little house. And it looks like, almost looks like a dreidel.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Very cute drawing. That's great. It's a good year. So that brings us to the end of 1986. We'll be back next week where we're talking about 1987, which, is going to be just as much fun as this year. Only one year closer to the present, if you want to keep that conversation going, because remember, I worry when I don't hear. You can email us. You can email at unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. you could follow us on, our social media, on blue sky, Facebook and YouTube, we're unpackingpeanuts. And on Threads and Instagram, we're unpackpeenuts. And of course, we'd love to hear from you. You can also go on to our website, sign up for the Great Peanuts Reread. That will give you one email a month from us where we let you know ahead of time what we're going to be covering. So that's it. All I need from the guys is your strip of the year and your most valuable peanut. Harold, why don't you go first?
Harold: Oh, boy. Why don't I not go first?
Jimmy: Michael, why don't you go first?
Michael: Okay, I'm ready. Ready for action.
Jimmy: All right, go for it.
Michael: going back to the beginning of this episode, strip of the year, I really think that July 20 is just brilliant cartooning. Snoopy backing off from Linus's threat and bends on the way out of the house, across the yard, up the doghouse. And, very funny. Lucy watches him scooting backwards.
Jimmy: That is such a great strip. So funny. And who are you going to go for? Your mvp
Michael:l I gotta go with Linus.
Michael: Linus was probably my favorite character through the fifties and sixties. hadn't been doing much since then. And he's coming back pretty strong this year. I mean, he's back with the blanket. Yeah. So I think, to welcome him back, I'm giving him the MVP.
Jimmy: Nice. Harold, how about you?
Harold: Well, I'm in an odd mood this year, so, I think I'm going to give it to Charlie Brown, who I'm kind of enjoying his elder statesman kind of feel he's got this year. And, when he's thinking about on April 11, he's thinking about those car chases and how nobody helps pick up the oranges.
Jimmy: That's a good one.
Harold: But character, of the year, well, to me it's obvious. It's Tapioca Pudding.
Jimmy: Tapioca Pudding for the win. You know, she's big in licensing here.
Harold: That's what I hear. She's going to make a million dollars.
Jimmy: okay, I'm going to go with June 14. Charlie Brown saying. I've always liked vanilla just because that really cracked me up. And he is a vanilla guy. And I have to say, I always like vanilla, too. And I'm going to give vip to Sally.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Or MVP, rather, to Sally because, like Michael said, she has a comeback, a good comeback this year as well. And so we got a, got a three way split between Linus, Sally, and Tapioca Pudding. And that is the kind of hot takes you come to this podcast for. So that's it for now. Just come back next week and we'll do it all again. It's my favorite day of the week and I hope to see you then. So until then, for Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Michael, Harold, and Liz: Yes. Be of good cheer
VO: Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, and Harold Buchholz produced and edited by Liz Sumner Music by Michael Cohen additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark. For more from the show, follow unpack Peanuts on Instagram and Threads. Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, blue sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpanuts.com. have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
Liz: Bravo.