Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. and today, we are wrapping up 1987. Joining me as. Oh, wait, I should introduce myself first before I tell you who's joining me. Yeah, I'm Jimmy Gownley. I'll be your host for the proceedings. I'm also a cartoonist. I have a brand new comic that you can read right now on gvillecomics dot substack.com. I also did things like Amelia Rules, dumbest Idea ever and seven good reasons not to grow up.
Joining me, as always, are my pals, co hosts, and fellow cartoonists. First, he's a composer and a playwright, 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 original Comic Book Price Guide, and the creator such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells, and Tangled River. It's Michael Cohen.
Michael: Say hey.
Jimmy: The say hey is back.
Michael: The say hey is back. Yes, Jimmy convinced me. I mean, I retired the number and, out of grief, but were keeping it as a tribute.
Jimmy: in honor of Willie Mays. I tried to watch a YouTube video after called the catch.
Michael: Oh, the catch.
Jimmy: And it was a. It was a different catch. I m was offended on your behalf.
Michael: He caught more than one ball, in his...
Jimmy: Well, that's true. But it wasn't even the same team, what that was.Â
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 Sweets Beasts. It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello.
Jimmy: All right, so before we wrap up 1987, I just have to say, a few things about this year. This was a great year, for me, it's when I started being a cartoonist. started drawing my first issue of, a little comic called Shades of Gray. Long before that woman wrote those, those porno books called that. And of course, I was 15, so it was a great year for music. Every kid's 15th year is the best year for music. REM's Document, Guns n Roses, appetite for destruction, and the western world's shining light to this day, Debbie Gibson, released her debut album. So this was a terrific year. Harold, you got anything, that you might know about mister Schulz in 87, as we wrap this year up?
Harold: Yeah, well, in my ongoing, revisiting of Editor and Publisher. There's a particularly interesting piece that I would like to share with you guys. this is really insightful. I found there was a lot of interesting stuff in here. So David Astor wrote for editor and publisher, and he came up upon the great idea of surveying working syndicated cartoonists and asking them what their three favorite strips are of all time in 1987, the year we're going through Peanuts. And so I was wondering if you guys have any Idea where Peanuts might have been in that pantheon among, his peers.
Jimmy: I'm afraid to guess. You tell, you tell me. I think it would still be way, way, way up there.
Harold: Okay, well, again, this is, this is all time favorite strips. So he's competing with the classics. He's competing all time favorite strips.
Jimmy: I think it would still be in the top five.
Harold: Okay, Michael, you have any thoughts before I, big do the big reveal?
Michael: Well, we got some young cartoonists coming up.
Jimmy: Yeah, they would have like a whole.
Michael: New crop who might note, you know, even know. Well, they probably know about, you know, Winsor McKay and all that stuff, so. Yeah, so it might be more recent, guys.
Harold: Well, here's what they said. There was 2022 cartoonists, comprising only a relatively small percentage of syndicated comic creators, although an effort was made to contact a cross section of respondents based on age, popularity, sex, syndicate affiliation, etcetera. So that gives you some sense of who's, who's being asked.
Jimmy: Mm I think it's number one. I'm going number one.
Harold: Okay. Got any theories, Michael?
Michael: I think it's probably Calvin and Hobbes.
Harold: Okay, so you think Calvin and Hobbes be number one. So the number one strip, 17 of 22 creators named this as, one of their three favorite strips was Peanuts.
Jimmy: Yay.
Harold: And number two is Krazy Kat with 14 votes. Number three, L’il Abner with ten points. At this point, I think Lil Abner is pretty much off the, also not on this pages anymore. It's been gone for quite a while. Number four is Terry and the pirates.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Harold: Milt Caniff. And number, five, Pogo, tied, with Hagar, the horrible. Number seven, little nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McKay, the classic old comic. number seven is Doonesbury. Number nine, Herman, by Jim Unger which was a contemporary strip, actually, that was a panel strip with a really rumpled looking guy.
Jimmy: I can't even picture Herman. I can't. That's weird, huh? Yeah, I must have known it, I'm certain, but all right.
Harold: And Herman was tied with the Far Side by Gary Larson, which was very big at the time. Number, eleven. This is also interesting. Zippy the pinhead by Bill Griffith.
Jimmy: Oh, all right. Friend of the show called in to yell us about Nancy.
Harold: Yeah, see, well, he knows what he. From what she speaks, I guess. And tied with Zippy the pinhead is Calvin and Hobbes, which has only been for a little while.
Jimmy: Wow, that's quite a, Quite cross section.
Michael: Yeah. Your, Blondie, though, surprisingly, is not in there.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. I think among other cartoonists. I just don't know if. Well, those, responses speak for themselves in terms of what people really were responding to. I think that's fascinating to see that. I'm glad that we have something like that from that era, from the working cartoonists of that era. And you see that Charles Schulz, you know, he's only, what? Only five people didn't say Peanuts as their three favorites. So that's remarkable. And krazy kat was 14 points, so that's also super high. But what's also interesting is this is not anonymous. They actually list who these cartoonists are.
Jimmy: Oh, that's really cool.
Harold: And what they say. Yeah.
Jimmy: So, who didn't pick Peanuts and what did they pick?
Harold: Well, that would be hard for me to sort through.
Harold: But, the guy who does funky winkerbean, I don't know how you pronounce his name. Tom Batiuk or batuuk. I don't know. He had Peanuts at number one. And Berke Breathed had Peanuts at number one. All right, Berke, milt Caniff
Jimmy: Nope.
Harold: is not on there. It's happy hooligan. Krazy cat in gasoline alley.
Jimmy: No, that tracks.
Harold: Yeah, right. Ramona Fraden, who was doing Brenda Starr at the time, also did not pick Peanuts. She, was more into the story strips. George gately of Heathcliff does not include Peanuts. Oh, that's BC is his favorite.
Jimmy: All right, I can see that.
Harold: Dave Grau, who was doing Alley oop at the time, who's not the original artist of that, does not have Peanuts on there. He picked alley oop. He's doing alley oop. Excuse me. He picked Frank and Ernest, which we mentioned earlier as his favorite.
Jimmy: So they were best friends, him and.
Harold: The guy who did, maybe. Yeah, we'll see if they overlap with each other.
Michael: Oh, I voted for you.
Harold: You vote for me. Bill Griffith was, Bill Griffith was not giving Peanuts any love. He gave krazy kcat as his favorite.
Liz: That's because he likes Nancy.
Harold: Yeah, I'm glad no one said he didn't list Nancy. To be fair here, let's be clear. There's no Nancy listed here by Bill Griffith. But, number two is a be the agent the first two years of ab the agent, that's an old, old, strip. And number three, among us mortals, very, very rare strips. Bills. Bill's an iconoclast. Yeah.
Jimmy: I want to, I don't know what among us mortals is, but I want to be the world's foremost among us mortals scholar. That sounds cool, right? I don't know.
Harold: Johnny Hart, who did BC he picks Peanuts as number one.
Jimmy: That totally makes sense.
Harold: Mel Lazarus, who did Miss Peach and Mama.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, he's gotta have Peanuts at number one.
Harold: No, he's got Pogo, Lil Abner and Terry and the pirates as his favorites.
Jimmy: And where did Miss Peach come from, Mister Lazarus? Where?
Harold: Well, I, Yeah, I always thought of the strips that were, that was. The strip closest to Peanuts was Miss Peach.
Jimmy: Yeah, definitely.
Harold: Well, guess what? Charles Schulz said he didn't vote for himself.
Jimmy: He, would go with Krazy cat, I assume. Number one, right?
Harold: You're right.Â
Jimmy: Popeye?
Harold: No.
Jimmy: well, I would, I think he might pick Pogo just for the art, even though he stopped reading it.
Michael: Wait, what's that one? We, we read a couple of strips from that he worked.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, of course. Skippy.
Harold: Yes, Skippy's number three for him. And number two, I don't think you guys are gonna get. It's smatter pup.
Michael: Never heard of it.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, I've seen that in like, the cold, but that's not widely, widely known, huh?
Harold: Yeah. And then one last thing. just some of the quotes that people made to say why they picked Peanuts is their favorite. they said, very strong characters that readers identify with. another person said, I found it awe inspiring in its simple scope. It was the definitive comic strip that was Berke Breathed. And Bill Keene said, Sparky has created more than a comic strip. And Sherry Shepherd, who was doing a strip at the time, it's like part of the family. I can't imagine it not being in the paper. So. Yeah, so lots of love for Charles Schulz from his contemporaries.
Jimmy: That's fantastic. Hey, you know, I just want to, before we go on to the strips, can I brag about my Peanuts? knowledge in the real world. That happened this year. So my good old, actually super listener and my good old college roommate, Rich Thomas texted me and he's like, hey, my son Aidan has this puzzle. Where did Snoopy, hang out with this bunny? And it was a picture of Snoopy, and the bunny was laying on top of his stomach, and they're both laying on top of the doghouse. And I got a little lucky. I had the general Idea of where it was, but I got a little lucky on googling, and I found the exact panel that they used in that puzzle in about five minutes. And, so much of it was luck, but, boy, was he impressed.
Harold: Yeah. Boy, we're becoming the wizards at googling peanut strips and finding them.
Jimmy: It is magic. You got to know the right terms, when to use a quotation, when not. But anyway. Well, that's really great, Harold. Thank you for all that information, as always. It just adds so much to our understanding of this, this strip and this person and the world that was in when it was, when it was brand new. So thank you for that.
Harold: Yeah, we're not alone. We, had lots and lots of fellow cartoonists who just love, love Schulz, as they should.
Jimmy: All right, so let's hit those strips.Â
September 4, Franklin and Charlie Brown are going to get some ice cream. they're both getting double dippers. I don't blame them. That's good. On a hot day. Franklin says to Charlie Brown, grandpa says the multiplication table is disappearing from his head. Nine times eight is completely gone. Franklin gets his cone and says, eight times six is fading. They both walk off enjoying their cones. And Franklin says. He says he's living in the low numbers.
Michael: How old is grandpa? I mean, if Franklin's eight, so let's say his mom is 30. So grandpa's like 50 something.
Jimmy: Not necessarily. I mean, my. You know, because, like, he may have old parents. My dad was 47 when I was.
Michael: Yeah, but people had kids pretty early in them days.
Jimmy: Well, anyway, his grandpa is going senile. Maybe it's early onset Alzheimer's. And, this plays indefinitely with Harold's notice, of all the bodily ailments, the aging, the infirmity, a lot.
Harold: Of that this time, right? These four months had lots of things. Snoopy's both a surgeon and in the hospital himself. There's comments of being not as fast of the body creaking, staying awake because you hear your body trouble, remembering numbers is this one. And whenever I hear the grandpa stuff, my ears prick up. It's like, okay, this is this Schulz.
Jimmy: That's what I think, too, right? Yeah.
Harold: Ah, there's clumsiness. Yeah. There's, not being able to deal with younger people with Linus and that you're too old for me. There's lots of things about aging and these four months in particular,.
Liz: but it's not the numbers that go. It's the nouns. I have no trouble doing the multiplication, but, the words that I'm trying to think of, things, they're gone. People's names. Completely gone.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: One of the side effects of my, antidepressant that I take is verbal dysphagia. And, oh, man, I forget what it was now, but it was really, really embarrassing because I was supposed to say bank, and I kept saying something. I don't even remember what it was in or something like that. And people, you're gonna deposit money at the drive in or.
Harold: It was weird.
Jimmy: And it's. It's no good. I don't like it. I don't want it to continue. But I think that's just where we're stuck. Anyway, let's get back to the spaghetti.Â
September 11. Marcie and Peppermint Patty are hanging out there in school. Oh, this is a long sequence where pepper, or Marcie really wants to know, if Charlie Brown likes her or Peppermint Patty more. And in this instance, they're in school. And Peppermint Patty says to Marcie, I called Chuck last night, Marcie, I don't think he likes you more than he likes me. Marcie loses it instantly, pulls Peppermint Patty’s hair, screaming, you're turning him against me. She literally hauls Peppermint Patty completely out of her desk, and Peppermint Patty yells, Marcie. And then they're both sitting outside the principal's office, and Peppermint Patty's hair is a complete mess. And Marcie hands her a comb, saying, you want to borrow a comb before we go in, sir?
Harold: No, this is just an interesting, interesting side of Marcie. She's, really been going for it with Charlie Brown and trying to foster that relationship, but, you know. But Peppermint Patty's the one who's kind of treating a little more. I don't know what word you would put to it, but she's. I don't. It seems like she's more interested in being liked more by Charlie Brown than the fact that she likes Charlie Brown. And then Marcie is showing this intense anger here, which just made me pick this strip, is like, you know, I've seen her get angry and, get self righteous, say, towards somebody who's being insulting or whatever, but I've never seen her like this.
Jimmy: Well, no, no, no. Now, remember when that kid was sitting on the dock doing nothing and she was so irritated by his existence because he keeps, in quotes, talking to her, and then he says, hey, kid. She says to him and he says, what? And she pushes him in the lake. I think there is a little hint of bipolar in Marcie.
Harold: Well, maybe. I think, I guess I read into that one that Marcie is genuinely seeing bad intent from this guy, and m she's missing the cues. and that's. But to me, this is a different side of her. This is something that she intensely cares.
Jimmy: About herself, and it's her good friend Peppermint Patty.
Harold: Yeah. And she's not liking that Peppermint Patty as being so, so flip and glib about trying to outdo Marcie or get Charlie Brown to renounce any interest in Marcie compared to her.
Michael: I think it's odd that Schulz keeps coming back to this, but then it goes long periods where there's no reference to this at all.
Michael: Because I think this is really good character development, but it gets dropped pretty quick.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: And they're back to normal.
Harold: Well, he's got so many things going, right? There's so many things going with the strip. That's what you. Jimmy, you've been mentioning that, you know, and Michael, you mentioned it, too. We kind of get in the greatest hits mode, and we're hopping from one thing to another to another to another that are historical parts of the strip. And then every once in a while, you get this fresh revelation, which, to me is what this strip is. And, yeah, he can't stay there. It's like he comes back to Sally and Linus, this, you know, in this four month period and that relationship, it's like. Yeah, it's, like, bubbling under. And we're off in some other part of the neighborhood, and then we won't see something for three or four months.
Michael: I think he might be worried about moving the strip off into a slightly different direction.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Because this could become, like, the main thing about their relationship. Easily.
Harold: Easily, yes.
Liz: But we don't know what Peppermint Patty was going to say next. I mean, it could have been. I don't think he likes you more than he likes me. I think he likes us equally.
Jimmy: Yes. Right. She doesn't get to finish her sentence. She ends in an ellipse. That's right.
Harold: Maybe she knows Peppermint Patty too well, because we did. We do see what Peppermint Patty does with Charlie Brown. And she is doing the thing I think that Marcie. Marcie assumes, where she just seems to be fishing to get Charlie Brown to go a different way over the phone.
Jimmy: I just pity, poor Marcie's friends who have to put up with, every once in a while, her just losing her mind and screaming about stuff that must be unbearable for them. Hey, but I will say this, how I think, especially in panel three, and, of course, Peppermint Patty in panel four. But the looseness of his kind of tremor issues, if he in action, he can make it be very expressive, I guess, is what I'm trying to say in, imposes of action, imposes of great emotional distress or dishevelment or whatever. He manages to use it to his advantage, which I think is pretty amazing.
Michael: Yeah. I don't consider Peanuts a particularly, like, active strip. yeah. This is unusual and pretty dynamic. Yes. So, yeah, you don't even notice, you know, the squiggly balloons.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: It's. It's. It's like things are moving all over, but generally, you know, it's people standing next to a wall talking. So this. Right, this really stands out.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. Some interesting motion lines on the third panel when Marcie and pulling Peppermint Patty over the school desk on top to on top of hers. And you got these two little lines that look like inverted, canes.
Jimmy: they're almost like arrows, I think, indicating that she's going down.
Michael: Yeah. This is a wrestling move, for sure.
Jimmy: Yes.
Harold: But, yeah, I agree about the tremor. It's like he's incorporated it here, and it seems like it's weird. What he can't control, he can't control, but he is incorporating it into the strip, and he's making it a part of the strip, and it doesn't. I'm not feeling the pain I was feeling toward the beginning of the series when we hadn't seen it at all, and now we're used to seeing it, and here I feel like he really is. He's making. He's turning lemons into lemonade. and I don't feel the pain, at least reading the strips for this year the way I was, you know, a year or two before.
Jimmy: Yeah. Like that Marcie word balloon and lettering, you know, it's super effective.
Harold: Yeah. Yeah. And I love Patty's hair in panel four.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. It's great cartoony. just hanging in.
Harold: Just.
Jimmy: If we can stay with these first two for just a second, comparing Charlie Brown and Franklin to, the Pepperming Patty Marcie relationship and basically every other relationship in Peanuts. I think Charlie Brown's best friend should, be Franklin, because I think they have calm, normal discussions about things in the world, not just their own neuroses and their own issues. I mean, it wouldn't make a great comic strip, probably just two relatively sane people walking around talking. But I think for his mental health, he should spend more time with Franklin.
Michael: Plus, they look almost exactly alike.
Jimmy: That blew my mind when you pointed that out. And I think, actually, that's so smart on Schulz's part, when you're introducing the first, you know, there's no room for error doing something like that. And that's perfect.
Harold: And you see that in the fourth panel where, the two characters are in exactly the same pose. And it's almost like he's making that statement. These are two characters who are very, very much alike. And I love that about Franklin. He brought out this kind of sensible side to Charlie Brown when he was introduced. And then even though Franklin's not always in the strip, it's almost like that presaged where Charlie Brown is going with the introduction of Franklin, because now we're seeing a side of Charlie Brown who's the sensible older brother, who's going to help Sally with the homework mixed in with all the Charlie Brown loser stuff we know, the baseball and the kite and all of that. But it. He's really. And he's gotten a little bit more, I don't know, stoic, you know, doing that anger happiness index. We were going back and looking, you know, the characters were like. Just a lot of them were just angry. A lot, back in the, like, the late fifties. And Charlie Brown is really mellowed out in that regard. In those moments when he's just at home with his sister, that sort of thing, it's. He's a different character. A way different character from, say, 1951.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, It's been amazing to watch, and it's. It feels so organic, and it's. It's. It's just magical. It's really cool.Â
September 16. Peppermint Patty back in school again. standing.Â
Jimmy: Oops. Window closed. Sorry.
Michael: Well, you know this one by heart.
Jimmy: I guess I didn't really need to look it up again yet.Â
So she stands up by her desk and she recites the pledge. Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic. For just stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Peppermint, he sits down, and then she stands back up and says, amen.
Michael: Did somebody pick this? One of our guests pick this because this seems real familiar.
Jimmy: I don't think so. To, me, it's just like, it does feel like there is a part of when you're teaching kids things that you don't necessarily now learn these words, but you don't know why you're saying them to whom you're saying them, what it's supposed to mean. it sounds like it could be a prayer, like it's a written metered thing. I don't know. I just thought that was a really, because it's not a pointed comment, but it does make you think, like, oh, that's okay. We should maybe think what you're saying or teaching kids to say or whatever.
Harold: Right.
Michael: I just remember thinking, like, pledge allegiance was one wordÂ
Liz: and witchettÂ
Michael and invisible.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. Witchett.
Michael: yeah. You think the teachers would at least want to talk about what it means?
Harold: Did you guys ever read the Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary? The children's book?
Jimmy: Yes, but I read it actually as an adult, and I don't remember much about it.
Liz: I read it as a child, and that was a long time ago.
Harold: Well, that's when I read it. And I just. One of the things I remember about Ramona the pest was that it was a star spangled banner for her, and she, thought the dawn’s early light was d o n z e r ly.
Jimmy: the donzerly light.
Harold: Sounds kind of cool. I wish that was. I wish that was an advert or whatever.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, it's great. as a cartoonist, I wouldn't do this because I wouldn't want to draw four almost identical pictures of the desk and Peppermint Patty. it's interesting that he pushes in for the last two.
Harold: Yeah, it's not the same place. Any of the four. No, he's mixing it up.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's like he's. Yeah, it's. It's like panel one to three is a zoom.
Michael: It's a Zoom, but no, he's filling the panel because there's no words in three.
Jimmy: Because there's no words. Yeah. Yeah, but it does give a weird zoom effect.
Michael: Yeah, it does.
Jimmy: Like, it really does. But, yeah, you're right. It's probably. Yeah, she gets bigger the less words. That's really interesting.
Harold: I like the, satisfied, peaceful look on her face with her fingers. you know, she's got her hands clasped and sitting back down at the desk in panel three.
Jimmy: Yep.Â
September 25. Oh, it's beanbag time. Sally's sitting in the beanbag watching some tv, and good old Charlie Brown comes in, and he has just lost, the last game of the baseball season. So he comes in and says to Sally, it was the last game of the season, and we lost. Sally walks away and says, so what does that mean? And then Charlie Brown says, well, in the long run and as far as the rest of the world goes, it doesn't mean a thing. Then he flumps headfirst into the beanbag and says, but I can't stand it.Â
Jimmy: Well, first off, can I tell my personal sports tragedy? I may have already told this, but it's. It's bothered me since I was 18, so I'm gonna say it again. You know when you score a thousand points in high school basketball, they stop the game. They present you with the game ball. You get your picture taken, goes in the newspaper and stuff. Do you know what they do if you get, like, 985 points? Nothing. They don't do nothing for you. But, boy, I shot a lot that last game.
Harold: Oh, wow. 985.
Jimmy: Yeah. I had dream. I had. I was the 7th in my school's history, which, again, sounds impressive, but I went to a really small school, so it doesn't really mean anything but personal. But personally, I can't stand it, because, like, 35 years, I had a dream. Dream that was always my friend Frankie. And he'd be like, we have one more high school game to play. You can get your thousand points. I'm like, but aren't we in our forties? It doesn't matter. And I would always, like, wake up right before the game started going, I don't think this is right. So, anyway, that's my trauma. And this is what made me. It made me think of it.
Harold: I thought you were going to say I was. I was 7th all time. And then for 30 some years, and then somehow I moved up to fifth.
Jimmy: No, but they closed the school. So actually, I'm locked in at 8th now because.
Harold: Wow. Well, there you go.
Liz: Oh, man, 985 is pretty impressive.
Harold: I'm impressed. Yeah. How many games would that be?
Jimmy: I, think he played like 20 a season or something like that. I don't know exactly. I'd have to look it up again. Oh, well, I was never going to be in the NBA anyway.Â
September 28, back in school again. Peppermint Patty is whispering something to Franklin, who's sitting in front of her. The teacher calls on her and says, me? no, ma'am. I wasn't giving the answers. And then Peppermint Patty said I was just leaking information.
Michael: Was there something in the news about leaking at this time?
Harold: It was Iran Contra.
Michael: Okay.
Harold: yeah, that's what I was thinking when I read this. I didn't look it up. Let's let's see what. See when, Iran Contra was a thing. Okay, so the Iran contra affair lasted from August 20, 1985 to March 4, 1987. So this is kind of that era.
Jimmy: Oh, my God. It lasted that long? That's crazy.
Harold: I, remember, according to our pals at Wikipedia.
Jimmy: Oh, well, then that's got to be right. You know, I feel like, especially for some reason, in that first panel, it feels so crisp and clean. It feels like the tremor was not bothering him at all while he was drawing that. I just think that panel is great. And I also like the real subtlety of the fear on Franklin's face in panel three. I mean, that's so unbelievably subtle. It's basically just the lip that he extends just a little bit. Or tucks the lower one in somehow.
Harold: Yeah. What? Reading this strip, it, reminded me how struck I am that Marcie and Peppermint Patty freely cheat on all the tests that he just. They both just totally. You know, what's the answer to this? What's the answer to that?
Jimmy: Yeah. what strikes me is why would Franklin ever expect to get a good answer from Peppermint Patty? He must be in really dire straits on this test if that's what his Hail Mary is.
Harold: Yeah, well, maybe she was just leaking information. Yeah, maybe had nothing to do with the test.
Jimmy: You pointed out that the Peanuts characters rarely lie to each other, which I find fascinating. But, now, this is a new wrinkle to me that I have to now think about for another 30 years. They rarely lie to each other, but they cheat freely in school. That is weird. Maybe because, it's seen as a victimless crime. They're striking against the man. Maybe that's what that is.
Harold: She's got to keep up that d minus average.
Jimmy: Yeah, you're right. It's not going to just take care of itself. Oh, man. Which brings us toÂ
October 6. Oh, and it's Rerun. And he's trying to put a shoe on, and, he looks at it, he's very confused, and he holds it above the ground and drops it. And when he does, it makes a big clonk. And then he yells to whoever's listening. All right, who bronzed my shoes?Â
Jimmy: Do they still do this? Does anyone still bronze baby shoes? I doubt it. Right?
Harold: I don't know. That made me laugh. And I remember maybe, some of our listeners, I don't think it's as big a thing as it used to be. But back around 1930, they started this thing where, yeah, you immortalized your child's childhood by bronzing their shoes. And I read somewhere that, like, the 30 million pairs of shoes were, were bronzed. and they used to have ads, if I remember correctly. Did you guys remember seeing ads, like in the, in the newspapers or in the parade magazine sort of thing?
Jimmy: Yes, that's what I was just going to say.
Harold: And it was like the Franklin Mint of my era. And, you know, I didn't think much of it as a, as a little kid. I was like, you know, it seemed odd, but you just, it's just part of life. But, yeah, bronzing baby, very pharaoh like.
Jimmy: Or something like, you know, like egyptian pharaoh.
Harold: And I did laugh out loud of this because I'm thinking he's, he's still a kid and he's, it's there still his shoes. But his parents jumped the gun.
Jimmy: I remember. did any of you guys have your baby shoes bronzed?
Harold: I don't think so, Michael.
Michael: we couldn't afford shoes.
Jimmy: Oh, no. That's so sad.
Liz: I was the baby of the family, so they stopped doing all those baby things by the time I came along.
Jimmy: I think I had one. I don't think they could afford to get both of them done. I had one of them bronzed.
Harold: Oh, well, the left one. here's an interesting theory that somebody was wondering, when did bronzing baby shoes go out of fashion? And this, woman named Celia M. On Quora says, I guess that's because today's baby shoes would not look particularly good if bronzed. Now, I'm thinking of little crocs or, you know, bronze crocs.
Michael: Have you looked at the price of bronze lately?
Jimmy: Oh, is it real bad? I bet that's true. Yeah.
Michael: I have no Idea.
Jimmy: I thought you were heavily into the bronze market person.
Michael: Well, bronze age comics.
Harold: Bronze? Bronze your bronze age comic, and send it into CGC and see how to make ratings.
Jimmy: That's amazing.
October 8, we see Charlie Brown talking to a football helmet with feet. It's a tiny, little, tiny little person tucked under the football helmet. And, the person in the football helmet says, mister Brown, my name is Leland. We'd like to play for your football team. Charlie Brown says to him, I don't have a football team. Leland, if you did. We'd sure like to play for you. And Charlie Brown says, why do you keep saying we? And then Leland says, from under the helmet, there's more than one of us under here.Â
Jimmy: Now, do guys remember who Leland is?
Michael: No, but in my notes. I rarely write in my notes, but I said, Leland. Worst Idea ever.
Jimmy: Oh, you don't like this, but Leland. This is not Leland's first.
Liz: Is it from when he was in a box?
Jimmy: Yes, this is from the baseball team that Charlie Brown, coached while Charlie Brown was living in a box.
Harold: Oh.
Jimmy: Which I think nine years ago.
Michael: Are you sure this is the same Leland? That's very. I am 100%, very common name. You don't see him either?
Jimmy: it's that combined with the fact that he calls him Mister Brown and says he wants to play randomly for his team, which is, of course, what they were doing back then. I think it's either hubris of a startling magnitude or it is utterly badass confidence to just go, yeah, they'll remember that from a decade ago. but yeah, no, see, this. I think it's cute. I think it's real cute. I think it's weird, but I think it's cute that they brought Leland back and his, unnamed friends.Â
October 21. It's a tiny tots concert, so that means Marcie and Peppermint Patty are gonna be there. Peppermint Patty says, what's this piece called? And, Marcie says, Pomp and Circumstance by Elgar. Peppermint Patty says, I like it. Marcie says, I do, too. Peppemint Patty asks, Marcie, you know what? What? And then Peppermint Patty says, I'm glad I'm alive.Â
Jimmy: Well, that's the point of music in a lot of ways, for sure. I think it's weird that it's pomp and circumstance, but but I'm glad Peppermint Patty's alive, too. That's awesome.
Harold: Why is it weird that it's pomp and circumstance?
Jimmy: I don't know. Like, would you. When would you hear October in pomp and circumstance? In October. And I don't know. I just can't imagine going to a concert where they're going to play pomp and circumstance,Â
Harold: because that that is, for those of you who aren't and up on your names, that that's like the graduation song everybody hears right when you're marching down.
Jimmy: Yeah, but, boy, I bet Elgar would, be very pleased with that.
Harold: I'm assuming since Schulz could have picked anything, he picked something that he. That he genuinely liked, which I think is an interesting reveal about Schulz, because that song. I mean, how would you describe. Obviously, it's related to the idea of accomplishment and achievement and being recognized, but it's also. It has this kind of.
Jimmy: It feels like it accompanies an event, rather than you sit and listen to it like. Like, listen. Oh, I'm gonna pop on hail to the chief and listen to it like. It's weird. Yeah.
Michael: Plus, they're talking during the concert, which I don't like.
Jimmy: Ooh, verboten. By the way, if you ever sit near me at a concert like this or a, movie and you talk, there's gonna be problems.
Liz: Yep.
Jimmy: Big problems.
Harold: Yeah. You're gonna. Gonna pull a Marcie on?
Jimmy: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Liz: I have to interrupt.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Liz: Somewhere between this strip and the next is when I met Michael in 1987.
Jimmy: That's amazing. Oh, wow.
Michael: I wasn't reading Peanuts in those days.
Liz: Doesn't matter.
Michael: How could it have been between strips?
Liz: These were in the newspaper at the time that you and I met.
Jimmy: That's amazing.
Michael: We didn't know.
Jimmy: Now, this was a. This was a music thing that you guys met?
Liz: We met in a garage during our garage band phase.
Jimmy: That's awesome. And this was Lip Service. Was that.
Harold: Not many people can say they've met in a garage.
Liz: It was Wax Lips. It was the proto band before Lip Service.
Jimmy: Oh, I see. Nice. Well, that's wonderful. And worth, celebrating here.
Liz: Yeah, like 985 baskets.
Jimmy: That's worth sobbing over. I would rather just got an 85. No, I'm just. Just kidding.Â
Oh, this one floated my boat.Â
November 6. Woodstock and Snoopy are top of the doghouse. Woodstock says something, but we can't read it. Snoopy thinks something. Back to Woodstock. We can't read that either. Woodstock flies away. Can't read that. Snoopy again, we cannot read anything in these empty warden thought balloons. But then there's a caption at the bottom, a panel for that says, sound problem. No adjustment is necessary.
Michael: Very self referential.
Jimmy: Weird.
Michael: Now, he's occasionally referenced the fact that they are in a comic strip.
Jimmy: Right, but that was a long, long time ago.
Michael: Yeah. This is a really odd one.
Harold: But now it's not like in a comic strip. It's like being in a television show.
Jimmy: Television show.
Harold: So it's. It's a comic strip that's acting like it's a television show on broadcast television. That is strange.
Jimmy: Very, very, very strange.
Harold: We used to see the stuff you youngsters, on tv. It wasn't quite as pristine as, what we had get now on the lovely cable networks that still survive, man.
Jimmy: I was trying to watch, the pirates 1979 World Series. Someone had one of the games on YouTube and it's just somehow recorded off the tv or I guess probably from one of the local affiliates and it's like, wow, we watched tv that looked like this. It's amazing. And didn't think of thing.
Harold: Yeah, right.
Jimmy: They're showing a replay of this hit that goes like, oh, you can see there, he just stretched out. I'm like, I don't know that you can. And I don't think it was like low quality. I mean, I know it was compressed a little bit for YouTube, but I was watching on a big screen and it was like, it's just, that's what tv looked like.
Harold: Yeah, yeah.
Liz: It's like trying to watch the moon landing or the, oh, nevermind, sorry. Talking about being old. Nevermind.
Jimmy: Well, I don't think that's going to happen less as we continue on this journey.
Harold: No, no. my wife, Diane Cook, I think she was like maybe six years old when the moon landing happened. And her parents had gone off to a moon landing party and left, left him, left her with her brother. And they were watching it on their set and she was complaining that they, that the picture looked so fuzzy. and her older brother said, Diane, they're on the moon.
Jimmy: What does it take to impress you?
Harold: What do you expect coming from the moon?
Jimmy: Oh, man. So, let's leave it there for a moment. We're going to take a break, come back on the other side and, answer some mail and pick it up from there. 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 their work 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 unpackingpeanuts.com.
Jimmy: And we're back hanging out in the mailbox here. Do we got anything, Liz?
Liz: We do. We got a message from Ann from Pennsylvania and she writes, I spent the 4 July week in Sedona, Arizona and snapped a few (dozen) pictures of Snoopy rock while I was there. And she describes it, she says it's several humps of Sedona's red rock that match the shape of the head, tummy and feet of Snoopy laying atop his doghouse, including a little round nose on the top of his snout. It can be seen on the east side of highway 179, just south of where it joins with 89 a. I highly recommend Sedona to anyone who likes nature, hiking or relaxing with beautiful sunset views on rooftop bars. A trip to Sedona will definitely help you be of good cheer.
Jimmy: Oh, very nice. Well, I hope you got a kickback from the Sedona tourist bureau there. I had no Idea about Snoopy rock.
Liz: Oh, and she sent pictures, so I'll post them on social media.
Harold: Fantastic.
Jimmy: Oh, sweet. Very cool. Well, thank you for that. Yeah, no, I've been to the grand canyon, but I don't know if I did know it. I forgot it like Franklin's grandfather in the multiplication tables. All right, well, if you guys want to reach, out to us, you can email us@unpackingpeanuts@gmaill.com. you can always, also just to find us on social media. I'll give you that rundown at the end. but we'd love to hear from you. And, of course, you can call. You can hear your voice on our podcast by just dialing 717, 219 and four other numbers, 4162. And remember, if I don't hear from you, I worry. Okay, should we get back to the strips?
Michael: Yo.
Jimmy: All right.Â
November 16, Sally's on the phone, and she says, really? Okay, I'll tell him. Then she goes to the next room where she sees Charlie Brown, who is, comfy in his beanbag chair. And she says, your stupid dog is in the emergency room at the hospital. In the next panel, Charlie Brown's quickly putting on his hat and coat, and he says, good grief. I wonder what happened? And we see in the last panel, Sally, now taking Charlie Brown's place in the beanbag chair, and she says, are you coming right back, or can I switch channels?
Michael: I am really amused by how, incredibly heartless Sally is. I mean, the dog's in the hospital, so, you know, generally would say, your stupid dog is in the emergency room.
Harold: No, that's just pretty heartless.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. We don't see much of Sally interacting with Snoopy, do we? That's pretty rare.
Jimmy: That's actually true. That's weird. There's not a whole lot of Sally and Snoopy.
Michael: They don’t get along
Harold: she will just will have none of that.
Jimmy: I mean, you know, at the famous end of the Great Pumpkin sequence that was animated and used in the strips, you know, Snoopy's there, but, yeah, not very often. Yeah. Sally's harsh,Â
Liz: truthfulÂ
November 22. It's a Sunday. Linus is, outside his house, and he calls back in and says, I won't be gone long. And then in the next panel, we see he's taking a walk and who should come behind him but Lydia. And he sees her and he says, well, hi. It sort of looks like we're going in the same direction, doesn't it? He says, with the, hey. Bit of a roguish grin. Would it be all right if I walked along with you? To which Lydia says, aren't you kind of old for me? Linus loses it and says, I'm not asking you to marry me. I'm only asking you if you want me to walk with you. Lydia says, why are you so excitable? Linus says, I'm not excitable. Lydia says, you seem excitable. I think I know what your trouble is. Then she presses the button to make the light change color so she could cross the street and says, you don't know how to deal with young people. To which Linus screams, augh. Then in the last panel, we see him with his head leaned up in frustration and defeat up against the pole, just beneath the little button that makes the light change color. Charlie Brown has come up behind him and says, if you're going across the street, you should press that button.
Michael: I really like this character, but she is a one joke character. Yeah, but the fact that, Linus is just, like, totally, like, gaga for her makes it amusing.
Harold: Yeah, there's, like, some mystery to Lydia. She's so,
Jimmy: Yes, she's enigmatic.
Harold: Although I thought she was one joke. But then we add a few couple. I don't know if we picked any of these. I know we still have some Lydia's to come that we did select, but.
Jimmy: Well, she starts changing her name.
Harold: That's a. Yeah, she starts to. Starts to reveal that she's. She changes her name daily, which I think is, That's. That's the. I can totally relate to Linus. A certain girl like this, I could have become just fascinated with, like.
Michael: Yeah, this is the crazy, oh.
Jimmy: The manic pixie dream girl.
Michael: Yeah, the manic pixie dream girl.
Harold: Yeah, this is like the manic stoic dream girl or stoic pixie dream girl. Stoic pixie dream girl. Yes.
Jimmy: That's amazing. That's a new archetype. I like that.
Harold: Right. Schulz started something that we need to get out there in the culture so we can get some recognition for the Stoic pixie dream girl.
Jimmy: I think this is such spot on observation of human nature. You know, she orchestrated him being fascinated, by her, just by not being fascinated with him. And whether she intended it or nothing, it works Great. I mean, the fact that, you know, is Linus excitable now and again. You wouldn't necessarily call him excitable, but he is going to get excitable around this because it just riles him up.
Harold: The crosswalk's, not the only button she's pressing.
Jimmy: Yeah, exactly. She pushed all of the buttons. man. Yeah. I love her look. I love the hair. That's really cute.
Harold: Yeah, it's a great, great look for character like her. She's got the little checked jacket and the, headband and, and that straight hair cut across at the bottom like that. Yeah, yeah. Looks very nice look. And it seems kind of classic to me. I mean, does that make sense? Like, well, yeah, I think it's fine, like, going back to Violet and.
Jimmy: Yeah, Patty used to wear that jacket or a jacket like that, right? Yeah, definitely. It's a very classic look. I love the way, like, he just does the jacket and then, like, the bare legs underneath it. I mean, such an icon. It's really, really cute.Â
November 29. Okay, so this is a Sunday. And, it's Lucy. And now we have a card. This is a symbolic panel. It's an imaginary card of Lucy's with a picture of Lucy inside that says thinking you sort of, in a way, kind of when I have time. So then the strip starts on the next tier, and Lucy is indeed browsing some greeting cards. She goes, this one is kind of cute. Yes, ma'am. I'm looking for a card to send to a dog. It's my friend's dog. He just had knee surgery. He's such a wonderful dog. He's cute and smart and friendly and nice. I just feel so sorry for him. Do you have any insulting cards?Â
Jimmy: That's also human nature. I think this is a great Lucy strip.
Harold: Total insight into that. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. She she's never revealed this within the neighborhood. She has to go to a card store to reveal it to a clerk that she thinks Snoopy is a wonderful dog who's cute, smart, and friendly and nice, and that she feels sorry for him. Wow, Lucy. Â
Jimmy: Really great. But then we got to return to form. You have any insulting cards?
Harold: Right, right.
Jimmy: So, hey, in that second panel, what's that hanging behind Lucy?
Michael: It looks like it's a balloon.
Jimmy: It's a little, that's what it looks like, right?
Harold: Yeah. It looks like a hot air balloon. That's a helium balloon. That is probably in a catalog of hallmark stuff that Schulz gets regularly from his licensing.
Jimmy: Yeah, because it's weird. It's got the little heart hanging from it that I thought was a price tag, but then I noticed it as a heart on it.
Harold: I mean, that's brilliant. The Idea that you could have a balloon that looks like a hot air balloon with a little strings to a wicker basket. I get that. That's great.
Liz: Is Lucy wearing Lydia's coat?
Jimmy: She is, absolutely.
Harold: It's a great look. Yeah, the little beanie type cap and the ball on top.
Jimmy: He's done a good job of updating the characters. Like, I don't think he could have had Sally all the time in the little blue dress anymore. I don't know. Every now and again, you'll see them in a little, different outfit and work.Â
December 2. Marcie and Peppermint Patty are sitting in school, and Peppermint Patty looks a little worse for wear. She says, I hate being sick. First I had a headache, and we see that she does. Now my stomach hurts. You see that as well. And, in the last panel, she says, I think my body is double teaming me.Â
Jimmy: Well, go home. I don't get everybody else sick.
Michael: Sports references go right over my head.
Jimmy: Oh, double teaming.
Michael: Is that a basketball thing?
Jimmy: Yeah. So if it's. You have one guy that's a real threat to score, you could play two, men on him, and then, the other three cover the other four, and then you lose because it never works. But it's always the tempting thing to do because you think, oh, if we just shut that guy down, we'll win. And then he just passes it to the open person and you lose anyway. At least that's my experience.
Harold: Man. This kind of falls into that list off Schulz ailments that we seem to be seeing more and more of in the strip. You really feel the pain. His drawing is panel two.. And panel three just looks like Schulz is in pain while he's drawing it. Yeah. you feel it. Yeah.
Jimmy: You do. You really do feel. And there again. No, he lets the. The line do the work on the hair with not real concern about making it smooth and anything else. He just lets, the natural line quality carry it because he's using those jangly blacks. Michael.
Michael: Yeah. Oh, all the time.
Jimmy: That's my favorite term that's come out. Any of the things I love. Jangly black. That is, like, such a great description. I know exactly what you mean by it, and it's so cool. But, yeah, it's all the time now.
Liz: Band name, claim it.
Michael: Except the next one. A nice filled in black, December 12.
Harold: So this strip, I think about the concept of empathy in a comic strip or just in art. And if you think of another cartoonist who would have done roughly the same concept, that someone has got a headache and got a stomach ache. I don't know a cartoonist who could get you to feel that pain as well as Schulz's in the strip, I'm kind of in awe of that he has this way, and he's constantly using empathy in this strip throughout. I think it's one of the great secrets to the success of it is that you've got characters when they are vulnerable. That's when he pulls you into them and asks you to identify with them. And I do think that was very rare, when he came onto the scene, I think it became more common, and I'm grateful that it became more common. I think more and more cartoonists saw that world of possibility open up to them because they lived it through Peanuts, and then they started putting in their strips because it's powerful. It works.
Jimmy: It is powerful. It's the secret of art. I mean, art is empathy. Writing is empathy. and it's something people, well, I don't know if people forget. It's hard to do. Like, I don't. I mean, that's a hard thing to convey in those, those very simple cartoon drawings. But, but he does manage to do it. Like, I think in that second one, her eye. Like, if you zoom it, like, I felt that way. I had, yeah, headaches my whole life. but wow. Yeah, it's wild.
Jimmy: Go home, Peppermint Patty. Don't get something else sick. I always, that drove me nuts, both in school and even at work. We're like, oh, I had to come in and get some stuff today, but I'm. No, you didn't. No, you really didn't. 50% of all human activity is wasted, so just go home and watch tv for a day and don't get me sick. I work alone now, so. Which I think is probably for the best for basically everyone. now we're going to the 12th with a nice, filled in black.
Michael: Not a jangle to be seen.
Jimmy: Not a jangle to be seen.
Good old Sally is writing something, and she looks really annoyed about it. She says to Charlie Brown, I'm gonna scratch Annie off my Christmas card list. Annie didn't send me a card last year. So why should I send her a card? This year? Charlie Brown says, you don't know anyone named Annie, to which Sally says, that's no excuse.Â
Jimmy: That just makes me laugh. I don't know if there's anything else even to say about it. That's just funny.
Harold: Yeah, she sure looks annoyed at Annie in that first panel. Makes me wonder who this Annie isn't.Â
So, since we've got a little episode of anger here from Sally. We're getting so close to the end of the year. Let's take a look at the anger and happiness index, where we look every year to see, since we're in the final third segment for 1987, how much anger and how much happiness is in the strip and whether it seems to be changing or if Schulz is kind of on an even keel.
Jimmy: I think anger is up, and, here's why I think it is. Sally, Linus, and Lydia. Those two are the main things, I think, that have pushed anger up not a great deal. But I'm gonna say anger's up by eight strips.
Harold: Okay. It's a good guess. Any. Anything to say, Michael? You have any thoughts?
Michael: I think Linus's anger is extreme, and it's gonna tilt it towards anger five.
Liz: And Marcie, too.
Jimmy: Oh, Marcie, too. Right, right.
Michael: Yeah. But, the anger is not petty. It's. We're talking serious anger here. Rage. Rage. Matter of fact. Wow. There's two line of strips in a row. He's. He's just screaming to the heavens in the same pose.
Harold: Yeah, well, it's interesting that you say that, because obviously, this is subjective for me when I'm looking at these. And I definitely have strips with him and Lydia where he's angry, and there's other ones where I think it's frustration, but I wouldn't call it anger. So I. It's possible that you were absolutely right. If you counted through this, you might have gone to exactly the numbers you guys said. The way I counted it, it's almost dead even. It's like it was 74 and 86. It's 73 and 87 by my count. And that's kind of been consistent.Â
I was going back and looking, and I. At the, chart. If you go to unpackingPeanuts.com, Liz has this amazing anger and happiness chart that she updates every year in the obscurities section, which I do think is misnamed because it's got so much cool stuff. It's not just obscurity. Well, if you're interested in our podcast, you will be very interested in what Liz has amassed in that amazing section of obscurities. It's some pretty fun things that will jog you back to discussions that we've had, including some things that we said, well, you won't be able to see this, we won't be able to talk about it, but look at the obscurity. So anyway, I highly recommend, if you have a few moments, go over and check out what Liz has put together on the obscurities pages. So much fun stuff. Yeah.Â
On that chart, I was going back and looking at it, and she literally has charted out the ups and downs of anger and happiness. And one thing I noticed was that anger, has been less than happiness since 1971. That's 16 years. So I'm kind of giving away where we are, with this year a little bit. And that happiness has been over 100 strips since 74 and anger has been less than 100 since 71. So it seems like we saw some massive spikes and running around in the fifties and sixties and into the, yeah, into the or early seventies, and then he's just kind of, seems like he's kind of been even keel.
Harold: How do you feel about the happiness thing this year? I've obviously, I've mentioned a couple. You think there's more happiness?
Jimmy: I think it's over 100.
Michael: Well, on the scale, I mean, they have that, the one where Marcie and Peppermint Patty are listening to pomp and circumstance and she's glad to be alive. Now that's, that's a happier statement than you'll ever see in Peanuts.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Right. Isn't it? That's why I picked that one. It just.
Michael: So that should count double at least, right?
Harold: Yeah. Well, you guys are right. It went from 113 to 126, which is. That's pretty noticeable. And that's the highest it's been since, in over a decade or in a decade. So. So yeah, there's, there seems to be a Schulz just seems to be settled into a pretty, with all of the aches and pains and all the stuff we were talking about. He does seem to be in a place that is fairly happy, you, know, interesting.
Jimmy: And speaking of happiness, that's kind of a theme here.Â
December 16, Lydia and Linus are in class. And Lydia says to Linus, all right, I'll give you my address so you can send me a Christmas card. Linus has been trying to get her address for some time, and Lydia says, but this doesn't mean you can come to our house. Linus screams. All I'm gonna do is send you a Christmas card. Which, of course, in panel four, lands him outside the principal's office. And he slumped against the wall, and he says, joy to the world.Â
Jimmy: So now you would not. You don't count that as anger.
Harold: That one I think I would gave to anger. Yeah. Because it's frustration, but yeah, yeah. There's so much to like in the. In this sequence, in this strip. Yeah. I, love, I love Lydia. I love, I love Linus being in this state again, this kind of vulnerable, on the edge state which we've seen in the past with this blanket and with Lucy trying to bury it and get being incinerated. It's. It's cool to see Linus kind of on the edge again, you know?
Jimmy: Well, as Linus fans, you guys have mentioned in the last couple episodes that you're seeing Linus do much more, and I think that's continuing this year. Do you guys agree?
Michael: Yeah. I think Schulz, since he's thinking about Rerun more, has got to make Linus seem older. And so giving him, like, girl problems. Clearly, he's not the little brother anymore.
Harold: Yeah. Right. You kind of have this little, kind of romance thing in Linus. I love, love, love the drawing of Linus in panel one when Lydia is saying she's gonna let him send her a Christmas card. I don't even know how you describe that, but even his hair is moving forward in anticipation and interest and, like, oh, my goodness. I've made a step, step forward with Lydia. That drawing is just amazing.
Michael: But Schulz loved panel three so much that in the next strip we picked, he duplicates it on December 21.
So now it's Lucy, and Linus in their house. And Lucy's handing Linus an envelope, and she says, here, one of your Christmas cards came back. It says, no such address. To which Linus. Linus loses again and yells, it's that girl at school. She's going to drive me crazy. And Lucy says to Linus, why do you bother with her? Linus slumps in an easy chair and says to himself, she fascinates me.
Michael: Oh, he's doomed.
Jimmy: He is doomed.
Michael: Yeah. But, if he can flip back and forth between those two strips, that's virtually the exact same pants.
Jimmy: Adding the envelope. Yeah, that's about it. And the sweat drops in the, first one.
Harold: Boy, I relate Linus that she fascinates me.
Jimmy: Yeah. It's so funny. Now, okay, if I was going to. If I had your job for this week, and I was going to split hairs about what is anger and what is frustration. I might choose this one as frustration as opposed to anger because it's not in the moment, it's removed from the situation. I don't know, but maybe I would be wrong. Any other thoughts? Michael? Harold? Did you guys count Liz, did you guys count this as anger?
Michael: Frustration and anger? Very similar.
Jimmy: Very similar.
Michael: I mean, when you can't get the can opener to work, and so you throw the can against the wall.
Jimmy: Right?
Michael: That's frustration. That's anger. It's exact same thing.
Jimmy: Right? Interesting.
Harold: yeah. One, one has, like, the why me? Thing, which I usually don't put as much in anger as this is kind of a the appeal to the heavens kind of thing. And then there's the one where you say, I've had it. You know, I'm done. This is not right, and I'm not standing for it, that kind of thing.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: So, yeah, it is very subjective. And but that's the thing about Schulz. He's so subtle. I've noticed that as I count these things, the subtlety on this, you know, it's not like 1958. It's there's subtlety in these. You see, I use, I'm looking at the eyebrows. It tilted downward, you know, because you feel it. And Schulz is so good at getting you to feel it. And again, it helps that you know the characters so well. You have all their history that you're bringing to looking at that little drawing of just a few lines. But I'm really in awe of what he's expressing with so little.
Michael: Well, that last panel. Yeah, the expression is great, but look how long his legs are.
Harold: Right. That is nuts. and I was noticing back on the December 16 strip, when he's sitting basically against the wall on the ground outside the principal's office, they don't even offer you a chair. And notice how his leg, or, his foot basically see the soles of his feet and he's at an angle from us. But it looks like his right leg is way longer than his left leg. Given that, it seems that the shoe is larger on what should have been smaller if it was further away. Does that strike you as odd at all or.
Michael: Well, it's. I mean, it's foreshortening, but when you're this cartoony, that. Yeah, that doesn't read.
Jimmy: Yeah. I do find when you're doing something cartoony and you over not relying, but you try to do things that sometimes are more accurate perspective or a more accurate lighting even or something like that. It does call to attention the false nature of a cartoon drawing that's not really based on anatomy or anything like that. But having said that, only crazy people looking at it this closely would, care or notice.
Michael: Speaking of anatomy, though, and, we didn't discuss this strip, but dogs have knees.
Harold: They don't call them knees, though. I guess that that's a maybe he gets off in a technicality. He says Wayne-- Snoopy says that Wayne Gretzky injured him in a hockey game when he goes into the hospital. It's so weird. And it's also weird that that strip we read with Lucy, she says that he's already had the knee surgery. So I don't know if they took him to a vet. And so I said, okay, he does have knees. We call--
Jimmy: Yeah, I noticed that too. She says he had it. He gets out of it in the dailies. That might be, Do you think that's a discrepancy because the dailies are being written and drawn at a different time?
Harold: I think so. I think he maybe went a different direction. He didn't know the way out, and so he didn't do the surgery. And Snoopy's free, even though he's in pain and in the hospital. The fact that he doesn't have knees, he's off the hook. He can run around now because he doesn't have a knee. That's so, that's so surreal. And there's so much of that surreality in this strip in this year, more than, I think, ever. There's just all these things, these layers and layers and layers of strange, bizarre things that we've slowly started to accept because it's just part of the world. Well, and he's just, he's swimming in and even pressing further out there. I think that's why I get under the football helmet.
Michael: The Leland strips didn't strike me as brilliant because the other two people there would have to be in the helmet because you don't see their legs.
Jimmy: Yeah, I think Leland would have been. I like the Leland strip before it becomes that there's three people in it and stuff, when it's just Leland showing up. I think that could have been fun.
Harold: Yeah, that that's, and that is the strange thing is I look at all these strips on the Leland one because it's the first time he's done the gag. It's like, that's, that's a bridge too far. But then I'm seeing Snoopy in the foreign legion with these little birds and their tiny little bayonets. And I accept that.
Jimmy: Ah, yeah, it's, it's really, it's a strange, it's a strange art form when you look at it.
Harold: I love it. Yeah.
Jimmy: Ah, so I read, I was reading this book, Chaos, about the Charles Manson things, of all things, and it's so detailed. And I had this thought that, wow, the more you look at something, the less you understand and know. And I thought like, like this guy has thousands of details and documents and all this stuff, but it's so much detail and information that it gets lost. I couldn't even finish it. I returned it to the library. But, my point is, I worry about us being like that in Peanuts, that we look so detailed so long that we maybe lose the larger, larger arc or flow of it, which is just such a simple thing for everybody who's just experiencing it in the newspaper or watching on tv.
Michael: No, we definitely go, you know, when we go like, look at the W on the word What.
Jimmy: Right, right.
Michael: That's not a Schulz W.
Jimmy: Yeah, clearly. Right. It's crazy. But boy, it's. But the other side of it is there's all that here. I don't feel like we're in. Ah, I don't. I mean, sometimes I get, I'm sure we're projecting, especially when we're speculating on like his personal life or whatever, but I feel like a lot of the stuff we point out in the art is just in the art and that's incredible.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Alright. Roundin home here.Â
December 28. Sally is stuck in her bean bag. She is, feet up, just sticking out of the bean bag. That's all we see is her feet. And Charlie Brown's there. And Sally says to Charlie Brown, don't talk to me. I'm having my post Christmas let down. Charlie Brown says, I just wanted to thank you again for the wonderful present you gave me. It was just what I wanted. He leaves and Sally, alone in the beanbag says, rats. And then pokes her head up and yells at him. Why do you always have to say something nice?
Michael: That would be frustrating. This is anger.
Jimmy: Oh, man.
Harold: Just the drawing of this lumpy beanbag chair with two legs sticking out of up straight up against the soles toward the ceiling is great cartoon. That's just fantastic.
Jimmy: All right, well, I guess that brings us to the end of 1987. it's still hard to believe, that we've flown through this so quickly. But I'm really enjoying it. Like I always say, this is my favorite day of the week. Just getting. It's my favorite day of the week for two reasons. Getting to hang out with my pals and talk about this stuff and knowing that you guys are out there listening to it at the same time. That's just great. And I'm so grateful for it. If you want to keep this conversation going, you can email us at unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. you can follow us on social media. We're unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads and unpackingPeanuts on Facebook, blue sky, and YouTube.Â
Oh, hey, I'd like to introduce. We have a new member of the team. Intern Brady is going to be handling some of our social media stuff for the foreseeable future. So welcome aboard, Brady. And yeah, give us a call if you want, because I love hearing your voices. That number, 717-219-4 other numbers. And other than that, just come back next week where we will be picking up with the beginning of 1988. So we can wrap this up as soon as you guys give me your mvp and your strip of the air.Â
Michael, why don't you go first?
Michael: Okay, I was waiting for that. okay, I'm gonna do the unobvious. I like seeing Linus back in action. And it seems to be that it's this Lydia character who's making Linus crazy, which I really enjoy. So I am going to give November 22 my strip of the year. And I'm gonna give, most valuable peanut to Lydia.
Jimmy: Whoa.
Michael: Even though she doesn't, doesn't do anything except drive Linus crazy. But I enjoy.
Jimmy: She does it great. Good picks, Harold. How about you?
Harold: Well, my, strip of the year is December 21, where Linus says, she fascinates me. And I give it to Lydia as well as the peanut of the year.
Jimmy: I cannot resist a sweep. So I'm gonna give it to Lydia too, because I really do think that she has reignited the humor and interest of the character of Linus, which is really, really fun because he's one of the best parts of the strip. And, it even gives another little nuance to his relationship with even like, Charlie Brown and Sally. So I like that.Â
And for my strip of the year, not because it's the best strip, but just because it's the weirdest strip. And I appreciate, you know, doing something a little avant garde. I'm gonna go for November 6, which is just the sound problem. No adjustment is necessary because. Sure, why not? That's so strange. All right, well, that's it. So we did it, guys. if the rest of you want to follow along next year, you know where we'll be Tuesday. Be here or be square 1988. until then, for Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
MH&L: 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 Shukrala 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 unpackingPeanuts.com. have a wonderful day, and thanks for listening.
Harold: Donzerly light.
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