Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts, and today we're continuing our look at 1987. I'll be your host for the proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. I did things like Amelia rules, seven good reasons not to grow up in the Dumbest Idea ever. My new comic is being serialized for free at gvillecomics dot substack.com.
Joining me, as always, are my pals, co hosts, and fellow cartoonists. 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 very first comic book Price Guide, and the creator of such great strips as strange attractors, a gathering of spells and tangled River. It’s Michael Cohen.
Michael: Face front.
Jimmy: That's a good new one. All right.
Harold: Well, I don't know.
Michael: I forgot to think of something, so I was desperately searching.
Jimmy: And he is 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: Wismo.
Jimmy: All right, we're going to workshop these new greetings, guys. How's everyone doing today? You guys having a good week so far?
Michael: Sure.
Harold: Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy: Well, you know, I find nothing makes the week better than spending a few hours hanging, out and talking about Peanuts. So we're here in 1987, Harold. You laid a lot of knowledge and info on us last time. Do you got anything for us this time?
Harold: Well, I had so much fun going through the archives of the editor and publisher magazine again. There was this publication that was put out weekly for editors and publishers of newspapers. So I thought, okay, for the period we're going to cover, is there anything interesting related to, Peanuts and what's going on in the world of Charles Schulz's colleagues and competitors? And it was interesting. He actually attended. Now, we'd heard that he'd stopped going to a lot of public events. He was, you know, he wasn't traveling as much, but he did go to this how to get syndicated conference in California, which I would have loved to have been at. That would have been so amazing to meet all those cartoonists, including Schulz. But, he gave some advice to up and coming cartoonists, which I thought was kind of interesting. He said, you must be obsessed with drawing if you want to be a daily syndicated comic strip artist, you have to constantly be having new experiences, because he said most strips will peak after five to ten years and then just flatline. Been talking about this, that Schulz is now, what, year end? Year 38. So this is, something interesting to hear from him. And then the third thing was he said, you must study the masters of the form in comics. Now, they don't mention who he mentioned, but he was very much about looking at those who came before you and, in honoring what they've done and learning from them. So that was kind of a cool little snapshot of Schulz's advice to people who want to do what he does.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: There was another little brouhaha around this time. The Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning had been given out a number of years. And this year, guess who it went to?
Jimmy: Berke Breathed.
Harold: Yes, Berke Breathed of Bloom county fame, which was a comic book, because this.
Jimmy: Was quite a scandal at the time.
Harold: I remember, oh, my gosh. And I had forgotten about this, but Pat Oliphant, who was one of the top, if not the top, cartoonists in the, in his field, he, he made some public statements that were brutal. He blasted the board, the Pulitzer board. he was saying that, they have just awarded this to a highly derivative comic strip that, as far as I know, has not appeared on one editorial page in the country. And the board selected the darling of the gift shop merchandisers and the readers of people magazine.
Jimmy: Ouch.
Harold: Oh, my gosh. And that's, yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty brutal. But, you know, it kind of shows you the pride of, being an editorial cartoonist. He, kind of put himself, Oliphant put himself in the world of what we might call the, the junkyard dog. editorial cartoonist. But she said were a dying breed in that era. And you think back, I mean, the power of the editorial cartoon compared to, they're still around, there's so few, we're doing them, but the impact they have is so much less than what, you know, what we remember. but, man, I couldn't believe, unfortunately, Breathed was not one to shrink back himself. So he, said, Breathed, contacted at his Colorado home, said he was surprised at Oliphant's personal attack on Bloom county. But he did state that Oliphant has a long history of deriding his fellow editorial cartoonists, a practice not particularly brimming with class. Oliphant, continued, Breathed is an immense talent in a very small package.
Jimmy: Wow.
Harold: And how this ties into Peanuts is that Breathed was saying that the Pulitzer board should create a category to honor comic cartoonists. He said it's rather ridiculous that Charles Schulz has never received a Pulitzer, adding that Pogo, and L’il Abner, too, should have gotten one. So he's kind of covering himself and pulling in some of his, some of his fans into this controversy or some of the people that he loves in this controversy. But I thought that was really interesting. This just shows the intensity of pride of the people who worked in these fields. And, man, Oliphant was just fuming.
Jimmy: Yeah. Wow. Well, I know, because also, people were upset that if you're gonna give it to a comic strip, why didn't you give it to Doonesbury? If Bloom county is a ripoff of Doonesbury, I think the Bloom county is a ripoff of Doonesbury thing really stems from those that, like, the first year I actually went back and I was rereading, five years of basic naughtiness, like one of the big Bloom county treasuries, which was the first one I had and I loved. And, the first year is all set at a boarding house, which is exactly like the commune in Doonesbury. And it focuses, really on the guys, Milo's grandfather. There's no Bill the cat. There's no Opus for the longest time. And I think that hangover really rubbed people raw. Like, it was way.
Harold: Yeah, I think anybody who is the second in the genre could get a lot of heat. Right, right. But for sure, you know, pretty soon, it's not derivative, it's a genre.
Jimmy: Right, right.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Right, exactly. If two people do it, one guy's derivative. If three people do it, it's a movement. Yeah, right, exactly.
Harold: Yeah, right. So Breathed got to be that guy. And, the last piece of news I wanted to share was there was a company that surveyed all of the daily newspapers in the United States. And actually, they. I think they. They cheated. They did, like, 60% of the newspapers, but then they estimated from that 60% who had the most actual syndicated comic strips and columns. Also, like Dear Abby was a syndicated feature as well, you know, an advice column. And so they were trying to find out, you know, because the. The syndicates will tell you themselves how many these things are in. But they wanted to know, like, in the US, in a daily newspaper, not a Sunday newspaper, who had the biggest reach of audience in the comic strip world and in the column world. And not surprisingly, number one is, Peanuts.
Jimmy: Wow.
Harold: 1201 out of the 1650 plus dailies, they, estimated had Peanuts. Second, and I had forgotten this. Garfield was with the same syndicate. So Schulz was really feeling the heat of Garfield up, coming up alongside him, because it was his own syndicate that was blowing up all the merchandise with Garfield as well. And it was not too far behind. It had about 10% fewer, 85. Then it was blondie, beetle Bailey, and then among the strips. I'll skip the columns. frank and Ernest, that single panel one about the two hobos that NEA put out. Newspaper enterprise association. Then hagar the horrible, the born loser, which is also nea, which, again, those nea ones were sold as a package. So if you bought the package, you could run as many of the strips as you want. And those were by far the two most popular neas. Then Doonesbury, then the family circus.
Jimmy: I'm surprised Doonesbury is that high.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Shoe’s that high.
Harold: Yeah, right. Hi and Lois, then Bloom County, BC, and the wizard of id, is the last one I'll mention. So anyway, Schulz is at the top of his game in terms of reach. the interesting thing is, in terms of income from these syndicated strips, we talking about how these things play out in the world of Schulz. That syndication income, which they would pay for every week, you know, based on the size of the newspaper they would pay the syndicate, Schulz would get half of that, was only about 2% of his income. That's crazy.
Jimmy: That's crazy.
Harold: Everything else was the t shirts and the trash cans and the tv shows and the little plush toys. Yeah.
Jimmy: Wow.
Harold: So that's it for my editor and publisher, dig.
Jimmy: That's excellent, Harold. That's, that's wonderful. It always adds so much to the show when you have that stuff. And, that's really interesting about poor old Berke Breathed getting, dragged over the coals for winning his prize.
Harold: Yeah, boy. Don't, don't go up against an editorial cartoonist. They're used to dishing it out.
Jimmy: Yeah, they have opinions that. All right, so what do you guys say? Should we go right into the strips now?
Harold and Michael: Sure.
Jimmy: All right, we're picking this up in May, so if you guys out there want to follow along with us, you can go, to our website, unpackingpanuts.com, and sign up for the great Peanuts reread. And we will send you an email once a month, that'll have a little newsletter that will tell you what strips we're going to be covering in the month coming up. And then you can just go over to gocomics.com, type in those dates, under the Peanuts strip. And, away you go. So that's what we've been doing, and that's what we're going to continue doing. And here we go.
May 5. Lucy is sitting, on the floor with her little brother Rerun. And Lucy says to him, put your thumb and your finger together like this. See? Then snap them like this. And she does. And then he snaps his fingers, at least tries to, and he gets a little snip. So hers goes, snap, and his goes, snip. And then Rerun says, I think I have BB gun fingers.
Michael: Well, you've been mentioning that Rerun really starts taking over the strip in the nineties.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: And I was sort of wondering when that would happen. I think this is when Schulz, realizes he hadn't done anything with this character. And so correct me if I'm wrong, isn't this his first spoken word?
Jimmy: No. Gosh, no.
Harold: No.
Jimmy: He's had many spoken back of the bike.
Michael: Those are all thoughts, though, are they?
Jimmy: I. We've had this. Neither one of us have gone back. I'm not sure. But, yes, it's certainly one of the first times he's having any kind of, you know.
Harold: Now, if I had read this strip on May 5, 1987, I would have thought it was Linus, not Rerun. There's. There's no clue. She doesn't say Rerun, which was very surprising that they have not been together in years. You know, I would have totally thought this was.
Michael: Well, I mean, his. Linus always has that shirt, though, right?
Jimmy: Yeah. That's the only clue, really. Right. Although, you know, you could also be forgiven because Lucy's. We're not wearing her classic outfit, so you could.
Harold: Right.
Michael: Yeah. Strange. She looks somewhat younger, too.
Jimmy: I think that might have something to do with just a general, like, softening of the, style. Maybe a little bit due to the tremor. Just age, but I know what you're talking about. There does. Ah, in these later stages, there's, like, a softness that makes them look slightly.
Michael: Younger and somewhat cuter, too.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. Now, this blew my. Well, blew my mind might be an overstatement, but he never did lettering like snap in panel two.
Harold: Yeah, you're right. There's really hard edged, bold lines.
Jimmy: That looks like it's from, like, the Spirit or something. It does not look like it's from Peanuts, especially because the a. Like, fills in.
Harold: Yeah. He's like. He's not used to dealing with it. Was that like a. That was like an speedball A pen. Was that the one that was like this, just this long chisel kind of.
Jimmy: It's definitely a chisel tip pen. But I don't know what those numbers Were because….
Harold: yeah, it's really nice. Yeah, you're totally right. He, he kind of underestimated how much space he needed to put the little, tiny little triangle in the middle of the a and not let it fill in when it printed on the newspaper and the ink bleeds and all that.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: it looks nice. And, this, this joke kind of was odd to me because she doesn't say anything about guns. yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: It doesn't. And I so bb gun, to me, a bb gun, even though it's tiny compared to a pistol compared to a snap, is, pretty, pretty violent. So when he was saying PB gun being a small thing, but he brought up out of the blue, I thought, oh, bb gun, man. That's that's for a little kid to have a bb gun. I'm thinking Christmas story.
Jimmy: So you would rather see, because what you're saying is she's snapping her fingers and he's then comparing her to a bb gun. It'd be much worse to have someone shoot you with a bb gun. They get.
Harold: Yeah. Right. Yeah. So at first, first I was like, what?
Jimmy: Yeah. I didn't yeah. I didn't love the joke, but I definitely picked up what Michael was saying that suddenly out, of nowhere, he's like, I gotta do a bunch of stuff with Rerun.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: He does some more,
Harold: and it's hard to draw, someone snapping their fingers in a single, oh, it's static image. He does a really great job here.
Jimmy: And, oh, and I didn't I didn't read the last little, sound effects because he, he snaps them again and they go snip, snup, fup. So he continues.
May 8. Rerun's sitting there with Snoopy. And Rerun snaps his fingers at Snoopy, and it's a real snap. And he says to Snoopy very proudly, dogs can't snap their fingers. To which Snoopy replies, woof. And stands, Rerun spinning. And, Rerun lies on the ground all dazed. And Snoopy says, who cares?
Harold: So is this the first, maybe major interaction between Rerun and Snoopy, which is gonna be, more of a thing?
Jimmy: Yeah. It becomes a real big thing later. And it's I don't know if it's the very first one, but it's the first major one, like you're saying. Yeah.
May 29. So this is part of a sequence where Charlie Brown has once again been stuck up in the kite eating tree. He's hanging upside down in this strip. Sally comes up and says to him as he's hanging there, how long do you think you'll be hanging there, big brother? I was going to start moving a few of my things into your room to this. Charlie Brown replies, argh. And struggles to try to get free. And then Sally says to him, is that a yes or a no?
Michael: She might, once again, she might be a sociopath. No, that's not a bad thing. I don't think she can just relate to other people's feelings.
Harold: Well, this, this strip to the punchline threw me. It's like she didn't ask him a yes or no question. So why is she asking whether it's a yes or a no?
Jimmy: You're right.
Harold: What the hell?
Jimmy: How long do you think you'll be hanging there? Yes or no? Right.
Harold: It's interesting, it's this year, in this little segment of four months that we were reading to me was like the most non sequitur y Peanuts I'd ever readdevelop. It just seemed like the gags were more random or, when he got to something, he would accept something that was just odd.
Harold: And this was the perfect example of I don't know where he's coming from.
Michael: Yeah, I agree. The punchlines were kind of somehow missing the mark.
Harold: but that's a surreal, it's kind of like tater tot. Jimmy's like this strip Where's Tater tot iIn, the Barney Google Snuffy Smith comic. And the next thing you see him walking off a cliff, you know, and there's no explanation.
Michael: You know, it's just this weird thing.
Harold: Like, no one's proofing you.
Michael: You know, Sally's done this before because when he was in the hospital thinking he was gonna die.
Harold: Yeah, right.
Michael: He moved into his room.
Michael: Which is kind of a sociopathic thing to do.
Liz: Not if you're a little sister
Harold: A sibling thing to do, for sure.
Jimmy: what I found interesting about this is that, you know, we're 35 years later and he's revisiting the thing that in the Rita Grimsley Johnson book, Good Grief, he said was the first thing that he put out there that he realized, oh, Peanuts is becoming, something people talk about because Charlie Brown hanging in the tree got tons of reaction from readers.
Harold: Does this overlap with the time he was talking to Rita Grimsley Johnson?
Jimmy: I bet it does. Because if that book came out in 90, she was probably interviewing him in 87. 88. Right. She probably handed it in. Right.
Harold: Takes a while for the books to get out. Yeah. Yeah.
Jimmy: A year and a half.
Harold: Interesting. Well, that would be fascinating if we look at this segment as, hey, I'm, remembering my whole life's work.
Jimmy: I mean, I think it would be worth some day on a special episode, or if we're just looking at both of these sequences, just the original hanging in a kite or hanging in a tree with your kite. And this one, because it's a really strange thing to do because it's not the same as the football strip, which he did constantly. You know, he did this week once, and then decades go by, and then he does it again.
Harold: Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah. And here he is at the same time telling people, study the masters. Well, if you're gonna study a master, must study yourself.
Jimmy: Yeah. Right. Exactly. I mean, this. Yeah. What master? Cool. That's the other thing when we're talking about, is this the best comic in the newspaper at this point? Well, yes, it is, because it has Charlie Brown in it and no character, the worst peanut strip walks out onto the comics page, dominating everything. Because every character is known to everybody. Every setting, every setup is known to everybody. It's an astounding accomplishment. I mean, there might be individual gags and jokes and stuff, but, like, if we're. Right now, tell me your favorite Calvin & Hobbes strip right now. I don't know if you could. I mean, maybe you could. Your favorite Doonesbury strip, like the punchline. What is it? I I don't know.
Harold: Right, right. I was.
Jimmy: I'm rewatching Seinfeld, from the beginning, and I'm realizing, like, how much, even though I haven't watched it for years, how much of it's, like, memorized to me. It's just, like, playing in the back of my. And I realized it's not because I've seen it so much. I mean, I have seen it so much, but it's because of the way it's written. It's. It's like a song or almost.
Harold: It's.
Jimmy: It's. The dialogue is so perfect, and, like, the Peanuts dialogue is so perfect that I don't think. I don't think anything touches it. And I also think that's why the weirdness of things like this does strike us now. Like, it would never have been that random a punchline, say, 30 years ago. But on the other hand of that, like, is this yes or no when he wasn't asking yes or no question. But on the other side of that, going back to the rerun thing, that's, I think, what allows him to finally find Rerun's personality, which is. Oh, Rerun is a non sequitur. Reruns a weirdo.
Harold: Ah.
Jimmy: That's what makes Rerun special. And it seems like it's coming out of this whole weirdo non sequitur year.
Harold: That was always part of Schulz's personality, too. I mean, those letters that I was reading, to his friends there is. He loves the non sequitur. I think, Jeannie Schulz often says, you never knew when he was. If he was being serious or if he was being kind of talking sideways, he'd say things that didn't quite make sense. And he kind of took a pleasure in going in these little flights of fancy with his thoughts that would go so many steps away from whatever the link was. You can see how he gets there, but he winds up in this place of nonsense, and he really does adore that. And it seems like he pulled himself back from doing that because I don't think he thought maybe it would play, to an audience. But I'm seeing more and more of it, and it's kind of endearing. It really is a unique piece of him that there's a very silly side that I think we're going to see more and more of every once in a while, it pops out.
And I did check on that. Good Grief. The story of Charles M. Schulz by Rita Grimsley Johnson came out in 89. So that's an even stronger argument that he may have very well just been going through some interviews and talks about the whole run of his strip, and he might be coming back to it, because, hey, this is something I haven't touched in a while that really did work.
Jimmy: Very cool.
Harold: What you're saying about the idea that Schulz is one of very, very few artists who create a fictional world, and millions and millions and millions of people know it, and they know it well, and he can play off of that, and he can go to those crazier places, because that's now part of their world, as his world is now part of their world. He doesn't have to sell you on his world anymore. it's already a part of you. And not many artists get to do that, and very few artists have gotten to do it with as many people as Charles Schulz. And I hadn't really thought of it from that perspective. But when he sits down to write a strip. He has that knowledge that millions, of people already know. All the background about Woodstock and Snoopy and Lucy and Linus and Charlie Brown. And that's an amazing thing to have in your quiver.
Jimmy: Yeah. The only cartoonist in history who had something like that. Really?
Harold: Yeah, yeah. I mean. I mean, Garfield on a much limiter-- more limited stage. Right. He doesn't go very broad in what he does. And so we're very familiar with that setup. But this is a. This is a world that Schulz has made.
Jimmy: Yeah. I mean, just things like, sir, it's three letters, and. Right. That's, you know, Marcie's character based on. It's it's a really almost. It's almost, you know, not to overstate it, but it's like poetry, you know, when it works perfectly, there is not a line or a syllable or anything out of place. Yeah, but the other side is here, where sometimes they are out of place. It still works. Like, because, like, in this instance, I'm saying the non sequiturs lead to Rerun’s personality.
June 10. Rerun again, hanging out with Lucy. And Lucy says to him, all little kids seem to need something for security. Not sure where she got that Idea. Then she continues, some carry a blanket. Others like to suck on a pacifier. And then Rerun says, in all his Rerun ness, I always wanted a sword cane.
Harold: That made me laugh out loud. I could think of, like, Sydney Greenstreets or something.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Some eccentric actor. That's where Rerun's going. Perfect.
Jimmy: It's it's like suddenly that is a personality, you know?
Harold: It's a. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: Really strange. I bought my friend a sword cane for Christmas one year.
Harold: Oh, really? Yes. Did you have to make him sign a waiver.
Jimmy: we were grown ups at this point
Harold: So, no, still, you know, you gave this to me. I forgot it was a sword cane.
June 24. Charlie Brown and Lucy hanging out at the old thinking wall. And Charlie Brown says, I have a great fear of being boring. He continues, I also have a great fear of being bored. Then he says to Lucy, what's the most bored you've ever been? And Lucy says, besides, right now.
Harold: I.
Michael: Always appreciate a nice little nasty. I mean, yeah, that's, like, just the classic line.
Jimmy: That's perfect. That's what I'm talking about. Right? There's no better line than that. Now, I like the black thinking wall in this.
Harold: I love that. The sincere look on her face. You know, another cartoonist, I think, might have given her a little snarly of course, you know, look on again. maybe because we know Lucy, he doesn't have to go there. Just play it totally deadpan.
Jimmy: Gotta play it totally deadpan.
Michael: Yeah. Well, Jimmy and I have discussed this, that one thing a lot of cartoonists do is they have their character smiling when they deliver a funny line, which we both hate, because m, I mean, it's only funny if you at least act like you're not trying to make a joke.
Jimmy: And the worst is if they're smiling and has the big handout, that's even worse.
Harold: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, do you think it somehow saps some of the energy going into the reader when that stuff is on the page?
Jimmy: What do you think, Michael? What is the problem with that?
Michael: The problem is that he's, trying to point out that he made a joke, and the essence of jokes is they should not be. Yeah. I mean, a lot of stand up comedians can get away with it, but I think the best ones are the ones who don't have, seem to realize it's a joke. They're just making an observation.
Jimmy: Right? Yeah. Or if you're playing frustration as a stand up comedian, as an example, it has to read, at least at some point, as real frustration, even though you're intentionally doing it humorously to convey the humor of the situation. Right, right.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Because I guess if you point out that it's a joke, if that's almost like it was a smiling character or whatever, maybe it's a sense of insecurity that you don't think the joke so funny.
Harold: Yeah, it almost seems like if this character is smiling, the artist has to find some way to bring you into that character. So you're with them.
Jimmy: you feel the smile.
Harold: Yeah. And I don't think many cartoonists are very good at that. And so, I mean, I don't mind a strip with someone smiling. If I'm thinking of strips that are a little more conversational, a little more low key, like maybe for better or for worse, if someone says something and they were smiling, but you feel like you're a part of that family and you've kind of been invited in, you're on the inside. That's one thing. But most comics are just, hey, I'm going to impress you with a hilarious joke, and you're on the outside, and then the smile maybe is off putting.
Jimmy: Well, that could be it. Yeah, that could definitely be it. I just want to ask you guys, an art question. Just about in general. Just general art. And I was just thinking about this when I was looking at this strip and the, the various ways he's drawn the old, the old thinking wall over the years. Both of you in your work have really consistent style. I don't think I necessarily do, or I can't see it in the same way. Or I see my style as a deficiency perhaps. How aware of style are you while you're doing it? Like for example, if. Cause both of you do very clean, even though you're worlds apart in terms of what you're drawing. You know, Harold's doing a funny animal comic and Michael's doing like a hard science fiction comic. but you both like really only seem to use the amount of lines that absolutely is necessary. And when I'm working on stuff like that, I might feel like, well, I just saw scribble something in the background, but you guys will never break your style. How conscious of that are you while you're working?
Harold: Yeah. What are you thinking, Michael, when you're drawing something like Tangled River?
Michael: Well, I think the page has got to look like a coherent unit, which is different than a four panel strip. But yeah, if most panels have, you know, a certain amount of black, I sort of try to keep that consistent. Yeah, it's, I don't want to detract from the story too much by, putting in something that's, that's jarring and also has to do, I think, with not taking risks either. You know, I want the, yeah, graphically it might be really interesting, but I don't want to be confusing. I sort of want the story to progress in very logical little bits rather than people go like, wow, that panel's amazing. That doesn't help the story.
Jimmy: What, about you, Harold?
Harold: When I'm drawing and writing the story, it's about the writing the characters and how they're interacting with each other. So I'm very, very heavily character- oriented. when I have to do backgrounds, when it's just character interaction and there's really, the world is not a prop, I guess you could say, for the joke. My tendency is, that's not important. And I'm not interested, I'm not interested in creating the world around them. I'm interested in the world between them or in them and including the dialogue. So what I found when I started doing something on such a consistent basis, like I did Sweetest Beasts for a long run, that I was going back to the same things to create that kind of consistent but kind of vague world that they're in. And as I was going along, and I think you even pointed this out to me at one point. It, was really helpful. And actually doing the unpacking Peanuts thing now has also been incredibly helpful. I have permission to do so much more with the setting that they're in and even, like, the Idea. And Schulz did this all the time in the Sunday strips, the background colors.
Harold: Are all over the place. You'll go from a bright red to a bright yellow to a medium blue to a green. Just the space behind the characters. And he did that a lot. And I think, you know, it is arresting. It's almost like watching a Mondrian on the comedy.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: But I didn't get. Well, if I start the strip with a certain kind of a blue sky, well, the sky's not going to change. Like, why not? Why can't the sky change? So I've been starting to kind of play around a little bit more with the Idea that I've got a freedom that make the background mood and not just background, and it's something I've been playing with a little bit more. And I certainly feel that freedom, looking at these Schulz strips, every week and seeing the choices that he's making that keep it interesting for him and for the reader. And, you know, when I put a book collection of these together, I'm glad I had started to mix this up because, you know, if everything's like a blue sky, you got a very blue book.
Jimmy: Yeah, right, right.
Harold: It doesn't have to be, you know, it's something. It's an overall experience. And I had to, because I was like, my gosh, this is just going to be a monotonous color book if I don't play around a little bit with what I have the freedom to do as a cartoonist, I realize I've gotten to give him so much more license than I'm enjoying. And in your work, I certainly don't see as a deficiency. I see it as you being extremely, curious and creative as to how to make something look really rich.
And you're very good at it. I think of those scenes when you have kids walking in a neighborhood and you've got, like, a lens flare, you've got these beautiful trees and these homes. I mean, stuff you don't have to be doing, but you're doing it. And I feel like I'm like I'm in a drawn Pixar movie or something, and it really does set a scene. And that's another thing, like, in film, you know, you always have the establishing shot, the outside of the house or on a sitcom or whatever. And usually that's where you see the detail. And then once you've set that up, you can kind of make the rest of that world much, less. It's just little lines that represent the bottom of a baseboard or something inside the house. But, I really do appreciate people that take the time and the trouble to create a beautiful world. And then once you know what world that is, that's in your memory and you don't have to see it in every panel.
Michael: Well, in relation to the strip we just read, I would never do that. I mean, the wall, is this wall black or is this wall gray? To me, I don't think anyone's going to notice it. Schulz apparently felt that it made the strip pop because he's competing with a page of other strips. but as far as world building, you know, is, what color is this wall?
Harold: Right.
Michael: So I'd be thinking, like, what can I say about the world in the way the walls are built? You know, is it a science fiction, is it a science fiction wall? Is it an old crumbly wall? What is it?
Harold: Right. Yeah, I'm kind of that same way, Michael. But I think it's fascinating that when he mixes it up in the second panel, Charlie Brown is saying, I have a fear, great fear, of being bored. And how do you keep something fresh that you've been doing for 38 years? Hey, I could play with this. I can mix this up a little bit.
Michael: Yeah. But I think he is thinking in terms of what is going to get attention in this sea of lines. That's the kind.
Jimmy: Yeah, I don't think that's. I don't think that's something we can actually underestimate, is that it's not standing alone on a page. It is surrounded by all that.
Michael: I mean, as far as comic books go, no one's going to read it unless the only reason anyone's reading a comic is because they want to read that comic.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: And they're not going to get distracted by another comic, you know, lying on the floor next to it.
Harold: Yeah. You're like, you're surrounded by ads. Like, like banner ads from the 1990s.
Jimmy: Hey, well, speaking of ads, how about we take a break now?
Liz: Great segue.
Jimmy: And then we come back, answer the mail, and, talk about some more comics?
Michael: Sure.
Liz: Sounds good.
Jimmy: All right, we'll be right back, guys.
VO: Hi, everyone. We love it when you write or call to tell us how much you enjoy the show, but don't just tell us. Tell your friends. Tell complete strangers. Share your appreciation in a review. It doesn't have to be on Apple podcasts. 60% of you listen on other apps. Some of those apps have review sections. Think of all the poor Peanuts fans out there who haven't found us yet. There are review instructions on our website@unpackingpeanuts.com. spreadtheword. Thank you for your support. And now let's hear what some of you have to say.
Jimmy: And we're back. We got anything in the mailbox?
Liz: We do. We got a couple.
Jimmy: All right.
Liz: Super listener Debbie Perry writes a couple of odds and ends. First, she says, I've been enjoying your new, longer format, as it gives you a chance to look at more strips of a given year.
Jimmy: Nice.
Liz: And then she says, in your most recent podcast, you asked if there were any other characters that are so identifiable that you could call somebody by that name and they'd know what you meant to. You have to go way back to Charles Dickens for this one. But Scrooge.
Jimmy: Oh, that's a great one.
Harold: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Liz: If you said, yeah, if they're a real Scrooge, people would know what you meant. Scrooge was well known enough that Carl Barks could create a rich uncle for Donald Duck, and you'd know from his name that he was grumpy and stingy.
Harold: That's a fantastic example.
Jimmy: That's a great call, Debbie. Great call.
Harold: Yeah. What an amazing literary character.
Jimmy: No, by the way, Uncle Scrooge is super fun to write. It's the easiest thing in the world. Talk about knowing how a character speaks and the voice, and that's just there, you know, you don't even have to really think about it if you've read a few of those Karl Barks books.
Liz: And she also adds, Winnie the Pooh did have a comic strip from June 19, 1978, launching the same day as Garfield until April 2, 1988.
Jimmy: Wow.
Liz: In 2019, Dark Horse Comics released a reprint collection of a random selection of strips, 365 days with Winnie the Pooh. western publishing also published Winnie the Pooh as a quarterly comic book beginning in January 77. That ran for 33 issues, the last released in 1984.
Harold: And, talk about characters that you can. If you say, that person's a real eeyore.
Michael: Yeah, you have your jugheads. I think that's, another iconic type.
Harold: Veronica. Yeah.
Jimmy: Veronica.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: That's a good one. Yeah.
Harold: Those are all really strong. Yeah.
Jimmy: Well, thank you so much for writing, Debbie.
Harold: Yes, thanks, Debbie.
Liz: Debbie, we really appreciate all of your support.
Harold: We do.
Jimmy: Thank you, Debbie.
Liz: We got a different kind of message from listener Joanne Rubinstein, who, was responding to this strip series about Sally and Charlie Brown. And she writes, I rode the school bus with my older sister for the 1967, 68 school year. It was terrible. There was a patched seat. That was the racial slur seat. We were one of the last stops, so unless kids were absent, we had to sit there. When you sat down, the entire bus would sing loudly, sitting in the racial slur seat. Sitting in the racial slur seat, over and over until we,
Harold: oh, my gosh.
Liz: We didn't tell our parents or teachers because we just didn't do that in the sixties. Thankfully, bus service was discontinued the following year. And, like Charlie Brown and Sally, we walked.
Jimmy: That's awful. I'm so sorry to hear that.
Harold: That's the worst. Yeah. And, and of course, who did hear it was the bus driver, right?
Jimmy: Exactly. Yeah. Wow. Well, that, well, you know what? you are welcome to have a seat of honor at this here podcast. Everybody is welcome here.
Harold: Yes.
Jimmy: Wow.
Harold: Yeah. I'm sorry to hear that's the worst. Yeah. But, I remember the bus could be depending on the year and who you got to know and who happened to be on your route. Yeah, it could be, it could be pretty, pretty brutal. But my favorite was definitely the back seat, even though it was the bumpiest one, because you ever seen that the wheels on those buses,
Liz: they go round and round.
Jimmy: Yeah. Right.
Harold: The back of that thing hangs off the, the wheels by, because we're so tiny, you know? bye. Many feet. So you're, you're really bouncing if you're in the back. But it was cool because you could, you could wave at the, at the people behind you. And everyone's seen Napoleon Dynamite. There's lots of fun stuff you can do.
Jimmy: We, we always fought for the backseat, of the school bus, too. Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah. And sometimes childhood is just not suitable for children. It's a lord of the flies.
Liz: But thanks, Joanne, for writing and sharing that with us.
Jimmy: Absolutely. And if you ever find those kids, we'll call us. We'll go kick their butts. Well, Liz and I will anyway.
Liz: Yeah.
Liz: That's it for the mail this week.
Jimmy: That's fantastic. Well, thank you for writing. as always, if you want to keep this conversation going between episodes, you can, shoot us an email. We're unpackingpanutsmail.com. and, you could also call us on the hotline. We got nothing on the hotline. Today. But that number is 717-219-4162 and, of course, we'd love to hear from you, because when I don't hear, I worry. Don't make me worry. All right, let's go back to the strips.
June 29, we see Snoopy atop his doghouse, and something horrible is going on in his mouth here. He looks like he has his mouth both full and somehow sealed shut. And that happens in panel two and three, and it's just getting worse and worse. Then in panel four, we see he has fallen off his doghouse and landed on his head. And Charlie Brown is there now, and he says, maybe you shouldn't try to eat peanut butter and chew bubblegum at the same time.
Michael: Where is there sympathy in these characters? Nobody seems to sympathize with the victims here. They just make snide remarks.
Jimmy: Yeah, this is a year of the snide remarks to your victimhood. but has. Is the victimhood generally brought on by yourself? Charlie Brown can't fly a kite. The simplest human activity, and he's in a tree. Snoopy is eating gum and peanut butter at the same time. Also easily avoidable. So maybe these people just deserve the snide remarks they get.
Michael: Yeah, but he could be dead. I mean, he can't breathe for three panels.
Harold: the kite sequence was particularly brutal because everyone shows up, including Marcie, you know, and. And they're there. They would have a question they want to ask him. They want to take over the room. They want. There's nobody like, oh, could I help you down, Charlie Brown?
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: And that everyone's doing it. It's like, wow, this is a. This is a pretty brutal neighborhood.
Jimmy: Snoopy can breathe, though, because he has a nose. It's just. I think his mouth is shut. I don't think he's choking. That would be awful. I picked it just because I think those all four drawings of Snoopy are funny. especially the one on, the last panel where he's just on his head.
Michael: Do you think Schulz is trying to be funny here?
Jimmy: Do I think Schulz is trying to be funny in his comic strip? I think so.
Michael: Really?
Jimmy: What do you think he's trying to be?
Michael: I don't know. He's talking about the condition. Mankind's condition with bubblegum. An uncaring universe.
Jimmy: Well, it might be that.
Harold: Well, that's why I should have gotten the Pulitzer.
Jimmy: You should have. Yeah.
Harold: Well, you're looking at that Zipatone in the second panel. So we've got really heavy, pen lines to fill in really rough pen lines to fill in Snoopy's doghouse on panels one and three, and then panel two, he's got zip a tone. And we keep going back and forth on this. but this is an example, I think, of the Idea that maybe Schulz does have that photocopier and he's not sending his strips to the syndicate anymore. He's maybe cutting them down or something. Because even in the Fantagraphics edition, I used to deal with Zipatone. And one thing I learned about photocopiers is they'll get kind of, they'll go light dark, light, dark, light, dark, in this weird, motley kind of way from the copiers of this era. In the eighties, I was putting out a strip in this time period for my newspaper in DePauw University, and I would go and I would photocopy the strip and then take the photocopies over to the newspaper because, you know, you don't trust them with the original art. And this is what it kind of looked like. So I'm guessing that maybe we are not seeing pristine Schulz art, because what they're using is something, there's now a step in between that's much inferior. They used to do a thing called photo stats on this photographic paper, and it would, it would, it was so crisp, and the photocopiers were second best, but very convenient.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: and unfortunately, I think maybe we're seeing a slightly muddier version of Schulz's work than he's actually doing now. And it's not really fair to compare it to the work he was doing in the sixties when they were still doing photo stats.
Jimmy: Yeah. And like a photocopier, we all know what a photocopier. But a photo stat required a photo static camera, which I worked at a, magazine that still had one in the nineties. And it was a whole room, you know, and you'd go and you'd tell the guy what you needed shot, and then he would shoot it, and then you would have, then you would just get negatives from that, and you'd have to make the positives yourself. And it was a huge.
Harold: It's involved.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's an involved process. There was a special machine that vacuum sealed it so that you could make the positive out of the negative. It was actually kind of fun.
Harold: Yeah. And maybe even Schulz wasn't the one doing it. He may have been sending it to United Feature and they were cheaping out, and that could very well be. Photo staff says, hey, Joe, go over to the Xerox. And.
Jimmy: Well, yeah, because they could eliminate entire positions, not just expensive equipment. Right. Because anyone can run a photocopier. Not everyone can run the camera.
Harold: It started in the early sixties. Anybody who's watched the old Walt Disney features, the very first feature that they did where they kept the pencil lines of these artists and like you said, eliminated the positions of the inkers, who would have to translate someone's pencil drawing by tracing it onto a clear plastic sheet called a cell. All of a sudden, they could now xerox that artist's pencil line straight onto the cell. And it looked really grimy and grubby, but they were smart and they kind of make the backgrounds match. And it was an artistic thing for a while of maybe of necessity, but, you know, 101 Dalmatians was the first one to do that. And it's got a really distinct look. And that ran for meant over a decade, with those specials where you're taking the technology, like we're seeing here with Schulz, and you're using it to try to get a new aesthetic while saving money.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, not sure any opportunity, any new technology does present an opportunity to do something creative with it. Absolutely. And, you know, sometimes it's all you end up with is the cost cutting.
Harold: But, yeah, like AI, exactly.
Jimmy: Like anything.
June 30. Linus and Charlie Brown are at the thinking wall. And Linus says, you're at this big party. See, you're in this crowded room. Then Linus continues. Suddenly, across that crowded room, you see the girl of your dreams. Suddenly, you know you're in love, and the hearts are all around Linus. And then the third panel, Linus just sighs contentedly and longingly at the thought of this. And then Charlie Brown says to him, I've never been invited to a crowded room.
Harold: He's never had an enchanted evening.
Jimmy: That's classic Charlie Brown, for sure.
Michael: Well, it's classic everyone.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Unfortunately, people. I mean, rather than responding to what the person is saying, you reflect, your own--
Jimmy: That reaction reminds me of a story
Michael: situation.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, no.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, like, if you know, for some reason you're talking about the artwork, you're doing to somebody, I think one of the more common responses would be, I can't draw.
Jimmy: Oh, that's a hundred percent true. Yes. I can't even draw a stick figure. You're right. It's like, okay, yeah.
Michael: It just, like, negates everything.
Harold: I love Linus's reaction in the fourth panel. He looks mildly offended.
Michael: What's with Linus? He's, like, obsessed. He's, like, falling.
Jimmy: Yeah, he is. He is definitely feeling, the pangs of romance at this stage, for sure. She screwed his head up so bad with her. You're told for me, that's all he can think about now.
Harold: She dislodged something, right?
Jimmy: Yes.
July 2. Sally's on the phone, and she says, sure. What would you like to know? She continues, well, I'm 78 years old, and this afternoon I'm having bypass surgery. And she concludes, you're welcome. Then in the last panel, she finds Charlie Brown and says, I don't have to go to summer camp.
Michael: This is a real non sequitur. Another one. I mean, who would call a house asking people to go to camp, interviewing them to see if they can.
Harold: This was the era of cold calling. Remember all the phone calls you would get in the eighties? Just random people. It was legal for people to call you up on the phone. They just find your number and bug you in the middle of dinner or whatever. But crazy what we put up with.
Jimmy: Yeah. So a couple things here. You can really see the dots of the tone on this one. It feels like he's using a slightly coarser tone. So if there's still any confusion when we're talking about Zipatone, what it is. If you look at that chair or those curtains and you zoom in close, you can really, really see the dots in the chair.
Harold: You can see that weird kind of more design within a design, more pattern. yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: That usually comes from photocopying.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: we got those jangly blacks that Michael's talking about. that is. Man, I love that phrase. Jangly black is, like, the greatest. I love it. These are super jangly.
Michael: I would call this lazy. I mean, if it was me, I'd have to get. I don't have to fill out every. Every corner.
Harold: But he's been doing that. What do you think about, like, Snoopy's ears or Lucy's hair? He's been doing that for them since almost the beginning, right where he would leave.
Michael: Yeah, but this is a flat plane that needs to be colored.
Jimmy: Yeah, but I think that looks like it's something with sheen on it, like a high finish. You know, I'm talking about, like, a lacquer or something. So it's getting different.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, it doesn't bother me. It's just. It's like, I would never do that.
Harold: Yeah. I'm kind of. I'm kind of with you. Michael, if he filled it in.
Jimmy: What would it look like, though?
Michael: It would look like a black with.
Jimmy: A black phone on top of it. Do you think so? If you filled everything in that should have been black, do you think it should have. It would look like, what's a black.
Michael: table with a white.
Jimmy: Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Anyway. Well, I don't care. I like the term. I don't know how I feel about the actual jangly black, but I just like the term.
Michael: Okay, you may have.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, no, that's yours. Actually, one of the biggest, like, applause lines I ever got was me just saying something Michael said. And I did try to give him credit, but everyone was laughing and they.
Harold: Didn't have hearing the words of the immortal bard.
Jimmy: Exactly. It was. Do you know what this was?
Michael: Nobody cared.
Jimmy: It was somehow, for some reason, I was speaking at Fordham University, and their panel was on Graphica. They would-- not comics. Not graphic novels. Graphica. And, Michael's line was, well, if you're going to come up with a stupid name for illustrated literature. Why don't we call it illiterature? And I said that and brought the house down. I'm actually. That's my friend Michael. Anyway, so you have a way of coming up with good, good terms.
Michael: That was a good one.
Jimmy: I wish I. Oh, that's a great one. That's a great one. Illiterature,
July 3. Charlie Brown sitting, watching tv in the beanbag chair. And Sally comes up and says, I couldn't decide if I wanted marble fudge, chocolate, rocky road vanilla or butter pecan. I finally decided to try marble fudge. Then I had to choose between a plain cone or a sugar cone. She's now kind of upset and ranting to Charlie Brown. I decided on the sugar cone. So what happened? I went out the door and dropped the whole thing on the sidewalk. Then she leans up against the, rests her head up against the, bean bag chair and says, don't tell me my life isn't a Shakespearean tragedy. To which Charlie Brown says, I won't.
Michael: Well, if Sally's still alive, she's gonna be really upset with. I mean, you can't even buy a bottle of water without having, like, 50 choices.
Jimmy: Yeah. Isn't that true? Yeah.
Harold: What ph level do you want?
Jimmy: Oh, diet water, zero light. That is, really funny. He's going with those little, squiggly shadows, too. He's big on that for the last few years behind her. Yeah, which is weird because, like, we're. I think we're talking about some of the little flourishes is supposed to maybe hide or, you know, take attention away from the tremor or whatever, but I don't think they do. I think he just likes them.
Michael: Maybe he's seeing things,
Liz: or maybe he's like Charlie Brown and made a big blot of ink.
Harold: Right, right.
Jimmy: We're not starting over.
Harold: That fourth panel of Sally with her back lying on the floor, with her back against the beanbag chair that Charlie Brown is in, her arm has to unnaturally hover because it's not long enough to go to the ground and fall in a way that would look good. So, yeah, it's just an odd look where. But it's weird because holding her arms out parallel over the ground, don't you.
Jimmy: Think he could have extended her arm and made it? And, like, I'm looking at. I think we all have, or at least you and I both have, Harold, that t shirt of Linus, on, the skateboard that they.
Harold: Yes. if you look at he.
Jimmy: I was wearing it the other day, and I looked at it, I'm like, wow. If he's on a skateboard and he has his arms up in kind of that running position, like, you know, his upper arms are 90 degrees from his body and that if you straighten those arms out, they would go below his feet. I'm. You know, he has.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: Real arms.
Harold: And when you see the little feet and when they show this feet on the end of the. Those. Those, chairs, we've noted that, you know, they're probably twice as long as the legs are, twice as long as they normally would be.
Jimmy: So why do you think he do that here?
Harold: I bet he tried it and he just couldn't find something that graphically worked.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: You know, because, I mean, where he would have to at least double that upper arm to get down. I mean.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's weird.
Harold: I mean, I, guess there would have been a way he could have gotten there, but he wanted Sally to be below Charlie Brown because she's on the ground and he's not.
Jimmy: Mm
Harold: And so he's stuck with she. He can't force her up a little bit further so that she's leaning in because he wants her lower. And he needs a space for the text. And so he had a lot of dilemmas there for that last panel.
Jimmy: I don't know that he needed. “I won't.” from Charlie Brown. He could have had Charlie Brown just roll his eyes.
Harold: I think I won't really makes this, though.
Jimmy: You like it? That's the best.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. I love that deadpan.
Jimmy: Go back to the tv.
Harold: You know, he's not gonna tell her. It's not, but he's not gonna tell her, right?
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: Cause he doesn't think so. Yeah, I just thought that was cool.
Liz: Michael is going to set up his new beanbag chair.
Michael: Ooh, very excited.
Jimmy: Oh, wait, you got a new bean.
Michael: But there's no. I got a beanless bag chair.
Harold: What is that?
Michael: Well, I thought I was ordering a bean bag chair from Amazon, but ain't got no beans. I was expecting this huge box, and I get this little box, I go, what? And, yeah, yeah, you pump it full of air.
Harold: Oh, stuff I've heard of that they.
Michael: Tell me is all around.
Jimmy: Oh, they don't include the air. You got to bring your own.
Michael: So it's more like something you throw in a swimming pool, but it apparently shapes itself into a bean bag.
Harold: Okay, well, we'll be looking forward to.
Jimmy: That report next week.
Jimmy: Yeah, well, just can't get off the floor.
Michael: It might just float away.
Harold: Was there ever a Mexican jumping beanbag chair?
Jimmy: That would be amazing.
July 8. Snoopy's atop the doghouse, and he's pounding away at the keys of his old typewriter. And he types away and says, soon after I was born, I was adopted by the roundheaded kid. Lucy reads it and says, you call your owner the round headed kid. Don't you think you should at least use his name? To which Snoopy responds, I hate doing all that research.
Michael: So what's going on here? Is this. Does he refer to him as the round headed kid?
Jimmy: Yeah. I mean, for the rest of the strip, that's. It's the round headed kid. Yeah, yeah, I know.
Michael: Later on, but we've run into this before.
Harold: Yeah, he's. Yeah, he's done it before.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Okay.
Harold: Lucy showing a little, little concern about this. That's interesting.
Jimmy: It's pretty cute. I do like that. I hate doing all that research. There have been a few moments.
Liz: He needs a Harold.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Because there have been a few moments in my own writing where I'm like, I wonder if it's like, well, you know what? We're not going to find that out. We're going to go different.
Harold: moving along.
July 13. Marcie and Peppermint Patty are hanging out, and Peppermint Patty is calling Charlie Brown on the phone, and she says, Marcie and I are about to leave for Camp Chuck, we're going to be swimming instructors in the next panel, Marcie takes the phone and says, we just called to say goodbye, Charles. We're going to miss you. We love you. This outrageous peppermint Patty who yells, Marcie. And reaches for the phone as Marcie just smiles. And in the last panel, we see Charlie Brown at his house with Sally. And Sally says, who was that? And, hey, smiling, Charlie Brown says, I think it was a right number.
Jimmy: Very cute.
Harold: I think this is kind of the first time we see Charlie Brown really accepting what Marcie's saying to him, I think, right. And maybe it's because it's over the phone, it's not in person. he seems to become more and more dissociative, if, that's the right word. in recent strips, he's kind of. He's detached. And a lot of times, like that last thing with Sally, you know, when she's ranting about her ice cream cone, and he's. He's kind of there, but he's not there. And we've kind of seen that as well, where he will offend Marcie, or Peppermint patty, because he is kind of like what Michael was saying, talking sideways to what they're talking about. But here, this is the first time I've seen it go, not a theoretical thing, but a real thing, go right into Charlie Brown. I thought that was pretty cool.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. It's a good story.
Harold: He screws up later in this sequence, but, well, still, I was. I was just happy to see this little moment that he's accepting these, loving, well wishes.
Jimmy: I love the third panel. I think that looks great. This Marcie smiling and leaning ever so slightly away from Peppermint patty as she kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Real good strip. Real good.
Harold: Yeah. I really enjoyed this one. It was nice. Nice little Charlie brown victory. Momentous.
August 23. It's a Sunday. we start off with one of those symbolic panels. We see Lucy out in the outfield and a sweltering sun behind her, but the sun is a baseball. In the next panel, we see her wipe her brow and say, whew. She then trots out to the pitcher's mound, where Charlie Brown is trying to pitch, and she says, hey, manager, it's too hot out there in right field. I'm gonna go stand in the shade under that tree, try to pitch the ball so they'll hit it to me under the tree. Charlie Brown says, I have a better Idea. Go home and pour yourself a nice cold glass of lemonade and then sit down in the kitchen, leave the back door open. As he's saying this, Lucy is walking away. He calls out after her, I'll pitch the ball so they'll hit it through the door into the kitchen, where you'll be having your cold lemonade. In the last panel, we see Lucy sitting at her kitchen table having a cold lemonade with the door open, and she says, I wonder if he was being sarcastic.
Harold: What a great Sunday. I love that one.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Using the longer form there and talk about longer. Look at Lucy's arm in panel two is kind of what you were talking about with Linus skateboarding. She's having to wipe her brow in the heat. And, boy, that is one crazy long arm.
Jimmy: Yeah. She put that down. It would be dragging on the floor or the ground and be twice as long as her other one. I think also, you see when he starts, when he does things like that, different poses that are unique, as opposed to, like we've seen, like, pointing with the glove a million times, standing on the mound a million times, he does seem to struggle a little bit more. I like. I think the captain looks very crudely drawn in that panel.
Harold: All right. Like, so she's kind of supposedly wiping her brow and holding the brim of her cap at the same time. It's a tough one.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: To do with these types of characters. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Because the caps themselves are so wonkily designed.
Jimmy: Mm
Harold: You know, whenever I see a baseball cap, you know, I, was mostly seeing baseball caps and peanuts, and then when I saw real baseball caps, I'm like, that's. Oh, so that's what they're.
Jimmy: Yeah, well, you always get, the thing is, like, they look sideways when they're looking at you. But, of course, in. I don't think in the Peanuts world, they're wearing their baseball cap sideways. Obviously, it's just a, convention of the drawing.
Harold: Yeah. And the arc of the brim, he doesn't. So, yeah, it's a very unusual artistic choice that is super abstract and awfully two.
Jimmy: hats are hard to draw on people's heads. Like, you can.
Harold: It's true. Yeah.
Jimmy: You can always tell when Will Eisner wasn't drawn the Spirit by whether or not they could figure out how to put the hat on his head, you know?
Harold: I know. That is, one of the classic bugaboos of certain cartoonists. They just like how they can't get.
Jimmy: It, can't be done. Well, you know what else isn't easy? Ending one of these episodes because it's my favorite day of the week. But we gotta, we gotta at some point. So that's what we're gonna do. If you want to keep the conversation going, we would certainly love to, to hear from you. You can follow us on the social media. We're on Instagram and Threads, and we're on Facebook, blue Sky, and YouTube again. You could go over to unpackingpanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts reread, and get, our once a month newsletter. And of course, you could just email, us unpackingpeanutsmail@gmail.com We would love to hear from you. When I don't hear, I worry. So that is it for this week. Come back next week where we wrap up 1987 and have more fun hanging out with the gang. So until then, from Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Michael Harold and Liz: Yes,. Be of good cheer.
Liz: 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 unpacked 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.
Jimmy: Illiterature.