Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. We're way out here in 1988 at Unpacking Peanuts. I'll be your host for the proceedings as we go through another year of great strips. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. You can read my brand new comic, Tanner Rocks, right now at gvillecomics dot substack.com. and I also did things like Amelia Rules, seven good reasons not to grow up, and the dumbest Idea ever. 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: say hey.
Jimmy: And he's 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.
Haroldl: Hello.
Jimmy: So, guys, 1988, it's a big year. It's a year of changes. I was reading these strips, and I could hear Michael's brain exploding from across the Atlantic Ocean. I think this is probably the most transformative, what's another word for it? It's just shocking, surprising year of Peanuts, maybe since the beginning. And it's all just because, he's decided to stop using four panels every single day. Since 1950, as far as the daily strips have been concerned, there have been four panels. The only variation would be he would occasionally, and very occasionally, maybe a handful of times, he would break up those four panels into sub panels. But other than that, it's been four panels, for 38 years. And, now he's shifting it up in this very episode. Michael, what was your thought? I mean, you must have known it was coming, but what was your thought when you first saw it?
Michael: Basically, holy ****, here it is. And I wonder, is this a one off, at least for a while? And then. Nope. Then it was a two panel, like. No, it was a one after the three, wasn't there? And then a two panel. Okay.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: All in all this, you know, we've, this, we're going to talk about the first four months of 1988. Really interesting. It's, I don't know if there's something going on in his life. But, the strip really seems revitalized. Matter of fact, I would be so bold to say that these four months were, as for me, were as good as anything since 1970.
Jimmy: Whoa. That is a bold statement.
Harold: I'm with you, Michael. I'm with you. I felt it as well. I don't think it's, just in our heads as we read, you know, every week we're reading this, sometimes in a block of like an hour or two. And sometimes I feel like, okay, it's just my mood is changing and I'm reading it through my mood. But I totally with you on this one. I was surprised. There were so many things I wanted to pick, to talk about more so than in years and years. There was so many things in this year that I totally agree. I wrote down that he seems to be on top of things.
Michael: Punchlines are working.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Which lately I've been. I've been seeing a slowly, slow diminishment of my enjoyment of the jokes. And I assume that was going to continue. And it was getting harder for me to pick, like, I better pick one. And this year it was like, I'm, picking too many. I gotta be more selective.
Harold: It's weird, right? Yeah.
Jimmy: I just want to say, this is as validated as I've ever felt in my life.
Harold: This was. Yeah, this was a surprise. This was so cool. yeah, I mean, I really, really enjoyed this year. And there's one other thing. Last year, it's not as big a thing as switching the panels from four to a, variable during the dailies. But I noticed something. And then I went back to see when it happened, and it was on January 11, 1987. It had to do with the Sundays. That changed slightly.
Michael: I didn't notice that.
Harold: Any clue what might have shifted?
Jimmy: Is it the logo?
Harold: Yeah. It went from his hand drawn Peanuts, featuring good old Charlie Brown by Schulz, now his Peanuts by Schulz. And that's a pretty big thing because I forget why he felt he had to say featuring good old Charlie Brown. I know he didn't like the name Peanuts and I know that, maybe he wanted something else in there when he was allowed to do it that would focus on, you know, a character that he created so that Peanuts is not there sitting by itself, but he's not anymore. It's now a font, Peanuts and then by Schulz, handwritten. And, you know, it's a little piece of Peanuts history right there that I kind of missed when it happened.
Jimmy: What do you think of it? I don't love the machine font Peanuts. It's okay.
Harold: But in a way it somehow gives something a little more, a little more, I don't know, solid and pristine to what is a rougher looking strip that I kind of like to contrast on.
Harold: I didn't mind it and obviously didn't notice it for over a year's worth of reading. So, yeah, I don't have an issue with it. It's so cool to see that Schulz does feel on top of things. It seemed like he was kind of, I don't know if this makes sense, but he seemed like he was kind of not under, but like in the middle of something where what he was doing, he wasn't able to rise above what he was creating. He was just kind of in the midst of it, just plowing through. And then all of a sudden I feel that, yeah, things start to lift and it feels like, he's above. He's been complaining and griping about, you know, pains and aches and stuff through the characters. This time, these four months, he seems to kind of be at peace. He's like, he's come to terms with the situation. He's not griping, but he still acknowledges it. But it's not from a place of, of being upset where he is. He's just saying, this is how it is. And I was wondering to myself, what's going on? And, then something hit me that I was like, I want to go check and see. Because I had heard the story that Charles Schulz had gotten a dog who was the canine love of his life around this period. And I went and checked to see what it was, and it was 1988.
Jimmy: Oh, Andy.
Harold: Andy. Yeah, it was this beautiful little mixed breed terrier, that they got at a fox terrier rescue that was found on the beach wearing a little leather collar. And I apparently scratched into the inside of the collar what looked like a kid's handwriting was the name Andy. And so it was kind of the lure of Schulz in his head that there was this little dog very much loved by a little kid that was lost and now he was living with them. And Schulz said, for some reason, I have never had a dog in all my life as much as I like little Andy, I developed a fanatical love for this funny little fuzzy dog. And if you ever see a photo of Andy, you can see you get a pretty good Idea of what Schulz may have fallen in love with. And it's so funny. It took me back to when I was eleven years old. And I got my first dog, a little miniature Schnauzer that I named Herbie. And, I used to say Herbie taught me how to love. and it's, I was getting emotional thinking, oh, it seems like I'm seeing that in the strip, that there's something in this little unconditional love of this dog that Schulz maybe somehow is exuding through the comic strip, because there's something that can be incredibly grounding when you've got something that you love that's like a dog. A dog is a unique relationship with a, with a human being. And to hear Schulz say this, it's weird, but as I was reading, I was like, there's something different. What's changed? And maybe it was Andy. I don't know.
Jimmy: He loved this dog so much that his author photos in later years on, like, I think it's around the world in 45 years or something like that, has a picture of him with Andy on his lap. You know, he talks about him in the, in the good grief book. And he's an adorable little puppy. Andy is as cute, and he looks like a stuffed animal.
Harold: He does. He looks like a little plush toy. Did you know that all these years later that, Jean Schulz, who also since 1986, was involved in the Canine Companions group, which was the service animal organization.
Jimmy: That's right. I believe they, they were huge supporters of that.
Harold: Well, she was, she's on, she was at least as of a couple years ago. She's on the national board. As far as I know, she still is. And she, on her own volition, said, you know, to promote this organization, I think the best thing we might be able to do is make a little short cg film. And I didn't know about this until I went into the rabbit hole with Andy. And there actually is a short, subject that is called Andy a dog's tale that came out, I think, last year. Little seven minute thing. She funded it. She executive produced it, found some local, cg thing that's won a bunch of awards.
Jimmy: Oh, wow, I can't wait to watch that.
Harold: Yeah, I've seen the trailer. You can find the trailer. but, you know, a trailer for a seven minute film sounds odd, but there is a trailer out there, and they did a beautiful job, from what I can see. And the fact that it's also honoring Andy, I think, is really sweet.
Jimmy: Well, that's really cool. That's fantastic to hear.
Harold: And I have a couple more things for the beginning of our 88, if that's all right. it's more than.
Jimmy: All right, it's welcome, Harold.
Harold: Well, thanks. For those of you not familiar, I have been looking to see what overlaps with the months that we're reading from Editor and Publisher, the magazine for editors of newspapers and publishers of newspapers, and seeing what's going on in the world of comic strips and specifically of Schulz and what's come up in the news to kind of give us some context for where Schulz is in his career. And what I saw were a few little articles. One of them that said, the Nielsen company came out in early 1989, I think, and they said, but anyway, through the eighties, the first nine, years, or the first eight years or whatever of the eighties, Nielsen said that the highest average annual rating among holiday tv specials went to a Charlie Brown Christmas. Now, this thing is 25 years old, or 20. Well, a little over 20 years in averaging over that period. And it's still drawing massive audiences. It just a beloved tv special. So, anyway, I just wanted to mention that I thought that was interesting because it was up against Rudolph and the grinch and a bunch of new things that were coming out. California raisins. So. But Peanuts reign supreme, in this era.
Jimmy: Wait, there was a California raisins Christmas special?
Harold: I think so. Maybe m I'm hallucinating. The other thing that's going on in comics. This seems to be the final era when comics were really relevant in the culture. Comic strips, I should say. This is when Calvin and Hobbes bursts onto the scene. We've talked about that. This is when Far Side was out there grabbing everybody, and everyone was talking about the Far Side. And Bloom County was another one that just really made a huge impact in the culture. Well, Far Side is on sabbatical, I think, around this time, and Bloom County has just been announced by Berke Breathe that he's ending the strip for the first time. And there was an article on what all the newspapers were going to do to fill that hole and that gap. So that's the update. Obviously, Peanuts is very much in the mix in a time when strips have really become revitalized and are, you know, making a difference from people's lives. So it's cool to see that Schulz is right in there.
Jimmy: And that could absolutely be another factor in his uptick of just, you know, having. If you're a competitive guy, you kind of need competition, right? And if you're scaring everybody day after day, you're not going to get whatever you're getting out of it, right? You need that challenge. I think yep. Well, that's exciting and fantastic as always, Harold. Thank you so much for bringing that to the table today.
Harold: You're welcome.
Jimmy: All right, so, guys, should we, should we jump into the strips?
Michael: Yep.
Harold: Sure.
Jimmy: All right. So if you characters out there want to follow along. The first thing you're going to want to do is go over to our website, unpackingPeanuts s.com, sign up for the Great Peanuts reread. That will get you one email a month where you get a newsletter from us, and it will give you a heads up as to what strips, we're going to be covering. And then you can go over to gocomics.com and just read the strips there under, under Peanuts and typo in the dates. And away you go. So that's, what you can do if you want to follow along. And, we encourage you to do it. And here we go.
January 1. Snoopy and Woodstock are atop the doghouse. Snoopy think, says to Woodstock, well, do you have any plans for the new year? Panel two, Woodstock fills the sky with his little chirps. And then he continues with even more chirps in panel three. And then in panel four, Snoopy says, just gonna keep chirping away., huh?
Michael: That's good dialogue there. I mean, there's lots of ways. Lots of ways you could. No, no. I'm talking about Snoopy's little. There's a lot of ways he can phrase that, but this is just very natural. And I find this funny because it's, you know, here they are, bestest of friends, right? But I'm feeling Snoopy's getting a little tired of this.
Jimmy: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Harold: The little drawings of Woodstock are really cute in this one. The second one, he's got his little wings out, as if he's explaining something. And Schulz is so quickly knocking the chirp marks out that, you know, I've certainly experienced this. When you're using, like a dip pen or whatever, sometimes you don't bother to lift it in time. And so your, your hand is moving upward after you've gone down. And so the chirp marks look particularly quickly rendered here because they look like little L's. A lot of them.
Jimmy: They do. Yeah. Yeah. my favorite drawing is that last panel of, Woodstock. Like, I love that he turns away from Snoopy for some reason.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Like he's been turned off. Yeah. Very, very cute.
January 4. Linus and Lydia are in class. And Linus turns to Lydia and says, hi, Lydia. I thought about you a lot during Christmas. Vacation. Thank you for the nice Christmas card. I really wanted to send you one, too. You know, I still can't figure out why you wouldn't give me your address. To which Lydia replies, today, my name is Melissa.
Michael: I'm a big fan of Lydia. yeah, but then again, here's another thing that's happening. just like in that first strip, we've got Linus still obsessed with her. And in the following appearances, the following conversations between Lydia and Linus, he seems to get more and more annoyed by her, to the point where, like, he can't stand it anymore.
Harold: Yeah, Lydia's great.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's such an interesting little relationship. And maybe, perhaps Lydia is overplaying her hand because she's, got to keep him just interested enough, but can't get him, you know, irritated and want to be out of this situation.
Harold: Based on what I see of Lydia, I think she's testing her boundaries. How far can I go with this guy?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: And maybe she likes him a little, too, you know?
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. She does, do a thing about. It's possible she is falling in love with the back of his head, which, of all parts of Linus, I'm not sure if that would be. But you know better than that dent in the front, I guess.
January 21. Charlie Brown's hanging out there, getting some psychiatric help, from Lucy. And he says to her, it seems to be getting worse. Lucy says, can you tell me about it? Charlie Brown answers, well, I hope you won't think this is silly, but. And then in panel four, he zips from the patient side of the psychiatry stand to be, right next to Lucy behind the booth, and he says, I have this fear of being alone.
Michael: Whoa. He's starting to lose it now.
Jimmy: I like seeing the psychiatry booth. I like that it's still $0.05. He flirted around there with a lot of different prices, but, you got to come back to the original just for the iconicness of it.
Michael: Yeah. Do you think this is the classic case of transference where you're supposed to fall in love with your therapist?
Jimmy: Oh, God, I would like to see that strip. That could actually be really funny.
Harold: There was something about that fourth panel, seeing the two of them in there. This is an example of something that he's been doing for years. And for some reason, seeing Charlie Brown sitting next to her in her booth, it just seemed like, this is revitalized. There's something fresh that I haven't seen before.
Jimmy: And I was like, yeah, and it's a great drawing. Because a lot of times it's difficult for him. I would imagine, to do a physical gag that requires close proximity between characters because their heads are gigantic, their bodies are small. Like, he already. He has the frame size, and then he has, in this particular instance, the frame within the frame because. Yeah, you know, and, that could be tricky. But he has. It's perfect. It's. It's the way she's leaning back and, like, almost touching his ear. I love it.
Harold: Yeah. It's almost like she's getting a good, good whiff of his ear there.
Jimmy: Yeah, she really is. It's way too close. Very, funny. And I like the little stool there outside. It's nice to see it without anyone on it. This continues, for a bit.
Charlie Brown is, still at the booth, and, Snoopy is here with him now. And Lucy says to Charlie Brown, I can understand your fear of being alone, Charlie Brown. Why can't you and your dog do some things together, go out and chase some rabbits? Snoopy rolls his eyes at this, but Charlie Brown says, I remember we tried that once in the last panel. Snoopy says, a rabbit chased us for 5 miles.
Michael: I'd like to see that. That would be, if you're going to do an animation special, that would be a good one.
Jimmy: That would be amazing.
Harold: Just.
Jimmy: Oh, bunny hopping after him.
Harold: It's a feature film. 5 miles is about the amount of time you need to fill out a feature.
Jimmy: so here you go, Harold. Here is your thesis of Andy. Well, what, when did he find Andy?
Harold: Well, so we don't. We don't know. So this could be before. Certainly this would have been drawn right around the new year's time for him, so. And whether Jean remembers that this was. She did say 1988. I don't know. If she's just roughing it out, it wouldn't have happened. I don't think by this time would be very unusual. If it.
Jimmy: Well, isn't that weird, then.
Harold: Yeah. Right. And now. But again, you know, rescue dogs have been a part of, not rescue dogs, but essentially companion animals anyway, has been part of their collective life, at least for two years, you know? So whether he was going with her to these various places because of what she was doing, that's entirely possible. So who knows?
Jimmy: Well, I know that Schulz did not talk much about any of the philanthropy he did, but, he was proud of his work with Canine Companions, their work with Canine Companions, to the point that he mentioned it, I think, in the Gary Groth article. And other places. So it's obviously something that was a big part of his life.
February 7, it's a Sunday. And Snoopy, it's very snowy. Snoopy is pushing his supper dish up a very steep hill in that symbolic panel. And Charlie, Brown is inside. But he sort of senses something or he notices the time, I guess, because then the strip really starts and he's outside and yells supper time. Snoopy has pushed his dog dish way to the top of that hill and his ears perk up when he hears this. So off he goes down the hill, in his dish just like it's a sled. he goes flipping snout over tea kettle and then lands, boom, right in front of Charlie Brown. And then behind him flies in the supper dish which he catches deftly in his mouth and then turns to Charlie Brown looking for his supper.
Michael: This is really well choreographed.
Harold: Yeah, yeah.
Michael: You know, he breaks it down into a lot of little panels so you can really see the action flowing here, to the point where you don't notice the absurdity of the fact that this is clearly at least a huge hill covered with snow. Right, like right in front of Charlie Brown's house, which was never there before.
Jimmy: Well, what it could be, and I don't know about other places, but in good old Girardville, Pa, when we'd get a massive snow pile snowfall and they plow the roads they have to put the snow somewhere and they don't know where. so I lived right across the street from the public school, the public grade school. So they would just pile all the snow from like the four blocks that made up my street right at the, in front of the school because it was just a big empty sidewalk. And we were. It was fantastic because you could have all kinds of games that you'd play and it was like a pre made for might be like 8ft tall, when you'd get. On the rare occasions you'd get.
Michael: They wouldn't do it in front of somebody's front yard though.
Jimmy: This was essentially in my front yard. It was almost like if I didn't have the fence, it could. It would have. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. I mean. Now, again, I'm not saying this is standard procedure for a small municipality. I'm just saying this is what Girardville cooked up.
Michael: No, I think a small town in California would not have this problem.
Harold: Well, but where are we? That's the question. This is a strange shifting of things from where Snoopy's surfing and then the next thing you know, covered in snow.
Jimmy: Yep. It's really, really nicely cartooned.
Harold: I love how, beautiful.
Jimmy: Yeah, I love it. It's really.
Harold: I love that head on picture of Snoopy as he's turning sideways with his little feet.
Jimmy: You so rarely see a head on picture of Snoopy.
Harold: Yeah. And I can't hold it against Snoopy for his difficult descent because, from my limited experience with dog dishes, they are not going to be very good sleds, the way they hollow them out underneath. So, yeah, actually it was a pretty good job there.
Jimmy: It would really just dig in. Right? Yeah.
Harold: Right? Yeah. Make a little brick.
Jimmy: Yep. Do you remember those?
Harold: Oh, yeah, yeah. We had the. Where are those gone? Those were the most amazing things. A little. I have this little blue igloo brick thing, which you stuff snow in, and you could make it bricks to build the. Oh, man. I lived in Rochester, New York, when I was a little kid, and we got some snow, and we loved doing that. Yeah. Building our own little forts out of the building bricks for our igloos. It was great.
Jimmy: That was a great winter tour.
Liz: Michael, what did you do in the wintertime in Los Angeles?
Michael: Oh, we made little bricks out of the smog. Made little smog houses.
Jimmy: Oh, man. I would love to hang out in a smog house with you. That sounds a lot of fun.
February 12. Linus is once again sitting in class with Lydia. And now he hands her a little valentine, and he says, as long as you won't tell me her address, I'll just give you this Valentine in person. And Lydia, eyes half closed, rebuffs Linus and says, maybe you shouldn't. If our hands touched, I might faint with excitement. To which Linus tosses the valentine over his shoulder and says, happy Valentine's day, Lydia. And then Lydia answers, today my name is Anna. To which Linus sighs.
Jimmy: Siga. A, good old Siga.
Harold: But she's smiling, looking at that valentine. So Schulz is keeping this a little bit.
Michael: Now, panel three is where Linus goes. I can't handle this anymore.
Harold: Yeah, this is too much. It's just wrecking me.
Jimmy: But that la. That fourth panel, man, you're right. The tiniest little smile on her face.
Harold: Yeah. After her. Very cynical looking. Second panel there, it's like, okay, there's some. There's something. There's hope for Linus, even though we see it and he doesn't.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. No, she is just, a world class player. That is what's going on there.
Harold: Yep. If I had had a Lydia behind me, I think I'd be in exactly the same position.
February 14. Sally looks shocked at something. It's a Sunday. And then she runs away from whatever it is. Then she runs home. She slams the door behind her. And then she sees Charlie Brown, who's, sitting, reading in his favorite chair. And Charlie Brown says to her, what are you doing home? I thought you went to the library. Sally says, I didn't make it. And then very upset, she says, I got as far as the corner where they have the traffic signals. That's when I saw it. Charlie Brown says, so what? Sally says, the red hand. And then it's a hard smash cut to Sally on the corner, and we see the don't walk red hand lighting up ahead of her. And then in the last panel, we see her flop down in the good old, beanbag chair, saying, I got scared and came home.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: This takes me back to childhood.
Michael: I identify with Sally because she's like a conspiracy theorist, obviously.
Liz: Michael, will you tell your red hand story?
Michael: No. No. But I used it as a symbol of some organization, some secret organization, because there was the black hand, which was an early fascist group.
Harold: Wow.
Liz: But that story of how things got set up.
Michael: that's for a different podcast. That's for d and d podcasts.
Liz: Okay. But brilliant.
Michael: It was one of the Great, Great moments of my life.
Jimmy: Well, we definitely don't want to hear about it.
Michael: No.
Liz: Well, if you tell it, then I can always cut it.
Michael: Okay, I'll tell it, and we can cut it. Okay. We had this huge live action, real time adventure, which started when I think.
Jimmy: Yeah, we've been having it for 30 years together.
Michael: We were playing d and d, a bunch of us. But anyway, I went to my mailbox, and inside was a message that was a clue of some sort to a location. And I had to figure it out. And I finally thought, well, this sounds like it's like, up near the college. And I went near the college, and it sounded like it was a certain spot. And I went there, and there was another clue. Anyway, so I'm following these clues, and then, this plot gets more and more convoluted. And finally, I was supposed to meet somebody in this cafe in Bellingham. And I go into the cafe, and there's my friend Ken, who is part of our group. Except this guy's talking like it's not Ken, like it's somebody else, and he's warning me about things. And, this was the greatest moment of my life. It was a crowded cafe. There's probably, like, 20 people there. And we're sitting there, I'm talking to Ken, you know, we're in character talking about this weird conspiracy, and at some point, he says something, and all the people in the cafe turn and look at me, and they raise their hands, which are painted red. It was totally light. And I'm going, bleh, bleh. I mean, it was Radel's friends who I didn't know he'd plotted this whole thing.
Harold: Oh, my gosh, that's wild. And they're waiting for you to go to your mailbox, and they're just hanging out.
Michael: No, no, no. This thing went on for weeks, me following these clues and so he knew I was supposed to meet somebody in the cafe at noon on a certain day. And he had all these people there who were just ignoring us and acting normally, eating lunch. And then at the right moment, they got a signal from Ken and raised their hands and turned to me.
Harold: So what. So what was your reaction when,
Michael: No, it was really [sfx babbling]. It was like, I didn't know any of these people. And it was just like in the movie, this is the greatest thing.
Jimmy: Do you break? Do they break at any point?
Michael: No, no, they just. Totally expressionless.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: Anyway, and the thing went on for a couple more weeks. Ended up with Jeremiah, knocking on somebody's door stark naked with a gorilla mask on.
Jimmy: You know, I played a lot of dungeons and dragons when I was a kid. Didn't go there.
Harold: But, man, I totally relate to Sally here. this is one of those kid things where things that are just normal, everyday part of life. If you just see it in a fresh way or whatever, and it spooks you. And so I see the red hand, they're like, okay, I get it. That's. That could be pretty creepy if you don't get what's going on.
Jimmy: The red hand, just raising it that way, it's terrifying, right?
Harold: Yeah. Yeah. And again, this is that freshness in this year. like you said, there's a smash cut of, like, a looking back in time, which he's very rarely done.
Jimmy: Once when, they needed the joke, it was Snoopy and Spike talking. And, you needed the joke to be on a sign somewhere. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was. It was. He has done one or two very rarely, of a hard cut like that.
Harold: Seeing that in color. Ooh, yeah.
Michael: Oh, yeah. It's Sunday.
February 20. Charlie Brown is sitting in his beanbag chair, and Sally says to him, don't blame me. That's my new philosophy. Charlie Brown says to her, I thought your new philosophy was, who cares? To which Sally says, who cares? Don't blame me. Charlie Brown says, what do I know? And then Sally incorporates it, saying, I like that. What do I know? Who cares? Don't blame me.
Jimmy: Sally's philosophy becomes so, integral to her character that it becomes one of the best songs in the musical. and if we could find the Kristin Chenoweth version of my philosophy. Boy, it's a fun song.
Harold: And I love Charlie Brown's falling back into the beanbag chair where you only see his feet, the classic cartoon gag of just seeing the feet of the character after the punchline. I love that.
Liz: It's also very similar to her debate preparation from a few weeks ago.
Jimmy: It is, Yes, it is very similar to that. she keeps it tight. She doesn't get caught up in the weeds of these things. That's a funny strip. it's been a blast so far here in 1988. We're going to take a break, and when we come back, something that will happen that will rock the Peanuts world to its very core. Well, not really, but we're going to, see what happens when he cuts away from the four panels. So, we're going to take a little break, come back on the other side, and we'll check those strips out.
BREAK
VO: Hi, everyone. You've heard us rave about the estabrook radio 914. And what episode would be complete without mention of the fab Four? Now you can wear our obsessions proudly with unpacking Peanuts t shirts. We have a be of good cheer pen nib design, along with the four of us crossing Abbey Road, and, of course, Michael, jimmy, and Harold at the thinkin wall. Collect them all. Trade them with your friends. Order your T shirts today@unpackingPeanuts s.com. slash store.
Jimmy: And we are back. Liz, I'm, hanging out in the mailbox. Do we got anything?
Liz: We do. We got something from a new listener, Aaron Forringer, and he writes, hey, listening to your podcast. Love it. Started at the beginning and trying to catch up up to 1977, part one.
Jimmy: Wow.
Liz: One issue has triggered me about Snoopy. Snoopy's alter egos are supposedly non winners, like Charlie Brown, like the famous World War one flying ace, because he can't shoot down the Red Baron. But in order to be a flying ace, Snoopy would have to have five confirmed kills or have shot down five enemy planes. So even though Snoopy has not shot down the Red Baron, he has at least shot down five enemy aircraft. But even shooting down balloons in world War one was dangerous. And he sends us a link, a Wikipedia link about pilots who were, their mission was to shoot down observation balloons. Anyhow, just some thoughts. Can't wait to catch up with the current episodes. Aaron Forringer
Michael: so we need to have five new strips of Snoopy shooting down five german airplanes or balloons.
Jimmy: The prequel, I can picture it being an accident of some sort. You could actually, right? Like the first time he tries it, he flies, off out of control. You see five german parachutes gently floating to the ground from the sky, you know? Yeah, I could see that. That's really funny because the other thing that makes me think about is that, like, he's the world famous author, but he's like the world famous bad author or unpublished author. It's such a, it's the, the fantasies are weird.
Michael: I never understood the surgeon of, all the, his personae, what feels pure Schulz to me.
Jimmy: Like he became friends with his card--, I'm guessing, like, this is my fan fiction. Schulz becomes friends with his cardiologist, they go out golf and every once in a while and he throws a surgeon strip in there. That's my, that's based on nothing. I made that up right now, but that's right.
Harold: Well, I got a message from, Fernando Ruiz on LinkedIn. He is the, academic supervisor at the Kubert school, also a fellow cartoonist. Very talented guy. And he just got us the message that he just reached the sixties. our friend Paul Castigli, a friend of the show, was telling him, you gotta check out Unpacking Peanuts. And Fernando has been burning through the episodes, getting up to the sixties. And he said, it's been a fascinating journey. And he said, going through the fifties, I relived a few strips that had been adapted into viewmasters, which took me back. I had some of those viewmasters that were like 3d Peanuts strips recreated. So I had the Peanuts viewmaster set when I was a kid. It was neat to see the little models of the Peanuts gang and fascinating to look back now and see how faithfully those strips were reproduced. And yeah, they were, they were really cool. I remember loving that. That was my favorite part of having a viewmaster, was seeing the 3d Peanuts.
Jimmy: Now are you talking about the ones that were little, like dioramas of sculpture?
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Oh, boy, they're cool. I didn't have them. I believe Marnie had the-- Marnie Marquit my neighbor. But I loved viewmasters in general.
Liz: They were, viewmasters were very cool. Yeah, I had a grand canyon viewmaster.
Harold: Oh, nice.
Jimmy: I, actually had one in my studio for, like, 15 years. It's gone missing, but I did have one for years and years.
Harold: Wow. I'd also like to give a shout out to Seth, who showed up at Blobfest at my tent where I was selling my stuff, and just to say hi and, said that he was enjoying the episodes and that he was loving Tuesdays, when they came out, because that really was something he enjoyed, is to look forward to a new episode of Unpacking Peanuts. So that meant a lot to me to hear that from you, Seth, and thank you for stopping by and sharing that information, and anybody who wants to come to an event that I'm at. Seth, you were the first guy I was able to give a little vinyl stick or two of unpacking Peanuts. So, yeah, if you're in the area, one of the shows I'm doing, please stop by and say hi, because it's lovely to meet listeners.
Jimmy: Ah. All right, so, shall we get back to the strips? Because we got something, big that's about to happen.
Liz: All right.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: All right, here we go.
March 1. Charlie Brown is atop the pitcher's mound in panel one, and he yells out to the outfield, okay, team, this is our first game. Let's hear some chatter out there. Panel two. He says, let's show him what kind of spirit we have. And then in the third and final panel, Lucy says, just wait till next year.
Michael: Yeah, mind's blown. All right. So the first thought that came to my mind was, what would the third panel be? If it was going to be a four panel strip, would it be a blind?
Harold: I was thinking, let's hear some chatter out there. From panel one would become panel two. Yep, that was my take.
Jimmy: Yep.
Michael: This is really not changing the timing of, this. Well, it is changing the timing of the strip, but it's not changing physically changing anything about the strip other than, moving some dialogue into the second panel.
Harold: Yeah. What's interesting, the logistics behind switching to a three panel from a four panel, because if you go and look at the strips from the previous week in the four, and you look how tall the strip is, we had already noticed that back in the fifties when they said this was a space saving strip, the strip was not very tall. It was very wide per panel. Right. Even though it was four panels. And so what that meant was the way the newspapers dropped the strips into some sort of system, is that everybody's the same width, which means if your height is not very high, you're going to have the smallest strip on the page. And there's a couple things going on here with Schulz, maybe a few things that had to be dealt with in, order to make this change. One of them, Jimmy, you mentioned, was that a very few newspapers would and could run Peanuts vertically because the four panels were always the same, and it was a certain size that would fit the newspaper. And when Schulz is switching over to this, he's obviously gotten the freedom, as we're going to see, not just to do the three equal panels, but to mix it up and even do a single, long, wide panel. So, number one, he'd have to get approval from the syndicate that whoever was still running the strip vertical, if anyone was, that they would be okay with that. And it's Peanuts, of course they'd be okay with it, but he held out for so long.
The second thing that I noticed is it does make the strip a lot higher, which means, because the width is the determining factor, Schulz is now in direct competition with all of his other strips in terms of how much space it takes up. His was probably the shortest in height, being as wide as it was. Even though he had added some height a few years ago, he's adding a lot more so that he's looking like every other strip. I think that's cool for him, and I think it's probably the right thing to do. And then the last piece of it is, when you mix this up, you can change the size you draw or how much space it takes to draw. So. Well, I guess there's two other things. One is it's less work, right. You don't have to do four panels. You can do three panels or two panels or one panel. Then it's not as much work to draw the strip when you've got a fewer characters to draw. So that's a piece of it, and then you can work whatever size you want. And when he's changing this up, it appears like maybe there's a middle ground. And again, the people who have collect the strips or at the museum, they would know this, but it seems like he is working larger based on how large the lettering is compared to before. So I think that's giving him some freedom to. In other words, it might be the width is maybe roughly the same, but now he's got the extra height, so the tremor, for one thing, can be a little less obvious on the page because he's working larger. So there's a lot of different things going into this, this shift. And the thing that struck me was how effortlessly after us being used to that four panel beat of a Peanuts strip, how these just totally feel natural. And even though I've never seen a single panel Peanuts strip before, or a three panel Peanuts strip before, it doesn't feel odd. He just feels like, you know, he absolutely knows what to do, even though he's mixing it up.
Michael: Yeah. It didn't seem that, I got used to it really quick, and I was. At first I thought, well, okay, the. He's saving 25% of his work, but I don't think that's the case. I don't think he's saving any time. I assume because he's working all day on one strip. I bet 90% of that is sketches and ideas and rough.
Harold: I think you're right. Yeah.
Michael: And keep actual drawing time of him. If he, made this one a four panel strip to draw, Charlie Brown again on the mound, might be ten minutes.
Harold: Yeah. I mean, he did some of these strips in like, 15 minutes. I think we've seen some evidence of that. He was so fast when he got these things down, at least on the dailies. I think the Sundays obviously took a lot more effort. It might take a couple hours, but, yeah, he is fast, and he enjoyed that. I think that's a piece of cartooning that he really embraced, was that you can do it in this kind of shorthand way, and there's no dishonor to using what cartooning is so good at, which is getting something down quickly and with a lot of personality. And it doesn't have to be the most pristine thing that you've tortured yourself over. He's fast. He can't wait to get it out of his pen, you know?
Jimmy: Yeah. The one thing I wonder, he had the four panel strips, printed out. Right. Do you think he did this with a variety of different layouts? Because if you are going to think about it as any kind of a time saving thing, if you're now hand drawing and hand ruling the various panels, that's going to take whatever time you save. Not drawing a fourth one is now eaten up by doing that.
Harold: I bet he had a bunch of threes. And then when he had to do an oddball one, like he does on March 11, that it's. Every panel is a different width, which is like, it's striking, you know, it makes takes that makes the daily look like a Sunday.
Harold: Then, yeah, he's probably got a. I'm guessing he's got the rectangular box for the whole width of the strip and height of the strip. And then what a lot of artists would do is they would white out the areas where the panels were, and then they have to draw the vertical line. So that is extra work. Yeah.
Jimmy: Interesting, by the way, lost in all this. I think just wait till next year as the, chant for the first game of the season. That's really funny.
Michael: That is a great punchline.
March 27. we got one of them. They're symbolic panels. It's two kites. One has Charlie Brown's face on it, and one, a tiny one, has Woodstock's face on, on it. in the next panel, Charlie Brown is attempting to fly a kite. And within four panels, we see, of course, it has gotten all tangled up in a tree, and he looks forlorn. M then in the next panel, a tiny little bird wit Woodstock comes running by, and he's got a kite in the air. And this shocks Charlie Brown as he watches Woodstock successfully soar that kite high until the penultimate panel. Or we see Woodstock has gotten his kite caught in a tree. Except it is a tiny, little Woodstock sized tree. Looks like a little broccoli tree. And, then we cut to inside Charlie Brown's house, and Sally says to Charlie Brown, well, how was the kite flying? And Charlie Brown answers, I hate to admit it, but I just saw something that made me feel real good.
Michael: This is enjoying someone else's pain. Schadenfreude.
Harold: He's not alone.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah. The. This was a laugh out loud for me. The only one this year. Yeah. The absurdity of that little tree. He could have had Woodstock tangled in a big tree.
Harold: Right.
Michael: But, nope. That makes it ten times funnier.
Harold: Look how rough that kite looks in the second panel.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Oh, my gosh. That is an incredibly rough looking kite. And there's no reason that it's supposed to look rough. Right.
Jimmy: That's what I was just wondering. I mean, is it. I don't know. It looks like it's actually a struggle to draw the kite, but, it could be that it's Charlie Brown's kite, then it's, you know, beaten up.
Harold: It doesn't look so bad in the third panel, though, right?
Jimmy: Well, that's further away, though, right?
Harold: That's true.
Jimmy: Yeah. I'm curious, because when you zoom in on that, boy, that is a rough, rough looking kite.
Liz: And this string under his arm is. Has a 90 degree angle.
Jimmy: Yeah, it really does. It shoots right up. here's a question. I'm not saying, this is what happened with that kite. But do you guys ever. You're drawing along and then just can't draw for half hour, hour, six years, something like that? You know what I'm talking about? Where it just feels like, oh, I've drawn this thing 16 times. Why can't it look right now?
Harold: Yeah. Yeah. Why?
Jimmy: What's up with that?
Harold: I don't know. Do you believe in the whole right brain, left brain thing, where you just in a certain space, and it's harder to draw because you're in a more verbal state or whatever? That seems to have some truth to it.
Jimmy: I think that's part of the reason why some people don't grok comics at all-- is that they have a hard time with, the left brain, right brain thing. it certainly could be because it's not, like writer's block or anything. Like, I know what I'm trying to draw. I'm trying. I'm trying to draw a teenage, girl on a phone, which is what I was trying to do yesterday. Right?
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: And two panels of teenage girl on the phone on the page. One I was so proud of. The next one can't be done. Couldn't. Could not just quit for the day. So strange.
Harold: Wow. Michael, do you have that issue where drawing becomes really hard just for a little block of time?
Michael: Well, no. I mean, the streakiness is endemic for creativity. It's, you know, applies to songwriting or whatever. It's like, some days you can do it. Great. Some days you can't do anything.
Harold: Yeah, yeah, I.
Michael: And that's right. I think this year, you know, my first thought was, okay, this is a streak, and curious, see what's going to continue. But starting January 1, it suddenly got better. I mean, that's kind of weird.
Harold: Isn't that wild? Yeah.
Jimmy: Do you think it was just like. I mean, I do. I think that is the start of a new cycle for a daily cartoonist, because there's no other demarcation in your career, but, all right, new year, new me. Let's get it done. Right?
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: It's got. It's almost as a resolution, like, okay, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna do my best work.
Jimmy: Right?
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: And, you made a really good point, Michael. I. My experience is it's not so much the drawing that I'll get hung up on is. It's the writing, where stuff just flows and flows. You have, like, 20 great ideas in an hour, and you. You could just keep going and going and going, and then. And then there's like months when it's like, I have nothing to say with this, with these characters. It's weird. And that's what I feel, you know, when I see some of the Peanuts stuff is he just gets into a certain space and he's got to fight it out. And to hear that it's constantly, constantly in his head. Peanuts is, is his, literally his life. Yeah. That he doesn't get away from Peanuts, that's amazing to me. But also that there seems to be these moments where it's not flowing and you've got to get it out.
Jimmy: Yeah, you got to get it out. You know, there's another thing about it that Peanuts s really is the ultimate combination of words and pictures. Like, they really work to the words. See, you know, they work together perfectly. Okay. There's very rarely a Peanuts strip where you're, you just marveling at the drawing, and it almost doesn't matter what the words are or something like that. When you're working on something like Calvin and Hobbes or, I don't know, whatever, even, I'll just say, I'll say me . When I'm working, I'm working on this new Tanner comic. If I don't feel like it for, a certain moment, I can just turn on the drawing and go, okay, well, this page is all going to be about how cool this tree looks, and the tree leaves are falling, and you're going to be a vibe, and that's a, that's great. And then that'll be the beat that really, if I was feeling more writerly, I would have made six panels and had some philosophy on top of it or whatever.
Michael: Right.
Jimmy: Schulz can't really do that. They're so together that, like, it's both have to be working or neither is working.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. And they mention this multiple times, but I, just always go back to that Scott McCloud pyramid that he made of different art styles and how Peanuts was in the lower right hand corner of this triangle of characters being, looking iconic. So the art looks like an icon. Looks like in the most ultimate icon, which McCloud puts in a sliver going down that triangle, is that, the word, like the word chair. For the word chair is the ultimate icon, right? It's letters that make up a meaning. But Peanuts, because you've got such simple shapes and characters, that artwork is so much like a word. You know, it's like Charlie Brown's head is almost like a written word because it's made of these, these symbols. And that's what I love about comics, you know, two are right next to each other. The words in the pictures. Yeah.
Jimmy: But the way he does it, they are the most right to like. I mean, it's. It's. It's astounding, but it's a lot of work for one cartoonist to do, you know, to constantly keep both of those things at this level.
April 2. Oh, now we're down to one panel. Charlie Brown is on the back porch, and he has Snoopy's supper dish. And he says, you used to dance up and down and all around when it's supper time. And then just later, down on the other side of the panel, Snoopy, atop his doghouse says, there's always somebody ready to remind you of the dumb things you did when you were young.
Harold: There's something poignant about that.
Jimmy: Seeing the house and the dog house in the same picture is pretty wild.
Michael: It's too close. Yeah. This, I don't like this. I don't think this is a successful use of one panel. And, I'm sure he'll get better at it. But to me, I'm just mentally breaking this into two panels, and that seems to work better. First of all, it is starting to see the doghouse. It's not even. It seems like it's out of proportion somehow. But seeing it, you know, I always imagine Charlie Brown walking much further to the doghouse for supper time. And to see it 5ft away is like that, doesn't seem right. And also, the snoopy's thought balloon doesn't seem like it's in the right place. This whole thing just looks kind of out of whack to me.
Jimmy: Yeah, well, I mean, I think the one panel strip version of this strip, or really any daily strip, very rarely works. I think you at least need to break it up into two. I think the reason he didn't is because he wanted to see the two of them in the same panel. Because if he broke it, it would seem like. Unless you somehow showed Charlie Brown now, next to Snoopy's doghouse, it would seem like Snoopy. They would seem too disconnected, I guess.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: But I will. There's a couple things. I actually think it's drawn really pretty. I mean, I love the drawing in this strip. I also love the use of zipatone, which, because he's able to focus your eye with it, it kind of does give you the two focal points anyway, if not two panels. But the thing I actually like, there's always somebody ready to remind you of the dumb things you did when you were young. I feel like this as a cartoonist. I know there when I have a reader who has read the really early amelia stuff, right. Invariably they will talk about their favorite thing, and invariably their favorite thing is something I cringe at.
Michael: Sneeze barf.
Jimmy: Cringe. No, no, no, it's not. Sneeze barf. That. No, that's gonna be on my tombstone. I don't care about the sneeze barf. No, no. And I won't tell you what it is because everybody who was a kid loves it when they talk to me about it. And I'm like, oh, if I could cut it, I would cut it.
Harold: Wow.
Jimmy: And that, but that's, but that's the wrong impulse, because I can't go back to the 28 year old me and say, no, no, no, don't do that. That's George Lucas-ing it, and you're going to get in real trouble.
Harold: Well, what about it? When you hear your audience saying, this is my favorite thing, why is it there's a stronger voice in you going, No, I shouldn't have it in there because.
Jimmy: The joke. Because I. Because the joke's very funny, but I don't sanction the joke. Right. And I didn't. But it's funny for the character, right? Super funny.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: I'm not saying it's nothing, but now it's like, oh, that's your favorite part? Then I think maybe you're missing the rest of the parts, but I know you're not because I've read everything else and I'm just being hyper critical about it. But it's like the temptation when a new printing comes out to go, yeah.
Harold: I've got my very first, Sweetest Beasts book. there's a certain strip when I see people flipping through it, when I'm sitting at the table and I see them hit it, I'm like, oh, I don't know how.
Michael: Actually, the thing that bothers me most about this strip, because I really don't like this one. But even I did pick it because it is a, historic first. Yeah, this is really, really sad because it's poignant.
Harold: Yeah, it's poignant.
Michael: But the fact is that Snoopy's supper dance was one of the best things, and it was really part of his character. And everybody loved his happy dance when it was suppertime. And I don't think of that as a dumb thing he did when he was a kid. I think it was a great thing. And now he's old, right?
Harold: Yeah. I picked this one as well, not only because it was a single panel. First time we saw a single panel daily, but it was poignant. But it also kind of goes into what I was saying about Schulz being in a different place.
Harold: I think he would have been complaining. Snoopy would have been complaining about not being able to do something anymore. And now it's like Schulz seems to be coming to terms with his age and, embracing where he is rather than complaining about where he isn't anymore. And so it's both sad, but it's also like, that's probably kind of healthy. You know, he can't do certain things anymore, and it's okay. He's in a different part of his life. And so that on top of the poignancy of Snoopy saying something like that, which you wouldn't expect from earlier, Snoopy, kind of gives a little bit of resolution for me.
Jimmy: I mean, there's no way to avoid the fact that as we go on and on with this, I mean, we're talking about mortality. it's not just a run of a comic strip, it's a person's life, you know?
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: And, I hope that at some point, he was able to get to the point that go, yes, I've moved beyond certain things, but they weren't stupid. Like in my best, moments of looking back on that kid starting the Amelia book. Kid, 28-year-old starting the Amelia books, you know, I honor that kid's journey. And go, oh, yeah, you know what? You were working your butt off. Good job. You know, it's not really my place or his place to go back. And, you know, Renege on or whatever it is, you know, rethink the things that. That happened in the past, because it's fruitless. Right.
Michael: Yeah. Well, then again, we do have the, wonderful option of, since everything's getting reprinted, of going back and fixing the artwork, which I do all the time, I cannot stand that panel. I wouldn't. I wouldn't change a word of the story, because that's the story. But changing the artwork seems, like, acceptable to me.
Jimmy: That's funny. Yeah, very interesting.
April 15. Linus and Lydia in class again. And Lydia says to him, today, I'm calling myself Ophelia. To which Linus says, why don't you call yourself a taxi? Then he turns around and says, it's an old joke. Did you get it? Then Lydia says, speaking of old, aren't you kind of old for me? To which Linus says, I can't stand it.
Michael: He's back at square one.
Jimmy: Is that an old joke? Like how old?
Harold: Definitely an old joke. Yeah.
Jimmy: Really?
Harold: Haven't you ever heard this in an old movie or something? Oh, well, it's actually in singing in the rain.
Jimmy: Oh, yes.
Harold: Quick, call me a cab. Okay. You're a cab.
Jimmy: Call me a cab. That's right. Okay.
April 24, we see Snoopy in, a tux of some sort. and he looks like he's learning how to dance with some old fashioned feet on the floor, footprints on the floor style, instructions. In the next panel, we see Charlie Brown is, in fact, making Snoopy his dinner. So he's filling up the old, supper dish, and then he goes outside to give it to Snoopy. He yells, supper time. And then in the next panel, we see Snoopy, who is just sitting atop, lying atop the doghouse. And Charlie Brown arrives and he says, what happened to you? You used to dance around and around when it was suppertime. To which Snoopy jumps off the doghouse. And then I does a few attempts at the happy dance, which you've got to see, look up on gocomics.com. and then in the next last panel, he says, I can't believe it. I've forgotten the steps.
Michael: This is really sad. This is really sad. I mean, why is Snoopy the only one who's aging like this?
Harold: right. You say avatar.
Jimmy: Well, seven years for a dog, you know.
Harold: Yeah, right.
Michael: That's true. It's happening faster. But actually, this is a callback. Well, I'm sure Schulz didn't mean it, but when. Remember when Lucy was taking dancing lessons and she does these, she wiggles 1 foot, and then she wiggles the other foot. And that cost my dad $12, and that's essentially what he's doing.
Jimmy: Yep, yep. All right. Which is the best of, the panels of him dancing, if you had.
Harold: To pick one, which I think that very first one. Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: First one. That's one I picked, too.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Because it's.
Harold: It is very funny and it is sad. I agree. It's like, oh, Snoopy, you're not a puppy anymore.
Jimmy: Yeah. And the other thing is, I don't know how, like, the general media missed the fact that long ago Charlie Brown stopped being Schulz's avatar in the strip. And it is more and more and more Snoopy, you know? And right up into the nineties, he was doing interviews and people say, are you Charlie Brown? And he'd go, oh, you know, I guess I am. But I'm all the characters. It's like, yeah, well, it's a very shallow reading of the strip, I think, because I see it much more with Snoopy.
Michael: And it's interesting that he uses this setup twice within a month.
Jimmy: Yes.
April 29, Snoopy is lying in his bunk, in his world war one, flying ace garb. And he's thinking to himself, next Monday is the Red Baron's birthday. And then he walks off, I guess, to the px store, and he says, I have to send him a nice cardinal. And then in the last panel, he is perusing a spinner rack of cards, and he says, I wonder if he likes Garfield.
Michael: Is this a dig or a tribute?
Harold: I think it's a tribute.
Jimmy: That's a tribute. I think. I think it's like, to me, the fact that he was able to bring himself to do that is very cool. Yeah, it is.
Harold: I think so too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, you know, competitive guy, and he has loads of greeting cards out there. But Garfield is huge right now, as we heard saw from those polls. You know, Garfield's right in the mix there. His favorite strip of the era, and he lets it be a Garfield thing. And I just thought that was cool and funny. And, yeah, he's, again, he's kind of seems to be at peace with certain things that he might not have gone to before. It's one of his competitors, but at the same time, it is the zeitgeist. And that's what I love. You know, the eighties is still, the world of comic strips is still so relevant that anybody reading this in the newspaper, like, oh, yeah, I get that. I get that completely right now, in.
Jimmy: The eighties, here, it was more comics were more vital than they had been in quite a while, I think, in the newspaper.
Harold: Yes.
Jimmy: I mean, it's an exciting time. I wonder if he likes Garfield cracking, especially with the look on Snoopy's face, because he could have also had a big smile on his face, like it's a bunny wunnies book, you know? But he's just like, I wonder if he likes Garfield. It's like picking out a something for your, like, nephew or whatever, and, you.
Harold: Know, you don't quite know him well enough. I wonder if the Red Baron would like Garfield. I'm in the same quandary as Snoopy there.
Jimmy: Oh, I think it depends on the individual cardinal. I love panel two, and I, think he's good at Zipitone. I think that maybe I can understand why you wouldn't like the zipitone in Peanuts if you're a purist, because it was decades without it. But as far as just a guy who knows how to apply it, it's good he knows. He knows what he's doing. That second panel really framed Snoopy nicely. Yeah, all ah, right.
Well, listen, that brings us to the end of, this episode. We'll be back next week, of course, though, when we continue 1988. If you want to keep the conversation going with us, there's a couple different ways you can do it. the first thing you can do is sign up for that great Peanuts, reread. And that will get you our email newsletter once a month. That'll give you the heads up on what we're reading. You can also check us out on social media. You can follow us. We're unpackpenuts on Instagram and Threads. And we're unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, blue sky, and YouTube. And, as always, you can give a call to the hotline, which is.
Aziza: 717-219-4162
Jimmy: and I love to hear from you, because when I don't hear, I worry. So with all that being said, all that's left to say is, come back next week. And for Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Liz Michael Harold: Yes, be of good cheer
Michael: Give 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 unpacked Peanuts on Instagram and Threads. Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, blue Sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com. have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
H&J: Yeah/No