1998 Part 1 - Are We Not Beagles? We Are Peanuts!

Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. Today we're looking at 1998, and I'm gonna be your host for the proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. I did things like Amelia Rules, Seven Reasons not to Grow up, and the Dumbest Idea Ever. And joining with 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 co creator of the original comic book price guide, the original editor for Amelia Rules, 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: He's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, former Vice President of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation Sweetest Beasts, Harold Buchholz.

Harold: Hello.

Jimmy: And making sure everything runs smoothly and we stay out of trouble. It's our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.

Liz: Present.

Jimmy: You're never gonna. Are you gonna make a new one for how many episodes do we have left for the. This, experiment, if you're up to the task.

Liz: I just had an idea, so.

Jimmy: All right, now you're committed. It's got to be a new one every week.

Liz: Oh, no.

Jimmy: well, I hope everyone's doing well, and I hope all you listeners are out there doing well as we get to another year of great comics. to discuss, I wanted to talk about a few other things. Harold, you said you might have some stuff from, good old Editor and Publisher.

Harold: Yeah, I was just checking in to see what was being said about Charles Schulz in 1998 in the Editor and Publisher magazine. Turns out that the strips that we're looking at this, year, the dailies are in color. and I did notice that there was an article that United Media, which distributed as a syndicate, the Peanuts strip, had just added Jim Unger's Herman to its other two strips that were full color Dilbert, and Peanuts. So apparently what we're seeing in these strips from 1998 were color choices that Schulz himself came out of his office. So because they were saying they provide a little more control to the artist because some newspapers were actually coloring the strips themselves. Also they had a little announcement that Peanuts, annual worldwide, sales of merchandise, it's, one and a half to $2 billion.

Liz: Wow.

Harold: In annual worldwide sales. And Garfield is number two for United atjust over a billion.

Liz: Golly.

Harold: And the early web, news of. You know, we talked about $2 billion. United media had an old website. I don't know if anybody remembers this, but it was called comic zone dot com. And, they had about 1.2 million viewers visitors a week. 1998, still pretty early in the Internet era. And they had a web store, and they said that they were selling 1997 a little over half a million dollars in sales of all United Media things, mostly Dilbert and Peanuts. And, they also mentioned that Peanuts was the top licensed property in Japan from their mix of things. And that, they were just authorizing in nine Asian countries a, chain of Snoopy restaurants. So I'd love to know more about those.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: I wouldn't eat dog.

Jimmy: I was gonna say, do you get everything in the red dish?

Harold: That would be great. Yeah. Imagine.

Jimmy: Sounds delicious. I'm shocked that it's over one point what billion.

Harold: One and a half to two billion dollars. Yeah.

Jimmy: Yeah. Amelia Rules only pulls in about like, three quarters of a billion a year. So that's. That's high, right?

Harold: Yeah, that's. And that's what, in today's dollars, that would be like, what, three billion? Close to. Gosh, it would be.

Michael: Wow.

Harold: Maybe three or four.

Jimmy: Well, so he's doing pretty well.

Harold: Yeah, yeah. He seems to be having some sort of an impact around the world. 

I will put out that reading the first four months of strips for 1998. I laughed longer for a strip in this little group. More than any other strip that I read. For all of Unpacking Peanuts as we're doing the great Peanuts reread. And I was kind of surprised 1998 that that happened to me.

Michael: I can't imagine what strip that could be.

Harold: Bbecause I have all of these memories, you know, mentioned it, of reading the strips from the 50s and the 60s and the 70s and not so much beyond that. And I have really fond memories of strips I just loved, loved, loved as a kid. But this was one that just hit me. it was so fresh. 48 years in. I was like, that's great.

Michael: One thing we can discuss is. So each of us made our picks for the first four months, and let's see, we had 14 strips. Nine of them are from January. so, it seems like Schulz was, at least in our opinion, a little hotter. And then it's coming off his sabbatical. So I was wondering if we had some theories that maybe he was saving up ideas or.

Harold: Boy, yeah, you know, he didn't stop thinking about it. That just doesn't stop.

Jimmy: Well, he didn't even stop working on it, according to that editor and publisher thing.

Michael: When did this, the actual sabbatical, end?

Harold: So it said it was a five week vacation beginning, I think it was the day after Thanksgiving. So essentially right in, right into the new year. Yeah.

Michael: All right, January 1st, he's back at work with a notebook full of concepts.

Harold: I would think that that would have to be true. Just knowing him, he, you know, when you don't have to create something, you can weed out a little bit more the things that you said. Okay, I have to put out something today, so. Yeah, you'd expect him to be a little bit hotter in January.

Michael: Okay, well, that's a theory.

Jimmy: All right, well, let's see. let's put that theory to the test and we'll, take a look at these strips. So if you want to follow along, go on over to unpacking peanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts reread, and you will, be put on our mailing list for one email a month where you will get our newsletter and hear, about what comics we're going to be covering for the next few weeks. and then you'll be able to be clever and go online and find them somewhere and then read along with us. So with that said, let's start with the strips.

January 7th, Lucy and Linus are sitting there. Linus, is in classic thumb and blanket position. And Lucy yells at him and stop yelling. And Linus says, I wasn't yelling. I never said a word. Lucy thinks about this for a second and then she says, stop never saying a word.

Michael: What struck me was how simple this whole strip was. And now I'm thinking, oh, this, I got this in color. I don't know if this was the first of the colored dailies, but it looks super clean. There's no background. Zero. But also there's no zipatone. So I wonder if he thinking now in color was. Was laying off the zipatone. We'll find out.

Harold: That's interesting. Yeah. Because, the number of papers that were actually running it in color were still super tiny. I think I mentioned earlier, I used to get the St. Louis Post Dispatch, which, it had two full pages of comics in the newspaper. Daily newspaper. It was amazing. And the back page was in color. And this was in the 80s before they were doing, like, the computer color through the syndicate. So somebody at the St. Louis Post dispatch was taken, like, 20 some comics and having to color them every day, which is quite a. Quite a commitment. But it was great. I loved it. but here, you know, Schulz, how many. I mean, it's obviously worth their while to do it. And I think probably, as that article from Editor and Publisher suggested, it may not have just come up about from pure economic standpoint, but because, maybe someone like Schulz was complaining, after seeing what people were doing with the color of the dailies, it's like, look, we got to do this ourselves. And I do like the color in this.

Michael: Yeah. Well, it certainly doesn't need any background, but he intends to at least put some indication of furniture or something.

Harold: Right.

January 8th, Rerun and the little pigtailed girl are sitting in kindergarten class working on something. And Rerun, they have glue, a, paste pot out on the desk, and they have scissors and crayons and stuff. And Rerun says, wow, what a project. Color these pictures. Cut and paste, draw those trees. More cutting, more pasting. What a learning experience. Yes, ma' am. You've done it again. Then he leans over to his little friend and says, when she's happy, we're happy.

Harold: I bet this was cut out a lot of doors in schools.

Jimmy: It's very cute. I love that Rerun knows the score, in this classroom. He knows how to get along.

Harold: Yeah. That look on the pigtail girl in the last panel is such a classic Schulz pose that is unlike any other cartoonist. And it's super hard to describe. It's somebody hearing and thinking. And, he. He raises one eye maybe a little higher than it should be, based on the tilt of the head. It's. I don't. I don't even know how to describe it, but it made me think of those old, young Pillars strips that he did. it's just such a classic Schulz response of somebody just hearing something and thinking. You can tell.

Liz: No, it's very neutral. You can interpret it however you want to.

Michael: I would call that bemused. Like, what he said made her stop and go, hmm. I wonder what's going on here with kissing up to the teacher.

Jimmy: Pretty cute. I wish. you know, I think one thing he could do also, if he wanted to clean it up a little bit to hide a little bit, even more of the kind of softness because of the tremors and stuff, is just fill in the blacks, you know, I think jangly blacks work when you're super slick. I'm not sure jangly blacks work as well.

Michael: Yeah, so that's interesting. The zipatone here is, is red as a color because, I think it wasn't-- he's been Zipatoning her hair. Right. And it's hard to tell maybe what happened beneath the brown. Yeah, it is, it's toned.

Jimmy: And you'll see we have some of these that are not, in color, that are in black and white. And you can see they definitely have zipatone on her hair.

Harold: It's interesting because they could have provided the strips with the color before they had dropped the zipatone if they wanted to.

January 14th, Sally's at her house and she receives a phone call. So she answers it as anyone would and says, hello. And it turns out it's Peppermint Patty who says, hi, Sally, this is Patricia. I'm calling about a school dance. I don't suppose Chuck would go with me, would he? No, I suppose not. Anyway, tell him I was thinking of him. And then Sally, goes into the other room and sees Charlie Brown and Snoopy watching TV in the beanbag chair and says to him, you almost went to a school dance. 

Jimmy: I, like the little sequence, between Peppermint Patty and Marcie that are gonna ask Charlie Brown to this dance but then sort of talk themselves out of it.

Harold: Yeah, yeah.

Michael: And there's a Marcie follow up strip which get picked, which is Marcie doing the same thing. Pretty much.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: And  I really liked the, I think it was the, the capper when Charlie Brown actually calls Peppermint Patty up and says, I heard you wanted to go to the dance with me. And she's like, oh, Chuck, that was last night. And I can't remember what he says to her, but it's like, next time we'll save the waltz for me or something like that. And Sally's like, that was really slick. And he's like, yeah, well, it's easy to do that when you're already off the hook. So Charlie Brown is kind of. He timed his phone call until after he didn't have to go. But that was pretty fun.

Jimmy: Very cute.  January 15th we didn't pick, but it's actually he, this is a redo of a punchline he did with Rerun back when Rerun was just on the back of his mom's bike. Considering I don't do anything, I live a very active life. Just saying he, he redid that one. 

January 19th. It's a two panel one and the entire Van Pelt family is out waiting for the bus, including Linus, who has the weirdest hat ever, because he's apparently wearing it backwards and sideways. And the hat itself does not have the vent opening on the back of the hat. His, for some reason, has it now on the side of the hat. So the Van Pelts are having issues, clearly. And Lucy's reading the newspaper, and it says, this is an article on schools and education. It says, small classes are better. To which Rerun replies, if I stayed home, our class would be even smaller.

Harold: He says, swinging wildly about his thoughts of school.

Jimmy: Well, I don't know that he’s swinging wildly. No, I think he hates it. And he knows. But he knows how to play the teacher so that she'll be happy.

Harold: Well, he did have that one strip last year, though, when he was, like, leaning back in his chair and, like, this was. That was phenomenal. So I don't know. He's.

Jimmy: Yeah, I think mostly he hates it, though.

Harold: that hair. That hair is really getting defined as just sitting, like, a little toupee on top of his head. It's like Mr. Weatherby's, hair of the principal and Archie, which was just like, a little wisp.

Liz: What I'm curious about is, what do you suppose Linus is thinking about in this strip?

Harold: yeah, I think he's in ____.

Jimmy: He's in full Buddhist meditation.

Liz: Really?

Harold: He seems to be so checked out with his siblings. You know, Lucy has caused him so much trouble, and even when he's not doing anything, she's angry at him for doing something.

Michael: he's probably wondering why his cap is sideways and backwards at the same time.

Harold: Yeah, but. Yeah, it's kind of sad how there's just no connection between him and his little brother. But you got him sitting in this weird way on one. Yeah, it's like maybe he's trying to. I got. Maybe he's trying to even something out there.

Jimmy: Does he have, like, a thick wallet in the other pocket?

Harold: Yeah, maybe. Yeah. he's.

Jimmy: I like the little, thermos that Rerun has.

Harold: Yeah. Oh, I want to go back to your. Your thought, Jimmy. You were saying it would be better for Schulz to fill blacks in solid, given that there are other rougher elements in his actual line.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: Just from an artist perspective, why is that? You just need a balance between clean and rough, Or.

Jimmy: I think you just need areas that are shored up and solid. You know, just like when I've heard people say, shore up the corners in a panel of comics, you know, meaning, like put some heavy blacks or something in the corners, so that it, you know, it grounds the panel and makes it feel solid. And I think what happens when everything's shaky and everything's not filled in, you become more aware of it as a drawing than you do of it as characters sitting there.

Harold: So you don't think it wouldn't be jarring. Like, say, would you do that for Lucy's hair?

Jimmy: Yeah, well, I would do it for Lucy's hair. well, I mean, Lucy's hair is different because that's always been established that way. That's like. But I'm talking about, like, the pants would be a great thing. not even necessarily in this.

Harold: what about the base of the sidewalk here? Where. Or the road or whatever would you make that?

Jimmy: That would probably help a little bit. But I mean, you know, you'd have to really redo it all thinking that way to begin with.

Harold: Right. Because the things he has clean and has always had clean are, the border panels. Now he's having to rule those by hand. When he didn't used to, he used to have them pre printed because he only had four panels in every daily. So it was just all done for him. And now he's ruling that out, but it's clean. And his lettering, I don't know how he has managed to keep his lettering so remarkably clean, given the rest of his lines. But those, seem to be the. And. And the faces. He makes sure that the fronts of the faces and the eyes in the whatever, the eyebrows or whatever, that's clean. And that sucks you into looking at that. Because within the drawing, that's the most important thing, and it's also the cleanest thing. And I think that works really well still.

Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. 

January 25th, Charlie Brown's fixing dinner for Snoopy, who's waiting on top of the doghouse with his little tongue out. He's so hungry. And Charlie Brown brings the food out and says, whoops, I forgot the parsley. And then he goes back with the food, and he comes out with just the parsley for Snoopy and says, I got the parsley. Whoops, Now I forgot your dinner. He goes back into the house, and then he comes back with his own plate of food and says, wait a minute, this isn't your dinner. This is my dinner. Snoopy's watching all of this. Charlie Brown, I'll be right back. Goes into the house, comes back out. Okay, here we go. But when he goes to the doghouse Snoopy's no longer there. So he goes back inside and Snoopy's at the dinner table. And he thinks it was pretty good, although I could have used some parsley. And of course, Charlie Brown's plate is completely cleaned.

Harold: And you see the little parsley sprig on top of the dog dish that Charlie Brown's now holding.

Michael: Now, I read this as Charlie Brown screwing around with Snoopy.

Harold: Oh, yeah.

Michael: He's not serious. He's like, this is like he's a mob boss. And he's, like, just trying to get Snoopy riled up. But then it looks like. No, he actually is that stupid.

Jimmy: Yeah, no, he does. I don't think he's doing anything. He's just not paying attention. I think he's lost in his own head. And, oh, this stupid. By the way, I could do something like this five times a day. I always. If I, you know, wasn't always looking for a pen, I would have 600 graphic novels done. So, like, I completely understand.

Michael: Yeah, except he's like seven and you're not.

Jimmy: That's true.

Michael: So he shouldn't have memory issues. By the way, that tongue, That's a very. I'd like to see that in the original.

Harold: It looks like he's holding.

Michael: Closing on that tongue sticking out or something. It doesn't look tongue ish to me.

Harold: No, it does not. It looks really rough. That. That whole drawing Snoopy is. Is super rough. In particular, these really cute drawings of Snoopy, like, leaning over the doghouse just in the same pose every single time as Charlie Brown comes and goes. And I think that's. That's great comic comedy. Right? Because they always talk about it in acting. You know, once you've done your line, you've got to find a way to become invisible so the other character can be focused on in a frame. And the Schulz is totally doing that here with Snoopy. It's all the focus on Charlie Brown. You don't think Snoopy's thinking about much of anything. And so that last panel when Snoopy has gone into the house and eaten Charlie Brown's meal to finish this, off, to me, this one worked really, really well. This, to me, is a classic peanut strip.

Jimmy: Yeah, it's really funny.

Harold: Loved it.

Jimmy: Yeah, it looks really good. I like the color. I particularly like. And I don't know if this is how it air or aired yet. I don't know if this is how it was printed in the 90s or if it's been recolored for the Internet ever, but that dusty blue that he uses on the first panel and the fourth panel of the second tier for the sky. I love that. I always think that looks nice. I think all of the, any of those colors that have a little bit of that kind of dusty quality, I think looks great because it almost looks like it's accounting for the old faded newsprint there would have been in, you know, earlier days. 

One of the things I did, I have a palette of the 64 colors that you used to be able to only use in comics. But I tinted them all so that they all look like how they would have looked on newsprint. and it makes a huge difference. It makes a huge, huge difference.

Harold: Wow, that's interesting. Is what they usually like watercolor color them or do something that were roughly the colors.

Jimmy: Yeah. Schulz used colored pencils.

Harold: Colored pencils. Okay. And then draw a little line out and say that this, it actually is this color code that I want you to use for every single color. So it's basically the strip and you're saying with colored pencil and then a million little lines coming off of all the different colors to places where you can read what the color code is. And that's what a professional colorist person up in Buffalo, New York.

Michael: Do any of those color guides actually exist?

Jimmy: Yeah. Well, I mean I've seen pictures of them in books, so I assume someone saved them at some point.

Michael: You think they're worth a lot of money?

Jimmy: I bet. Probably, you know, yeah. So like, and like the color code, like you, here's what it is. You only, you had yellow, magenta, cyan and then black overlaid it, but black didn't mix with the colors. So then you would only have, you could use 25% cyan, 50% cyan, 100% cyan, and then you can mix those. And that was about it, you know.

Harold: You, know what? I think Binney and Smith should do a 64 crayon box in tribute to the CMYK colors that would match each of those colors. I would, I would buy that box, seven other people.

Jimmy: And you know, they're really the, the best colors. You know, if you look at things in the 90s in comic strips or in comic books, but you know, even comic strips when they're getting into Photoshop and they're first learning blends and all this stuff and gradients and it's just, it's very garish because just everyone's excited that they have all this stuff. So I start using black in colors and that ends up Being really muddy.

Michael: yeah. And also. Well, at that time in comics specifically, they went to a better paper.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: Which held the colors match best.

Harold: So it actually was the same paper.

Michael: It was, no, they went to Baxter Print.

Harold: Oh. For comic books. Okay.

Michael: Comic books. So. And then they started using more intense colors. So. Well, it really was overwhelming.

Jimmy: Well, when it was really bad when they used the same 64 colors on that Baxter paper. Because then it was. Then there the color just sat on top of it and it was retina, burning bright.

Harold: And they also had a period of time when the comic book main comic book printer switched to this, this weird thing called flexographic plates.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: And those are things that have been used for, like, printing the sides of, of cardboard boxes. It was like a really cheapo, way of getting printing plates done. And what it would do is it. It couldn't lay down as thick a layer of ink, like, for blacks. And so you could see if someone was like, it used to be you could hide one color under another color. And you could be a little bit rough about if you're like, cutting it up and dropping it. But when you had a black that was like gray and you could see this chunk of red that was underneath it from somebody who was quickly cutting for, for this, the magenta and the yellow, they just looked horrible.

Jimmy: Well, the worst was every superhero, has black hair and the black hair is indicated with blue highlights. And what would happen is they would just cut a big 50% cyan chunk out of the zipatone, which are, let. Well, it was like zipatone that they were using to indicate where the color was. And then you would see the rough indication of, through the hair, of every character.

Harold: It was the worst. But you're right, I mean it. When you look at comic strips, say, that were printed in the 30s, some of those, even if they're on yellowed paper these days, they look incredibly vibrant. Because to your point, those 64 colors that were selected were percentages of the cyan and the magenta and the yellow in their purest form. And so you're going to get a color that works no matter the fact that it's being printed on this old newspaper press onto newsprint. they are the most vibrant, clean, pure colors you can, you can get. And like you were saying, if I was a guy with a little mouse and a, and a photoshop, you know, 2.0 or whatever, and I'm messing around with the colors, you don't follow those rules of using the pure colors anymore. And like you said, throwing black into the mix to create a slightly darker version of something that is. Is just making mud out of those. Those pure colors.

Michael: Strange how comic strips actually devolve. Yeah, I mean. I mean, the old ones are hard to read, but go back and look at a 1920 strip. It's just way better than anything later.

Harold: Yeah. And the printing processes, in many cases, were superior, and then they kind of degraded their way into something that was cheaper and then came back. Now it’s good again, you know?

Jimmy: Yeah. Like Michael said, it's definitely a devolution. Is that a. Is that a word?

Michael: Yeah. Devo.

Jimmy: Devo. 

Michael and Jimmy: We are not men. 

Jimmy: Are we not men? We are Devo. 

January 27th. Rerun is under the bed again, hiding. And Lucy's, coming looking for him. And she says, I told your teacher what you said about her new boyfriend. Oh. Because, Rerun believes the teacher can do better than her boyfriend. So Lucy has told her this, and she's reporting back to Rerun. and in the second panel, she says. She said, you were right. He's really stupid, and she's never going to see him again. And then Rerun, from under the bed, says, I could run the whole world right here from under my bed.

Michael: I just had this deja vu. Didn't we discuss panel one, last week, where the line on the side thing on the bed stops so it doesn't interfere with her nose? Why does he do it again?

Harold: Because it works.

Michael: It's the same thing, isn't it?

Jimmy: Yeah, I think. Yeah, that doesn't work for you.

Michael: It's just that you can move the line easy enough. Nobody would move.

Harold: Do you think the zipatone should have been cut out further from her nose?

Michael: No, I'm just saying it's. It's curious that he had the exact same composition. Well, but I'd have to go back and check.

Harold: Yeah, I mean, that's.

Michael: That's his bedroom on the side of the bed. Doesn't add anything to the strip.

Liz: Well, and he moves. I mean, he takes it away in this. In panel two.

Michael: Yeah.

Harold: Right. For some reason, that little bedside table next to the bed helps make the bed more beddy that he's hiding under.

Michael: Reads as bed pretty good.

Jimmy: Yeah. Considering it's a complete abstract drawing, really. You know what I mean? But because it's flat, I mean, there's no attempt at any kind of perspective or realism.

Harold: We're down low with Lucy looking at the base of the bed that Rerun's hiding under. So you don't see a pillow to. But he has a little carve out and a little, knob on the headboard. But yeah, for some reason, that little table next to it helps me make sense of what I'm looking at.

Jimmy: Well, you know, it would help me, I think, if we take a break now and then come back, regroup and, read the mail and then read some more comic strips.

Harold: Sure.

Liz: All right.

Jimmy: All right. Groovy. We'll be right back.

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Jimmy: And we're back. Hey, Liz, hanging out in the mailbox here. Do we got anything?

Liz: We do. We have two weeks worth of mail this time. so first we heard from Paul Castiglia, who writes Jimmy's continuous evocations of REM Makes me have to step in and say I actually suspect Charlie Brown's favorite 1980s rock band would be the same as my favorite group of all time, the Replacements. Why do I say that?

Jimmy: Because Charlie Brown's a drunk.

Liz: Because the Replacements were the lovable losers, the misfits who tried and always got in their own way, shooting themselves in the foot with every step. Their music was all about the fear of failure tempered with bursts of hope and ambition, regardless. A real Peanuts concept if ever there was one.

Jimmy: Yeah, go along with that.

Liz: Just like Charlie Brown is convinced that this time I'll kick the football before Lucy snatches it away, The Replacements declare I will dare. And when they perform at their titular talent show, ponde we might even win this time. You never know.

Jimmy: just throwing this out there. I will dare. The guitar solo was, done by Peter Buck from REM.

Liz: That's what he says.

Liz: And he also says that the, Peanuts gang hail from the same county as the Replacements.

Jimmy: That's right.

Harold: That's a pretty strong argument.

Liz: Yes. Well, and he even wrote a second time to list all of the lyrics of the songs that he recommended, so he is really making a very strong argument.

Jimmy: All right, well, you know what? I appreciate that. That's cool, cool. And listen, let me just tell you one thing. Never travel far without a little Big Star.

Michael: Okay, well, the only Replacements-- So I have to go listen to the Replacements because the only Replacements song I know is they Might Be Giants, which is song like, hi, we’re the Replacements.

Jimmy: Yeah, about them, which is so funny. Well, I'll tell you. Here's my. I think everybody dislikes that Don't Tell A Soul album. I like that record a lot. And I think that single I'll Be you, one of their best songs. That could be a Snoopy song. All right, I think we're onto something here. Keep it going.

Liz: And then we heard from Michael CASsin or Michael CasSIN. He writes, folks, I don't know if you've ever talked about this, but in the September 11, 1996, strip, Rerun says, I don't know, that's what they all call me. Which does raise the question, is Rerun his actual name or a nickname? If it's a nickname, has there ever been any clue what his real name is? I'd assume he'd continue the Van Pelt tradition of Ls. So, Landon Leighton. Leif?

Jimmy: Leif Van Pelt. I like that.

Liz: Then we heard again from Ice Cream Hero. And, the next couple of comments are in response to the what is Peanuts question we put out there. And Ice Cream Hero says, to me, Peanuts is the kids and Snoopy hanging out, and things always go wrong. And he or she adds, and Violet is one of my favorite characters, too.

Michael: Fan club time.

Jimmy: Well, every time Ice Cream Hero writes to us, the rest of the day, I'm walking around going, ice Cream Hero. so thank you for that.

Liz: And Stephen Edwards writes again, in response to Jimmy playing the guitar. He says, a new guitar won't make you play better, but it's still a new guitar, and that's never a bad thing.

Jimmy: Yeah. You know what? You sold me on it.

Jimmy: All right. Can I tell you something? Truth. This is embarrassing.

Liz: Sure.

Jimmy: So do you remember about a year ago, we did a live event, and somehow we started talking about Buck Owens? Do you remember that?

Michael: Buck Owens.

Jimmy: Buck Owens guitar.

Michael: Buck Owens. What a great name.

Jimmy: So he famously had a big red, white, and blue acoustic guitar that was. He played it on Hee Haw.

Harold: Huh?

Jimmy: And that was great. So I just. We were talking about that. I Googled it, and it turns out there's an electric red, white and blue Telecaster, the Buck Owens model. And at first I'm like, that is just ridiculous. And then I bookmarked it to just go back and look at how ridiculous it is. So I want you, if you ever hear me before record, go. Hey, guys, I got a new guitar. And if it's that, stage an intervention for me. It's a real problem.

Liz: And super listener Debbie Perry posted a bunch of great drawings on Blue sky in response to the question, what is Peanuts? So we should.

Jimmy: Oh, get out. That's cool. I gotta get on. I have an account, but, you know, the social medias. But I'll go on just to see Debbie's drawings. That's cool.

Liz: And John Merullo writes, the question this week, what is Peanuts? Got me thinking. I'm about to get pedantic.

Harold: All right.

Liz: Peanuts is a comic strip begun by Charles Schulz in 1950. And those works derived from it that are in keeping with the spirit and intent of the comic strip and do not contradict it in a notable manner. By that definition, most other comics, animated cartoons, feature films, stage productions, tchotchkes and such are Peanuts. Those that are not in that spirit or largely contradict are not. A notable example is the animated special it's your first kiss, Charlie Brown, which depicts the little red haired girl on screen and claims her name is Heather. This is not Peanuts.

Jimmy: This is Michael's best friend. This is not Peanuts.

Michael: Food at the Snoopy restaurant. Is that Peanuts?

Jimmy: No, I think the Peanuts is the comic strip. Here's how I actually, here's what I wrote in response because I was thinking about this. I have my little notebook out. Peanuts is a comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. It inspired ancillary media which is separate from the strip, but which is also called Peanuts. That's what I'd say.

Michael: Semi Peanuts.

Liz: And finally, I just want to thank the listener or listeners who nominated us for the Comic Studies Society's awards. We were not a finalist, but. Not a finalist, but very, grateful nonetheless.

Jimmy: Yeah, that's really cool. And the people, who did get nominated looked very deserving. So that's very special.

Liz: Yes, it was a very academic awards program.

Michael: Yeah, I think we're too stupid to be nominated.

Jimmy: Absolutely.

Liz: So that's it for the mail.

Jimmy: we heard from Mary, from Colorado, who texted the hotline with. My parents didn't read to us, but unlike Michael, I don't like people reading to me now either. Probably why I don't do audiobooks. I have always liked reading out loud, but don't like listening to others. My youngest, as a child, never liked us reading to him either. He would always shut the book on us every time. And cover his ears.

Liz: How do you like podcasts if you don't like.

Jimmy: Oh, I guess that's interesting. Yeah.

Harold: Whenever you start reading, Jimmy, it's like new.

Liz: Fingernails on the blackboard for Mary.

Jimmy: Yeah, well, when the girls were little, driving to Chicago for a 12 hour drive, and we had Harry Potter volume five, on, audiobook. It was actually on tape. And Stella was like 2 years old. Grew up to be a huge Harry Potter fan. But that drive would put it on, it would be like Harry, Ron and Hermione, and Stella would just go, no, and we'd have to turn it off. And then you'd wait and, oh, she's asleep. And you turn it back on. Harry went, no. 

Well, okay, so I think that is it for this week. thank you so much for filling up the mailbox because when I don't hear from you guys, I worry. So I was worried for a whole week. No sleep. Up at night, chewing the nails down to the bone. It was horrible. But now I can sleep this week. And if you want to make sure that I can, rest well, next week, you can either give us a call on the hotline 717-219-4162, or you could text that hotline as well. If you do, like Mary and Rich did, please make sure that you identify yourself so that we can properly identify you. and of course you can also email us. We're unpacking peanutsmail.com and a whole plethora of social media that I'll give you at the end. But for right now, how about we get back to reading these, fun comic strips? Sure.

Liz: Good idea.

January 28th, Rerun and the Little Pig haired--. I can't. I want to call her the little pig Haired Girl. I just want to do it and I can't. It's like the complicated pizza thing all over again. Rerun and the little pigtailed haired girl. No, that's not good. Pigtailed girl.

Michael: You don't need the word hair to describe pigtailed girl.

Jimmy: Got it. 

Rerun and a little pigtailed girl are sitting in kindergarten class. And she asks him, Rerun, where were you yesterday? And Rerun says, I hid under my bed all day. And then they walk to another part of the classroom, and Rerun says, I think it's something everyone should do once in a while. And then, the little girl says, what does your dad think about all this? And Rerun says, he didn't go to work today. He's hiding under the bed.

Michael: I find it interesting that Linus's voice is exactly the same as Rerun's voice.

Jimmy: Just when I read it, or.

Michael: Yeah, yeah, your Linus and your Rerun are very similar.

Jimmy: Now, here's my question. did Rerun learn this from his dad, or did the dad pick it up from Rerun?

Harold: Yeah, Those Van Pelts are fascinating. You know, you get little. Little pictures of what the whole family is like. That's, There's something. Something crazy going on in that household.

Michael: Well, that's. That's another strip idea.

Jimmy: Oh, you could absolutely.

Michael: No, it's just the adults and the. You just hear the kids.

Jimmy: Oh, my gosh. That'd be amazing.

Harold: Wow.

Michael: That's like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Jimmy: Yeah, that's actually a really good idea. Oh, my God. I could totally see it.

Harold: Now, here's another insight into Rerun, since we know we never know who the little pigtailed girl's name was. That means even though she calls him Rerun, he never calls her by name.

Jimmy: Maybe it's one of those things where now it's just too awkward. He never asked, and he forgot what it is.

Michael: no, it's rude you call somebody Pighead.

Harold: She's never going to be mistaken for Violet, but he's going to be mistaken for Linus, so you're going to have to call him Rerun at the beginning of every strip.

Jimmy: Yeah. All right. Speaking of the Van Pelts..

Now we see the whole Van Pelt crew sitting on their couch at home. And it's Linus and, Lucy flanking Rerun. And Rerun says, someone at school today asked me if I had an older brother who dragged a blanket around. No, I replied, I'm an only child. Then someone said, but don't you have a weird older sister? No, I insisted. I'm an only child. And so I go, day after day, dodging questions from curious outsiders. And then the two of them, I assume, throw him outside into the snow. 

Jimmy: Is this the one that made you laugh?

Harold: This is the one that I just laughed and laughed and laughed at. this is little, innocent Rerun saying this in between the two. It's like, oh, no, this is not going to end well to see him just being tossed out into the snow.

Jimmy: I love the ending. And so I go day after day dodging questions from curious outsiders.

Harold: Oh, man, Rerun is. Is a hoot. He is a, total original. Even though he's called Rerun. This really made him all the more endearing to me. I mean the fact that he would give this little soliloquy watching television with his, with his thumb sucking brother and his snacking sister who we know has the ability to defend a straight and toss into snow and all sorts of things, man, that was. You could just see where it was going and I. Yeah, I couldn't stop laughing. Loved it.

Jimmy: Yeah, it's really funny one. And I like seeing them all together and it's funny. It's almost like he goes out of his way when they're next to each other. To make him and Linus look a little different. Rerun's nose is just a little bigger, you know?

Harold: Yeah. And he looks so, so tiny in that particular one. Although my theory is that I think Lucy single handedly, tossed him m out the door.

Jimmy: No, I think that's a tag team.

Harold: No, I don't think Linus has got it in him. He's too, he's too detached. I don't know. That's because you two know what Linus is like is. We're like Linus.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. Right. Okay. So I love Linus is just. This is my friends. I'm the one that, by the way, that gets the rap for being arrogant. And they're like, you know Linus, he's so gentle and sweet and he's really a genius and a poet like us.

Harold: Like us.

Jimmy: And then they go that Jim's arrogant. Anyway, 

February 24, Rerun and the little pigtailed girl are sitting in class and they're painting some watercolors. And she asks him, what are you painting? And Rerun says, this is going to be my greatest work. I'm painting a huge landscape with two mighty armies facing each other across an enormous valley beneath a wide sky with dark storm clouds gathering in the distance. And the girl says to him it looks more like a duck landing on the water. And then Rerun says, that's what I call it. Duck landing on the water. 

Jimmy: This one made me laugh. and we're gonna see more and more of Rerun's output as an artist over the next two years. Eventually with him, becoming, or he's stating anyway that his goal is to become an underground cartoonist, which I totally.

Michael: Okay, so maybe he is the Schulz character being represented.

Jimmy: I think there's definitely some elements of that.

Liz: Is that a radio 914 in the little jar?

Jimmy: It might be. It might be. he's not going to get much, good lines with, with some of those brushes, I think, I think they're a little rough looking, but pretty cool. And now here's a real throwback. 

March 1st. We start with a symbolic panel of Lucy glaring at a kite which sort of has Charlie Brown's distraught face on it. Or maybe it's just the face of the kite. Anyway, we cut to Charlie Brown who's got the kite up in the air. And Lucy is watching him and she says, fly, you stupid kite. Get up there. Go. And the kite is in the air and Charlie Brown turns to look at her as she's yelling at the kite, fly, fly. Get up there. Get up there. And of course, the kite comes crashing down to earth. And as it lies there in a, heap, Lucy says, you stupid kite, what's wrong with you? You're a disgrace to kite them. Don't think you can get away with this. Get back up there where you belong. And suddenly the kite goes back up into the air. Yes, Lucy walks away. and then Charlie Brown in the last panel returns home, to Sally. And Sally says to him, how did your kite flying go today? And Charlie Brown says, well, I think I learned something, but I'm  not sure what it was.

Liz: Power.

Jimmy: I love this. Yeah, the power of yelling. you know, people in this day and age, a lot of people will say yelling doesn't get you anywhere. But here we have pure example, and evidence that yelling is often the way to go. Hear that? Kids stay in school and yell at people. I like it. Boy, that kite, you know, I know it's beat up, but it's not beat up in that first one. I, mean at this point they are. He is really struggling on some, some things. If you see that first panel, the kite just looks, I mean, I know it's supposed to look like a rough kite, but it looks like an out of control rough kite, don't you think?

Harold: Well, yeah. Just looking at his signature Peanuts by Schulz. That's that's his signature, you know.

Jimmy: Yep. 

March 26, Lucy and Rerun are sitting on the couch again. And Lucy's reading something. And Rerun says to her, everybody in the world has a dog. Why won't mom let me have a dog? And then Lucy says to Rerun, a lot of people in the world don't have dogs. To which Rerun says, why won't mom let them have a dog? 

Jimmy: That's a really funny joke. That's just a really good comic strip that could be in almost any kid's strip. but it's very funny. And I think it says something about especially how a very little kid sees their parent. You know, of course mom would control the world's supply of dogs, not just our houses.

Harold: Right.

Jimmy: I really like that. Boy, this is all Rerun. Like, Rerun is 90% of these strips that we've picked.

Harold: Yeah. He's. He's adding something really fresh to the strip that I wasn't expecting. I didn't. This is just a character I haven't known.

Liz: You told us, Jimmy, you told us that that was going to happen.

Jimmy: Yep.

Liz: 20 years ago.

Michael: You foresaw it.

Jimmy: Yep. Yep. And I remember at the time just really liking a Rerun and thinking he was just such a great, fun character.

Harold: The little overalls are great.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.

Harold: When talking about the tremor, just looking at this, the side of the couch that they're sitting on. Yeah, yeah. He's.

Jimmy: He.

Harold: It's interesting. It's almost like he's like, I'm going to be consistent in the inconsistency of the lines on all three of these panels, because that's what this couch is.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: That's kind of the feeling you get.

Jimmy: Yeah. No, and it says to what a brilliant artist he is that he can think of ways to incorporate something that should be a handicap, and. Well, that is a handicap. It's literally, you know, making him work harder and struggle. But he's smart enough and good enough as a cartoonist that he can figure out ways to incorporate it.

Harold: Yeah. You know, and it is interesting, having just popped in and out of the strip in the. In this era, it was sad for me to see the strip because, you know, I. I didn't follow the evolution. And when I heard Schulz say he was proud of this, the strip as it was in the 90s, maybe, he said he thought the drawing was. Was better than ever. And I. I remember at the time thinking, oh, that. That's really sad that he's saying that. But now, having kind of followed him on that path, I can see a lot more what he was saying. Yeah, He. He is, as an artist, doing some remarkable things with what he's got.

Jimmy: Absolutely.

Harold: And he's making some choices he might not have made if he didn't have to deal with this particular thing. That are Good.

Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. 

March 27th. Lucy and Rerun, are in their kitchen. Lucy's having some cereal, and Rerun's at the refrigerator getting some stuff out, some milk. And he says to her, what I think I'll do today is take some money out of My college trust fund and go buy a dog. To which Lucy says, you don't have a college trust fund. And Rerun says, I don't. And then they sit at the table. Rerun's, trying to make a little toast for himself and says, please pass the grape jelly. And then Lucy shows him the empty jar and says, we're all out of grape jelly. Leaving Rerun alone in the last panel to ponder, how can anyone not have a dog, a college trust fund, and grape jelly? 

Jimmy: Poor Rerun. He doesn't have anything. I thought if any of the kids that might have a college trust fund in this neighborhood, I would have thought it would be the van belts.

Harold: Yeah, right. Lucy is going to be a college professor, but I guess she's. She says, don't worry, I got it all covered in scholarships.

Jimmy: No problem. No problem. Well, it's really not an issue. As someone who has two daughters in college, it's super cheap. It's like, no pressure really at all. Really easy. And I also. You want to have your kids all at once so that all expenses happen at the exact. It's very important.

Michael: It is interesting how many Rerun strips we pick.

Jimmy: They're like, all Rerun.

Michael: No communication between us.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.

Harold: People.

Jimmy: We just read the strips separately and then send Michael the list of our strips. And, yeah, we picked a ton of Rerun strips. But, you know, and again, like this, it puts it in a class of its own, because he is a character that could carry a comic strip. No question about it.

Harold: There can be a really different feel. It really does.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: By having a little brother in one family in a neighborhood strip, he really does change the tone of this in 1998.

Jimmy: Well, and going back to the idea of the what is Peanuts Idea, and, the fact that Schulz essentially endorses Michael's view of that didn't happen. And I looked it up. Technically, I guess it would be called modular narrative, that you can pick the parts you want and put together kind of your own narrative. Comic strips are perfect for that. And, like, you could create at least three, possibly four collections, as if they're their own comic strip, but they're just elements of Peanuts. Whether it's Rerun, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy's fantasies, the baseball team.

Michael: Yeah, I think most characters could do that. Yeah. I'd buy a Shermy volume.

Jimmy: Absolutely. Absolutely. My gosh, you could do a volume on the leaves. It's crazy. It's quite an accomplishment. 

April 14, Lucy and Rerun are sitting there in the living room. And, Lucy has a plate of cookies, but there's only one cookie on it. And, she says to Rerun, all right, there's one cookie left. We'll vote to decide who gets it. And Lucy then says, I vote for me, so I get it. To which Rerun calls out, voter fraud.

Michael: Man, this is so forward thinking.

Jimmy: I do think there is a chance Rerun could end up full blown QAnon, you know what I mean? Or any of the Van Pelts actually, at that matter. Could probably go down the rabbit hole easily, I think.

Harold: And what makes this even sadder for Rerun is that's probably a thin Mint Girl Scout cookie.

Jimmy: Ooh, that does look like a good Thin Mint. Can't go wrong with those. Well, you know what? Let's wrap up this episode with not a Rerun strip, but a good old fashioned Snoopy and Woodstock strip.

Liz: Yay.

We start off with what I assume is a symbolic panel of Woodstock attending touch and go flight school. and then we see Woodstock in his classic flying upside down position in the next panel, arriving at Snoopy's doghouse. And Snoopy says to him, good landing. Now, when you take off again, do you push with your feet or do you flap your wings? First, Woodstock is taking this in. Do you flap your wings and sort of lean into it? Or do you. And then the next panel, we just see Woodstock toss himself off the side of the doghouse, Clunk. And lands on the ground. And then Snoopy says, if you think about it, you can't do it.

Liz: So true.

Jimmy: Isn't that true?

Michael: You might have learned that trick from Olaf.

Jimmy: This is funny. I remember saying this a few, well, probably several episodes ago because Michael said something to me, like, when you practice guitar, do you think in scales or do you think in melody? And if I think of that question while practicing guitar, I can no longer even play as rudimentary as I normally can.

Harold: And, this is a. This is a classic comic strip to me. Like a classic all time of all comic strips. Comic strip. It's just as so well told and so simple and so comic strippy. I mean, even just that, I was just thinking of that panel when Woodstock is coming in for the landing on the top of the doghouse. And the way Schulz draws it, Woodstock hasn't landed, but Snoopy is saying, good landing.

Jimmy: Right?

Harold: you know, it's just one of those comic strip things. I don't know.

Jimmy: Yeah, and if he was standing there and Snoopy said, good landing, it would be weird.

Harold: Yeah, yeah. You need another panel.

Jimmy: Yeah, you're right. Yeah.

Harold: But he doesn't need it. And that's the genius of Schulz and genius of comic strips.

Jimmy: Yep, absolutely. And, you know, gosh, just if you think about it, you can't do it is like, it's just an observation. That's true of so many different things. Riding a bike, whatever it is.

Harold: And I don't know that I've seen it.

Jimmy: No.

Harold: In someone capturing that idea in such a fun, iconic way as the strip, it's true.

Jimmy: And it's a real testament to the fact that, as Lucy said last, episode, you know, he's not losing it.

Harold: You know, he's still got it.

Jimmy: He still got it, baby, and so do we. We still got it, and we're going to get it again next week. and we hope you come back for it. If you want to keep this conversation, though, going between now and then, there's a couple things you got to do first. Like always, you got to go over and sign up for that great Peanuts reread, for gosh sake. That'll get you one email a month that will let you know what we're going to be covering on the show. And you can read ahead and be all set. You can also, if you want to talk to us, you have a comment, you have a question, you can email us. We're unpacking peanutsmail.com. you could call our hotline and. Or text it 717-219-4162 or you can find us on social media. We're at Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads and Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, blue sky and YouTube. And remember, if I don't hear from you, I worry. so don't make me worry for a whole week, but until next week. From Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.

MH&L: Yes, be of good cheer.

VO: Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark. For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads. Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue sky and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.

Jimmy:, Devo.

M&J: We are not men.