Cartoonists' Salute To Schulz
Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. It's Unpacking Peanuts, and we've come to the end of another season.
I'm going to be your host for the proceedings. My name's Jimmy Gownley. I am also a cartoonist. I did Amelia Rules, Seven Reasons not to Grow up, the Dumbest Idea Ever. And you can find all of my new stuff, including the Eisner-nominated in the Real Dark Night over on Gville Comics Substack.
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 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: And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation Sweetest Beasts, it's Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello.
Jimmy: And keeping us out of trouble and making sure everything runs smoothly, it's our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.
Liz: Howdy.
Jimmy: Well, guys, we got to the end of our Sidekicks and Second Bananas season. Did you learn anything through this process?
Harold: Well, her name was Eudora. I had forgotten her name was Eudora. Oh, boy.
Jimmy: Who. Okay, if you had to be one of the sidekicks or Second Bananas, who would you pick? I'd pick Bill. No pressure on Bill.
Harold: What
Jimmy: Bill? Bill from the Beagle Scouts.
Liz: Oh.
Jimmy: Oh, wow. You should listen to this podcast, Unpacking Peanuts. It tells you all about these characters.
Liz: So if I'm being gender specific, I. I have Harriet and Eudora are, my choices.
Jimmy: It’s 2026. You could pick any of them.
Michael: Well, it's interesting. Bill is actually a good bird's name.
Liz: Yes, it is. This is a good segment.
Michael: I'm glad we're really cooking here.
Harold: This is gold. Package this up. I'd say Roy. Roy is who? I would.
Jimmy: Roy because he's a good friend. Right. He's a, stable individual.
All right, well, here's what happened, guys. Our actual guest canceled for today because of a medical emergency. So we are what's known in the podcast word as Wingin’ It. but what's fun about it is we always like to try to do something a little bit special for you guys. At the end of a season. And good old Michael found. Well, tell us what you found, Michael, and then we could talk about what we're going to discuss today.
Michael: Okay. Well, I actually do look at Facebook a lot, and yeah, I'm in a lot of Peanuts Facebook groups. And somebody posted, a link to several months after Schulz died, 50 cartoonists, syndicated cartoonists, did tribute strips to Peanuts on the same day. And yeah, so the link was at Go Comics. And did it reprint some of these strips? And I did not know I was not reading anything in those days, so I didn't know a lot of these strips at all.
Jimmy: Yeah, I, wasn't that familiar with some of them. A lot of them are classics that I've known from years back. What about you, Harold? Are you familiar? You're probably most familiar with them. Maybe not.
Harold: Not by 2000. No, I mean, I really, I was not following a lot of stuff in the comic strips at this time. So it's really sad. I mean, I look Here we have 26 years of comics since and of Peanuts. And this is like right at the end of Peanuts. And while newspapers were definitely in decline even back then, and there were a lot of really talented people who came along in the wake of that who tried thought, I'm going to make a career in comic strips. This is going to be my life. And so many of them have had to, like, double up and, you know, they've got multiple jobs because the funds often just don't support you. And you're still obligated to turn out something, you know, seven days a week. And you might be earning $25,000, $10,000 in some cases. And, you know, some people are willing to do it, but it's, it's not the high flying world, at least for some of the people that, you know, in the heyday of when Peanuts was around that you were a star sometimes if you were doing a strip, everybody knew who you were.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah. I mean, and be pre Schulz in the 30s and 40s, you know, guys like Al Capp were celebrities endorsing.
Jimmy: It's wild to think of. Yeah, yeah. You can't really discount financial security when it comes to creativity. And like, if you're listening even to a 1960s record album, and let's say you're listening to like the Kinks, all right, Not Unsuccessful, not untalented. Great band. Below the Beatles though, Right. Well, their records to this day will never be remastered and remixed to that level because of the financial reasons they didn't have access to the same, like, extra musicians, like orchestras and stuff like that. Right. Like, literally no one could do the Beatles thing, partly because they didn't have the Beatles financial resources, you know.
Harold: Well, I mean, how would you describe the Beatles when they were in Hamburg and, you know, there was. Obviously it wasn't overnight. So how does that affect the art?
Jimmy: Well, I think all that stuff gets them there. But I think, you know, I, Like, nothing was going to stop the Beatles. Nothing was going to stop Charles Schulz. But once you get to a level of that success, it does give you a freedom that other people just don't.
Michael: Yeah, but according to what Beatle lore I've seen, they never felt they were getting paid that much. They never felt rich. I mean, they were obviously rich riding around in, you know, Rolls Royce. But, you know, the band broke up over. Over money, basically.
Jimmy: Yeah, well, no rich person feels rich. That's why they're rich people, because they can't stop accumulating wealth. Because, like, I love those guys. But it pisses me off that I know George Harrison went to his grave not understanding that he wasn't getting taxed 95% from the first dollar. It really bothers me.
Harold: Well, given how many dollars he was making, it might have been like 94%.
Michael: well, Paul’s writing, you never give me your money. And then going home in his stretch limo.
Harold: Oh, man, it's. Yeah, it's like the. That was the Spinal Tap song. Stop wasting My time.
Michael: Oh, yeah.
Harold: You know what I want, you know what I need. Or maybe you don't Give me some money.
Michael: The Kinks were doing just fine. No, but, most people went into it.
Jimmy: But we're getting lost in the. Forget about the analogy. Because what I'm saying is financial security within even the field, whether John Lennon felt rich or not has nothing to do with the fact that if he requested a symphony, they would bring it in. And if Ray Davis requested a symphony, they tell him to go flat off. That's what I'm saying.
Michael: Yeah. Ah, yeah.
Jimmy: And that's the same level Schulz is at. He was. Had a freedom that no other person had. And the reason he had it was because he was more successful than any other person in this field.
Michael: Right.
Jimmy: That's obvious. Whether he felt rich or not has nothing to do with it.
Michael: But the fact that these people aren't making a living. I, mean, they should have known that when they got into the biz, you know?
Harold: No, because, I mean, because it's a sliding scale. Right. It's like you don't know if you're gonna peg out at 15 newspapers, 150 newspapers or 1500. And you obviously are thinking, oh, my strip could be the 1500 newspapers. Right.
Michael: Nobody goes into, I'm going to be a cartoonist because I want to be rich. They probably go into it like, okay, I'll try, I'll try it for like a year and see if it,
Jimmy: it is possible that your approach to life and art is slightly different than other people's. Ever so slightly.
Michael: Did you think you were going to be rich when you did the Amelia strip, which came before the comic?
Jimmy: I never did anything. I have a, You can't go by me either. Michael. Psychopaths, most people go into things thinking, profess that they are going to make a living doing it or they don't do it.
Liz: Yeah, there's a difference between making a living and getting rich.
Jimmy: I, said, well, especially in newspaper comic strip. well, anyway, none of this has anything to do with what I was talking about.
Liz: I have a question. Are these the strips that we have chosen to talk about? Were they all successful? Are all those artists happy with the circulation that they had?
Jimmy: Well, I would say we didn't know the character's name. I, don't have too much insight into the psychological well being of the character.
Liz: Yes, but you chose the titles when we were going through the list, right?
Harold: Well, I mean there were some. We liked the artwork, right?
Liz: Oh, okay.
Harold: We liked the art and then we picked the art not because we knew the strip. And so, you know, and I don't know if they selected these strips because Go Comics was the one that put this together as kind of a reminiscence. Is this because these happen to be the strips that 26 years later they're still running and so they have reason to promote them more? I don't know.
Jimmy: Okay, so we're gonna read, these strips that these fine cartoonists did in tribute to Mr. Schulz. Like we said, quite all occurred on May 27, 2000. And if you want to follow along with us today, you can, check out the link that we're going to provide in the show notes that will give you a link to, to see all these strips that were put together by Go Comics.
And we're going to start off with a strip by good old Cathy Guisewite called Cathy, a personal friend of Mr. Schulz. And the strip starts out, Kathy is sitting there, ah, at a table and she's writing something on a piece of Paper. And she writes, woman seeks lifetime companion. Now, okay, for young people out there, what she is doing is writing a personal ad that would go in a newspaper. And, this is what they had before dating apps.
Harold: She's journaling her Tinder.
Jimmy: Yeah, Right. So she writes, woman seeks lifetime companion. He should have the heart of Charlie Brown, the soul of Linus, the passion of Schroeder, the spirit of Snoopy, and help me start each day feeling loved and understood. And then she rolls her eyes, throws the wrinkled up paper over her shoulder, and then clutches a Peanuts collection and with a bunch of hearts around her, says, woman already has lifetime companion. Nevermind. And then it's signed, in loving memory, Cathy Guisewite.
Michael: Yeah, it says a nice strip. Is she referring to Schulz or Peanuts in that last.
Jimmy: Peanuts? Well, you know what I mean? I think the character is referring to Peanuts, and I think possibly Cathy herself might have been referring to Schulz.
Harold: That's lovely.
Jimmy: It is lovely.
Harold: Very, very. What do you think of the. She had to spend some time figuring out what attributes of each character. What do you think of her choice this year saying, the heart of Charlie Brown, the soul of Linus, the passion of Schroeder, spirit of Snoopy.
Jimmy: I don't know if I would go with Schroeder as being passionate, even though he is obsessed with Beethoven.
Harold: Yes, right.
Jimmy: I don't know that he's.
Michael: He's not a passionate catcher. He's. All right.
Harold: I kind of. How would you replace it? What would you use for Schroeder to describe something that maybe, Cathy, you'd expect
Jimmy: to. The talent of Schroeder?
Harold: Okay.
Liz: Artistry.
Harold: So you don't want. His passion is fine.
Jimmy: Like, I get it. You could say he's passionate for Beethoven.
Harold: Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's what I thought she was getting at. But yeah, I think it's a beautiful list. And this, you know, she was. Of the people on the list of ones we're gonna be going through, she's one of maybe the top two closest people to Schulz. She knew him well. And you see it in the strip. It's really lovely.
Jimmy: Yeah, it really is. She is one of my picks for people to get on this show. So, hey, if anybody knows good old Cathy, give her my number.
All right. The next strip we're going to look at is The Boondocks by Aaron McGruder. And it's the little character of Jasmine is watching TV with her dad, and her dad says, hey, look at this. A Charlie Brown special. Man. These were the best. Then he sighs and says, they don't make family shows like this anymore. So wholesome, so innocent. And then Jasmine says, hey, Daddy. Peppermint Patty and her friend Marcie kind of remind me of Aunt Nicole and her special companion, Marie. And then the dad goes, okay, let's see what's on HBO, shall we?
Harold: So Aaron. Aaron McGruder is also doing a classic Charles Schulz thing by putting special companion in quotes to make it funnier.
Liz: But HBO is more likely to have things about special companions than other.
Jimmy: I think that's the joke though, right? But now, here's the other thing that this is. I, This is. I'm really fascinated by this. When you try to be cutting edge in social things, you will eventually look regressive. Even if you were progressive at the time. Because now, now this guy looks like a complete and total square.
Liz: Yeah, yeah, right.
Jimmy: It's. It's very, very strange, but it's something I see a lot. an example in pop culture that is very famous is Sex in the City, which at the time was seen as like, really forward thinking and now looks super regressive. Very strange.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: well, regarding the father character in the Boondocks, I mean, his character in the strip, I think he is kind of dealing with some of those tensions. There's one part of him is kind of. He likes things that would be considered a little more, I don't know, nostalgic. So he's married to a white wife, he's an Ivy League lawyer, and yet his, you know, he's a member of the NAACP as well. So, you know, he's. I think that the strip is kind of perfectly bringing out that duality in the character. And then he has a younger daughter who's, you know, who's saying the things that makes him go, oh, I gotta. Where do I actually fall here? You know?
Jimmy: Well, you know, and that's the other interesting thing about these strips, is that each one can be taken out as a complete work of art and it can sort of mean the opposite of what the entire work of art means.
Harold: That's interesting. Yeah, you know, yeah, sure. If you don't know the characters or whatever. Right, yeah, that's. That's true. Especially if it's a. The richer the strip, the truer. That's probably,
Jimmy: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Here's one everybody knows. Good old Garfield by Jim Davis. And we see, in panel one, very roughly drawn roughly in the classic Schulz style doghouse. And Garfield walks up to it and he has the only expression Garfield makes on his face. which looks angry. But then he sees the doghouse and then he gets on top like Snoopy would, and then he sighs in sadness.
Harold: Yeah. Two interesting things in here, visually. You know, we're in Garfield's world. Garfield's drawn as Garfield. Very clean lines, right. Very clean curves. Just the normal Garfield you'd expect a little bit of thick and thin in the line. A little bit. And then he's trying to be true to his idea of how Schulz would have drawn, which is different than Garfield. I really love that, that he did that. And then when Garfield is lying on this, he can't make Garfield exactly parallel to the line. We have to see his back foot. It's like he's lying at an angle on something that is a thin straight line, but it's facing us. Even though we know how Schulz always did it, it's just like, I don't. Why do you think he did that? Is that just because he doesn't have a pose for Garfield? That is.
Jimmy: Otherwise, I don't think he did it at all. It's an assistant.
Harold: And in 2008. Maybe. Maybe, yeah, very likely. Who knows?
Liz: 2000
Harold: isn't that interesting? But that's. And that's how Schulz drew all the time. But in the world of Garfield, you don't have that. Never have that angle. That's really wild.
Liz: I have always sort of assumed that Snoopy's doghouse was a mansard roof and that there was like a flat surface that he was lying on. That is just my assumption.
Michael: But we've seen the front from the other angles, so it's not.
Harold: That's cause you were in A Good Man Charlie Brown. You saw the. Yeah.
Jimmy: Whenever they make a 3D representation of it, they do it that way.
Michael: Ah.
Jimmy: So that you could put the character on it.
Michael: I think it's just a joke that it's impossible.
Michael: By the way, this is the cat next door,
Harold: right? Oh, he's winning.
Jimmy: You're right.
Liz: Oh. so he has won the battle against.
Jimmy: Oh, I don't know. I think he misses that. His rival is gone.
Harold: And they were rivals on the comic strip page for sure. Jim Davis was probably the first one to come along and really give him a run for his money about what, 28, 30 years into the strip.
Jimmy: Oh, by the way, a few months ago or weeks ago, we were talking about how the heck did I end up doing videos for Professor Garfield.
Harold: Yeah. Did it all come back?
Jimmy: Yeah, Diamond Books organized. it
Harold: oh, okay.
Harold: So Diamond Books was our distributor. They were mainly comic book distributors, but they got into general book distribution not too long before we signed up with them. So, yeah, they. They were responsible for helping market the books and get them out there. That's cool.
Jimmy: Yeah.
All right. this is Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley. There's a little puppy dog there named Satch, and he's reading the newspaper strips. Or no. Yeah, I guess he's reading the newspaper strips, and he says, I don't really like this cartoon that replaced Peanuts. And Rob, who's sitting there next to him, he's a human in a Charlie Brown shirt, says, hey, it didn't replace Peanuts, Satch. It's just a new comic. I'll go get you one of my old Snoopy books. And then Satch yells out, did Charlie Brown ever get to kick the football?
Harold: You'll never know.
Liz: Why is he wearing a watch?
Michael: Swatch.
Jimmy: To know what time it is.
Harold: Yeah, it's not a Swatch watch. It's a Satch watch.
Michael: this guy's a really good cartoonist. Was this strip successful? And did he get something else after this?
Harold: This strip may still be running. yeah. This is of the newer strips. This is one of the more successful comic book art.
Liz: And he might have only four fingers.
Michael: The doctors, too.
Harold: It's interesting to see that part of this is cartoonist commentary on how people were viewing the rerun of the Peanuts strips. some people complained, right?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: And it could actually continue without him
Jimmy: as Rematch was one of those strips. Many, many times.
Harold: Yeah. Because Get Fuzzy would have been a really good choice in 2000 to put into your paper if you didn't have room for it. This was a really good candidate. So he's essentially. It's interesting how he's. He's putting it. You know, it's like you don't. Don't see a new strip coming in replacing Peanuts. Just, you know, it's a new comic. It needs to be judged on its own terms. And I'm sure he was probably processing that. And he probably saw a lot of vitriol about this, if not toward him, at least in general, toward what he knew he was doing, just because he's a strip that's still going. And some. I don't know how many papers actually drop Peanuts. This is interesting. I bet a number of them did. And then they quickly put it back in because, you know, we're only. This is May 27, 2000. So Schulz has passed away just over three months before this. These strips would have Been made probably four to six week deadline. So this is very new and raw. It's like within six weeks of his death that they would have gotten this all together. Got 50 people to do it, which is pretty amazing for herding cats and comic strip artists. Yeah.
Jimmy: All right, next up is Drabble by Kevin Fagan. So Ralph is the dad sitting there at a table, and Norman, his son, comes up with a comic book type looking thing and says, okay, you'll never get this one. Name each member of the Beagle Scouts. And the dad says, Bill, Conrad, Olivier, Woodstock, and Harriet. And then the son, walks away saying, rats. I thought you'd miss Harriet. No one can touch me at Peanuts trivia.
Harold: I thought he'd miss Bill.
Michael: So this isn't really a gag. I mean, it's really not funny unless you know the character.
Liz: But it's heartwarming.
Harold: Yeah, this is very Drabble style of humor. I had a collection of Drabble stuff. I enjoyed Drabble. It had its own little unique personality on the page, and I think it had some of the smallness in the world and what people were doing that you see in Peanuts. And I admired that and respected it. And yeah, it's a. But, yeah, you're right. It's not really home run gag. It's. But it shows the nature of these two characters.
Liz: The father seems to be wearing a Roy shirt.
Jimmy: There's a difference somehow between comedy and humor. Humor is like comedy that you don't laugh at and you just go, oh, that's funny.
Michael: Right?
Harold: I'm a humorist. You don't have to laugh at me for me to be validated.
Jimmy: Yeah, right. Yeah, I'm a comic.
Harold: You gotta laugh.
Jimmy: Days out on the Prairie.
Harold: And everyone goes, yeah.
Michael: One of my friends, his comment, when somebody makes a joke, he goes, that's funny.
Jimmy: Is he doing it as a bit, or does he not know?
Michael: No, it's just. But it's just really droll. That's funny.
Harold: I was in Nashville and I went to Zany's Comedy Club just to check it out. And there's a comedian named Dusty Slay who's a. He's Nashville based. And so he has the dubious distinction of being popular in his hometown, but he does a lot in his hometown. That means people are gonna come back to see you over and over again.
Jimmy: Right, right.
Harold: And so that means you have to keep making new material. You can't just polish it and go around the country. You know, that kind of comedian needs to feel somehow find a way to keep engaging audiences who have been there maybe last month. He can't be reusing stuff. And he has some really funny things that he does. I, think it's. They're. They're funny. They. They amused me. One of them is he. He kind of put. He says, I. I put my hand up when I'm done with the joke. If didn't. No one really laughed. And if there's not a really. If things just kind of die down for a bit, he's like, we're having a really good time tonight. It's just, I don't know, that's fun because you see what he's up against. Right. You know, how do you come up with. Some people would lived off of 30 minutes of material for their entire career. Oh, yeah.
Jimmy: Well, the young guy, a comedian named Josh Johnson, who sometimes hosts the Daily show now he does a residency, I guess in New York. Every week he does a new 45- minute set.
Liz: Wow.
Jimmy: And it is humor. Like, there are long stretches where it's like, wow, man. You know?
Harold: Yeah, yeah. It takes a. I. I'm super impressed with people who. I mean, Gene Shepherd.
Jimmy: Yeah, right.
Harold: He's a great example of a guy. I guess people would call him a humorist. He would tell these stories and he's laughing along the way because he's making them super entertaining for himself and hopefully for us. But I'd call him a humorist. Right?
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: All right, guys, we're going to take a break and then we'll come back. We'll finish some more tributes to Charles M. Schulz.
Liz: Alrighty.
BREAK
VO: Hi, everyone. I just want to take a moment to remind you that all three hosts are cartoonists themselves and their work is available for sale. You can find links to purchase books by Jimmy, Harold and Michael on our website. You can also support the show on Patreon or buy us a mud pie. Check out the store link on unpackingpeanuts.com
Jimmy: and we are back. I'm, hanging out in the mailbox. Liz, do we got anything?
Liz: We do. We heard from a new listener, Dan Berger, who writes. Hi. I discovered unpacking Peanuts relatively recently and have greatly enjoyed the episodes I've listened to so far. At the risk of stating the obvious, it's just been a small fraction of the series. I tell you this so you'll understand that I don't know what I don't know about your past guests that and who you may have tried to interview without success. I'm writing not only to express my appreciation for your great work. But to encourage you to interview Stefan Pastis, the creator of Pearls Before Swine, if you're familiar with him, as I suspect you are. Pastis wasn't just influenced by Peanuts. He has spoken and written many times about how his venturing down to meet/ambush Sparky at a diner in Santa Rosa near the ice rink played a key role in his decision to abandon a law practice and take the risk of pursuing his passion for cartooning. He's frequently described the kindness and encouragement Schulz showed him. Though the tone of Pearls is very different from Peanuts and it's hilarious. It's not hard to see Peanuts influence. Sorry if I'm telling you what you already know. I'd just love to hear you all have a conversation with Pastis about a shared love. Thanks again for your wonderful work and for kindly taking the time to read this message. Best.
Harold: Thank you, Dan.
Jimmy: Well, come on, Dan, give him our number and we'll do it.
Liz: Yeah, really, he's definitely on the list. We have a long list of people we'd love to talk to.
Harold: When you were reading that, Liz, I was thinking, you know, he was talking about the people you tried to interview without success and the people you did interview without success.
Liz: No, no, no, no. Everything has been a success.
Harold: No, we've had some amazing, amazing. Yeah, it's a great. It's a part of the show. For sure. You'll be discovering more as we go along, but Stefan is one who's eluded us to today. But it's a great suggestion, and if
Liz: any of our listeners have contacts that will help us find these people, please let us know.
Harold: Yeah, our listeners and friends. A lot of cartoonists are out here, so there are a lot of connections that we don't have that maybe you guys do.
Liz: And friend of the show and Replacements fan Paul Castiglia writes. During the Eudora episode, when Liz mentioned how many Peanuts fans cross over with Mystery Science Theater fans, Harold quipped, in some ways, it's so different, but in other ways, well, come on. Minneapolis/St. Paul humor. To which Jimmy responded, I don't know, Prince was kind of funny. Lest I remind Jimmy once again that Charlie Brown grew up to be Paul Westerberg and not Michael Stipe, let alone Prince Rogers Nelson. And that the highly humorous Replacements provided the soundtrack to the growed up Peanuts gang reference. Tommy gets his tonsils out. Waitress in the sky. All he wants to do is fish and many more.
Jimmy: You're hopeless. I have to say, if Charlie Brown grew up to be Paul Westerberg, that is a deep tragedy. I cannot picture Charlie Brown being drunk and banned from Saturday Night Live.
Liz: Well, lots of child stars go through a tough time.
Jimmy: Well, he is the opposite of a child star. He's a child loser.
Harold: Oh, Charlie Brown.
Jimmy: Yeah, Charlie Brown.
Harold: Well, yeah, as soon as I heard that preface from Paul, I was like, oh, wait, wait for it, Paul. You're gonna get it. Both barrels. But we love you, Paul.
Jimmy: Thank you for asking.
Harold: I have no idea what you guys are talking about, and it sounds fascinating.
Liz: And on Blue sky, Paul Hébert posted, every once in a while I remember that Charles Schulz drew a poster for a Grateful Dead spinoff thing, and it makes me happy. unpacking Peanuts. Have you guys ever talked about this specifically? Or his charitable artistic contributions more broadly? And he shared an image of a poster titled open a benefit for Bohemia Waterfall park on Tuesday, April 27, 1999, featuring Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Sammy Hagar, and Planet Drum.
Jimmy: Charles Schulz drew Sammy Hagar?
Michael: I cannot picture Charles Schulz being a deadhead, frankly.
Liz: Well, it's just in the style of.
Michael: Yeah, well, he may like to park, but I'm sure he doesn't like the Dead.
Harold: So he's specifically referring to things that Schulz contributed to for causes.
Liz: it's a poster. He contributed the art where Snoopy in his campaign hat in a valley by a stream with rainbows and stuff. So it's on our blue sky, profile. So take a look. It's kind of unusual. Okay, so that's it for the mail.
Jimmy: So we heard from super listener Sawyer Honeycutt, who wrote, this has really nothing to do with Peanuts as much as a cartooning technique. I'm re watching the latest version of DuckTales and saw that they're using Zipatone. Is this the first time a cartoon ever used Zipatone?
Jimmy: So, okay. At the risk. Yeah, just at the risk. So, all right, so I looked this up. Now, first off, my kids loved the new version of DuckTales. And, I've watched a few episodes of it. It's not on anymore, but it was really, really good. Technically, the dots you're seeing them try to replicate on DuckTales is actually replicating Ben Day dots, which are, So if you see dots like that in color, it's Ben Day dots. Ben Day dots are the dots made by the printing press when it's running the ink on the actual page of the comic book that you will purchase.
Harold: That's, you could have used zipatone to create those, to create the process.
Jimmy: Right, but the, printing is the Ben Day dots that could. Would also have been created even if you were just using a pale color zipatone, which is actually a brand name of, you know, shading film, but zipatone’s black for the most part. Otherwise you're seeing some. Something else, which would be Ben Day dots. But you asked Sawyer, and I don't know. I'm sure that there are. I'm sure there are cartoons who have done that. Look, I know there are since then, and there's comics all the time.
Harold: What was that Spider man movie that used it all
Jimmy: Into the spider verse.
Harold: Into the spider verse. Yeah, really beautifully comic book print-y look on film, but yeah.
Jimmy: All right, well, if you want to get in touch with us, you can send us an email. We're unpackingpeanutsmail.com. or you could give us a shout on the hotline 717-219-4162. You could text like good old Sawyer Honeycutt just did. Or, you can leave a message. But if you do leave a message, make sure you leave your name. And by the way, if you are from area code 678. Sorry. Thank you for your message. But it didn't record.
Harold: Oh, no, no, we do not need leaf gutter.
Jimmy: Well, it recorded something for 17 seconds, but it is inaudible.
Harold: Oh, no.
Liz: Too bad. Please call back unless you're the leaf people.
Jimmy: All right, so, Harold, you had something you wanted to say?
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: So 50 cartoonists within a really short period of time got together, agreed that they were going to do this tribute to Schulz, which is really special. I don't know that that had happened before or if it's happened since after he passed away. And then it made me think of the one time that I know of that Schulz was part of a group of cartoonists dedicating their comic strips to. To a single day's cause, which doesn't sound like a Charles Schulz thing to do.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: He was very individualistic. But in November 28, 1985, which happened to be Thanksgiving, Gary Trudeau had come up with an idea to do hook into a kind of a world hunger campaign. And the two people he reached out to, he said, if you get behind this, I think there's a chance that this will work, were Charles Schulz and Milton Caniff, who was doing Steve Canyon at the time, more of a realistic adventure strip. And interestingly, Schulz said Yes. And so they put their name behind it, and 175.
Liz: Wow.
Harold: Over 175 artists contributed, and that's a really, really unique event. But, Jimmy, you said you had a little background on how Schulz viewed this.
Liz: Yeah.
Jimmy: Later, in an interview with, I believe, with Gary Groth in the Comics Journal, he's like, I kind of got strong armed into doing it. I don't think it. You should. People should come in and say, every day. Today's the day. All the cartoonists are going to do this. He just didn't like it as a,
Harold: the general rule.
Jimmy: Ah, yeah, yeah. But I think he was proud or happy with, you know, what the. What the cause was. And I believe also because it was Caniff, he thought that was cool and he did it, but he said he
Harold: wasn't into it, which is probably Gary Trudeau being very strategic. Oh, it totally was. Don't tell him I'm doing it. Talking to. Caniff's doing it a hundred percent.
Michael: Uh-huh.
Jimmy: Yeah. He wasn't going to do it for Gary Trudeau.
Harold: Well, yeah, but it's cool that they did it. And they put out a paperback book collecting all of the strips, and I bought that book, and. And it was amazing because it was A snapshot of 1985 comic strips in a book like you would never see before or since, 175 different ones you didn't know existed. Kind of like what we're looking at right now, but 175 of them, all in one day in the history of newspaper comics, all on the same theme. And if you're curious, the Peanuts strip was Linus and Charlie Brown walking and talking. And Linus says, are you going to have a big Thanksgiving dinner, Charlie Brown? And Charlie Brown says, I suppose so. Big dinners don't really interest me. And then they go to the thinking wall, and Charlie Brown says, I've never thought that much about eating. And then we cut to Snoopy frowning, looking into his dog dish, and says, you do when your dish is empty.
Jimmy: That's really good.
Liz: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. It's to the point and in a way that is true to the characters. You would never know, for one thing, what it's referencing, directly, which I'm sure Schulz wanted to make sure did not happen. He wanted it to feel like it lived in the world, but it makes its point.
Jimmy: it does. I mean, he nailed it. He nailed it.
All right, we're going back to the comic strips. Rose Is Rose, Rose's son is out looking at the sky. And he says, whoa. And we're seeing a bunch of stuff like, floating around in his head. A candy cane, a heart, the sun, a beach ball, music, some other stuff. And then, he turns to Rose and says, mama, there's a cloud that looks like Sparky Schulz at his drawing table. And then Rose stands up and says, where? And they're staring up into the sky. Pasquale says, too late. I just turned around and he was gone. Oh, we have, a really, really wide shot, you know, from looking down on the characters. So they're just tiny little dots, in the field. White.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Now the one thing that Rose Is Rose, was very well known for is that the illustration, you know, doing lots of inventive stuff with the drawing and, does it here.
Liz: Wow.
Harold: Beautiful brush line. Love the look of this. And I just like the way the, you know, he's very word heavy in terms of its emphasis in the strip, which I guess is everybody has to do it since the strips are so tiny now. But I just like the way the, the word balloons and the lettering and the panels work together. And he, he does things that most people don't. He leaves open the tops of the word balloons where they. And, there's. There's a line of the panel that goes kind of in on it, but not all the way. What do you think of that? Does that work for you guys? Does that somehow do something?
Jimmy: It's very weird. Well, I mean, it's a, It's a visual tick that's unique to this strip, so that alone is a good thing. It doesn't distract from it for me. But now that I noticed it, it's, it's weird.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Like I do, it came from Pogo. I make the word balloons pop out of the squares or the panels.
Michael: Yes.
Harold: Like, like they were pasted over the lines, wherever they were, which gives it
Jimmy: like a little extra edge of, like, chaos or excitement or youth or something.
Harold: Yeah. It's almost like it owns more of the space around the strips. It seems to open it up. And with his heavy lettering. I think it really, really helps to have the white space. My eye kind of goes up into, into the area that would normally not be the strip, but here it is and, and it helps balance the heaviness of the lettering. I love it. It's just. He's just such great artist and super design.
Jimmy: Yeah. I love the effectiveness of the last panel with no background and no panel border.
Michael: Wow.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: I mean, and it's got all these connotations that are kind of moving. Yeah, right.
Liz: Really, really.
Jimmy: Looking down on.
Liz: Gets the emotion.
Harold: Yeah. Like. Like Schulz. You know, it's the cloud.
Jimmy: It.
Harold: Maybe it's Schulz looking down on us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just really moving.
Jimmy: Well, that's how I. It feels to me. You know, it feels that. That it's Schulz looking down on them and, like, saying goodbye. I will say this. That the drawing in panel three. That's a hard angle, Michael. You must have done that kind of thing.
Michael: I've given up even trying to.
Harold: Wow.
Michael: Yeah, I didn't do it, but it always looked wrong. If you don't do it perfectly, it looks like there's distorted people walking around.
Jimmy: Yeah. Like the short or something like that.
Michael: Okay. My. When I saw. Read this strip.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: My immediate thought was, you shouldn't call Schulz “Sparky” unless you know him.
Jimmy: I always feel that way, but he may. They may have. I'm sure they did, but the character certainly did.
Michael: And so I went, what is this kid doing calling Sparky? You have to earn that.
Harold: That's an interesting, interesting point. I mean, given that I'm assuming Pat Brady knew Schulz and that they respected one another, that it's all in the family. I don't know.
Jimmy: Yeah. Oh, no, I know. They definitely did know each other. And I know that Schulz liked this strip in particular, too.
Harold: yeah. I can't imagine him not. Yeah.
Jimmy: Up next is Baldo by Hector D. Cantu and Carlos Castellanos. So Gracie comes up to Baldo. Baldo, who is, by the way, not bald, just in case you were wondering.
Liz: It's probably like, Ubaldo.
Jimmy: I was excited when I saw the name Baldo, and I was like, nope, just more hair propaganda. Anyway, so Baldo is reading a book, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Me. And Gracie comes up and says, Baldo, it's your turn to wash dishes. And she has long black hair and is wearing a blue T shirt. And then in the next panel, she is yelling every time there's a mess, you're responsible. But some of the words are turning into the hash marks that we would see with, like, Woodstock talking. And we start to see some of the details of Lucy's dress appear on, the blue T shirt. Then the next panel, the character is morphed halfway to Lucy, and we just see a few words-- Suffer. Don't. Listen. Why. And the rest is all just hash marks. And then the last one goes to all hash marks. And Gracie completely has, turned into Lucy. And it's a pretty good drawing of Lucy, I have to say, still obviously Baldo, but a good Lucy. And then it cuts back to regular reality. And Baldo says, I'm gonna miss that comic. And Gracie says, haven't you heard anything I've said? And then it gets the In memory of Charles Schulz, little plaque in the bottom.
Harold: This is, I think, really nicely done. And, you know, he's basically saying that he's been influenced.
Michael: Right.
Harold: By Schulz in a really creative way.
Jimmy: I think of the ones I like, the Rose Is Rose one and this one a lot because it really leans into cartooning, you know, which I think Schulz would have appreciated.
Harold: I agree. Yeah. in some of these. And it's interesting. He's reading that 1980 book, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Me.
Jimmy: Actual book that was probably important to the creators.
Harold: Yeah, right. 1980. This is 20 years later. That was probably the book that he read and read and read and read as a kid. You know, you just kind of infer that as fellow cartoonists, Right?
Jimmy: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right, if you guys were going to picture yourself with one Peanuts book that defined your relationship with Peanuts, what would it be? I'll go first. I think I would pick. You don't look 35, Charlie Brown. Because that was the first time I didn't have the bicentennial. or not the bicentennial. The. The 25th anniversary one. So that was the first time I really got to read essays by Schulz. So that's the one I'd pick.
Michael: I'd pick You’e You, Charlie Brown. Just cause that's the weirdest name for one of those books.
Jimmy: What year would that have been?
Michael: I just thought it was a light blue color cover. I think it was like 62 or 63.
Harold: Yeah, yeah. Well, the. The book I wanted for my. I believe it was my 11th birthday was that book, Peanuts Jubilee for the 25th anniversary. And that was my first time reading him, going in depth about his background, how he became Charles Schulz, how he became a cartoonist. And that one, you know, I still have the copy, and it looks like it's been very well read, because it has been very well read. Super, super influential to me as a little kid wishing he could be a cartoonist. All of a sudden, Charles Schulz just lays out, this is what it's like. This is a day in the life of being a cartoonist. and it just kind of reinforced all of the feelings and thoughts I had of what it would be to be a cartoonist like Charles Schulz. And it just made it seem a little more possible.
Liz: And mine was the Rinehart red cover book titled Snoopy. I think that's the only one that really was a main part of my life.
Michael: That too.
Liz: Number two.
Michael: That too, I said for me.
Liz: Oh, okay.
Michael: Yeah, that was number four, I think.
Liz: Oh, okay.
Michael: That might have been the second one I read.
Jimmy: Well, those are all good picks. Very cool. All probably available today, certainly at a used bookstore. I just got the Jubilee one a few years ago. A lady at a bookstore gave it to me as a gift. Oh, it was amazing. And I felt like a kid on Christmas. It's so good.
Michael: All.
Jimmy: Ah, right. Where else are we going next? Jumpstart. Marcie is, working as a nurse at the hospital, and she is talking to a co worker. And who comes up with the drawing of Snoopy and says, for you, Marcie, I know how badly you wanted Mr. Schulz to do a drawing for you when he was here. Wicky. I can't accept this. This is the Snoopy sketch he drew especially for you. Then Marcie says, do you realize what I am holding in my hands? And then her friend says, yes, a photocopy. Then it says, Wicky signed ours. Want him to autograph yours?
Michael: Well, he wins for best joke.
Harold: Yeah, definitely.
Liz: So far.
Harold: Yeah. And it, you know, and obviously it shows what Schulz means and Schulz original comic means in Rob Armstrong's world of Jumpstart. This strip has some. I have some really fond moments of Jumpstart, and I'm gonna be maybe remembering this incorrectly, but there was a sequence in this strip, I think, after this one came out in 2000, where one of the characters decides to write this cartoonist and is nervous about it and is thrilled. The cartoonist is absolutely thrilled that somebody wrote him. And I just. The joke I remember the most in this sequence that went on was like, well, you know, I don't want to keep bothering this guy. You know, we're doing correspondence. I'm just one of his readers and fans. You know, I don't want to burden him and all of this. And the last panel is the cartoonist sitting at his drawing table. I wonder what happened to that guy, you know, didn't get another look. He's like, he was just waiting for that piece of correspondence.
Jimmy: That's so fun.
Harold: It was really sweet.
Liz: It's kind of like the letter that we got in the mail today of somebody saying, oh, I'm sorry to disturb you. And we love getting mail, so send lots of mail. Don't think you're disturbing us.
Harold: Yeah, this Is a conversation. Absolutely.
Jimmy: Because remember too, when I don't hear, I worry.
Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson. This is Twins, we believe Gabby and Michael. We are not experts on all these strips, so if we get something wrong, our apologies, let us know. So Gabby says, exactly what kind of dog is Rudy? And Michael says, well, he's a mutt, so I'm not really sure. And then, Rudy the puppy goes into a little Snoopy dance and then gives Gabby a kiss right on the nose. And then Michael says, but I definitely think he has some beagle in him. And then he does the full happy dance right off the panel.
Jimmy: That's a cute one too.
Liz: And Gabby says, blech.
Jimmy: I like the design of Gabby a lot.
Jimmy: I think she's a really cute.
Michael: I mean, it looks very Bloom County to me.
Jimmy: Oh, there's a Bloom county influence for sure.
Harold: Yep. And Peanuts too, maybe, with the way he colors. Colors black hair.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like it. I think it looks good.
Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. The parents come up and they have. They're holding a doghouse that looks just like Snoopy's. And mom says, look, kids, Daddy bought you a new dollhouse. And the little girl says, doll house. It looks like a dog house to me. I don't have a dog. What am I supposed to do with a dog house? And then her little brother lies up on top of it like Snoopy.
Harold: So this strip, in a way, mirrored some of the things Schulz did in that, it started with a couple about to have a baby.
Jimmy: Uh-huh.
Harold: And then they had the baby. Zoe, I think, was the name of the first child. And slowly, over time, the child is growing up and then gets a sibling not too long after that. So it's kind of like the gasoline aisle, eat peanuts thing, where it just. You just slowly age the characters forward to capture all the different angles on it. Kind of like for better, for worse as well. Right? Yeah, they do grow in time, but not at the rate normal people would.
Michael: Right.
Jimmy: Pretty cute. I've, worked with those guys, and they're both really, really nice. They also created the comic strip Zits.
Liz: Oh, right, yeah.
Harold: Two really, really great strips.
Jimmy: Yeah. All right. Foxtrot by Bill Amond and Jason. The main character, the main kid is at, a lemonade stand, and, he's selling it for $50,000 cups extra. And it's set up right next to Lucy's psychiatric help booth for 5 cents. And Lucy says to him, got a nickel?
Liz: I don't I can't, I can't figure out what, where his face is. I, I, I don't, I don't read that. I don't read that character.
Jimmy: It's completely Picasso-esque. Those are two glasses on the same. The thing to the left of the glasses is his nose. Then it goes down and you could see like that's his mouth making a whistling sound.
Liz: Okay. And then that, oh, Then, those are ears.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Liz: Oh, that's weird.
Michael: Right?
Harold: So the two, the two glasses, the two glasses, lenses, then a line of the glasses frame going into the ear
Liz: that I wish that the face were as clear as the picture of lemonade.
Harold: Isn't that interesting? Yeah. That's a really nice picture of lemonade, by the way.
Liz: Nice. And the cups and the money for the tips.
Jimmy: Well, I always got the feeling with Foxtrot that this is the way he started drawing as a kid. Yeah.
Harold: Ah.
Jimmy: And he just refined it and refined it and refined it and it's almost like a private language, you know. But I mean, this was a really, really big strip. My college roommate loved it.
Harold: Like, yeah, this was very popular strip. And this makes me think, you know, I live in a pretty wealthy community and there actually were some kids out doing the, the lemonade stand. And very smartly, it was like, we don't have a price on this lemonade. It's just a, it's just whatever you want to pay.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: And so, you know, if you put a dollar on there, you only get a dollar. You put $5. Like $5. I'm not going to pay $5 for lemonade. You say pay whatever you want. Once you're up there with the kid, you're going to Give them a 20, right?
Michael: Right, right.
Jimmy: Because the kid's so cute, right? Exactly.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: Some very, you know, I think there was some coaching going on there because there's a lot of financial people live up here. So I think there were some moms and dads giving some advice and it was pretty, pretty savvy. So do you think, Lucy is asking him that he needs some psychiatry psychiatric help at the $50,000 price? There's something wrong with you, kid. That's what I think.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Okay.
Jimmy: Now if he gets a customer, he's in good shape.
Harold: Well, that's true. Yeah. You could be wrong for most people, but if you hit the right one, you do not regret your pricing strategy.
Jimmy: Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans. Greg Evans, by the way, was my sponsor for the, National Cartoonist Society. And this is a panoramic strip. It's very much looks like the panoramic Schulz would do, but in this instance, it is the famous pose of Schroeder and Lucy. But replace at the piano. But replacing Schroeder is Charles, Schulz himself. And replacing Lucy is Luann. And we see the. We see the music staves going across the top, but instead of notes, we see Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Woodstock, and Snoopy. And Luann thinks to herself, what a great tune. But tune is spelled T O O N. Very sweet.
Harold: Really beautifully drawn of Schulz.
Jimmy: I like the inking.
Harold: Yeah. They spent. Spent a lot of time on this one. And it's interesting. I mean, Karen is the daughter of Greg, and she's been involved in the strip now, obviously, for years. Years and years. obviously an inspiration for the character Luanne, since she's his daughter. And Karen is now president of the National Cartoonist Society.
Jimmy: Amazing.
Harold: It's pretty cool. This is one of those legacy kind of strips where the family gets involved and it's just worked out really well.
Jimmy: That's awesome.
Liz: I'm curious as to why Schroeder has a mullet.
Jimmy: Let himself go.
Harold: That's because Greg Evans has a mullet. No, just kidding.
Jimmy: I think that's more of a natural. Well, no, that's pretty much a mullet. Yeah.
Harold: What defines. I didn't even know what defines a mullet. How far does it have to go?
Liz: it's a conservative on the top and a party in the back. Is that?
Jimmy: Yeah, there's a little party going on.
Harold: Yeah. But he didn't give Charles Schulz a mullet.
Jimmy: That would be amazing.
Harold: A little. But that. That sweater looks awfully familiar that Sparky's wearing there. Right. You know? Yeah.
Jimmy: you like his shoes? Speaking of old people that we like, I have an Unpacking Peanuts recommends.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: The new Paul McCartney album.
Liz: Oh.
Jimmy: it's. It's wonderful. Like, I always like them, but this one, like, I like as much as I've liked one and 30 years, I think.
Liz: Wow.
Harold: Really good.
Jimmy: Very. Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's great. And let's wrap up here with For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston. So Ellie, is at a store of some kind that they're. I guess it's toy store. Yeah, I guess so. And they want to help this person stay in business. So obviously this was doubly hard for someone like.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Nothing who's in the middle of doing a story, and she has to figure out a way to make it work. So within this story, the woman who owns the store is saying, you're both willing to work here for less than you're making now. And Ellie says, we want you to stay in business, Lily. Things will get better. We believe in you, says the other character, whose name I can't remember. And Lily says, this was your idea, wasn't it, Elle? And then Ellie says, I…. And then as a show of thanks, Lily says, thanks and hands her a plush Snoopy doll, which Ellie then hugs.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Ferociously. And they were very, very, very close friends. So I'm sure that was a meaningful drawing to her.
Harold: And this is for those artists who were using traditional methods. This is when you are really glad you're dealing with India ink, because guessing there is going to be some tear stains on these.
Jimmy: Oh, for sure, for sure. Hey, so we're going to be traveling around a bit in the fall. Even. I might be leaving my house. Where are we going to be, guys?
Harold: Yeah, Michael, what are you doing on the 20th?
Michael: there's a town called Fabriano in Le Marche. In Le Marche. And they're doing something called Fabcon, which I was thinking, like, whoa, Fab what a hip word, but town's called Fabriano.
Jimmy: So
Michael: anyway, I got invited to a. It's a comic gaming indie pop con. And I have a table, so I've got. I'm translating some books into Italian. If you're in Italy and you, drop by the old Fabcon, I'll, say ciao.
Harold: So this is August 20th, Michael?
Michael: Yeah, it's three days.
Harold: It's three days. So it's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Liz: Venti. Ventuno. Ventidue agosto.
Jimmy: See, this is gonna actively repel people from coming.
Harold: Where are you gonna be on the 22nd and 23rd of August, Jimmy?
Jimmy: I am gonna be with my pal Bucky Newsprint Harold Buchholz, and we are gonna be guests at the good old Harrisburg Comic Con at the.
Harold: In beautiful Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Jimmy: That's right. This is the home show for the Amelia 25th anniversary tour. It's going to be exciting at the farm show complex. You might think. But won't it smell like manure? Heck, yeah, it will. But you're going to have a great time.
Harold: Anyway, you'll still still want to get the, get the street corn.
Jimmy: Absolutely.
Harold: Just seems like it mixes in.
Jimmy: Well, if they have the farm show milkshakes there, which I cannot guarantee it's worth coming. Even if you have to see me and Harold, it's worth it.
Harold: Yeah. Wow. It's trade offs.
Jimmy: And then I'm also going to be at Rose City Con in Portland, Oregon on September 11th to the 13th.
Harold: That's cool. So, West Coasters, make your way over to Portland and see Jimmy in person.
Michael: I have a friend who lives in Portland. Maybe he'll drop by.
Liz: And we were talking about, wonderful bookstores. And so you have to go to.
Harold: Oh, yeah. Powell's.
Liz: Powell's.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.
Harold: Totally worth the trip. It is a beautiful, beautiful building. Beautiful. Well, the building's not so beautiful, but what's inside is beautiful. New and used books, huge bookstore.
Michael: Huge.
Liz: I love Oregon. Go Ducks.
Jimmy: Yeah. How about you?
Harold: And I would have been at Rose City Con. I will not be with Jimmy. Like, I, was at Rose City the last two years, but not this year. I have to be in Pennsylvania again. Lehighton at the Mahoning Drive in Theater for the Mystery Science Theater event with, Jonah and Emily, hosts from the new Mystery Science theater that I helped write and produce on. We're going to be doing a live improv riff on Saturday night. And on Friday night we are going to be doing a scripted riff on Son of the Blob, which is a great riff and very fun. So if you guys can make it out like Mystery Science Theater or just want a fun night or a couple nights, come on out to the Mahoning Drive in Theater. You can camp overnight if you want, so you can bring your tents as well.
And then on the 17th through the 20th of September, I will be at the Berlin Fair in Berlin, Connecticut. Another farm adjacent show, but I will be in a nice big building, but this one doesn't have air conditioning, so, just warning you, but at least it won't be raining on us in the books and all that stuff. And then the 24th through the 27th, I will be at the Durham Country Fair in Connecticut doing a show. And I will be in a covered area, but no AC in that one, so. Yeah, but come and visit if you're in the Connecticut area and I might have a little vinyl unpacking peanut sticker for you to take home if you want.
Jimmy: Awesome. I really hope people come out and see us because, you know, when we don't see you, we worry. Plus we'll be standing at a booth alone and that's just one of the most depressing, you know, sounds of silence moments you'll ever have. So come out and see it .
Well, there you go, guys. Another season, another weird finale. I, really enjoyed it. I love hanging out with you guys. It's my favorite day of the week. And I love that we have so many fine listeners out there who want to spend that day with us. So we'll be back soon with another season. Finally, the long delayed Mean Girls season is coming up. Michael's picking the strips. You got some good ones coming up first, Michael.
Michael: Oh, they're all good.
Jimmy: All good, all killer. No filler. So be there, be square. if you want to keep this conversation going between now and then, of course you can send us an email. We're unpackingpeanutsmail.com and we would absolutely love to hear from you. You can also call us or leave a voicemail at the unpacking peanuts hotline. That is 717-219-4162. And if you want to follow us on social media, we are unpackpeanuts on… which ones, Liz?
Liz: Instagram and threads. And unpacking peanuts on Facebook, blue sky and YouTube.
Jimmy: There you go. Liz knew. All right, so we would love to hear from you. Remember, when I don't hear, I worry. Come back for Mean Girls. Until then, from Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
MHL: Yes, yes, 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 Shukrala Clark. For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads. Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook. Bluesky. for more about Jimmy, Michael And Harold, visit unpacking peanuts.com have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
Jimmy: Bill.
Harold: Bill.