Pumpkin Spice Peanuts 2
Jimmy: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. We are falling into autumn again here on Unpacking Peanuts with Pumpkin Spice Peanuts Two. And I'll be your host for the proceedings. My name's Jimmy Gownley and guess what? I'm also a cartoonist. And you could buy my brand new book in the Real Dark Night and pre order my new Amelia Rules book. Party out of bounds over on the GVILLE Comics substack. And joining me as always, are my pals, co hosts and fellow cartoonists. First, 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 making sure everything runs smoothly and keeping us mostly out of trouble, it's producer and editor Liz Sumner.
Liz: Howdy.
Jimmy: Hey, we're back here in fall, guys. Are you guys enjoying the fall weather where you are now? Has it kicked in?
Michael: it's not quite fall. I mean, not leaf wise, but the
Liz: the temperature is nice and things are starting to turn yellow. We don't have any fantastic colors here. It's okay. But it's nothing like that.
Michael: They get great in certain parts.
Jimmy: They get gray?
Michael: great.
Jimmy: Oh, I thought you said gray.
Liz: Not New England great
Michael: in, certain a few places.
Liz: Not. No. Yeah, I've never seen a, red leaf here.
Michael: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take you on a drive.
Harold: Isn't that the part of the song that all the leaves are gray?
Jimmy: Leaves are gray? No.
Michael: The weird thing is, okay, we lived in the northern part of the U.S. new England, and now we live in the middle part of Italy, which is considered the south.
Michael: They're on exactly the same latitude.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Harold: Wow. Does it feel like that at all?
Liz: We don't get that kind of winter.
Michael: Oh. The temperature, the weather is totally different. But, it's exactly, almost Keene and Pergola. Exactly on the same line.
Liz: Yeah, but they don't have sugar maples.
Jimmy: How are things in beautiful upstate New York, Harold?
Harold: oh, I'm not upstate.
Jimmy: How Are things in the beautiful Hudson Valley? How are things in beautiful outside in Manhattan? What would you call Rye?
Harold: Nobody knows.
Jimmy: How are things in Rye, Harold?
Harold: Have no idea. No, they're great. The weather's getting a little, fallish, and that's very welcome. So I just did a country fair in Connecticut. So that is the feeling of fall for me is to go out, and I got the. Got the crisp weather and the rides and the street corn. It's fun. And a lot of people still come out to those things, which I think is great.
Jimmy: Nice. Well, here in Pennsylvania, it's still like you're walking through tomato soup, but we're hoping that maybe in a week or two, things will be better and things will be real better in just a few seconds when we, dip into these wonderful fall strips. So, yeah, we're going back to doing some more of our pumpkin spice peanuts. We've enjoyed it so much. I've selected a bunch of fall strips. Michael picked some of the poetic leaf falling strips along with a few others. So we're all loaded up with some fun, stuff to discuss today. Why do you guys say we just get right to it?
Liz: Let's do it.
Harold: That's great.
Jimmy: Okay, now, if you guys want to follow along with this conversation, what you got to do is go over to unpackingpanuts.com, sign up for the great peanuts reread, which will get you one email a month letting you know what. What strips we're going to cover on the show. Then you can read them ahead of time, and then, you know, we'll all be on the same page. It'll be a lot of fun.
September 25, 1970. There's a gale, forced autumnal wind blowing. Linus, and his blanket. As a matter of fact, it blows so hard that in the second panel, it rips it right out of his hand. And he goes chasing after it, only to find in panel four, that has landed on top of Snoopy, who's lying atop his doghouse. And Snoopy thinks to himself, I hate to see fall come. It gets dark so early.
Jimmy: Now, that's one of the, downsides for me. How do you guys feel about, that the fact that it gets dark so early?
Liz: I hate it.
Michael: I like it.
Liz: I don't get happy again until the solstice.
Jimmy: I understand that, too.
Harold: So are you the kind of people who adjust your days and to the. To the sun, or do you just kind of stick to a schedule and just go, it's. Why is it so dark.
Liz: I just never go out after 4:30.
Jimmy: I thought, I've thought about this year actually attempting to adjust my schedule because I'm such a late riser. Because I'm usually, I'm honestly drawing until. God, I mean. Liz, what time will you text me at night and get a picture from me? Like 3:30 in the morning or.
Liz: Yeah, well. And when I wake up, and go to my computer, you're still working and you're six hours difference.
Jimmy: Yeah. So I totally get that. I would like to maintain the sunlight. But Michael, you like it getting dark early?
Michael: Well, I feel I have to work all day no matter what I'm doing. I call it work. And when it gets dark it's like, okay, I can sit back and read a comic book. And so it gets dark earlier and I can start doing nothing earlier.
Jimmy: And this is all put on pressure just from your own head.
Michael: Oh, my rules.
Jimmy: Of course.
Harold: The fall's working in your favor so
Liz: you really have to see this strip because it didn't quite make sense to me until I saw that Snoopy was covered with the blanket and that's why it got dark.
Michael: Oh really?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Well, the color, I mean it's colored. It has nothing to do with Schulz. But that is odd that they only colored a few things.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's just some fan that did that though.
Michael: Oh, is that right?
October 23, 1959. An irate Charlie Brown is walking down the street past Patty and he says through his gritted teeth, I've never been so mad in all my life. And he turns to Patty and explains what's going on. I went down to the store to get a Halloween mask and they were all out of them. Patty says, aren't they going to order any more? Charlie Brown rolls his eyes and says, ha. Are you kidding? They were busy putting up Christmas decorations.
Harold: Wow. This strip will make no sense to anybody in 2026 because they're going to have the full stock and the Christmas decorations.
Jimmy: The Christmas decorations might be out by August.
Liz: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. Well, I noticed that Halloween now goes back two months, Right?
Jimmy: Easily goes back two months. Yes.
Harold: Yeah, you'll easily start to see it around Labor Day or earlier.
Jimmy: Yep.
Harold: You know, there's no Labor Day. Doesn't have a whole lot of its own decorations, so.
Jimmy: Right. You could put some fun thing up maybe.
Harold: But yeah, maybe there's the Labor Day Reese's cup or something.
Liz: Right.
Michael: I think this is an early iteration of the complaining about Christmas starting too early.
Harold: Yeah. Yep.
Jimmy: Yeah, I Mean, I kind of understand that they make so much money, but boy, it really does take a, take a toll on you to always see these things months ahead of time and then they're gone before the holidays. Barely there, you know.
Harold: Yeah, we were just watching a YouTube video. Some guy talking about Spirit Halloween. Their own custom, like life size things to put out in your lawn that are lit up and musical and animatronic. And they did, Snow Miser and Heat Miser from the Rankin Bass. Oh, wow. And it does look pretty crazy, but I think they're like 300 a piece. And the guy's like, this is a situation where it's run, don't walk because these things are going to be gone. I'm like, wow. But maybe that's why they put it out now in September because you're like, I can get two months worth out of this. Right? It's not like I'm buying it the week before and just having a few days in my, my lawn. You're gonna, you're gonna make a statement to your neighbors for, two whole months.
Jimmy: There's a house between where I live and where the girls used to go to school. And I used to obviously drive by it when I drive and pick them up or take them to school. And years ago they started buying those six foot tall. Some of them are inflatable, some of them are statues. All for Halloween. Yeah, well, and it started getting, They started with like two or three. I mean, I drove by maybe two days ago and there's gotta be 30 in their yard.
Liz: Wow.
Jimmy: It's insane. And I learned through somebody else, they keep them up all year. Can you imagine being the neighbors and there's like 30 zombies all year long. Yeah.
Liz: Actually, I kind of like this. Having it all year long rather than having to put it in your storage locker and then bring it back out again.
Jimmy: Well, it's approaching a folly. You guys know what a folly is?
Michael: Those.
Jimmy: They built some crazy thing in their yard and it's, you know, the sculpture out of bikes or whatever, it's approaching that level. It's out of control.
Harold: It's very exciting. I relate to Charlie Brown because I'm the, for some reason, I'm the guy that's like, oh, I'm gonna buy some summer stuff, some summer clothes in September. And then you go in there and it's like all, it's all heavy jackets and sweatshirts and.
Jimmy: But you could get a good deal. It's sometimes.
Liz: Yeah, but it's only the certain size.
Harold: Yeah, that's everything, by the shorts a size up that fall off.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: Because you wanted the deal. All that's left. But it's only 10 bucks. Yeah.
Jimmy: Well, you know, talking about the cartooning of this comic strip, this era of the inking is just so beautiful.
Harold: Just so what do you like about it?
Jimmy: I mean it approaches that clear line style. but it's not because even though the, the thick thin is so subtle, it just has so much life. It's just an era of, it's just perfection in like the placement of every, even like the little scribbled bush in panel two is placed perfectly.
Jimmy: And doesn't have too many lines of little scribbled leaves.
Harold: Can you just, can you explain clear line style? What do you mean by that?
Jimmy: So the clear line style is made famous by. I'll probably, I will pronounce all this wrong, but ergay.
Michael: Hergé
Jimmy: Yeah. Who created, exactly, who created Tin Tin
Michael: Tin Tin
Harold: Wow. All of a sudden it's Maurice Chevalier.
Jimmy: So what it is, is, is that everything is delineated, very precisely with ink, without a lot of thick and thin variation within the lines, without a lot of big expressive black areas, without a lot of, without any cross hatching or shading or stuff like that. And it just gives a really nice readable looking comic strip for me. The true clear line stuff like okay, and those guys is a little too clinical. Like it's, it's a little, a little too stiff. But this I think looks great. Where do you guys stand? I have no idea what you guys think.
Michael: I like it a lot. It's meant for color. Black and white does not work well. That's not enough.
Jimmy: Yes, that's true.
Harold: The clear line style. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so looking at this Peanuts strip where you're saying there's not a huge amount of delineation in the line and we've talked about this before how some people when we talk about the line, it's, it's just not a thing for them at all. I mean they don't, they don't notice that if you even talk about it, they're like, I think Liz, we were talking about and you're saying, I, I don't see what you're talking about initially. I don't know where you are now with, with looking at the strips. Does this make sense what, what Jimmy's talking about?
Liz: I think so. I, I, I remember asking about thicks and thins and I don't see thicks and thins in this In. In this strip. So are you saying it is subtle?
Jimmy: yeah, I'm saying that they're very subtle in this strip. Exactly.
Liz: Okay. Okay, then. Then I'm. Maybe. I understand.
Jimmy: I wish there is a great book from the 90s, but. Well, it's. Yeah, it's a great book, but it could be like a super great book called the Art of Comic Book Inking by Gary Martin, who is one of the best inkers who ever lived. I mean, he just. That was his. Is his living, I assume. You know, in mainstream and most superhero comics, the person who draws the page and pencil is not the person who inks it. So Gary Martin did this, and the idea was he got pages done, and I think we've talked about this before. They got pencil pages done and then handed them out to a variety of inkers so you could see the difference. Flaw in the book is that he got Steve Rood to pencil the pages. And Steve Rood is an artist who. I mean, his skill levels off the charts and everything is so perfectly delineated in pencil that ultimately the ink lines don't look as different as they would be if he got, like, a sloppier penciler. But it's still. As an example, if you're looking to try to understand what the difference an inker makes, just look up that book. I'm sure there'll be pages online where you can see he'll have the same page done by two or three different inkers, and you can see the difference.
Liz: I remember you mentioning that
Harold: I have the book in front of me, actually looking at it as you described that.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Harold: Yeah, it's. It's. It's not. Not hugely different, but it. It is noticeable. And that is probably a kind of a. A little lesson in line work. And like you said, it is very subtle compared to what it could have been, depending on who. Who had, penciled it in the first place. But, you know, I. That matters to me. The thicks and the thins, for some reason. And even looking at this page, it's very subtle, but you can still pick a favorite. It's an interesting conversation, Right? Yeah. To look and say, well, why does this look better to me? And why would you have multiple opinions on it? Because I know certain people really like certain inkers. There's certain inkers who. Who I think are just universally loved for the most part.
Jimmy: Yeah. Like Joe Sinott. everyone loved Joe Sinott, who did like most of the Kirby stuff. And there's people who are universally hated who, Michael and I could Name right now. Go ahead, Michael.
Michael: Don Heck.
Jimmy: Oh, wow. That was not who I would pick, but yeah, he sadly was.
Michael: George Bell.
Harold: Yeah, that was who I would have picked.
Michael: Of course. Yeah. Don Heck makes anyone he penciled look like Don Heck.
Jimmy: Don Heck,
Harold: he's a genius.
Jimmy: And it looked like Don Heck didn't care a whole lot.
Harold: No, he didn't. And then of course the famous Vince Coletta, of course, who I guess I don't know if he was reviled so much for his line work, but for maybe erasing things that he thought he didn't need to bother with.
Jimmy: Yeah, he would just erase entire backgrounds.
Harold: He was a character.
Jimmy: Yeah. And they would give him those jobs a lot of times because he would be one of these guys that he'd have two days and you'd have to ink the entire book.
Harold: and I told the story of Hy Eisman when I went to a Joe Kubert weekend cartooning class and he was telling so many funny stories about being called up in the middle of the night. And Joe had gotten some last minute job that a comic book company was so desperate to finish. And the pencilr and everything just took so long. The deadline's like two days and he's going to get this 32 page comic inked. But he would have an army of people sometimes who were helping him, get it done. And so he'd call up Hy Eisman 3 in the morning and he's like, you got a pencil and a piece of paper. Start, start, or even for the penciling, you know, Then he would ink it. That was the other thing he would do. So that was the case of Hy, when you call him up, say, I'm going to describe the panels to you at three in the morning. Draw five pages of Lawrence of Arabia and then I'm going to get four other people. I woke up in the middle of the night and then we're going to meet in a park.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: At 2pm And I will.
Michael: That's why everyone lived in New York at that time.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. I've heard that Ben Oda, who was a famous or famous-- He was a letterer for comics for decades and just one of the most professional and fastest letterers. They said he had a giant keyring because he had the keys to every artist in New York's apartment or studio because they'd go to sleep and he'd come in at night to letter the pages for themselves.
Harold: The lettering fairy, I love it.
Jimmy: Isn't that crazy?
Harold: That's the best
Liz: So I have an idea. I think we need to make a book list of the reference books that we keep talking about.
Jimmy: That's a great idea.
Liz: Yeah. So you guys text me things that I'll collect, the ones that I can get out of the transcripts, but as you think of them, please go ahead and text me, and I'll put it on the website.
Jimmy: Oh, that's a great idea. That's a great idea.
Harold: Yeah. Thank you.
October 1, 1962. Snoopy sits at the base of the tree, and a, lone leaf gently flutters to the ground, landing, finally, in the fourth panel, when Snoopy says to it, you don't know it, but your troubles are just beginning.
Liz: Yeah.
Jimmy: And it is very true for that leaf. Oh, man. So, yeah, Michael, you are the aficionado of these leaf strips. I don't think you can do less in a comic than this. Maybe Todd Webb could.
Harold: In the poet.
Liz: Yes.
Jimmy: But, you know, a master class in just the tiniest little moment.
Michael: Yeah, this is total Zen.
Harold: Yeah, this is. I'm looking at it. I. I can, like, make it larger or smaller on my screen, and I'm shrinking it down. Like, how far can I go and still read this?
Jimmy: Totally readable at, like, a quarter of an inch.
Harold: A panel, you know, as far as the art is concerned.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the art. Yeah, yeah.
Harold: And, you know, 1962, when he was. Newspaper strips were bigger. Even his tiny little strip in the world of big newspaper strips. But even here, I mean, this is like an inch, you know, I'm. I'm, what, over a foot away, and I can read it. And I can't say that of a ton of cartoonists. Right?
Jimmy: Yeah. No.
Harold: It's so elegant and so crisp, and there's nothing that didn't need to be there to make it work. He really is amazing.
Jimmy: You know, that makes me think there are some artists. No one I know, but there are some artists who, you know, fight kicking and screaming every possible restriction that is placed on them. And a lot of times for good reason. And you get amazing things like the Sunday. The later Sunday pages of Calvin and Hobbes, which, by the way, then directly leads to the great Sunday strips by Patrick McDonald, because, you know, if they weren't trying to figure out a way to make those cartoonists happy to not have to break up their Sunday strips, they would have done it like Schulz had to do it, you know, forever.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: So there's importance for sometimes for someone to go, your. Your rules and your Restrictions are terrible. It's interesting that Schulz just seemingly accepted all of them because it. I, Can you. Can we just talk? I don't really know where to go from that because, yet it's the most personal strip of all time. But he had the personality or whatever it is to figure out a way to make it work within restrictions which he would have never chosen for himself.
Harold: Well, I think one interesting thing to consider is that the restrictions given to him in terms of the daily strip were somewhat unique. I mean, in the world of strips, there's really not a whole lot of variation because they've got to stack these things usually, right. But he was given a strip that was wider compared to its height, right. And it was in four panels, right? So, you know, that was just at a strange time when somehow somebody at a syndicate thought, you know, what the selling point of the strip is? It's not the strip. It's the fact that you can stack it vertically, you can run it horizontally, you can make a square out of it, and you can make it smaller than the other strips. To, To. To put that on a. On a cartoonist and say, this is what we're going to tell the syndicates is. Is it? And I don't know if they were looking at this strip and going, hey, we're at. People are asking for this, or they're. They're complaining that they don't have enough room. And, like, we can sell more of these if we can just use up two thirds of the space that a normal strip would. Maybe we'll. We'll get more of them in there, and they're just responding to that idea. But to put that on an artist, you know, you could be really depressed and angry, like you said, you know, wait a second. You know, I've got less space than every other cartoonist, and I'm competing against them on this. On the page to be picked up and stay on this page at this city's newspaper. But, he. It does seem like he was very kind of philosophical about it. He's like, wait, I can do something completely different because the rules that I have to play with are different than everybody else's rules. Therefore, I'm gonna come up with some different choices, and that will make me stand out. I know we talked about this before where he had a lot of white space at a time when artists were trying to get your attention by put. Spotting blacks everywhere. And he thought, wait a second, I don't have a lot of space. I'm gonna be like that little White Oasis on the comics page. And it works. We see it here, you know.
Jimmy: Absolutely.
Harold: It really stands out. And can you imagine if there was, like, Steve Canyon?
Jimmy: Well, right. I mean, you know, if you.
Harold: Tracy below it, you know, he's just what your eye goes to. The easiest thing to read. He wins, like, 98% of the time.
Jimmy: Yeah. And it's so. Because it's crazy. Like, when you look at. You know, I've experienced. Because not just the adventure strips, but it's the humor strips. You know, I've experienced Pogo and Lil Abner and Thimble Theater and all these things in reprint format, where it's, you know, it's a bunch of Li' l Abner's. so everything has its own consistency of style. When you look at one of those old newspaper pages, and it's Li' l Abner next to, you know, the heart of Juliet Jones next to Ali.
Harold: Oop.
Jimmy: I mean, it is just a visual cacophony.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: And Peanuts really does. They show it in that amazing document, the PBS documentary with Jules Pfeiffer talking about it, how it was like, this little oasis of sanity. But I don't think any of those things. Even though everything you said is true, I don't think he thought any of that stuff consciously. I think he thought, this is my job, being in World War II, and
Liz: limitations can sometimes aid creativity. It makes the blank page a little less blank.
Jimmy: I 100% agree with that.
Michael: Peanuts did not always run on the comic pages. At least my experience with Peanuts, I don't know when this started, was at, page four of the LA Times.
Harold: Really above the.
Jimmy: By itself.
Michael: Oh, yeah.
Jimmy: That's how it was in the Pottsville paper by. There were two papers near where I grew up, one in Shenandoah. It was just on the comics page, but exactly. Page four in the Pottsville Republican at the bottom. Peanuts.
Michael: Uh-huh.
Jimmy: Why do you think that was?
Michael: Oh, they knew. They knew how popular it was. And actually, it works much better if it's not fighting with all that.
Harold: In other words, I think genuinely, it was like, okay, here's a page that is less read. We're going to tell advertisers this is the Peanuts page, and they're going to pay more or be more likely to want to put a premium or be happy to be in a spot. They're all clamoring for the spot next to the comics page or next to the editorial or sports or whatever. Here's another spot that is coveted because, you know, More people are going to go there, I think. I think that was the. The logic of it. Yeah, that's.
Jimmy: That's really interesting.
Harold: Well, he did say. He apparently did explicitly state he used the white space to make Peanuts stand out. So at least that part he was thinking about. He seemed like the kind of guy who we know he's competitive. Right. It's almost like Peanuts was a sport to him because he was that sort of a guy. And so he was probably getting multiple newspapers, seeing where he fit, and. And thinking this, you know, this more complex. How do I. How do I be better? How do I stand out? How to become more successful on this higher level than maybe the average person would as an artist.
Michael: Yeah. But also, people who didn't read the comic strips would read Peanuts because. Yeah, it was sitting there on a, With an article they wanted to read.
Jimmy: Yeah. And just by that placement, it elevates. It's. And it seems more sophisticated.
Michael: You know, there's a lot of people, you know, just pure snobbery.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: You know, I'm not going to read the funnies, but Peanuts was something you'd talk about if we actually talked over. Over dinner. It's like, oh, did you see Peanuts today?
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael: I'm sure my mom didn't read any other strips, but.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: Yeah. Maybe this is a good time to bring up Schulz's 1964 magazine contribution. We may have brought this up before, but it's super appropriate in our leaf world. Schulz wrote this. He gave his own unique strip, and it's essentially a flower in some grass, and then a leaf falls in the second panel and sighs in the third panel. The flower just thinks to itself, stupid. Leaf that into Mad magazine. But he added this little. This little blurb, and he said, this is the sort of comic strip I have secretly longed to do. When one is involved in drawing a strip like Peanuts, which demands so much research and has such detailed characterization, intricate backgrounds, ornate costuming and complicated plot, one naturally looks with envy upon those who draw simple strips. I sometimes spent hours on one particular panel in order to achieve just the right lighting and action and dramatic effect. By drawing a much simpler type of strip, I would also be able to give up having to use reference photos and pose live models.
Michael: He's so snarky.
Jimmy: Can you imagine a time.
Michael: Snarky? Wasn't that his name?
Jimmy: I'm sure that's correct.
Harold: Got a new nickname. Snarky.
Michael: That's great.
Jimmy: Oh, man, that is amazing.
Liz: What were you saying, Jimmy? Can you imagine?
Jimmy: Oh, I Don't remember that. Made me laugh too hard. I can't. All right, how about we take a break now, come back, check the mailbox and read some more comic strips about leaves falling out of trees and people having pumpkins and stuff.
Liz: Let's do it.
Jimmy: All right. Be right back.
VO: Hi, everyone. You've heard us rave about The Estabrook Radio 914 and what episode would be complete without mention of the Fab Four. Now you can wear our obsessions proudly with unpacking Peanuts T shirts. We have a be of good cheer pen nib design along with the four of us crossing Abbey Road and of course Michael, Jimmy and Harold at the Think and Wall. Collect them all, trade them with your friends. Order your T shirts today@unpackingpeanuts.com store.
Jimmy: And we're back. Hey, Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox. Do we got anything?
Liz: Jimmy, I-- I don't want you to worry.
Jimmy: Oh, no.
Liz: But.
Jimmy: Oh no. I can feel the anxiety rising.
Liz: We don't have any mail this week.
Jimmy: Oh my God. well, you know what? Luckily we have some stuff on the hotline because otherwise I would have been freaking out. People. We heard from super listener Sawyer Honeycutt who wanted to ask, what would you all think of a live action Peanuts movie? If we were to write a script, what would we come up with? And who would act as character actors? That's the hard part. Unless. Well, I mean, maybe not. Let's, let's. That's worth discussing.
Michael: Ooh, man.
Liz: Would they be children actors or,
Jimmy: where you could go and the sky is the limit. I actually have a decent idea, I think.
Liz: Okay, so.
Jimmy: But I'm going to go. So I'll go last.
Liz: Well, unless you want me to go for child actors that Oh, I don't know really. Any.
Jimmy: I would not be able to pick any unless we went like across time. Maybe we. Joel Osman is Charlie Brown or whatever. I don't know.
Harold: Jackie Coogan is.
Jimmy: Well, first off, what would. What would you. Let's put it. All right, let's. Let's break it down like you said. All right, we're talking about. We're going to do it. What would you want the story to focus on?
Michael: Oh boy.
Liz: So is this like a full length feature or half an hour full length feature film? Okay, well then we have to have a couple of stories.
Michael: We need an A story.
Jimmy: The baseball team's always good.
Liz: Okay.
Jimmy: Because that has a built in storyline.
Michael: You gotta get Kevin Costner to do Charlie Brown.
Jimmy: Kevin Costner would be an excellent Charlie Brown.
Harold: I mean, when you're thinking about this, obviously there were Peanuts feature length films done that were animated. both CG and 2D animation. Is there anything that changes when you have real life actors?
Michael: Yeah, you have to have real dog.
Jimmy: Oh, wow. Or you could do a CGI dog these days like Crypto and Superman.
Michael: I don't like this idea.
Liz: It's starting to make me uncomfortable.
Michael: I would go for John Candy as Charlie Brown.
Liz: I was thinking Jerry Mathers.
Harold: Jerry Mathers.
Jimmy: Current day Jerry Mathers. I'm assuming he's no, no.
Harold: 15.
Liz: 55 Age. Jerry Mathers.
Jimmy: You mean 1955. Not a 55-year old. All right, well, I got a better pitch than this, so I think I'm getting contract.
Harold: Here's what it is.
Jimmy: You hire Wes Anderson, director of such great films as Asteroid City, Royal Tenenbaums, and most importantly for this exercise, Moon Kingdom, which actually had a real live dog called Snoopy. Spoiler alert though the dog dies. So it's a very sad moment.
Harold: Hey,
Jimmy: I know. Well, I said spoiler alert.
Harold: Oh, that's what's good.
Jimmy: Thank you.
Michael: You had to.
Jimmy: You had one second.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: And also it's like a 20-year old movie. You had one second and 20 years. You let him do stylistically exactly the thing. Because his compositions are so formal and so precise. I can imagine him. They also have a real 50s aesthetic. In a lot of instances. I can imagine him getting all of that stuff. The characters have a sort of spectrumy feel to them.
Harold: The way they speak.
Jimmy: I think that would translate really well to some of the dialogue, for real life kids.
Liz: Uh-huh.
Jimmy: Talking Peanuts characters. And I think it could be. I think it could be really, really good. I am not sure how you would do some of the more fantastic stuff, but the way he did it in. And I know, Michael, you love Asteroid City, right? I did okay when he had the alien come down. It's like stop motion. And it doesn't 100% match, but it doesn't 100% not match because it's so obviously something he did as a stop motion piece. And it's now just in this world. I think he could do, you, know, I couldn't do, but I'm sure a master could do a stop motion Snoopy or some sort of version of Snoopy that would translate as fantasy within this world. That is my pick. I would hire. I would just hire Wes Anderson.
Michael: Say I would hire Orson Welles.
Jimmy: He's okay too. But you Got to get him.
Michael: Really.
Jimmy: Don't get him.
Michael: You play Charlie Brown and
Liz: he does act in his movies. Okay, thank you. thank you, Sawyer.
Harold: Oh man. Well, yeah, those were good ideas.
Jimmy: Okay, this is from listener three, two, one.
Michael: Is he related to five or four?
Jimmy:, possibly. Michael, you are not a fan of Vince Guaraldi. What classical or musical composer would you pick to score a Peanuts film or show?
Michael: Prokofiev.
Harold: Wow.
Michael: Well, he did some. He did some kids things like Peter and the Wolf.
Liz: Oh, that's right.
Jimmy: Oh yeah.
Michael: And yeah. No, I have no problem with Vince Guaraldi. I just think he was kind of an average pianist who, you know, didn't stand out in any way.
Harold: Wow, man, he stands out crazy to me. I mean he's so,
Michael: Well, it's the only jazz pianist most people have ever heard. He didn't rate.
Jimmy: He is the only one.
Harold: No, I, Well, I think, I think he's not respected in the jazz circles as much because he is as, as commercial, precisely melodic as he is. But he's working in jazz and I wish there were more people that actually could combine those two. But because it's such a improvisational medium, I think usually if that's where you're going, you're not going to be welcome in jazz. And so not many people lived in that space.
Michael: Well, most people, most jazz musicians had a variety of types of music they'd play. So even the most melodic jazz pianist, like Bill Evans was still playing, you know, hard bop and blues and.
Harold: Right.
Michael: You know, three quarters of the time. Because you can't, can't get. Can't get up there and do all ballads.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: That's it.
Michael: That's it. So will you. You agree with Prokofiev is --
Jimmy: Me? Oh, I don't know who.
Liz: Oh.
Harold: Ah boy. Geez.
Jimmy: Well, why wouldn't we pick Beethoven?
Michael: Nah, too brassy.
Jimmy: You know, the, the film that I think of, when I think of something like that is the Bad News Bears who uses the music from like Carmen, you know, the Toreador Song and stuff like that. And it's just so brilliantly juxtaposed with, you know, 10-year olds missing fly balls and getting hit in the chin and stuff like that.
Harold: Prokofiev is a good, is a good choice. Cause he's able to get kind of some of that we. And you know, it gets to go slow sometimes and it's not always as. It doesn't have to be majestic. Sometimes it feels kind of very individualistic, which is Especially made Peter the Wolf. Right. You know, because it's stories of individual characters.
Jimmy: Uh-huh.
Harold: And you often don't get that in the sweep of orchestral music. There you go.
Michael: We did it.
Jimmy: All right, so that's it from the mailbox. And, and hotline, if you want to get in touch with us, what you got to do is you can shoot us an email. We're unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. and if you want to, go ahead and shoot us a voicemail or a text, you can call 717-219-4162, the unpacking peanuts hotline. And hey, let's do a little more of that next time because I'm not worried, but I'm a little nervous. All right, how about we get back to those strips?
Liz: Let's do it.
Jimmy: Oh, wait. Do we have an Unpacking Peanuts recommends? I actually have one that's musical related.
Liz: Go for it.
Jimmy: Anyone else have one?
Michael: I can come up with something.
Jimmy: All right, Leon Redbone. He's my. I forgot this guy existed for 45 years. And I just thought about him the other day. I couldn't even remember his name. And I knew there were two ways to find out. I could either think really hard or I could call Michael. But eventually I didn't either, and I just googled. And since then I've been like a, Leon Red Bone fanatic.
Liz: What did you search for on Google?
Jimmy: Guy with deep voice, early 70s guitar, mustache, sunglasses, hat.
Liz: Okay, okay. I saw him in Philly in the 70s.
Jimmy: Michael said he saw, him too,
Liz: down on the river.
Jimmy: But I will tell you, here's what I'm loving about it. You know, the pace and insanity of the world today. He has no time for that. He's going at his own pace, and it is slow and I love it. Anyone else got anything?
Michael: Well, you mentioned Redbone. I would say R. Crumb’s. Cheap Suit Serenaders. Same thing. They don't give a damn. Frankly, they just don't give a damn if you like their music or not. They don't care.
Harold: Oh, I've been reading Appetite for America, which I picked up on the Route 66 trip, which is about Fred Harvey, who started the Harvey Houses that were part of the rail system, Santa Fe rail system that went from Chicago to, California. And this guy kind of single-handedly brought ridiculously high standards for, like, meals and dining in the middle of nowhere with his own vision. And he just somehow created out of this terrible situation where people were having to stop for 20 minutes or so to refuel these. These engines. 30 minutes, and you'd be at these. At the mercy of the. Whatever was there in this town that had, like, 200 people in it. And, you know, there's all these people coming off a train. Food was horrible. Right. All of a sudden, he just elevated it. And most famously, like a hundred thousand of women brought in as waitresses, which was not considered, a very reputable job back in the day. Uh-huh. But he had everything set up so that they were uniformed. And, basically a hundred thousand women came from the east to the west and assimilated into the culture of the west and married a lot of the guys who were out there. There weren't a lot of women in the West. And just the impact this man had is pretty crazy. He's almost all forgotten. He's most famously in pop culture in the MGM musical the Harvey Girls that Judy Garland was in with the song. The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe is.
Michael: So what were these restaurants called?
Harold: they were called Harvey Houses. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. I haven't heard of that.
Harold: Two survive. One's up in the Grand Canyon in the Bright Angel Lodge. But it's crazy all these years later, because this dates back to, like, the late 1800s, but they mostly were gone by the late 40s when. When airline travel kind of wiped out the railways, as we knew.
Jimmy: So the late 1800s to the 1940s. So that's a modern reference for you? For me, yeah. That's pretty good. Usually it's like, I'm really into James Fenimore Cooper, but only as early were.
Harold: Well, at least the book was written in the last. Know, 20 years.
Jimmy: Oh, there you go.
Liz: That's true.
Jimmy: The book's Leon Redbone. Why am I criticizing, really? Why don't you get hip, man? all right, let's get back to these strips. Let's do…
October 4, 1962. I think this was a great one. So Snoopy is sitting at the base of the tree, and a lone leaf falls to the ground. More falls than flutters, I would say. Lands right at Snoopy's feet. And then in the third panel, dozens of leaves are falling out of the tree and they continue to fall. And dozens are lying on the ground in the last panel. And Snoopy looks sternly at the first leaf that fell and said, see what you started?
Jimmy: I think this is great. I think you could use talk about. You know, it's. When you were talking about Peanuts being on an editorial page, I thought that's really kind of awkward for Schulz because, you know, the point of the editorial page is that's where the paper is going to let loose and, you know, tell you what they think about whatever. It's the editorial page. And as the cartoonist who might live 3,000 miles away, maybe never even really seen this paper, you have no idea what they're going to be talking about. and I thought this strip could be repurposed for almost any newsletter or pamphlet or anything. You're trying to get people together, right? You want them to go vote. You want them to go to a church sale, like, whatever it is. Right. This is an amazing rallying cry strip.
Harold: Yep. So true.
Michael: I think it's more negative than that.
Jimmy: No way.
Michael: It's a totally negative trip. It's basically if, you know, if everybody jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge?
Jimmy: Well, that's a great way. That's also another way to look at it.
Harold: Totally true.
Jimmy: You know, it's really. This is funny. This is everything you need to know about Michael. so we're doing the hundredth anniversary episode, which I think is my favorite favorite episode, and it's the party or the 100th birthday of Charles Schulz, and we're going to end with a big celebratory Christmas carol. Michael, take it away. And what are the first lyrics? in the Dark Days of December--
Jimmy: that is why we love Michael Cohen. But it's true. It's both of those things. You can look at this strip either way and see both things in it.
Liz: That's true.
Michael: Yay.
Harold: I'm with Michael on this one.
Jimmy: You think it's negative?
Liz: Well, yeah, because everything's dying. they have fallen because they are no longer live leaves.
Harold: Snoopy's looking a little stern there. Well, he is, right?
Jimmy: Yeah, but that doesn't.
Harold: Yeah, you start.
Jimmy: The man is always stern, saying, look what you started. Exactly. And he dumped more leaves on his head. Absolutely. The leaves don't. Aren't the tree. Leaves are like a haircut. I do. It is weird. I do find that weird. People go, oh, my God, the trees are dying. I hate it when all the trees. The trees are not dying.
Harold: They will be.
Jimmy: There will be leaves in, like, 12 weeks. Relax.
Liz: That's a good point.
November 1, 1969. Peppermint Patty is kneeling at her jack o' lantern. Then she stands up and sort of contemplates things. Then she looks back at the jack o' lantern with, a frown on her face. And then she kneels next to it. With a look of genuine upset and concern on her face and says, how do you tell a pumpkin that you don't need him anymore?
Jimmy: you know, I love. I personally like watching the pumpkin turn just slowly rot and turn into nothing and then become more pumpkins the next year.
Harold: It's great.
Liz: They do smell pretty bad though. I left one on my bureau in my dorm room at boarding school.
Jimmy: Why leave it outside?
Liz: Yeah, well, I didn't have an outside and it got very smelly. Smells like. No, I won't describe it, but it was bad.
Michael: So this is a fairly early peppermint Patty strip, isn't it?
Jimmy: yeah, probably. Yeah. Four years in. So three years in or at three years.
Michael: So when she started, what, 65?
Jimmy: 66, I think.
Michael: 66. Okay.
Jimmy: Yep.
Michael: Pre Marcie then.
Jimmy: Looks real good. Love the pumpkin. Did you guys. Were you big Jack o Lantern fans? Did you card Jack o lanterns?
Michael: Didn't we do this last time?
Liz: Yes, but that's okay.
Michael: I can repeat my interesting answer.
Jimmy: Yeah, absolutely.
Michael: Never carved a Jack o Lantern.
Harold: Yeah, I did them under duress.
Jimmy: Under duress.
Harold: Yeah. I wasn't a big fan of carving Jack o' lanterns, but you do it because you were at the party or whatever was going on.
Liz: They're cool. They have to put them on your porch so that when the trick or treaters come that you're a welcoming presence.
Harold: Well, could leave the light on, open the main door, the screen porch. I don't know. Yeah, I just. Yeah, I didn't. Never was a big fan of them, but that's okay.
Liz: I like them.
Harold: I have the question for the three of you. Why do you think this joke is a peppermint Patty joke?
Jimmy: I think sometimes in a sense like this, it might be. I haven't used peppermint Patty in a while.
Michael: Yeah, I mean, Linus could be Linus.
Harold: Yeah, well, he's more Great pumpkin, so maybe that would be true.
Michael: Yeah, some characters. This wouldn't work.
Harold: Maybe Sally'd be too young to make one.
Jimmy: If Charlie Brown thought this, it would spark like a two week thing where he couldn't throw the pumpkin out.
Liz: Yeah. Yes, yes. Yeah, that would be good. But Sally could do it. I think Sally could do it.
Jimmy: I think Sally would happily throw it out and not think twice about it.
Harold: She'd be like, so what is, what is it about Pepper-- Because we don't always see. She. She seems to be just so gung ho about things and, and jumping in. Why? What do you think it is about this particular thing that makes her really family?
Jimmy: Life is fragile. Right. She doesn't have a mom. Her dad has to work all kinds of crazy hours and go on all these weird trips. I think Patty Pepper. And Patty doesn't throw people out of her life, easily.
Harold: Okay. So she struggles with the concept of am I needed anymore? Maybe more than the average kid.
Liz: She's sensitive to people feeling rejected.
Harold: Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy: Yes, for sure.
Liz: Interesting question. Good one.
October 9, 1967. Snoopy is out doing the happy dance. And he's doing it near a little spindly tree. And out of the corner of his eye, he catches the fluttering of a falling leaf. And as the leaf falls, Snoopy turns and makes the leaf his dance partner until the leaf hits the ground. And then Snoopy bows to the leaf with a smile on his face and his eyes closed and says, thank you for the dance.
Harold: I would love to see a Sunday of this. Oh, God.
Jimmy: Yeah. I think one of the great contributions of Schulz to world culture is the dancing Snoopy drawings. I mean, they're just so fun. Nobody. Nobody thought of anything that looked or felt remotely like this before then.
Harold: Yeah. Right. And coming from a buttoned up guy from Minnesota, I think that's great.
Jimmy: Yeah. Pure fun. Pure joy.
Liz: Do you suppose that the. The. His feet kept the leaf aloft?
Jimmy: Yeah, maybe he's getting a little extra updraft. you know, and it is pure joy, but there is also the melancholy That's always present in Peanuts because it is a falling leaf.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: I just think that is a darn good comic strip. All right, what is your favorite panel of Snoopy dancing?
Michael: Of these three, two is the classic.
Jimmy: Two is the classic.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: I think two might actually be the cover of the Snoopy Treasury. It's that pose, and it actually might be that particular.
Michael: Wow. Yeah. Three is a little twisty.
Jimmy: That's what I kind of like about it, though, because it's so odd.
Harold: I have a theory that maybe. I don't know if Schulz ever talked about this, and he did work fast, but, you know, some days you got a tighter deadline than others because of whatever was going on in your life. You know how Chuck Jones used to say he would do the Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote cartoons whenever they didn't have enough time to do a full strip to Blackout gags. It was just faster to do.
Liz: Uh-huh.
Harold: And there's a lot of, like, nothing happening while he's waiting for Roadrunner to show up.
Jimmy: I didn't realize that, but that makes sense. Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. So they could crank them out, you know, Maybe a week faster than anything else. So that means they could work on what's Opera Doc and then do a coyote. I'm wondering if this was the. Was the Roadrunner cartoons of the Schulz strips that he. He knew if he needed. Needed to, to do something quickly, he could do a leaf strip.
Jimmy: Oh, I think there is. There. There's definitely some truth to that. I had an experience drawing the new Amelia Rules story. And, you know, I'm trying to figure out how many pages this is going to be, and I want it to work out and all this sort of stuff. And at one point I realized, like, oh, you know, actually, people who read this are going to want. Are going to. They're waiting for this moment, so I can take a whole fricking page to do it. And, you know, like, it was super fast for me. It was super fast. But it's gonna be a lot of people's favorite page in the book.
Harold: Oh, yeah, that's a. That's a nice combo. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah, right, Exactly. And those are. Cause you also, through all of this, somehow have to make it look breezy. Yeah.
Harold: And I'm, And I'm the reason, I think maybe I thought of this, was looking at some of these strips, the punchlines are. He's not setting a high bar for himself for all the punchlines, I don't think.
Liz: No.
Harold: So. But at the same time, because they're so spare, they're special. So it's a nice combo.
Jimmy: Absolutely.
Harold: Maybe the bars just in his own mind, is not set as high what he's got to deliver. So, he could fall back on a leaf strip and he'd be satisfied. And, you know, that's what was most important. I think that he felt like, yeah, this is good stuff. And I need this as a beat in the strip.
Jimmy: Yeah. So, you know, guys, as we approach the end here, I will say we have not discussed the Great Pumpkin. And that's partly because we've done an entire episode about the Great Pumpkin. And I know you two in particular, I'm not sure, Liz, about how you feel about it. Aren't big fans of the giant tent pole Peanuts. things that sort of resonate in pop culture. But I really like the Great Pumpkin. I think it's probably the second best of the animated specials, certainly.
Michael: Yeah. But if you think about it, the Great Pumpkin is one of the greatest characters who never appears.
Jimmy: That's really true. Right.
Michael: And sort of like miss. What's her name?
Jimmy: Ms. Othmar.
Michael: Ms. Othmar.
Jimmy: Yeah. He does Have a real knack for being the little red haired girl. Ms. Othmar, you know, well, I mean, all of their, you know, Violet's dad, Lucy's parents, everybody's parents. Yeah. It's a whole side thing of Peanuts is just he is able to create these things in your. That live in your mind that never appear on the comics page.
Harold: Red Baron.
Jimmy: Yeah, right. Yeah. The other team in the baseball game 90% of the time, you know.
Harold: Right. Yeah. I mean, the, the. I think the Great Pumpkin is. Is one of those really pretty complex concepts in some ways that. That Schulz kind of came up with organically. And it's, I like it for that. It's just got a lot of, There's a lot around it into it that reveals things about Linus and about us when we read it, we can relate to. And I like that about it. There's always a bit of mystery to it. He never plays it out in a way that takes the air out of it, and I respect that. You have to keep doing things with something like this and keep it afloat. Yeah, I think he accomplishes that.
Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's all we have to say about the old Great, pumpkin. But I'll tell you what.
Michael: Okay.
Harold: Could I, Could I ask our listeners. I'd be interested to know if there's anybody who's been particularly struck by the Great Pumpkin and what, what it means to them and what they've gotten out of the Great Pumpkin strips.
Jimmy: Yeah, well, the one thing going back to my classic bugaboo, that Alan Moore advice, which is, you know, you find something, you change one thing about it, and opens up all this other stuff. And it is just simply as, oh, what if Linus confused Santa Claus with something that happened on Halloween? You know, he just moved all the nonsense from Christmas, all the stuff in, into Halloween. And it opens up, you know, philosophical stuff, it opens up issues of parenting, it opens up issues of culture, all this stuff. And it's really so simple at its core. you couldn't, I think, think you couldn't sit down and go, I would like to make some sort of metaphor for, you know, our complex relationship to the changing, you know.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: And it's so. It so quickly became more than that. That's what's so fascinating about Schulz. Right. That could have been one gag for one person at one time, and we're done, and somehow he senses it resonating in all these different ways, and he keeps coming back to it and Layering it so that you kind of forget that. That origin you just described.
Jimmy: Right, Exactly. Yeah, you totally do. All right, so that's the Great Pumpkin. What say we close it out with one of my all time favorite Peanuts strips? This is--
October 24, 1999. It's a Sunday, and we see good old Rerun on the back step of the Van Pelt House. And he yells out, Lucy. Then walks out into the yard. Lunchtime. And then we see, oh, no. Lucy is holding the football for Charlie Brown to come up and kick it. And Rerun says, mom says to come in for lunch. And then Lucy, who's already in the middle of her bit, says, so I'll hold the ball, Charlie Brown, and you come running up and kick it. Rerun says. She says, right now. And Lucy is frustrated and goes, oh, good grief. And Charlie Brown, just resigned to his fate, says, that's all right. We'll do it some other time. But Lucy has a great idea and she says, no, Rerun can take my place. Rerun says, me and Charlie Brown. Now Rerun is sitting there holding the football, and Charlie Brown walks away and says, this time I'll do it. This time I'll kick it. Rerun will never pull it away. He just wouldn't. Then Charlie Brown races towards the ball. So here we go. And then we hard cut to inside the Van Pelt house. Lucy is at the table eating lunch, and she says to Rerun, what happened? Did you pull the ball away? Did he kick it? What happened? And Rerun says with eyes closed, a look of absolute serenity on his face, you'll never know. And Lucy screams, ugh. To the heavens.
Jimmy: I picked this partly because of our conversation with Patrick McDonald.
Liz: Yeah.
Jimmy: And how many times people have said to us other guests, oh, if only Schulz could have had him kick the football. Lynn Johnston, it's Schulz himself, says it in that ad, in that interview, which should have never happened with Al Roker, where he was, you know, really too sick to be on tv. And I just feel for him. And he's breaking down and he says he never had let Charlie Brown kick the football. Well, that's up to you. This is the best conceivable ending for a running gag that went on for 40 years. It could never actually be ended ever. But you can end it. He gave it to you to end it. That's genius. That is a gift. That's why we did 200 and some episodes of this thing. Incredible, incredible work.
Liz: And it gets Lucy. I mean,
Jimmy: it totally gets Lucy.
Jimmy: Even If Rerun did pull it away. Yeah.
Harold: And it being at the end of the run of the strip, which again, he's not knowing this in August of 1999. But it's so appropriate. Just like that Peppermint Patty in the rain. Nobody said good game. It has such weight to it. Because the weird thing is it's like to me, when I read this, it works for reasons Schulz didn't even know.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: Because all she had to do is go talk to Charlie Brown. He's not gonna keep his mouth shut.
Liz: Right.
Harold: But this is the end of the strip. There's not gonna be another. So somehow I totally accept that she'll never know. Yeah. But I wouldn't have, you know, I don't know that I would have totally accepted it if it were two years prior.
Jimmy: Of course you wouldn't have, because next year it would have happened. I think it would have been like Charlie Brown hitting the home run where he thought about that for a year and then came back the next year and undid it.
Jimmy: I think he would have had to do another football strip the next year.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: And even if he didn't even remember this strip, it would have changed the meaning of this strip.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: This strip has its meaning because it's the last one.
Harold: I mean, if I were Schulz, which means it wouldn't have been as good for sure.
Jimmy: We are always have that.
Harold: It would have been. Lucy's called away again and she's trying desperately to see what's going on. But she still gives it to Rerun.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: That became a thing.
Jimmy: Right, right, right, right.
Liz: So why does she give it to Rerun? Why did she think that Rerun could take her place there?
Jimmy: There feels like an air of inevitability and finality to this. That she is doing it because it is ordained for her to do it. I can't describe it any other way. Like Charlie Brown's like, no, no, this is the ritual. We could do it later. And she, doesn't even consider that. She goes, no, no,
Harold: look at that panel. It. How many movies have we seen where somebody passes the mantle to somebody? Doesn't this look like that scene where she. That, that. This look in Lucy's eyes like, yes, this, this must, this must take place so that all fulfilled.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yes, that's.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: I accept this fate. Yeah. And even the. Where she is handing the football to him. Okay. I. This is the other version you would do of this. She's walking away. Rerun and Charlie Brown are behind her, and she throws the football over her shoulder casually. Right? And he's catching it. Now, Rerun can take my place with me. This, the way it's drawn looks ceremonial.
Liz: Yeah.
Jimmy: Yes, you're right, you know. Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. Well, and even, I mean, the other thing, like Charlie Brown running in the third to last panel looks like Old Man running.
Liz: Yes.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: You know, it doesn't have the life that it used to. It's like.
Jimmy: Well, yeah.
Harold: And Schulz is the one in his place running.
Jimmy: Yeah. and I think, you know, the other thing is, like, we especially now, we just saw a bunch of strips from the 50s and 60s, and you can really see how tired he is. You know, this is. This is just an act of will and love to make this happen. This, hurt his hand. It made his eyes sore and tired, and he made it for you anyway. And he had no reason to do it because he had a billion dollars, you know, and that is just amazing. So we should all do that with art. Just do that with your art and you'll be fine. So that brings us to the end of Pumpkin Spice Peanuts. We had a great time, guys. Do you have anything else you want to close with?
Harold: Happy fall.
Liz: Yeah.
Harold: Happy Autumn.
Jimmy: Yeah. Happy autumn to everybody. Make sure you get your vitamin D and your sunshine and come back in a couple weeks when we are going to be talking about
Liz: snow, Snow, snow, snow.
Jimmy: That's right. What comes after the falling leaves.
Harold: Let it snow.
Jimmy: So be there or be square. Of course, if you want to keep this conversation going, what you need to do is sign up for the Great Peanuts reread over on unpackingpeanuts.com that will get you that one email a month that will let you know what the heck we're going to be talking about. You can also, of course, call us. You could call, the peanuts hotline at 717-219-4162. You could also leave a text message there. or you could follow us on good old social media. We're at Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads and, npacking peanuts on Facebook, blue sky and YouTube. And remember, when I don't hear from you, I worry. And I'm already nervous this week. So lots of messages for next time. And until then, from Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Liz: Yes, yes. Be of good cheer. 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 UnpackPeanuts 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: You'll never know.