Sittin' in the Mailbox #2

Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. It's Unpacking Peanuts, a bonus episode. Can you believe it? We're gonna do a mailbag episode and I'll be your host for the proceedings. My name's Jimmy Gownley. Joining me as always is my pal, co host and fellow cartoonist Michael Cohen.

Michael: Say Hey.

Jimmy: And our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.

Liz: Howdy.

Jimmy: And we fired Harold. I'm, just kidding. Harold is on assignment for the head beagle. We may be hearing from him later in the Hotline segment. You never know. But this is just going to be a quick Mailbox episode to catch up on our correspondence with you fine listeners. And just wanted to take a moment to remind you that today is the day the 25th anniversary editions of the first two Amelia Rules books come out. They're called the Whole World's Crazy and what Makes You Happy. They're available wherever fine books and comics are sold. And there'll be a link right in the description of this here show. And it would mean a lot to me if you would, if you would, or if you enjoyed me reading all those comic strips to you over lo these many years. Ordering one of those books or both of those books would be, a real solid to me.

Liz: Congratulations on that. That's pretty, pretty incredible.

Jimmy: Thanks. Can you believe it's been 25 years, guys?

Liz: No way.

Jimmy: Went by in the blink of an eye. I do have some--. Michael was a guest on my other podcast that I do on my substack called Jimmy Gownley's Dumb Ideas. Sign up for G Vilcomic Substack if you haven't. And we were talking, though, while I was recording the interview with him, a lot about the beginnings of Renaissance Press, which I didn't use in that show. It may be in the official Amelia Rules Special. But, my gosh, it was so fun to just go back and think about how unlikely it was that any of this was going to happen. and that we made it happen. Feels pretty good.

Michael: Seems like a dream.

Jimmy: So we got some stuff in the good old mailbag, though, and, we wanted to just, you know, not make you wait forever and, dip into the mailbag and see what you guys are thinking about.

Liz: Yeah, we got some wonderful mail and we had recorded way in advance, and so these messages wouldn't get read until, like, June or something. So I wanted to do a special little episode to.

Jimmy: And you gotta blame Harold for that. He's the one running around all the time. Well, that's awesome. Well, and you know, if you guys ever want to just be a part of this conversation, you can shoot us an email at unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com or you can call our hotline. You can call or text it. It's 717-219-4162 and we would love to hear from you. What do we got, Liz?

Liz: We have a, message from Brendan Wahlberg, who says, hi all. I'm a lifelong Peanuts fan, born in 66, raised on Peanuts paperbacks and TV specials, and I love your podcast. I discovered it last year and binge listened to them all until I caught up to the present. 

Jimmy: wow. 

Liz: I like the current exploration of the Van Pelt family and I want to draw your attention to one of my favorite Linus and Lucy strips. May 3, 1964. In this strip, Linus is drawing a picture of his big sister and she notices that he has not yet put in the mouth.

Jimmy: Yep.

Liz: Lucy demands that he do so and the tension grows while Linus tries futilely to escape. Violence is the inevitable result, and the release of tension makes you laugh out loud. This strip captures the big sister, little brother power dynamic, where a, knuckle sandwich is one sarcastic comment away.

Jimmy: Well, I have to say, I agree. That is a great strip. Just so funny.

Michael: I can't remember this. Do we see what he drew?

Jimmy: Yeah, he ends up drawing a giant mouth. Yeah. What's funny is, Linus within the Peanuts world is a photorealistic artist because he can draw an absolute perfect Lucy.

Liz: And, Brendan goes on to say, I have a question too. Every episode has a toddler sounding voice introducing it. The podcast where three cartoonists take an in depth look at and so on in all the episodes. Have you ever explained who that voice is and what is the story behind those spoken parts? When she talks, it sounds so very much like the voice actors on Peanuts TV specials, including the cute pauses in between words that seem like the kid is carefully repeating lines that are a little bit too old for them. I'd love to know the story of this aspect of the show. Thanks for a great podcast.

Jimmy: Oh, well, thank you for writing. Well, yeah, that is exactly what we were going for. I was. I'll say what my first embarrassing attempt was. I'm like, oh, I'll get my kids to do it. Not realizing my kids at this point were way too old to sound like a Peanuts cast member.

Liz: But they were like 18 or something, right?

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. It was like total dad brain. But luckily Liz had had someone for Us. He could tell us.

Liz: Well, it was hard because I don't know anybody with children that young. We really searched most of the people we know, and their children are grown up. So I finally remembered that my friend, Barbara Castleton has a darling granddaughter named Aziza Shukralla Clark. And her mother, thankfully, was willing to help Aziza record for us. And so she did that intro and then a bunch of the stuff like, it's the Peanuts time machine and the. What was the Shermometer one?

Jimmy: let's check the shermometer or something. The shermometer.

Liz: So anyhow, aziza is now 

Jimmy: 48 years old, 

Liz: something like that. she is way too grown up now. So, we need to find another young child. So those of you who have young children, let us know.

Jimmy: Yeah, I love. My favorite part of the intro is, “a in depth. Look at”. That's my favorite part. In depth look at. And it's so funny. And, you know, obviously Michael's never seen the animations, but when you grow up with them, because those line readings are so stilted, the way they're spoken just becomes as much a part of the experience as what the line says. You know, Sally has to say, all I want is what I have coming to me. Pause. All I want is my fair share. It's so strange, and it's completely, It's just unique to Peanuts. I don't think there's very many animated adaptations of anything where the performance becomes so baked into your mind.

Liz: Are the more recent animated specials. Do they have more polished voice actors or.

Jimmy: I, mean, they're still kids, but, you know, Hollywood's more polished, you know, So, I mean, there's. It's all just a little bit more slick than it used to be. And they would do insane things. Like, we, were just talking, or I was just talking on our Patreon. We do special events, and we also occasionally do this thing where I'll just hop on and watch a, Peanuts animation and just talk through it, and we'll do, like, a little commentary track. You learn nothing. I do no research. I just watch it and say whatever comes to my mind. But one thing I was. I noticed when we were watching the, you're a good sport Charlie Brown, and he does the football gag where he goes running up and, you know, misses it. And they just cut and pasted the AUGH from one of the earlier Charlie Browns, which was just really strange. And stuff like that would never happen. You know, you can tell there's an Audio cut. It's different tape. It's recorded in a different room, whatever. I mean, nothing, Nothing that homemade sounding would ever, you know, go on Apple TV today or basically anyone's YouTube channel. You know what I mean?

Liz: Yeah really. So anyhow, thank, you, Brendan, and thank you, Aziza. We are very grateful.

Jimmy: Yeah, thank you so much, Aziza. It does. It really makes the show for me.

Liz: And we also heard from Seth Kane, who says, hey, gang. Seth from Sunnyvale, California here, longtime listener, first time writer. Yesterday I went on one of my many visits to the Charles Schulz Museum. They were having an event with Jeannie Schulz for the Canine Companions Organization.

Jimmy: Oh, great.

Liz: This was my second time meeting her, and this time I got a photo with her and got my Pezbox set signed.

Jimmy: That's awesome.

Liz: Two of the current Exhibits are the 80s and Snoopy's family. Some very cool items and art featuring Olaf. I wanted to share with you. He sent us pictures, including a plush of Olaf with a bag over his head, like in his first appearance. And this Snoopy as Mr. T Doll is one of the best things I've ever seen.

Jimmy: Snoopy as Mr. T Doll!

Liz: I will post the pictures.

Jimmy: I told Mr. T to shush once. Did you ever hear the story? Yeah, it was an episode of my very old podcast. And he did. He said, oh, sorry. It was amazing at comic fest in 1993 when I was standing next to. It's a whole long story. Anyway,

Liz: and he says, they also had a strip of one of Michael's favorites, Snoopy as a helicopter. Nothing like a good Nam reference in a comic strip.

Jimmy: You know what's funny you should mention a good Nam reference, though? I was just, every once in a while, like, once a year, I pull out the old issues of the Nam comic. Do you remember that at all?

Michael: Yeah Michael Golden, wasn't it?

Jimmy: Michael Golden Boy. He can draw.

Michael: Oh, yeah. That guy was great.

Jimmy: Great.

Michael: But it was like, this is a waste. Why is he drawing a war comic when he could be drawing Spider Man?

Jimmy: Do you know? well, I learned something about. Well, maybe I learned something about it, but I learned it on YouTube. So whether or not this is true, but apparently the first couple issues of that thing, because it got so much media attention, was actually selling better than the X Men for those months.

Liz: Oh, wow.

Jimmy: But then within a year, you know, the Golden and the writer left, and, they brought superheroes into the nom.

Michael: Really?

Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah.

Michael: I never saw those Yeah, I didn't either.

Jimmy: I just as well. I just happened to be watching this and you know, Punisher invades the Nam was. This was the cover I was like, oh my God.

Liz: And Seth adds a PS and says, forgot to mention. While I was there, I watched You're a good skate, Charlie Brown. Peppermint Patty's teacher spoke like in English.

Jimmy: What?

Liz: I figured it must have been a substitute teacher, but then the other adult spoke too! Pod people. It must have been pod people. No other explanation.

Jimmy: Oh, wow. And that's the, I think that's the, adaptation of that really long Peppermint Patty going to a skating competition, which I really, really like.

Jimmy: But that's crazy that the adults speak in a Peanuts special. And that's pretty late. That had to be. That was right. That's an 80s special, so. Wow.

Liz: And we also heard from Lynn from Delaware, who says hello, Unpacking Peanuts crew. Thank you for continuing your podcast beyond the last Peanuts strip. I have enjoyed every one of your episodes and will be sad when it finally ends. Many years from now. I hope. I'm casting my ballot for Mean Girls for next season. As, someone who was teased quite a lot as a child, I always especially enjoyed the Mean Girl strips. I very much related to Charlie Brown and took comfort in not being the only one who unwillingly acted as other people's spiritual scratching post. Keep up the good work, Lynn.

Jimmy: All right, Michael, there's one for.

Michael: All right, how's the tabulation? You got the computer revved up to do the count.

Jimmy: I think we have two for Mean Girls now and I think, maybe one for something else. I don't know, I don't remember. I would definitely do that because it, you know, going back and like rereading a million stuff, like there is so much snark and sarcasm and that's just how kids spoke to each other where I grew up. And I was talking to one of the editors and they were talking about how, you know, much that has changed and people don't want, you know, gatekeepers don't want any of that in books anymore. But to, me, that makes no sense because it's not like you relate to Patty and Violet. Right. Do you think anybody related to Patty and Violet?

Liz: Well, Linus did in my favorite strip, but.

Jimmy: Oh, right, right, of course. Well, no, he liked her. That's a different. Oh, that's a totally different situation.

Liz: I see. Yes.

Jimmy: But you know what I mean, I don't think people ever read those strips and you know, they sympathize with Charlie Brown, Right?

Liz: Yes, of course.

Jimmy: What are your thoughts, Michael?

Michael: I had a crush on Violet, but again.

Jimmy: Yeah, I get that. But that's different than relating to her.

Michael: Yeah. but she did transform. I mean, she was the first actual love interest in Peanuts because. Because the pigtail Violet and mud pie Violet was. I think Charlie Brown was really sweet on her.

Jimmy: Oh, yeah, definitely.

Michael: And then she turned evil.

Liz: Maybe it was Patty's fault.

Michael: Yeah, we have to blame Patty.

Jimmy: See, I always thought Patty was nicer than Violet, but maybe I'm wrong.

Michael: No, I think you're right.

Jimmy: All right, well, we're going to have to. Have to, look into that. I think it'd be a fun.

Liz: Yes, it definitely will.

Jimmy: we're going to do all of them eventually, because, you know, we got to put episodes out. Yeah.

Liz: Really? Because Lynn wants us to go on for years and years.

Jimmy: For years and years. Yeah. We've already done four. Unbelievable.

Liz: Wow.

Michael: Unbelievable.

Michael: Phew.

Liz: So that's it for the bonus episode mail.

Jimmy: All right, well, I got two things from the old hotline. Super listener Captain Billy wrote in. He's commenting about us discussing the comic strip versions of comic book characters like the Hulk and, Spider man, like we were talking about in our anniversary episode. Yes. And he says, hi, Captain Billy again, Ray Romita stating he preferred drawing comic books. I asked Gil Kane at a panel if he preferred working on Starhawks or comic books, and he also said, comic strips. I think for that generation, comic strips were considered much more prestigious. And I bet the money was better. Well, that last part is probably the biggest consideration that I didn't think about. But, yeah, the money for doing a comic strip back then was way better.

Michael: No, but I think you could actually tell people at a, social gathering what you do if you're doing a comic strip.

Jimmy: Absolutely.

Michael: You say comic books, they'll, like, walk away.

Jimmy: Absolutely. It's hard to even express how lowly the comic book was in the middle.

Michael: Oh, yeah. Well, some people were writing comics in the 40s and went on to bigger things, and they would not mention it. Dashiell Hammett was one.

Liz: Really.

Michael: Hammett and Patricia Highsmith, who went on to great things with the talented Mr. Ripley and, other Ripley books. Yeah.

Jimmy: That's wild. That's crazy. Yeah.

Liz: I'm a huge Hammett fan, and I had no idea that he wrote comic books.

Michael: Well, that's the way he wanted it.

Jimmy: Yeah. It was a complete, you know, source of shame with the Senate hearings and everything. And comic books and juvenile delinquency. The good old days. We need to get back to that. I, Last time I was in San Diego, I was on a panel, and, they were all talking about, like, how do you test kids for comics? You know, when they read a comic in school, we want to give them a test about their. I'm like, oh, no, what have I wrought? We didn't.

Michael: The last thing you ask about who inked this issue.

Liz: What do you think of the thicks and thins?

Jimmy: You think that's George Bell? Are you out of your mind? Go see the principal.

Jimmy: Kid can't tell Dick Ayers from George Bell, and I'm supposed to pass him on to middle school? I don't think so. Yeah. So that's what we heard from Captain Billy and, Michael, this one is for you.

Michael: Oh, boy.

Jimmy: This is from Claire from good old Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Now, she is a super listener of my other podcast and just has started this podcast. She's intrigued by your Dungeons and Dragons references and wants to know, can you do an alignment for both the main characters of Peanuts and the hosts of Unpacking Peanuts?

Michael: Oh, sure.

Jimmy: And, this is perfect because we can talk about it without Harold being.

Michael: We were talking about Petty and Violet. Violet, Neutral evil.

Jimmy: Okay, good.

Michael: Snoopy. Chaotic good. 

Jimmy: Yeah, that's good. 

Michael: Charlie Brown, Lawful good. Let's see, Linus would be chaotic good. Or maybe neutral good.

Jimmy: He's tough.

Michael: Yeah, he's tough because he changes. Is he there any lawful good characters? Probably someone like Shermy who's just boring.

Jimmy: Yeah, Charlie Brown. Right. Charlie Brown would be lawful good, I think, because he. He doesn't break the rules, does he?

Michael: No, no, he's a rule follower. Except when it comes to pencil sharpeners.

Jimmy: Chaos.

Michael: Yeah, chaos. Peppermint Patty. Chaotic neutral.

Jimmy: Yep, that's exactly what I would say.

Liz: Now, at some point after you have done the hosts, you have to explain to those of us who don't know what you're talking about, what this all means.

Michael: Well, this applies to anyone on Earth, these categories. Marcie is lawful good, I would think.

Jimmy: Yeah, Marcie.

Michael: She seemed like a real rule follower.

Jimmy: Well, in general. No, because she. Yeah, she's complex, too, but all right, I'll give you that one.

Michael: Well, that's off the top of my head. I've never thought about this, so. But any. Any alignments we haven't picked? There's only. The only evil characters I think would be Violet and.

Liz: Oh, and. And, Thibault.

Michael: Yeah, he's not. The Question was with the main characters.

Liz: Oh, okay.

Michael: Yeah, anyway, that's a good question. As far as the host, Jimmy. definitely, chaotic evil.

Jimmy: Right.

Michael: I am. I am lawful. Good. Because I believe in rules. Harold is saintly, so he's a. He's lawful good. Awful good. And Liz is neutral. neutral. Neutral.

Jimmy: Neutral.

Liz: Is that because you're sitting close to me and I have. Yeah, five fingers went. And together they.

Jimmy: I got the word for that one because I'm the furthest away.

Liz: Okay, so somebody please explain this to me.

Michael: Okay, well, the, The Dungeons and Dragons guys came up with some really interesting stuff, which you hear all the time, references to this. And the hosts don't explain it. Like, you know, on the history podcast or, you know, these prestigious podcasts, the guy will say, well, Alexander the Great and clearly had a charisma of 18.

Jimmy: Right?

Liz: Yeah,

Michael: yeah. So it was basically when you create a character, you roll some dice to determine some characteristics, and other things you pick. So basically you have these. This little grid which is. Goes from chaotic to neutral to lawful. And then on the other vertice, you have good, neutral, evil. And you could be any one of the, Any one of those puts you on the scale. So if you, if you're. I mean, this is, this is the basic game, which, you know, we don't respect that much. But yeah, if you're a thief, you're probably going to be some kind of neutral or you certainly would not be lawful Good.

Liz: I don't. I don't want to be neutral neutral.

Jimmy: Well, you got to work on.

Michael: There is an ep--

Liz: Okay.

Jimmy: I had a friend, Jackie, My, my. When we started playing it. I've told you about this guy before. He's the one that had to lug his little sister around everywhere he went. and his character was chaotic. Something. I don't even remember what the other thing is, but he just. Because becoming chaotic being became his entire personality. It wouldn't matter what it was. He'd get a grapefruit soda and he'd be. Because I'm chaotic. I thought you'd get a kick out of that one though Michael. I was pretty excited. And that just came in this morning. 

Michael: Okay, well, thank you, Claire. Has anyone, done a role playing game for Peanuts?

Jimmy: Oh, that'd be fun.

Liz: Sony call us.

Jimmy: Yeah, so first off, Sony, I mean, call us just because. Duh.

Liz: Really?

Jimmy: But yeah, that would be fun. What? Like an open. You know what would be amazing? Like an open world video game that you create your own Peanuts Persona and like Animal Crossing or whatever, you just play. You walk around the Peanuts world. You could visit the psychiatry booth.

Liz: Yeah,

Michael: I, don't know. I think.

Jimmy: Yeah, it's like the Metaverse, but with just the Peanuts characters.

Liz: You would have to make yourself a character. Yeah. Okay. This is brilliant.

Jimmy: I'm, telling you. Sony. Gotta give.

Michael: You can write the program. So they put in a photo and

Jimmy: it turns into a. Yeah, it turns into immediately. Yeah.

Liz: Oh, well, they already have that.

Michael: Yeah.

Jimmy: Well, hopefully we hear from Harold on the hotline. Let's check the hotline real quick and see if Harold called in.

Harold: Wow. So this is the Peanuts hotline, huh? Longtime host, first time caller, Harold Buchholz here. I miss you guys. I'm out of Missouri right now, and I'll be in the Nashville area April 9th to the 18th at the Animation Yale Conference at Lipscomb University and the Creative Arts Collective Creative Summit at Belmont University. So I'm just enjoying my time on the road and hanging out with my mom right now in Missouri. And I look forward to talking Peanuts with you guys when I return to New York. So be of good cheer.

Jimmy: Oh, that's great to hear from good old Harold.

Liz: We miss you, Harold.

Jimmy: You worry when he goes out in these assignments for the head beagle. You never know with Harold, right? You never know what shenanigans he could possibly get into. Right.

Liz: He's so chaotic.

Jimmy: So chaotic. Well, that's all we got for you. We just want to take this moment to, again, remind you guys, if you wanted to follow all of us, that would be great. the best way to do that is go ahead and sign up for the great Peanuts reread over on unpackingpeanuts.com. you'll just get one email a month letting you know what we're up to on this podcast. And I'll also give you links to all of our work so you can follow us. Because guess what? We're cartoonists as well. And if you want to reach out to the show, we're unpackingpeanutsmail.com and you can call us at 717-219-4162. So that's it for this week. So for Michael and Liz and Harold, who's out in the wild, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.

Liz: 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 Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, BlueSky and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.

Aziza: Good grief.