Monte Schulz to unveil “This Side of Jordan” at Book Expo

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Fantagraphics has put out a press release about Monte Schulz’s new novel, “This Side of Jordan”:

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, A NOVEL BY MONTE SCHULZ

THIS SIDE OF JORDAN, by MONTE SCHULZ, will be unveiled at the 2009 Book Expo America in New York City, May 29-31, with an appearance by the author on Saturday, May 30, at 2:30PM in the Autographing Area.

Monte Schulz

The novel is described as, “a tapestry of American life in the summer before the economic crash of 1929, and a quintessential novel of the rural Midwest offered unexpectedly as a crime thriller.” You can pre-order it from Amazon at this link. Monte says “This Side of Jordan” is very different from his first novel, but like “Down by the River” I’m sure a ripping good read is guaranteed for all!

Snoopy flies in space, lands in Washington state

It’s been forty years since Snoopy flew to the Moon on Apollo 10, the last mission of the program to intentionally not land on the surface of Earth’s nearest neighbor. “Precious” seems to be the best word to describe this photo of NASA secretary Jayme Flowers holding a big Snoopy.

Jayme Flowers with Snoopy

Before Snoopy flew ’round the Moon he was a Sopwith Camel pilot, of course, battling the Red Baron in — what else? — dogfights. A traveling exhibit from the Charles M. Schulz Museum, featuring Snoopy’s most famous persona, which was inspired by a bit of boyhood whimsy by Monte Schulz, is now at the Pearson Air Museum in Vancouver, Washington. The origin of the hit song “Snoopy and the Red Baron” is murkier than is generally known, as I hope to explain one day, but for now I am pledged to remain silent.

In another bit of Peanuts news, there are apparently financial problems at the New York auction firm Illustration House, which needed a bit of nudging to make a good faith payment to the owner of a Schulz original.

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Schulzes

If you click here, you’ll see Amazon.com’s pre-publication listing for Monte Schulz’s new novel, This Side of Jordan. Here’s Monte in a photo that’s 1280×720 pixels — HD Monte!

Monte Schulz

Monte’s stepmother, Jeannie, recently donated $1 million to the Ohio State University Cartoon Library & Museum. Cartoonist Brian Narelle, who teaches cartooning classes at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, took this picture of the Charlie Brown car that belongs to Jeannie. That’s the manager of the ice rink at the wheel.

Charlie Brown Car at Schulz Museum

‘Good Ol’ Charles Schulz’ at MASS MoCA

Something I missed, that I wouldn’t have been able to attend even if I’d known about it, was a screening of the documentary Good Ol’ Charles Schulz, with director David Van Taylor in attendance, at a place I’ve mentioned before, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Here is the part of the film I liked, and I was pleased to later learn that Monte Schulz felt the same.

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Where’s Denro?

If you scamper over to the AAUGH! Blog, you’ll see where the ever-vigilant D.F. Rogers has caught and corrected Nat Gertler in an error about Charlie Brown’s All Stars.

Dennis has further defected from DogRat to make an appearance on the web site of Fred Hembeck, cartoonist of comic book topics. Den caught up with Hembeck at The National (aka: Big Apple Con) last November when I wasn’t looking, and he promised Fred he’d pull up some old fanzine drawings going back nearly 40 years. Click this link, and look for the section called “Yesterday and Today” (Fred has got to get himself some permalinks).

Picture This

Newspapers and magazines are laying off staff, and those that remain are writing articles on how to survive a layoff. Print media is in big trouble, and was long before the recession. As I highlighted over two years ago, the writing was on the virtual wall as far back as 1972.

One of the things that keeps me reading the printed page are the pictures that don’t make it to the online version of articles. One example is this photo by Jonatham Kantor for a recent Newsweek article, using a Peanuts Band-Aid to illustrate the claim that vaccinations have led to an increase in autism in children.

Peanuts Band-Aid

It’s a clever idea, but do you see the medical mistake?