Category: Charles M. Schulz

The all-time greatest comic strip

Gene Colan wins Sparky Award

The Sparky Award, given by the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, is named after Charles M. Schulz. This year the Sparky Award has been given to none other than Gene Colan. As I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, Gene is seriously ill, but he’s been feeling well enough for a trip to California. After Gene’s been back home for a few days maybe I’ll give him and Adrienne a call to offer my congratulations.

One of the first Web pages I ever composed, back in 2002, was about Gene Colan. You’ll find it at this link.

Happy birthday, Sparky Schulz

Sparky Schulz

Today, Charles M. Schulz would have been — yikes! — 86. Twenty years ago, there was a series of Peanuts animated cartoons called This is America, Charlie Brown. I’ve seen most of them and they’re a very good introduction to American history. Unfortunately, the videos are out of print, but they’re available on Netflix. I have some of them on good, ol’ LaserDisc, including “The Mayflower Voyagers”, five minutes of which you’ll find on the embedded video player. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
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AF #15 in LOC

Something I meant to mention months ago is the anonymous donation to the Library of Congress of the original art to the 1962 comic book Amazing Fantasy #15. That particular issue includes the first appearance of Spider-Man, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

And a few months ago a new book about Ditko came out from Fantagraphics, the outfit that is handling The Complete Peanuts. (Here’s the set I’m hoping to get from Santa this year.) STRANGE AND STRANGER The World of Steve Ditko, by Blake Bell, rated a review in the New York Times.

Peanuts On Disc and Online

The brothers Schulz can be heard talking about new Peanuts media — Monte on a DVD, and Craig on NPR.

The new “Peanuts Motion Comics” sound like fun. Unfortunately, I don’t have iTunes.

Peanuts Motion Comics

Charles Schulz was from Minnesota, of course, so it’s no surprise that a TV station there highlighted the animated Peanuts comics. (Note that the clips were taken from TV specials.)
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Larissa holds title, but loses to Palin

Until Tuesday night, I was wondering if Jeopardy! contestant Meredith Robbins, a library media specialist from New York, had a chance of catching up to Larissa Kelly. It didn’t happen.

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This answer was in the first round. Bet you know the question. 😉

No “blockhead”, this cartoonist drew his first breath in Minneapolis on Nov. 26, 1922

Meredith was an interesting contrast to Larissa Kelly, who always bet big in Final Jeopardy. Meredith was a strong contestant, but she lost because she didn’t bet enough at the end. She won her first three appearances despite losing in Final Jeopardy each time.

While Larissa Kelly remains the all-time winning woman in Jeopardy! I unfortunately must report that she is no longer the #1 search hit on this blog. Larissa is now second behind… AAUGH! … Sarah Palin.