Category: Charles M. Schulz

Click to see complete comic strip

“It all started when my oldest son, Monte, was in high school and was involved with an art class where the project was a coat-hanger sculpture. He was telling me about it one day while we were riding home in the car from school, and he said that he was going to transform a coat hanger into the figure of a baseball pitcher. It sounded like a good idea to me, and I was anxious to hear about the final results.

“Several weeks went by before he mentioned it again, and this time he told me that the teacher had handed back the projects and he had received a C on his coat-hanger sculpture. I remember being quite disturbed by this, because I could not understand how a teacher was able to grade this kind of project. I thought about it as the months went by, and finally translated it into the Sunday page where Sally expresses her indignation over receiving the same grade for her piece of coat-hanger sculpture.”

– Charles M. Schulz

Charles M. Schulz is still on our minds here at DogRat.com, and Monte Schulz is still soldiering on over at Cartoon Brew, responding to readers who are just now reading Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis. He says today is his deadline for an essay, some 70 pages long, about the biography to be published in The Comics Journal.

My buddy D. F. Rogers recently made an impulse purchase of a Peanuts Classic Edition reprint of the 1967 book, Happiness Is A Sad Song. A copy of this was a fixture in my sister’s room for many years. One of the “Happiness Is” items that Dennis pointed out is this one, which is also a favorite of mine.

Ignoring the fact that Charlie Brown isn’t in a child safety seat, it’s a very nice sentiment. In 1972, Charles Schulz expanded on the idea in this Sunday comic strip. Click the panels to see the full page.

For Dennis and myself, the best expression of happiness is this one…

This is yesterday’s Classic Peanuts, originally published January 11, 1961, shortly before JFK’s inauguration. So the gag is about Kennedy, but I don’t quite get it.

Good Ol’ Monte Schulz has stopped by to say hi again at this link from a week ago. He’s always welcome here, that’s for sure. Monte is writing an essay for Gary Groth, founder of Fantagraphics, the publisher of The Complete Peanuts. Presumably, Monte’s essay will be published in The Comics Journal.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere a couple of times, reading Peanuts books on Christmas Day is a favorite childhood memory. It’s a tradition that is back again, thanks to the Fantagraphics Complete Peanuts series! This year’s boxed set covers the years 1963-1966, when Sparky’s creation went from being a popular comic strip to being a pop culture phenomenon.

I’m sure you recall that a couple of weeks ago I was on Stu’s Show, a feature on Shokus Internet Radio. I promised to post my five minutes on the program, and here they are.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Nov/ShokusRadio.mp3|titles=Stu Shokus with Monte Schulz]

I was pleased to have an opportunity not only to speak with Monte, but to provide a quote from the book attributed to him that he could directly refute. And Monte certainly does that.

I got wrapped up in listening to Monte and forgot to hang up! So I took advantage of that to add a comment. I end the audio clip with Monte answering a question I had asked here on the blog, about David Michaelis’ first draft of Schulz and Peanuts.

Wednesday, animation expert Jerry Beck will be the guest on Stu’s Show at 7 PM ET. Jerry is Webmaster on CartoonBrew.com, where much of the discussion about the Michaelis book has been taking place. Charles Schulz’s wife Jeannie has kept things interesting by adding a comment on Monday.