The all-time greatest comic strip
One of the most familiar pieces in the traditional Classical music repertoire is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the “Overplayed.” I’m up for listening to it again, thanks to this early stereo recording that should be heard with a decent pair of headphones to best appreciate its sonic splendor (with apologies to the hearing impaired).
And oh, by the way…
Another post that ticks three blog categories!
This past week on the DVR I watched the PBS documentary The Eugenics Crusade, showing how the American Eugenics movement contributed to Hitler’s nightmare of a Master Race. Then I watched a PBS fundraiser feature, ABBA Forever: A Celebration. The two programs have a connection in the person of Frida, whose mother bore her as a German soldier’s “Lebensborn” baby, during the Nazi occupation of Norway.
Speaking of PBS, that’s where A Charlie Brown Christmas can be watched tonight. Quite a switch from decades of airing on commercial TV. And with that comment, this posts ticks three of my blog categories.
Charles M. Schulz, back in the day when the opening of a new Macy’s was an event.
In October 1966, [Ray] Bradbury and his daughters sat down together to watch [the first airing of] the Halloween special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and none of them liked it. They were all disappointed that The Great Pumpkin didn’t show up and felt it wasn’t a proper Halloween film at all. Bradbury complained about it over lunch to his friend, animator Chuck Jones, who agreed with him.
https://www.mouseplanet.com/12510/Three_Disney_Halloween_Treats
Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite writers, but I disagree 100% with his reported opinion of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which was written by one of his cartoonist friends named Charles M. I’m not really surprised that the other Charles M. didn’t care for it but, in my opinion, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is the best of all animated TV specials.
Gatehouse Media is buying Gannett, although at the moment there appears to be a potential snag in the deal. Not coincidentally, 7-day home delivery of my Gatehouse paper is suddenly increasing by almost 50%, from $53.20 to $78.21 per month. The safe assumption is the extra money will go towards financing the purchase, assuming it goes through. The question is, how many subscribers will cancel home delivery?
For now, the paper is still showing up on the driveway, and I’d like to share a scan from last Sunday’s comics, as modest as the single two-sided sheet is. This is one of the more celebrated of Sparky’s Peanuts installments.
Over in the Boston Globe’s comics section last week, The Family Circus was filled with wonderful visual details. Say what you will about this feature, I admire the professionalism of the art, which is something completely lacking in, say, Dilbert.
This 300-dpi scan can’t compensate for the too-small printing size. Compare it to this beach scene I scanned and posted — yikes! — nine years ago, and compare the building in the lower right corner to the one drawn by Jimmy Johnson that I pointed out last week.
Finally, the Boston Globe recently had this tribute to MAD Magazine by A.J.B. Lane, done in the manner of an Al Jaffee fold-in. I couldn’t find it online, and as I was already hot on the scanner…
Christmas memories, 1968 — The White Album and $1 Peanuts books.
