Category: Charles M. Schulz

The all-time greatest comic strip

Pumpkin Patch Putdown

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.

Print Editions

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.

Peanuts, originally published August 6, 1972

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…

It’s a First Printing, Charlie Brown

Over at Nat Gertler’s AAUGH Blog he discusses the book adaptations of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I bought a used copy many years ago and assumed that because the title page says “First Printing 1965” it is indeed an original printing.

But wait! Nat explains that all of World Publishing’s press runs say “first printing,” so for a few minutes while listening to the podcast I feared that mine is merely a reprint. But Nat goes on to explain that he has determined the features of an apparent true first edition. For starters, the book should be 8.5 inches tall, without a large black area to the right of the illustration. Check.

Second, the end papers should be a nice, deep red color. Check.

Finally, the first printing came with a dust jacket. Mine doesn’t have that, but the end flaps have text, and Gertler’s description matches two pieces of paper that came with my copy. Therefore, I conclude that my Charlie Brown Christmas book is a true first-run printing.

The most significant piece of information that Nat provides is the name of the artist who illustrated the book. Only the cover has a Schulz drawing. The interior was drawn by Sparky’s former assistant Dale Hale, who did the job in only two weeks.

Are There Famous Artists Anymore?

Before finding some small success as a cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz began his career as one of the instructors at the Art Instruction School in Minneapolis. But the greatest of correspondence courses for illustration and cartooning was The Famous Artists School in Wilton, Connecticut. Among its faculty was my favorite classic illustrator, Jon Whitcomb. As stated in the video, he specialized in drawing pretty girls, which is probably why he is my favorite classic illustrator.

As a kid I rode my bike countless times to buy comic books at a shopping center that was two miles away, in Wilton. As a teenager I came to realize what, and who, I had left behind by moving to Massachusetts. I had been living in the midst of many cartoonists and illustrators! With absolute certainty, I can say that if my family had remained in Norwalk, Connecticut, I would have pursued an art career, most likely starting as an assistant to an established cartoonist or comic book artist.