Category: Cartooning

Peanotes

The 60th anniversary of Peanuts is only two months away. Here are some related items of note:

  • Rheta Grimsley Johnson has a new book called Enchanted Evening Barbie & the Second Coming: A Memoir. My copy arrived from Amazon a few days ago. When Rheta was married to cartoonist Jimmy Johnson, she wrote Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz, the first authorized biography of Sparky. Rheta recently spoke at the Sixth Annual Clarksville Writer’s Conference in Tennessee.

    • “Jesus hates you” — Westboro Baptist Church

    It was fanatics vs. fans at the San Diego Comic-Con!

    http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/

    John 8:7 says, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” It does not continue with Jesus saying, “So somebody get me a rock! A big, jagged one.” Which is what the members of the Westboro Baptist Church seem to believe.

    A splash of color

    When the Boston Globe started printing its daily comics in color, there were complaints from some readers, claiming to be comic-strip purists, but my only complaint is when the color is printed off-register.

    Here is Arlo and Janis from a few days ago, as it appeared in the Metrowest Daily News. Do the mouse-over thing to see how it appeared in the Boston Globe. The color adds a lot to the mood, don’t you think?

    How much longer will there be printed newspapers? Ten years? Five?

    Three deceased Greats

    The 2010 San Diego Comic-Con is coming up soon. Over on Comic-Convention Memories, there are batches of photos taken at the San Diego con in 1974.

    Here’s a pic of MAD cartoonist Sergio Aragonés. No! Wait! That’s not Sergio, it’s Peanuts animator Bill Melendez.

    And here’s his de facto boss, Sparky Schulz, when he was — yikes! — a couple of years younger than I am now!

    With special guest star, director Frank Capra! Frank Capra?? He attended a comic-book convention in 1974??? That was several years after his autobiography, The Name Above the Title, and ten years before She’s a Wonderful Wife — er, I mean It’s a Wonderful Life — was rescued from public domain abuse and rightly hailed as one of the all-time great movies.