Category: Cartooning

‘Schulz and Peanuts’ by David Michaelis

'Schulz and Peanuts' by David Michaelis

Well, the book is out, and I didn’t wait till Christmas. Don’t know when I’ll have a chance to read it from start to finish, but I have it.

Again I express my respect for the family of Charles Schulz, and their honest and understandable objections, complaints and concerns about this book; but having said that, it’s obvious from even a quick glance that it contains much more basic information than I have ever read before. For example …

Charles and Joyce Schulz
Charles and Joyce

(p. 223) In 1948, the nineteen-year-old Joyce had run off to New Mexico, fallen in love with a cowboy, married, gotten pregnant, been abandoned by her husband, and come home to Minneapolis to have the child — all within 20 months. When Sparky met her at a party, Joyce was twenty-two years old, divorced, with a baby and a curfew. Pulled away from a pretty face was her strawberry-blond hair.

He found her doing the dishes at her sister’s kitchen sink, and came over to help.

I strongly encourage you to read Nat Gertler’s commentary at The AAUGH! Blog. A couple more items about the book worth reading are a review in The New Yorker by author John Updike, and Newsweek’s take on the thing.

Joe Sinnott Interview — October 15, 1977

Joe SinnottJoe Sinnott is one of the greatest comic book inkers of all time. Actually, he’s the greatest. No finer hand has ever held pen and brush. I’ve been a fan of Joe’s work for over 40 years. Thirty years ago, when Joe made an appearance at a Boston comic book convention, I called him “a God of the industry,” and he still is.

Being a radio announcer at the time, I had access to a good quality portable tape recorder, making it possible for me to record an impromptu interview with Joe and a group of enthusiastic fans, including my best buddy, Dennis F. Rogers. Out of half an hour of tape I’ve spliced together a couple of clips.

In this part of the discussion, Joe Sinnott comments on comic books. That’s me asking the first question, sounding overly hyperbolic and just plain hyper.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/OCT07/JoeSinnott.mp3]

And in this segment, Joe talks about being a lifelong fan of Bing Crosby, who had died the day before this recording was made! That’s Dennis asking Joe about his hobby.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/OCT07/SinnottOnCrosby.mp3]

In retrospect, Dennis and I have always kicked ourselves for not spending the entire time talking with Joe about Bing, because we were plenty interested in the subject, and it was what he wanted to talk about. In recognition of Joe Sinnott, Der Bingle fan, here is Bing from one of Joe’s favorite periods, the early 30’s, singing “Pennies From Heaven.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/OCT07/PenniesFromHeaven.mp3]

Additional Note: This recording of “Pennies From Heaven” came from a 1973 German LP that I own. D.F. Rogers, an amateur but highly proficient musicologist, believes this performance is most likely the original version, recorded for the Decca label on August 17, 1936.

Don’t Miss “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz”

AMERICAN MASTERS “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz”
Monday, October 29, 2007
9:00-10:30 p.m. ET

David Van Taylor, the director of the upcoming, highly-anticipated American Masters documentary Good Ol’ Charles Schulz has written with a couple of corrections for an earlier post.

I’m the director of the documentary. Just wanted to say that “Johnson” is Donna’s maiden name; “Wold” is her married name. Al Wold is alive and well. Our interview with her is a critical part of the film. Hope you all can watch.

Saying that “Johnson” is Donna Wold’s “married” name instead of “maiden” was a typo. My bad. But I had read some time back that her husband, Al, had passed away. Bad information, obviously. I should have double-checked that before repeating the erroneous information, especially if I couldn’t find confirmation. My apologies.

I may be just a guy who blogs, but a long time ago I was a news reporter, so I know better. My thanks to Mr. Van Taylor for the corrections, and thank you for the tip-off about the interview with Donna. I’m glad that Al is so understanding about her critical role in the genesis of Peanuts.

Monte Schulz Has His Say

Charles M. Schulz, April 27, 1958This picture of Charles Schulz was taken on April 27, 1958, as he was preparing to move to California from Minnesota. Peanuts comic book artist Jim Sasseville and his wife Helga followed Schulz west, somewhat to Sasseville’s later regret. Note I said comic book artist. Schulz was the only one who ever drew the strip.

Monte SchulzMonte Schulz made this comment on the Web site Cartoon Brew a couple of days ago, regarding the new biography of his father by David Michaelis.

The point of objection to this biography of my father is how much is simply untruthful, and deliberately so. There are many factual errors throughout the book; there are people who are give authority to speak about our family who have no insight to do so; and there are so many elements of my father’s life that David deliberately left out of the book, that it really is impossible for anyone outside of our family, or Dad’s circle of friends, to come to any genuine conclusions. I can tell you absolutely that he was not a depressed, melancholy person, nor was he unaffectionate and absent as a parent. Honestly, the quote I’ve really wanted to give the press, after reading both the early of the manuscript and the final book, is this: “The book is stupid, and David Michaelis is an idiot.” That said, I had a six year on-going conversation with him about this book, and like David quite a lot. But I was shocked to see the book that emerged, because it veered so drastically away from what he told us he intended to write. Which is why we’ve been so militant in our response. Incidentally, the material David edited out of the book is even more outrageous. The fact is, after reading the book, I decided I’d learned more about David Michaelis than I did about my dad. I found that interesting.