Category: Cartooning

A Charlie Brown Anti-Christmas



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As I’ve said before, I’m an admirer of cartoonist Charles Schulz.  I’ll never decide if my favorite Peanuts cartoon is A Charlie Brown Christmas or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  But it’s Halloween, so I’ll say it’s The Great Pumpkin.  Let’s listen to “Great Pumpkin Waltz,” by Vince Guaraldi, transferred from a wonderfully warm-sounding, but slightly-warped, LP.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/OCT06/pumpkinwaltz.mp3]

Here’s a comment by Charles Schulz, as recalled by Lee Mendelson in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic.

 

You know, I’ve always been ambivalent about Santa Claus.  It must be very hard for a lot of [poor] families … a lot of kids.  And, secondly, when a kid finally finds out that there is no Santa Claus, he must wonder how many other things he has been told that are not true.
 

This raises an interesting discussion topic.  A Charlie Brown Christmas plainly states who, other than Santa, there is to believe in.  And it’s Linus who articulates that belief so poignantly in the show.  But it’s also Linus who believes in the obviously non-existent Great Pumpkin.

The Great Pumpkin fabrication was intended by Schulz to be a Halloween counterpart to the Santa Claus character.  The name of the Halloween counterpart to Jesus isn’t given in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Here’s a screen shot from Friday night’s showing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  It’s strange to see the ABC-TV logo in the corner, because in my mind the show is indelibly associated with CBS.  But at least they aired it.  The show is, after all, 40 years old!

Also, take note of the “G” rating and the blurb promoting the Harry Potter movie.  It wasn’t too many years ago that religious groups were in an uproar over Harry Potter.  Perhaps they still are.

For me, and I mean this sincerely, Christmas is about Birth (or, if you prefer, Life) and Halloween is about Death.  The symbolism is undeniable.  I admire Schulz for dealing so deftly with the always-touchy subject of Faith in his Christmas and Halloween cartoons.

Seven Samurai 7

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/samurai_7.flv 425 236]

Honorable son Eric’s latest Animé pick is Samurai 7, a series based on the legendary movie, The Seven Samurai.  When I was in high school, the Boston PBS station showed it complete and commercial-free, and it was my friend and mentor Morris Hyman who made sure I didn’t miss it.

Eric and I watched the original movie together not too many months ago, and I was pleased to see that he was suitably impressed.  George Lucas borrowed much from this movie when creating The Jedi Knights.

I’ve spliced together a couple of brief scenes from both presentations for comparison.  Below is, obviously, the original.  No robots!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/7samurai.flv 320 240]

Dilbert Has No Mouth

I’m not a gigantic fan of Dilbert.  I enjoy the strip, I almost never miss it, and I think it actually provides some valuable lessons for my son Eric, who’s a fan of it.  But for me it’s a bit impersonal.  Which is, I know, the way things are supposed to be in the workplace.  But still, like Beetle Bailey, I don’t feel a personal connection to Dilbert the way I do to Calvin and Hobbes, or Peanuts or, until a few years ago, Doonesbury.

It’s been a while since I checked Scott Adams’ blog, so a tip of the toupee to friend “Tom Tastewar” for pointing out this item.

As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago.  Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia.  Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis.  It happens to people in my age bracket.

Frankly, at first I thought it was a put-on.  It seemed too strange and ironic, because Adams draws Dilbert without a mouth.

Immediately I thought of idiot former disk jockey Rush Limbaugh’s deafness, which turned out to be induced by prescription drug abuse.  But Adams seems to be sincere, so I’ll take him at his word.  I guess I feel a bit embarrassed that I didn’t already know about this!

Comics Coverage

Last week I highlighted an article from The New York Times about a unique double-museum exhibit on cartooning and comics in New York and New Jersey.  And now Newsweek has an article about the same exhibit.  It mentions the now-defunct Museum of Cartoon Art in Port Chester, NY.  I visited the museum in September, 1978 for Marvel Comics Day.  Veteran pros John Romita, Marie Severin and John Buscema were very nice to meet.  Younger professionals, who were nevetheless older than myself, were not so nice.

Eric’s Animé Pick

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This time around is the opening to Azumanga Daioh, along with a couple of gags.  Azumanga Daioh is so totally nonsensical it defies description.  Originally a 4-panel comic strip, it was then turned into a daily 5-minute Animé for TV.

Since this video preview is already wacky, for contrast I’ll tack on a single-gag cartoon done of the 4-panel comic strip Peanuts, way back in 1963.  This was some of the first animation produced to test Charlie Brown and the gang for television.

Accurate Color

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This week’s Spider-Man comic, inserted in the Sunday paper, starts reprinting issue #5, from 1963. Spidey is hopelessly mis-matched, battling Doctor Doom, one of the principal character inspirations for Darth Vader.

I was impressed that the colorist for this little freebie comic made the TV a black & white set, as it was originally, 43 years ago; emphasizing that the comics were in color, but TV (for the most part) wasn’t. Nice touch.