Good Grief!
Green felt, like the Russco turntables had when I was working in radio.
Tag: Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts 2015
Craig Schulz says there’s a new Peanuts movie coming, slated for the 50th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas in 2015.
It’s the post-Christmas blahs, Charlie Brown!
- Another Christmas, another 2-volume box set of Fantagraphics’ “The Complete Peanuts”. With the release of the strips from 1977 and ’78, the series now covers the time from when my parents got married, through the first full calendar year after I graduated from college.
- Time Magazine has an interview with Lee Mendelson, the producer of the “Peanuts” cartoons.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2039669,00.html
- With Monte Schulz’s new book, “The Last Rose of Summer”, being published soon, here’s something of interest that Monte co-wrote with his dad — the TV movie, “It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown”, from 1988, starring Monte’s kid sister Jill.
The Beeb on Sparky
It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since the controversial biography Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis. You have until next Tuesday to listen to a BBC Radio 4 feature on Charles M. Schulz.
I’m a bit surprised to hear Jeannie say, “David did a marvelous job…” Russell T. Davies, who brought Doctor Who back from hiatus, chimes in with the factoid that long before the Tardis, Snoopy’s doghouse was much bigger inside than it appeared outside.
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.
Hello, Goodbye, Coffee Lane
Of his essay “Regarding Schulz and Peanuts,” in The Comics Journal #290, Monte Schulz comments at this link, “I’ve had my say, as I wanted to say it, and that’s it.” In that spirit, I’d like to offer a closing of my own.
When the biography came out last fall, there was something of a companion piece in the form of David Van Taylor’s documentary for the PBS series American Masters, “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz.” I posted a few moments of it at this link, because I feel the emotional core of the program is in the ten minutes about the Schulz family during their years living at Coffee Lane in Sebastopol, California. Here is the complete segment.
[flv:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Video/Schulz/CoffeeLane.flv 440 330]
In my previous entry I included the song “Moon River,” and following the lead of the background music in the documentary, I used Henry Mancini’s recording. But in Monte’s essay he mentions the Andy Williams version, so I’ll toss that one in here.
[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Nov/AW.mp3|titles=Moon River performed by Andy Williams]