Tag: Monte Schulz

Monte Schulz moves into ‘The Big Town’

After the craziness of the Iowa straw poll, where the ostensible winner lost and the GOP front runner didn’t participate, KRUU-FM in Fairfield, IA does something more reasonable and interviews novelist Monte Schulz.

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Aug/monteschulz.mp3|titles=Monte Schulz interviewed on KRUU]

According to Amazon, Monte’s next book, The Big Town, will be out in February. Nice cover!

I’m comfortable having a couple of non-fiction books going at the same time, but novels I prefer to read all the way through to avoid spoiling the mood, and I’m starting Monte’s current novel, The Last Rose of Summer. Monte has a knack for defining distinctive characters, and in the first book of his 1920’s Americana series, This Side of Jordan, Chester is as chilling a cold-blooded killer as any villain you’d never want to meet. The funniest moment in the story for me is Monte’s nod to his father that I wrote about at this link.

Schulz brothers have their say

Since losing her husband to colon cancer, Katie Couric has urged people over 50 to have a colonoscopy. Monte Schulz lost his father to colon cancer, and he made this PSA for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance.

Since the death of Charles M. Schulz, Monte has been writing novels and his brother Craig has been in charge of their father’s studio, Creative Associates. Craig talks about the studio’s new DVD, Happiness is a Warm Blanket with Geek To Me at this link. Check the AAUGH Blog for a review and more information.

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.

Monte Story School

Novelist Monte Schulz’s follow-up to his dark, yet rollicking This Side of Jordan is The Last Rose of Summer, which should be out in December.

Monte has had a long association with the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. His father attended the conference for many years, as did Ray Bradbury. The conference ran into financial trouble and ended up in bankruptcy court. Monte made an offer and now he owns the conference, presumably along with all of the headaches that go with it.

WRITERS CONFERENCE SOLD: Monte Schulz, son of the late Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, has purchased the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robin Riblet, on Tuesday, June 8, approved the $27,000 sale. Monte plans to hold the next conference next June. There was no conference this year or last due to prior owner Marcia Meier’s bankruptcy.

And with apologies to Stephen Colbert, I think the title of this post qualifies for greatest pun of all time.

Hello, Goodbye, Coffee Lane

Cover of The Comics Journal #290Of 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]