January 28, 2025 • 53 mins
Lucy diversifies her revenue streams. Lydia needs some love letters. Woodstock gets violent. Snoopy goes to the hospital. And Jimmy turns 22. Plus: Spike, and Andy, and Olaf, and Krypto.
Transcript available at UnpackingPeanuts.com
Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz, and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
VO (00:02):
Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts, the podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M.
Schulz.
Jimmy (00:19):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show.
It is 1994, so what's the frequency, Snoopy?
We are going to be looking at all kinds of great strips here from the mid-90s, and I'm going to be your host for the proceedings.
My name is Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist.
I did things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow Up, and The Dumbest Idea ever.
Harold (00:40):
I'll vouch for him.
Jimmy (00:44):
Joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both of them complicated people as well as for this very podcast.
He's the co-creator of the original comic book Price Guide, the original editor for Amelia Rules, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Smell and Tangled River.
It's Michael Cohen.
Michael (01:03):
Say hey.
Jimmy (01:05):
He's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold (01:14):
Hello.
Jimmy (01:16):
All right, guys, we're starting another year today.
1994.
Can you believe it?
We just started 2025 and now we're starting 1994.
I can't believe it.
So do we have any intro, anything to start the people off with?
What do we got, Harold?
Harold (01:33):
I got a little bit.
There were a couple of things in our lovely archives of what was going on in this time period.
So we've decided to actually concentrate on the first two months, right, this time we had a lot to talk about.
So in those first two months in Editor and Publisher Magazine, there was an article on United Feature Syndicate, which had become United Media by that time.
(01:58):
And basically they had hired a new guy and they were saying that the licensing was over half of United Media revenues.
And I think the lion's share of that licensing was Peanuts and Garfield at this time.
Jimmy (02:12):
That had to be 90% of it, right?
Harold (02:14):
Just those two strips.
We have over half is what they're saying, but it seems like it would have been much more than half.
But when you think about these two dominant strips that did very well both in the newspapers, been pretty much in every newspaper they could be in, they were in by this point, and that they were selling lots and lots of merchandise.
You can see how important Charles Schulz is to this company.
(02:38):
I would guess he's close to half of their revenues, 40 percent, maybe.
That's a lot for a single creator's work, and so the choices he makes determines the fate of that company.
They were extremely reliant on him to continue to produce and keep peanuts relevant and interesting to audiences.
(03:01):
In that regard, the Dallas Morning News Reader Survey, Dallas Morning News was a huge comics paper.
They had 70 daily strips, three pages, full pages of comics, which is more than just about any paper I know, and this is in the 90s.
(03:22):
And they had their reader's poll out of 70 strips.
Where do you think Peanuts is falling in 1994, guys?
Jimmy (03:28):
Oh, I bet it's still top five.
Harold (03:30):
Yeah.
Do you think that Michael?
Where do you think they...
Michael (03:33):
Them say three, just because they don't know Texas.
Harold (03:38):
Okay.
Well, number one was Farside, hugely popular in this time.
Number two is Calvin and Hobbes, also just a blockbuster strip in the 90s.
Number three was Garfield.
And then tied for fourth were Kathy and Peanuts.
Jimmy (03:57):
There you go.
Harold (03:58):
And then the last piece I have is, Schulz was still doing some traveling at this point, at least to La Jolla.
They had the Rubin Awards weekend in La Jolla in 1994.
This was the awards that were given out by cartoonists for cartoonists.
And he was scheduled to discuss cartooning and answer questions of his fellow cartoonists.
(04:24):
So he was still active going around, even though he was not big on traveling, he's still doing a little bit of that in 1994.
Jimmy (04:32):
That's fantastic, Harold.
Thank you so much for your research.
I appreciate that.
So we're gonna go ahead and start taking a look at the strips now.
Now, if you want to follow along with us, there's a couple of ways you can do it.
The first thing you need to do, though, is got to go over to unpackingpeanuts.com and sign up for the Great Peanuts Reread.
(04:52):
That'll get you one email a month, and we'll give you a heads up in our little newsletter telling you what strips we're going to be covering that month.
So you can be all prepared when the episode arrives.
And then if you want to read along with me, you can go right over there to gocomics.com, and you can read all these strips for free.
(05:12):
And that's what we're going to start doing right now.
January 2nd.
It's a Sunday page.
It's a symbolic panel.
It's Charlie Brown as Saturn.
Michael (05:26):
Pretty wobbly rings there.
Jimmy (05:28):
It's pretty wobbly rings of Saturn.
And then in the next panel, it's Charlie Brown, a hard cut to Charlie Brown at school saying, wow.
Now, as we remember these Sunday strips really start on the second tier.
So on the second tier, we begin with Charlie Brown and Linus in the classroom.
And Charlie Brown says to the teacher, yes ma'am, what you just told us about the stars and the planets is really fascinating.
(05:54):
And you know who's interested in this sort of thing?
Charlie Brown concludes, my dog.
Yes, he really is.
He continues in the next panel.
So what I'd like to do right now is run home and tell him all about what you just taught us.
In the next to last panel, Charlie Brown just says, yes ma'am.
Then in the last panel, he sinks down in his seat, dejected.
(06:18):
And Linus whispers from behind, nice try, Charlie Brown.
Michael (06:24):
I'm a little unclear on his motivation here.
Jimmy (06:27):
To get out of school.
Michael (06:28):
Does he want to get out of school or does he actually want to get his dog here?
Jimmy (06:31):
No, he just wants to get out of school.
Michael (06:34):
But we've never really seen him as somebody who hates school.
I mean, he hates lunch.
Harold (06:40):
He's just falling more and more in love with his dog.
He wants to be with his dog.
That was my take.
Jimmy (06:47):
No, he just wants to get out of school.
Come on, people.
Harold (06:49):
But he's never been like that.
Has he?
Michael (06:51):
Yeah, that's right.
Harold (06:52):
I can't remember an example where he was just like, I don't want to go to school.
He's the studious one and Sally's always bugging him about stuff, and he's always rolling his eyes and sinking in his seat when she's trying to get out of school and schoolwork.
Jimmy (07:03):
Everybody needs a mental health day.
No, the giveaway here is Linus saying, nice try, Charlie Brown.
Harold (07:11):
Yeah.
Well, but that could be nice try trying to get your dog into the school again because he has done that, right?
Jimmy (07:17):
Yeah, it's because Charlie Brown wants to go.
All right, well, I will accept no other.
Michael (07:24):
Well, let's have a reader's poll.
Liz (07:26):
I think my stomach hurts would probably be a better excuse.
Jimmy (07:30):
All right, so here is the reader's poll.
Does Charlie Brown want to bring Snoopy back to school?
You on my side saying Charlie Brown just wants to go home.
Michael (07:42):
I think the strip implies that Jimmy's right, but the character of Charlie Brown would determine he'd rather have his dog there than just go out and run around for a few months.
Harold (07:54):
We'll see what the listeners think.
It'll be interesting.
Michael (07:56):
Okay.
Jimmy (07:57):
But remember, if you don't vote for me, you're dead to me.
Harold (08:03):
Jimmy's very forgiving.
Jimmy (08:04):
This is the hill I'm dying on, Peanuts, this strip.
January 3rd.
Still in class, but Linus is now it's Linus and Lydia.
So I guess Lydia just sits too behind Charlie Brown, which means that girl that Linus was sending a note to a few years ago was Charlie Brown.
(08:24):
So, all right, I guess they switched seats.
Anyway, Lydia is still behind Linus.
And Linus turns to her and says, did you miss me during Christmas vacation?
And Lydia says, did you give me a Christmas present?
Twitch Linus says, no.
And Lydia just goes right back to work and saying, I didn't miss you.
Michael (08:42):
Well, I'm glad he started off the year with a couple of Lydia strips.
Jimmy (08:45):
Yeah.
Michael (08:45):
Because I always picked them.
This is not the greatest.
But I guess she gets the point here, definitely.
Jimmy (08:54):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
And their ongoing struggle back and forth.
I do like this one a lot.
It's like, did you get me a present?
Then I didn't miss you.
It's a good zinger from Lydia.
She's still one of the great character designs.
I love her little sloping nose.
It's very different than what most Peanuts characters look like in profile.
(09:15):
The only one that has a nose similar to that that I can think of off the top of my head is Frida.
You know, he usually goes for the more bulbous look.
Michael (09:24):
I never noticed noses.
Jimmy (09:26):
You never noticed noses?
You never noticed noses?
That's, you know.
Michael (09:29):
Snoopy's nose, however.
Jimmy (09:32):
Yeah, right.
We have a whole segment of just looking at a cartoon dogs nose across 50 years.
Speaking of Snoopy, here he is.
January 5th, Snoopy and Woodstock are out in a lot somewhere and they are examining a discarded and dilapidated looking birdcage.
It was part of a sequence.
And Snoopy is talking to Woodstock and says, look here, there's a tiny little book on the bottom of the birdcage.
(09:58):
Oh, because at this point in the sequence, we have discovered that this is Woodstock's, we believe this is Woodstock's grandfather's birdcage.
He had been captured and kept as a pet.
So anyway, so look here, there's a tiny little book on the bottom of the birdcage.
Snoopy picks out the book and begins to read it.
It's a diary.
Your grandfather kept a diary while he was in the cage.
(10:21):
And then Snoopy reads to Woodstock, I've been in here for six weeks now and my attorney has never called back.
Michael (10:29):
I think this is one of the best Woodstock sequences.
Jimmy (10:32):
Yeah.
Michael (10:33):
It was surprising because it looked like a real development in his character here, discovering his deep past.
Yeah, it goes on for a week and wraps up nicely.
Yeah.
So nobody else picked any of these.
So basically his grandfather escaped.
(10:53):
Yes.
He's still flying around somewhere.
Jimmy (10:55):
It is a really good sequence.
And yeah, because the grandfather goes on in the diary to say that every once in a while, they leave him out in the porch and just, it's only a matter of time before they leave the little door open.
And then his diary entry just ends in the middle of a sentence, allowing us to assume that he did in fact escape.
(11:19):
Or it's a Moria situation and the orcs came and destroyed all of them.
It's the only two things that could possibly happen, right?
Michael (11:28):
It did bring back the traumatic moment when I left my aunt and uncle's door open and Mr.
Peeper flew away.
It was totally my fault.
I didn't know he was illicit in the house.
Jimmy (11:42):
Did Mr.
Peeper ever come back?
Michael (11:44):
No.
Jimmy (11:44):
Well, Mr.
Peeper had a better life.
Michael (11:46):
It haunts me to this day.
Jimmy (11:48):
Are you freed, Mr.
Peeper?
I think it's a good thing.
Michael (11:52):
I still look for him.
Jimmy (11:54):
As Woodstock does, Snoopy, this wraps up with Snoopy telling Woodstock to wave when he sees a bird sitting on a telephone wire, because that's what the grandfather said he wanted to do, because it may be Woodstock's grandfather.
This last panel, the look on Woodstock's face.
He just turns the eyes, slants them inward a little bit, and they just evoke so much emotion and so much sadness.
(12:25):
Incredible.
Harold (12:26):
Yeah, there's a little eyebrow on Woodstock there, which you don't always see.
Jimmy (12:30):
Yeah, just one, of course, because we don't want to overdo it with detail.
Harold (12:34):
No, Schulz is not going to give you two eyebrows if he only needs one.
Liz (12:37):
Well, it could be a forehead wrinkle.
Jimmy (12:40):
That's true.
Harold (12:41):
Yeah, see, for a furrowed bird brow.
Jimmy (12:44):
I also like the beat up looking bird cage.
Harold (12:48):
Yeah.
Jimmy (12:49):
Really good.
Harold (12:51):
Yeah, the wobbly line really works well there.
Jimmy (12:53):
And what was the bird's name again, Michael?
Mr.
What?
Peaper?
Michael (12:56):
Mr.
Peaper.
Wasn't that a Wally Cox character from D&D?
Harold (13:00):
Yes, it was.
Yeah, I've seen the complete series.
That's right.
Fun, ancient sitcom.
Jimmy (13:07):
Wait, the sitcom is called Mr.
Peapers?
Michael (13:09):
Uh-huh.
Jimmy (13:10):
I didn't know it was a sitcom until right this second.
Michael (13:14):
This show is so educational.
Harold (13:18):
For people who like things so 70 years old, it's great.
Michael (13:20):
Maybe we should put it in the educational category rather than maybe some part of the history.
Maybe some part of the history.
Jimmy (13:29):
Is there just a question mark category?
Speaking of just question marks, January 9th.
Woodstock is looking at a snowman out in the field, and he says something to himself that ends with a question mark.
Then he looks at it again from the next panel and has another question mark above his head.
(13:52):
Now he's engaged in a full-on discussion with the snowman that's just standing there.
This causes Woodstock to get upset with the snowman and he kicks it, boot, and knocks the snowman's head clean off.
Woodstock is shocked by this and goes running, of course, to his attorney.
Now look, I'm not an attorney man, but boy, I love that.
(14:17):
He runs to his attorney and Woodstock's on top of the doghouse with Snoopy, and he's telling him what happened.
Snoopy, as the attorney, says, You did what?
Well, it could be a misdemeanor or a felony, which Woodstock passes out.
Clunk falls off the doghouse.
Then he's back in position and Snoopy says, But most likely it could be considered mayhem.
(14:39):
Clunk, Woodstock passes out again.
Now he's back up again, and Snoopy says, Mayhem is depriving a human being of a member of his body.
In this case, his head, right?
Now, a snowman isn't a human being, so I think we clunk, Woodstock falls over again.
In the last panel, Snoopy looks down and his little friend off the side of the doghouse and says, how can you talk to a client who keeps feigning all the time?
Harold (15:05):
This is a really special strip.
It's great.
These characters, we know them so well, and little Woodstock has quite a conscience, doesn't quite understand the world.
I was wondering if when Woodstock got to Snoopy's doghouse and sat on top of it, if Snoopy had to go down and put on his bowtie and the hat to be the, or was he just waiting?
Jimmy (15:29):
Maybe he saw this occurring from a distance and he was like, oh, you know.
So what do you think happened?
Do you think Woodstock tries to engage the snowman in conversation and the snowman doesn't say anything?
So Woodstock assumes he's being ignored?
Michael (15:43):
Yeah, it was rude.
Harold (15:44):
I think so, yeah.
Is this being rude?
Well, I noticed there's no carrot on the nose of this.
Jimmy (15:51):
Yeah, Schulz will do this.
Harold (15:51):
He was maybe asking about the carrot.
Jimmy (15:53):
He has done this.
This is the Schulz snowman.
He will do that line down the middle of his face, which is, I guess, a stick stuck in there.
Harold (16:02):
I don't know what it is.
You think a stick he would have put out at an angle or something so we could see some branches or something?
Michael (16:08):
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
Harold (16:10):
It's very unique.
I don't know if that's the kind of snowman you made up.
They didn't have many carrots.
Jimmy (16:14):
Didn't have carrots, yep.
Harold (16:15):
Up in Minnesota.
Jimmy (16:20):
Well, you must have made a snowman when you went elsewhere, like New Hampshire.
Michael (16:24):
I've never made a snowman.
Jimmy (16:25):
You've never made a snowman?
Michael, it is pretty pointless.
It's really one of the dumbest activities.
Michael (16:32):
It's a good joke.
Jimmy (16:36):
But we did it.
It was fun.
Yeah, I love the fact that he is conveying this little drama over the first one, two, three, four, five, six panels between Woodstock and the snowmen.
That's six panels.
That's like a Sunday strip, a wordless Sunday strip in and of itself.
Then there's a really wordy, almost like 60s style Sunday strip on the second half.
Harold (17:02):
It's the 14-panel Sunday.
Jimmy (17:03):
It's a lot of stuff in here.
He liked this idea.
I think there's a lot of extra effort in it.
Michael (17:11):
I think he's on a hot streak at the beginning of this year.
Jimmy (17:14):
Yeah.
Harold (17:14):
That's a lot of really interesting stuff this year.
Michael (17:17):
Yeah.
Usually, I mean, I've gotten used to going, oh, we're going to pick anything this year.
I picked so many in January and February.
I just wrote the guys and said, hey, let's just do two months.
Harold (17:33):
In 1994, who knew?
Michael (17:35):
Yeah.
I left a bunch of them for Jimmy to pick because I knew he'd pick the Olaf ones.
Harold (17:41):
It's very strategic how we pick, yeah.
Jimmy (17:43):
Yeah, because we could pick every strip every year and talk about adventure.
Harold (17:47):
Well, that's true.
Michael (17:49):
We'd still be in 1953 then.
Jimmy (17:52):
Hey, let me ask you this.
Of all of the Woodstock drawings in this one, which one do you like the, which is the best, most iconic?
Michael (18:00):
Panel 5.
Jimmy (18:01):
Yeah, probably.
Harold (18:03):
Yeah, I'm a sucker for a little happy Woodstock.
I get Panel 3.
That's pretty classic.
You got to admit, that's pretty classic.
Jimmy (18:13):
I did not notice that he was smiling until right this second.
That, and then, so then he immediately turns and kicks.
Harold (18:21):
Yeah, this is a mercurial Woodstock.
Well, I guess not because the first panel, you said he was talking to himself, but it looks like maybe the first panel, the throwaway panel, he's talking to the snowman, and then he goes around the other side and is like, what's up with this guy?
He's not responding.
Jimmy (18:37):
Yeah, that's what it is.
Harold (18:39):
So this builds a little bit for those who have the benefit of the top tiers.
Jimmy (18:43):
Yeah.
Oh yeah, I don't think it would work nearly as well without the top tiers.
Harold (18:48):
Yeah, it would be a little out of character for Woodstock to just instantly kick his head off.
Jimmy (18:54):
Yeah, really funny.
Woodstock is still crushing it.
Harold (18:59):
Yeah, what a great character.
Like you say, those two little eyes that are just tilted a little inward on up top for this kind of forlorn, clueless look is so classic.
Woodstock owns that.
Jimmy (19:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
January 15th, Snoopy is atop the doghouse with his typewriter out and Lucy is hanging out by the doghouse and she's reading her own book.
And that book, according to Lucy, as she reads the title out is, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
And Lucy turns to Snoopy and says, You should write a book like that.
(19:36):
And then Snoopy types, If You Give a Beagle a Brownie.
Michael (19:41):
I was assuming that's a real book.
Harold (19:43):
It is.
Jimmy (19:45):
And that's what I think is so interesting about this is this is a relatively new children's book.
This came out, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie came out in the late 80s.
Harold (19:56):
85, yeah.
Jimmy (19:57):
85, mid 80s.
Okay.
So it's fairly, he wouldn't have been reading it to his own kids is what I'm saying.
Harold (20:02):
Right.
So this is Grandparent Schulz kind of showing his hand, right?
Jimmy (20:06):
Exactly.
Harold (20:07):
Either that or he gets Publishers Weekly and he's very competitive about his book sales.
Jimmy (20:11):
It could be a little of that too.
But I'll tell you if you give a mouse a cookie, like there's a whole series, if you take a mouse to the movies and stuff, they're extremely clever.
It's like a slippery slope.
Like if you do this, then you're going to have to do that and you're going to have to do that.
And they all are circular.
They start back at the beginning of you give a mouse a cookie.
(20:31):
And I just thought it was really, really cool to be able to pinpoint going, oh, he definitely read that to a grand kid.
You know, we're a long way from Albert Pason to Hume, to if you give a mouse a cookie.
I mean, honestly, if you think about just the shift, I mean, he started, when did Dr.
(20:54):
Seuss happen?
Harold (20:56):
Dr.
Seuss' first book came out in what, late thirties?
The first children's book.
Was it that?
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.
Jimmy (21:02):
Oh, okay, forget it.
Okay, but anyway, it's a long time he's been doing it.
That's my point.
January 19th, we're looking at the school bus and Sally and Linus are sitting together in the school bus on the way to school and Sally is looking out the window, upset about something and she says, Oh no, I left my lunch on the curb.
(21:23):
And then Sally says to Linus, Do you think the bus driver would turn around and go back so I could get it?
And Linus says, Maybe if you asked him nicely, to which Sally shouts, Hey, Mac.
Michael (21:37):
The reason I picked this, I have a Ukrainian student and I was trying to teach her some idioms, English idioms.
And then I thought one method would be I went and looked for songs that had English idioms as the title.
And one of them was Hit the Road Jack.
(21:58):
And then I was thinking like Jack.
Okay.
His name's not Jack.
It's there's two names that people use generically.
Jimmy (22:07):
Yeah.
Harold (22:08):
Yeah.
Michael (22:08):
Jack and Mac.
Jimmy (22:10):
Mac.
Michael (22:10):
I went, Hey, Mac.
It's just like a name you'd call a guy you didn't know.
Jimmy (22:15):
Yeah.
Michael (22:16):
And my dad's name was Mac.
So people always call him Mac.
Harold (22:20):
It sounds just like yes.
Michael (22:21):
He didn't like that.
Harold (22:22):
No.
I was thinking that this actually might work, you know.
Sally calling him Mac, I think might be kind of endearing to this bus driver.
Jimmy (22:31):
Oh, are you kidding?
I think he would die laughing and absolutely take that little girl back together.
Harold (22:36):
She's getting her lunch back, but Linus would never do that.
Yeah.
I love the contrast there.
He's a little surprised.
Jimmy (22:43):
Yeah, totally.
I grew up in a really weird place.
We did not call anybody Mac or Jack.
Do you know what the euphemism, the term of endearment is?
Harold (22:53):
Bud?
Jimmy (22:55):
Well, yes, but transmuted into butt.
Harold (22:59):
Hey, butt.
Jimmy (23:01):
Yo, butt.
Yo, butt.
And my dad was always slightly different than everybody else.
So he would not say, yo, butt.
So I swear to you, he caught my dad, loved my mom.
They were together for 60 some years.
And he always said, ho, butt.
So he called my mom, ho, butt, for 60 years.
Harold (23:23):
Oh my.
Jimmy (23:25):
But in Gerardville, no one looked askance at that.
Harold (23:28):
He was ahead of his time.
Jimmy (23:30):
So I go to therapy a lot.
Anyway, okay.
Michael (23:33):
So I think Mac is a city thing.
Harold (23:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (23:38):
Doesn't it always seem to have to do with drivers too?
Like you always think of it as a cab driver?
Harold (23:43):
That's the famous Doonesbury Strip when the guy gets picked up by a truck driver hitchhiking, and Mac is on the front of the truck, and they see K, and then the reference to the other person is Mac.
I think it was also spelled with the K.
It was just a little throwaway thing that I remember very fondly.
(24:06):
The truck driver is like, I think I can keep this guy paying the gas bills up to-
Jimmy (24:10):
Oh, that's really funny, because he's off in search of the soul of America.
Harold (24:15):
Yeah, idealism.
Jimmy (24:16):
Yeah, right.
Harold (24:19):
Yeah, that's my favorite Doonesbury Strip of all time.
Michael (24:22):
I think now would be dude.
Dude.
Jimmy (24:25):
Yeah, dude, or bro.
Bro's dude.
So when it changes then to bro, you can't even have enough to say the O, the long O sound.
Harold (24:34):
And I don't know if this is just a New York thing, but it always makes me cringe a little bit.
Is this someone in a bodega or who's a service person working and you're coming in and buying something and they call you boss?
I hate that.
Jimmy (24:47):
Oh, I hate boss.
I hate boss.
Oh.
Harold (24:52):
It's got this weird dynamic.
Jimmy (24:53):
Yeah.
Harold (24:54):
It's like I'm servile to you, but not really.
I hold you in contempt.
It's kind of the mixture that you get mixed with this politeness.
It's weird.
Liz (25:04):
And women always get doll or hun.
Harold (25:08):
Oh, right.
Oh, Diane does not like that.
Liz (25:10):
Back in the day.
Harold (25:11):
Yeah, hun is, yeah.
Liz (25:13):
Or ma'am.
I hate ma'am.
Harold (25:16):
You don't like ma'am?
Liz (25:17):
No, do not ever call a woman ma'am.
Listeners, do not call a woman ma'am.
Jimmy (25:24):
You heard it.
Harold (25:24):
So if you're going to use a term like that, what's the best thing you can use this?
Jimmy (25:30):
Sweet cheeks for girls.
Liz (25:31):
Signora.
Excuse me.
Madam?
I don't know.
Harold (25:40):
Madam is better than ma'am.
Liz (25:41):
Oh, hell yes.
Ma'am is kiss of death.
Do not ever use ma'am.
Harold (25:45):
Oh my.
So just don't use any of those is what we're saying.
You could fall into a trap.
Liz (25:53):
Yeah.
Michael (25:54):
But waitresses, old waitresses would always say hun to the customer.
Jimmy (25:58):
Oh, they still do that.
Harold (25:59):
I love hun.
Jimmy (25:59):
In Central PA.
Harold (26:01):
Yeah, that kind of stuff I love, but in our family, that's not universal.
But the thing I love about this strip visually, there's a lot to actually like, again, we're saying that wobbly line, he's really figured out how to make everything look of a piece, even though he's struggling with things that he can't control.
(26:23):
And I really admire him for that.
His use of Zip-A-Tone is unlike what I've ever seen anybody do.
The two things I love the most are on the lower left and lower right corner.
He has to make space for the date and for his signature.
And he doesn't just like carve out a circle or whatever.
He makes it hard on himself.
He jags it out.
So you've got this jaggly little space of white, because he's cut the dots with this X-Acto knife in these strange patterns, especially the Schulz one.
(26:53):
It's just really cool, and I've never really remembered seeing someone else use Zip-A-Tone the way he's using it.
Jimmy (26:59):
No, no.
I agree.
You've also very rarely seen two characters not occupying the same part of the picture plane as these are.
Linus being slightly behind Sally, and then he adjusts him forward so we could see them both, and it works really well.
Harold (27:22):
Yeah.
There's so much he's doing.
He has the rough cut so that the Zip-A-Tone doesn't go to the edge of the lines on the metal of the bus, and so you get the sense of a little bit of sheen.
In the glass that you're looking through, in Linus's cap in the second and third panels, he actually will slash out a piece of white so there's a reflection in the glass.
(27:44):
He's doing lots of stuff here, and I like it.
It looks really nice.
Jimmy (27:49):
It does.
January 22nd, Charlie Brown's hanging out in the beanbag chair, and Sally comes up behind him and says, Oh, no.
I've developed a new and improved philosophy.
Harold (28:00):
Here we go.
Jimmy (28:00):
Who cares?
How should I know?
Do you think I'm out of my mind?
Sally then continues explaining to her brother, A good philosophy helps you endure all of the troubles we have in life.
And then she repeats, Who cares?
How should I know?
Do you think I'm out of my mind?
And Charlie Brown sinks down into the old beanbag chair with his feet straight up in the air.
Michael (28:21):
I'm glad she's building on her past work.
Jimmy (28:24):
That's right.
Yes.
Harold (28:25):
She's not one to rest on her laurels.
Jimmy (28:30):
Interesting Zip-A-Tone work in panel too.
Harold (28:33):
Yeah.
Jimmy (28:33):
Through in the wavy.
I think he's getting a kick out of it.
Harold (28:37):
I do.
Yeah.
He's enjoying it.
You can tell he's willing to put in this extra work.
Jimmy (28:44):
I really feel like it looks like the lettering is huge this year, or just like these years in general, I guess.
Harold (28:51):
Yeah.
I should go back and look.
The way I used to count this stuff, because when I was making my own comics and strips, I would look at other people's work.
I just like the composition.
I would count them.
If you had text top to bottom, how many lines could you have?
Schulz is around nine or 10 in this point of his career.
(29:11):
If you go back to 1950, I'd like to know if you get like 20.
Such tiny lettering in the originals compared to this, it's night and day.
And also, he used to have equal panel widths, but in the shrinking world of comics, being printed so small in the newspapers, he's now taken up creating a wider panel width so he can slip that United Feature Syndicate copyright in there and then he'll make narrower ones because he needs every bit of space he can get.
Jimmy (29:46):
Absolutely.
February 3rd, Peppermint Patty's at the front of the classroom giving a report and she says, and then Alexander Graham Bell goes, oh no, and then he goes, Mr.
Watson, come here.
And Mr.
Watson goes, that's it.
Peppermint Patty responds to her panel.
(30:06):
Ma'am?
And then she's back in her seat and Marcy says to her, and the teacher goes, D minus, Peppermint Patty says, don't bug me, Marcy.
Michael (30:18):
So do kids still talk like this?
Jimmy (30:20):
Oh yeah.
Harold (30:21):
Yeah, they go that way and like that way.
Michael (30:23):
So this is now proper English.
Jimmy (30:25):
So you like, go.
Harold (30:26):
Yes, it's now accepted.
Again, Schulz is not cut off from the world.
He's hearing people, probably younger people in their language, whether it's on TV, at the ice skating rink, around as a grandparent, all that stuff.
He's in the mix and he's reading the time, as we know, as well as watching a lot of television.
(30:51):
And so he seems to know when something is a big enough thing in the culture that's new, that he can introduce it and add a joke about it like the goes.
Jimmy (31:05):
Yeah.
And it's interesting because he's not like, I mean, yeah, she gets a D minus.
By the way, the teacher here, again, to Harold's point that maybe this isn't the best teacher in the world.
Like the teacher can say, it says, not, it's not goes.
And then, you know, gently correct her and let her finish her report.
Instead of just giving her a D minus.
Harold (31:24):
And it seems like this teacher just follows Peppermint Patty everywhere she goes to.
You know, it's like they hold her back and then like, this teacher's like, no, I want to torture her, bring her back, bring her back up.
Liz (31:37):
Maybe if she were more beautiful.
Jimmy (31:40):
She were cuter, right?
That was, she, that's her other theory, right?
Liz (31:43):
Yeah.
Jimmy (31:44):
I'll tell you what, I think Peppermint Patty is beautiful.
Harold (31:47):
Yeah.
Jimmy (31:48):
I love, I love her character design.
Michael (31:51):
She looks better in the mud.
Harold (31:53):
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy (31:54):
Love those strips.
Harold (31:56):
She's in her element.
She and Pigpan should do a sequence together.
Jimmy (32:00):
Oh, there you go.
That's a great idea.
Hey, so while you guys contemplate that out there, we're going to take a break and come back and get into some more strips.
Well, so we'll see you in a few.
All right.
Liz (32:13):
Hi, everyone.
I just want to take a moment to remind you that all three hosts are cartoonists themselves and their work is available for sale.
You can find links to purchase books by Jimmy, Harold and Michael on our website.
You can also support the show on Patreon or buy us a mud pie.
Check out the store link on unpackingpeanuts.com.
Jimmy (32:35):
And we're back.
We don't have anything in the mailbox this week, so...
So you're worrying.
I'm going to be worried for an entire week.
I hope you people out there are happy and pleased with yourself.
Michael (32:48):
We don't have any love letters.
Jimmy (32:50):
Isn't that awful?
Well speaking of love letters, February 4th, we're back in the old classroom with Linus and Lydia, and Lydia says to Linus, I've decided to tie a pink ribbon around all my love letters.
And then she holds up the ribbon and says, see, I already have the ribbon.
And in the last panel, she concludes, but I don't have any love letters.
Michael (33:14):
Bum, bum, bum, bum.
Poor Linus.
He's like stunned.
He needs to wait.
Would he come back?
And he can't think of anything.
Liz (33:23):
But he's staring into his computer monitor.
Jimmy (33:26):
That's a book.
Harold (33:29):
Yeah, it's better to say nothing at that point, I guess.
But that does lean into the idea that she just got her first music box from Linus a couple months ago.
She doesn't have a bunch of them, right?
Jimmy (33:41):
That's right.
That's right.
Harold (33:43):
She's throwing her hand.
Point to Linus.
Jimmy (33:48):
Yeah.
Michael was saying before we started the recording, the rare front version of Lydia in Panel One.
Harold (33:56):
Yeah.
Jimmy (33:56):
It's a cuter design and profile, I think.
Harold (34:00):
Schulz is definitely drawing the old school desks.
You can really see it here because these are the wood slats with the built-in and it's a two-person one.
It's really common in the old school rooms and country school rooms and stuff.
It's interesting to see that because when you look at it from the side, it looks much more modern.
Jimmy (34:20):
Yeah.
Boy, I'm glad I never had to sit at a two-person desk.
That would not have been a pleasant way to spend the day, I don't think.
February 5th, this is my 22nd birthday.
Harold (34:33):
Happy 22nd birthday.
Jimmy (34:35):
Had a party at number 10D, Brookwood Court Apartments, Millersville University.
It was a heck of a night.
Harold (34:42):
You have a great memory.
Michael (34:45):
Did you read Peanuts every day?
Jimmy (34:47):
No, because in college, I didn't have access to a daily newspaper.
Michael (34:51):
It's called the library.
Jimmy (34:53):
I'm not going to walk to the library to read a one comic strip every day.
Harold (34:57):
It's Peanuts.
Jimmy (34:58):
No, but I want to say this.
One of the great that when I went to college and had access to a university library the first two months, I did go there constantly and I went through all the microfilm and microfiche and got any article about comics.
Harold (35:13):
Wow.
Jimmy (35:13):
I could find, because I had no access to any of that stuff.
Like from the Atlantic and Rolling Stone and places that, odd places that we're doing, especially in the 80s, the, hey, comics are cool again.
Harold (35:27):
Did you guys memorize the Dewey Decimal System numbers for comics?
Jimmy (35:32):
No, I went to seven.
Michael (35:33):
741.5.
Harold (35:35):
741.5.
That was the B line for me as a kid.
I knew exactly where to go.
Forget the kids section, you're not going to get anything.
Jimmy (35:43):
That's funny.
It's February 5th.
That's what we're talking about.
Anyway, Snoopy is out in the rain, and he's thinking to himself, there's nothing more pathetic than a little dog sitting in the rain.
Then Lucy walks by carrying an umbrella and she goes, there's nothing more pathetic than a dog too stupid to get in and out of the rain.
Then Snoopy, even soggier looking in the last panel, thinks to himself, either way, I'm pathetic.
Michael (36:08):
So you think this is Snoopy, huh?
Harold (36:11):
Yes.
Michael (36:12):
I thought it was Krypto.
Jimmy (36:14):
He looks like he does have Krypto.
I have sworn off all of the pop culture brand entertainments.
No more new Star Wars, no more new Marvel things, no any of that stuff.
But the only one I will allow myself hope and excitement for is the new Superman movie and it's obviously based on Krypto.
Michael (36:35):
Yeah, except is that Krypto or is that Snoopy?
Yeah, I think that changing breeds is one step too far.
Jimmy (36:46):
What, with Krypto?
Michael (36:47):
Yeah.
Jimmy (36:48):
Well, it's not always the same dog in the comics either.
Michael (36:52):
Yes, it is.
Well, certainly not a fuzzy dog.
Jimmy (36:56):
Well, anyway, he's adorable.
Don't take my one joy away from me.
I like Krypto.
It's all I have to live for.
Harold (37:05):
Well, I liked how you described the panel with Lucy walking by in honor of Peppermint Patty.
So Lucy goes.
Yes, really.
Jimmy (37:12):
She goes, yeah, right?
February 6th, creeping up on Valentine's Day, and here's a Sunday page.
So we start off with the old symbolic panel of Charlie Brown sitting next to an inverted heart, a heart in like a Valentine's style heart.
And then in the next panel, we cut to Lucy, who is decorating her psychiatry booth for a new job, a new gig.
(37:40):
So she has it all decorated with hearts.
And we see in the next panel that, in fact, she has turned her booth into a homemade Valentine's store.
Homemade Valentine's for the love in your life.
And Charlie Brown is sitting out as if he would when he's a psychiatric patient.
And he says to her, I need a Valentine that will impress this girl I like.
Lucy holds up a Valentine and says, then you'll want this super potent Valentine.
(38:04):
Charlie Brown says, potent?
Lucy says, it'll sweep her off her feet.
It'll knock her socks off.
Charlie Brown says, all right, I'll take it.
And Lucy says, good.
If you come around next Friday, you can pick it up.
Charlie Brown says, Friday?
Why can't I have it now?
Lucy says, it's too potent.
There's a five day waiting period.
(38:27):
Very cute.
Michael (38:28):
Yeah, she's quite the entrepreneur.
Jimmy (38:31):
She really is.
Michael (38:33):
But there's no price, so we don't know how much she sends her.
Harold (38:36):
It probably varies.
See, maybe she's learned you don't put a price on there.
The suggested donation gets you more than an actual.
Jimmy (38:44):
Yeah.
It's nice to see her branching out into different areas.
You need to diversify your revenue streams.
So it's good that she can do this.
February 13th, it's another Sunday because my pals keep wanting me to read extra long strips.
So Linus is climbing to the top of a giant mound of snow or a giant hill covered in snow.
(39:10):
I assume it's a mound of cloud snow and he climbs up to the top of it and then he stands there with his arms open wide and says, I am the king.
I'm the king of the hill.
And Lucy comes up and jumps him off it and says, no, you're not.
And then she yells, I am the king of the hill.
And then Snoopy comes up behind her, shoves her off.
And Snoopy thinks to himself, I am the king of the hill.
(39:33):
And then behind him comes Woodstock, who shoves him off.
And then Woodstock watches into a long monologue of whatever he's saying atop of the hill.
And then Snoopy looks up and says, the smaller the king, the more the talk.
Liz (39:51):
Bravo, Woodstock.
Harold (39:53):
Woodstock's had a kind of violent in 1994.
Jimmy (39:56):
Yeah, Woodstock has issues here at the beginning.
Well, he looks very cold.
He's a tiny little bird.
He probably should have migrated, so.
Got a lot to talk about.
Harold (40:06):
Yeah.
Yeah, boy, King of the Hill.
There's no more fun than King of the Hill.
Jimmy (40:12):
I was never a fan of King of the Hill, especially in Gerardville.
He got really violent.
Harold (40:18):
Oh, man.
Jimmy (40:21):
February 17th.
All right, so this is a sequence where Snoopy is in the hospital.
I can't remember.
Oh, no, it's in this one where we find out what he has, sorry.
And his his brothers have come to visit him, which is very exciting because we see not only Spike and Olaf, but we see Spike, Olaf and now Andy.
(40:45):
So they're sitting out, the three of them are sitting out in the waiting room and Spike.
Well, how are we when they're talking to each other, I guess we just say whatever, you know, you know how they go.
Harold (40:56):
Just say they go.
Jimmy (40:57):
Oh, I think we solved this.
This has been bothering me for decades.
I solved it.
Spike goes, I heard a nurse say our brother Snoopy has pneumonia.
And then Andy goes, he was always the lively one in our family.
Wasn't he in World War One?
And Spike goes, I think he just thought he was.
And he says, you know what I always wondered?
(41:17):
And then Olaf answers, where did he get the helmet and goggles?
That's just funny.
That made me laugh out loud.
And because, I mean, it is the pedantic question about the World War One flying aids to begin with, right?
Where did he get the helmet and goggles?
Harold (41:39):
You know, Schulz is taking a risk here, because he's got this delicately balanced fantasy world.
And now he's added these other brothers into the mix.
And we see their perspective on the World War One flying aids.
I think that's it.
And I think it works.
Jimmy (41:59):
Yeah, I do too.
Harold (42:00):
You might be taking some of the magic out of it, but it actually is very funny.
Jimmy (42:06):
And here's almost why, that it doesn't...
I think it works rather.
Is that Spike also, we know, has his own fantasy world.
Right?
So it's funny that he's looking at Snoopy and going, that guy's nuts.
But he himself is just as, you know, out there talking to a cactus and everything.
You know, so I think, I think that allows a little porousness to creep through and let everybody's fantasies be equally, equally real, equally fake.
Harold (42:37):
It's Spike who's saying, wasn't he in World War I?
I think he just thought he was.
Jimmy (42:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Harold (42:42):
I mean, that's really interesting.
Yeah, I'm not crazy.
Jimmy (42:45):
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
I love the drawing of Andy.
I love fluffy and it's hard to draw a fluffy dog.
If you think about the great cartoon dogs or cartoon animals anyway, they're very rarely fluffy.
Harold (43:01):
Yeah, snowy and in a tento.
Yep.
Jimmy (43:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Harold (43:06):
Love that.
Love that design.
Jimmy (43:07):
A little bit of Sandy, you could sort of say.
Harold (43:10):
Yeah.
Jimmy (43:10):
That has a texture to it, but not many.
Harold (43:13):
Yeah.
Jimmy (43:15):
It's Andy and the little orphan, Andy, I mean.
But yep, so here we go.
I love Olaf as we know.
Because February 18th, they're still sitting and waiting and talking about their brother.
Andy says, if we're all brothers, how come I'm so fuzzy?
You're so skinny and Olaf is so fat.
(43:36):
Spike says, I'm not skinny, I'm trim.
Olaf says, and I'm not fat.
Andy says, you're not fat.
And Olaf says, I'm roly-poly.
And he is, he's completely roly-poly.
(44:00):
Look, if Woodstock is the greatest cartoon design, character design of all time, Olaf is the dumbest, and I love it.
Harold (44:12):
Olaf is plush.
He's a genuine plush.
Jimmy (44:15):
Yeah.
He has no snout whatsoever.
His tongue's always out.
Michael (44:22):
Does he have eyeballs?
Jimmy (44:25):
Yeah.
They're sort of all, yeah, they're like looking up into his own head in the middle, right?
Is that kind of what's going on there?
Michael (44:32):
I don't think he has eyeballs.
I think he looks sleepy kind of.
Jimmy (44:36):
Yeah.
He definitely looks sleepy.
It's just so dumb.
Only a master could do something so dumb and make it work so well.
Love it.
Liz (44:47):
Is Rolly Polly spelled with only one L in each one?
Jimmy (44:50):
It is in his strip.
No one's changing it.
Liz (44:53):
All righty.
Harold (44:54):
How would you spell it?
Jimmy (44:55):
I think it would be two Ls, right?
Liz (44:57):
I would think so.
Harold (44:57):
No, it would be Rolly Polly.
Jimmy (44:59):
Rolly Polly.
Liz (45:00):
No, it would be Rolly Polly.
Harold (45:02):
Rolly Polly.
To me, yeah, I didn't question that.
Jimmy (45:08):
No, I think it might be, I think, yeah, it would be Rolly, right?
Like Rolly Fingers, the great baseball pitcher.
Really, you have to be a baseball player if your name is Rolly Fingers.
That or a pickpocket, right?
Those would be the only two things.
February 20th, Linus has his blanket and he's stretched out, and he yawns a big stretch and covers Snoopy's head in the blanket while he's doing this.
(45:35):
Then they both fall asleep with Snoopy leaning up against Linus in the blanket.
Then this is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven panels of Snoopy.
This is going to be wild.
Snoopy lays down on the blanket and then he positions himself.
His back of his neck is resting on Linus' lap, but then he tosses and turns and rolls over on his stomach.
(46:01):
Then we see him rolling around, fidgeting like crazy, trying to get comfortable.
This continues for the next couple panels.
Linus is still asleep, but Snoopy just cannot get comfortable.
It finally ends up then with Snoopy holding Linus' thumb and blanket position.
Charlie Brown outside sees Linus asleep atop Snoopy's doghouse.
(46:26):
Charlie Brown is perplexed.
Michael (46:28):
I'm going to nominate this for the weird strips.
No, in tier three, panel one, there's two Linus'.
Jimmy (46:36):
No, it's supposed to be the DeLuca effect, it's called, where you see multiple versions of the same figure in one panel.
But it's not generally done for stuff that's slow.
Yeah.
It's usually like a superhero bounding through a panel.
Harold (46:54):
Yeah, he cut four Snoopys on his lap in the second tier last panel.
Michael (46:59):
This is a real problem for Schulz.
He's trying to do this time distortion thing.
Jimmy (47:06):
Yeah.
Michael (47:06):
I'm not sure it's working.
Harold (47:07):
It's pretty cool.
I like it.
Jimmy (47:11):
I agree with both of you.
Harold (47:13):
Wow, you are so diplomatic, Jimmy.
Jimmy (47:15):
I like it.
I think it looks really cool and I don't think it's working.
But I love the look, man.
If I'm 44 years into a career and I'm thinking, I'm going to do something I've never done before today, that's a win.
Whether it comes out as a masterpiece or not, he's now adding something to his toolkit.
(47:35):
44 years in, that's awesome.
Harold (47:36):
Yeah.
He's being surreal about it because I love that last panel in the second tier, because Snoopy is resting on himself.
Jimmy (47:48):
Yeah.
Harold (47:50):
From a previous pose, it's impossible, but you could only do this in comics and I love that.
Jimmy (47:56):
Yeah.
Also, we ignore the baseline weirdness of the strip because we're so familiar with it.
The last panel though, and that's an insane drawing outside of Peanuts.
Could you imagine, again, if this was the first time you ever saw Peanuts?
Harold (48:15):
Right.
Light is sleeping on the top of a-
Jimmy (48:19):
A shed or whatever it is.
No, you wouldn't even know it.
You certainly wouldn't know it's a dog house, right?
Harold (48:22):
Yeah, which comes to a point.
Yeah.
Just like what on earth is going on?
Listeners, if you look up one strip from this discussion today, I recommend February 20th, 1994 to see what Schulz did here.
There's a lot of weird stuff in here.
(48:44):
If you haven't seen this before, it's worth seeing.
Even in the second panel of the throwaway, they're both sleeping and they both have a little pointer from the Z balloon for their common sleep.
Although it looks like minuses might have been an afterthought somehow because there's not an opening like you normally would have into the cloud.
Jimmy (49:08):
Yeah.
Well, it's funny because I'm working on this book in the real dark night that's going to be serialized on my substack gvillecomics.substack.com starting in February.
And one of the scenes that's from later in the book that I've been kind of contemplating is showing someone tossing and turning all night.
(49:30):
And in all my samples, I've done it over the course of like 12 panels, you know?
But doing it all in one panel, that could be interesting, right?
Yeah.
Michael (49:40):
Well, getting back to that book, I recommended that Kevin Huizinga thing.
Jimmy (49:45):
Yeah.
Michael (49:45):
The River at Night.
But he's tossing and turning all night.
That's what it is.
He's lying in bed thinking and sort of half dreaming.
And there's a long sequence where he starts seeing multiples of himself.
Great cartoonist, but it's hard to read.
Jimmy (50:03):
Yeah.
You sent a link to share that with me.
You can really draw it.
It looks great.
Liz (50:08):
And I'm talking to you, Steven Antonelli, that this is a strip you should look at.
Jimmy (50:14):
All right.
You got it, Steven.
You got called out.
Michael (50:17):
Look at this strip.
Jimmy (50:19):
February 27th.
Man, did we pick a lot of Sundays.
It's another Sunday strip.
Woodstock is in the spotlight in the symbolic first panel.
And then we cut to Snoopy watching Woodstock do a little performance on Snoopy's Supper Dish.
And he says to Woodstock, that's perfect.
Then Snoopy looks behind him and says, we'll stand by the door seat and then you go into your act.
(50:43):
Maybe we'll get a little midday snack.
And then Snoopy carries the Supper Dish in his mouth with Woodstock in it back to Charlie Brown's door.
And then they arrive and Snoopy says, okay, go to it.
And then Woodstock does his little dance on Snoopy's, the edge of Snoopy's dog dish.
And that goes on for three panels and it doesn't seem to impress anyone.
(51:05):
And then Snoopy just lies down, despondent with the dog dish on top of his head and Woodstock in the dog dish.
And Snoopy goes, don't feel bad.
Lots of shows close after one performance.
Michael (51:17):
I'd give a cookie if I saw this.
Liz (51:19):
Why didn't you kick the door?
Harold (51:23):
I'm assuming someone was at the door.
I don't know.
We don't know for sure, but I would assume that was us.
We cut, that was a panel cut out.
I don't know.
Michael (51:33):
I think they should try again.
I mean, this could be a way to make some snacks.
Harold (51:39):
Well, yeah.
It's interesting to see Snoopy's at this point in his life where he has a surrogate happy dancer.
Jimmy (51:50):
I will say Woodstock doing the happy dance is cute, but not as cute as Snoopy doing the happy dance.
Liz (51:56):
I'm not sure I agree.
Harold (51:59):
I love the opening drawing of Woodstock in the spotlight, just with wings out to the crowd.
Liz (52:07):
You would be swell.
Harold (52:10):
Absolutely.
Yeah, Woodstock Merman.
Jimmy (52:15):
Well, if you want to get more Ethel Merman references, come back next week for Unpacking Peanuts, 1994 part two.
We have reached the end of this episode, but we didn't hear from you this week, so I'm gonna be sitting here worried.
If you want to fix that, you can reach out to us and keep this conversation going and the ways you can do that.
(52:39):
First off, you can write us an email at unpackingpeanuts.gmail.com.
We always love to hear from you.
You can reach out to us on our hotline where you can call or leave a text message.
That number is 717-219-4162.
Or you can follow us on social media.
We're at Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads and at Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube.
(53:05):
And we would absolutely love to hear from you.
So that's it for this week.
Come back next week for more fun strips for Michael, Harold and Liz.
This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Michael (53:16):
Yes.
Liz (53:17):
Yes.
Be of good cheer.
Unpacking Peanuts is copyrighted by Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz and Liz Sumner.
Produced and edited by Liz Sumner.
Music by Michael Cohen.
Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark.
For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads.
(53:38):
Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube.
For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
Hobart.
Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts, the podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M.
Schulz.
Jimmy (00:19):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show.
It is 1994, so what's the frequency, Snoopy?
We are going to be looking at all kinds of great strips here from the mid-90s, and I'm going to be your host for the proceedings.
My name is Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist.
I did things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow Up, and The Dumbest Idea ever.
Harold (00:40):
I'll vouch for him.
Jimmy (00:44):
Joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both of them complicated people as well as for this very podcast.
He's the co-creator of the original comic book Price Guide, the original editor for Amelia Rules, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Smell and Tangled River.
It's Michael Cohen.
Michael (01:03):
Say hey.
Jimmy (01:05):
He's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold (01:14):
Hello.
Jimmy (01:16):
All right, guys, we're starting another year today.
1994.
Can you believe it?
We just started 2025 and now we're starting 1994.
I can't believe it.
So do we have any intro, anything to start the people off with?
What do we got, Harold?
Harold (01:33):
I got a little bit.
There were a couple of things in our lovely archives of what was going on in this time period.
So we've decided to actually concentrate on the first two months, right, this time we had a lot to talk about.
So in those first two months in Editor and Publisher Magazine, there was an article on United Feature Syndicate, which had become United Media by that time.
(01:58):
And basically they had hired a new guy and they were saying that the licensing was over half of United Media revenues.
And I think the lion's share of that licensing was Peanuts and Garfield at this time.
Jimmy (02:12):
That had to be 90% of it, right?
Harold (02:14):
Just those two strips.
We have over half is what they're saying, but it seems like it would have been much more than half.
But when you think about these two dominant strips that did very well both in the newspapers, been pretty much in every newspaper they could be in, they were in by this point, and that they were selling lots and lots of merchandise.
You can see how important Charles Schulz is to this company.
(02:38):
I would guess he's close to half of their revenues, 40 percent, maybe.
That's a lot for a single creator's work, and so the choices he makes determines the fate of that company.
They were extremely reliant on him to continue to produce and keep peanuts relevant and interesting to audiences.
(03:01):
In that regard, the Dallas Morning News Reader Survey, Dallas Morning News was a huge comics paper.
They had 70 daily strips, three pages, full pages of comics, which is more than just about any paper I know, and this is in the 90s.
(03:22):
And they had their reader's poll out of 70 strips.
Where do you think Peanuts is falling in 1994, guys?
Jimmy (03:28):
Oh, I bet it's still top five.
Harold (03:30):
Yeah.
Do you think that Michael?
Where do you think they...
Michael (03:33):
Them say three, just because they don't know Texas.
Harold (03:38):
Okay.
Well, number one was Farside, hugely popular in this time.
Number two is Calvin and Hobbes, also just a blockbuster strip in the 90s.
Number three was Garfield.
And then tied for fourth were Kathy and Peanuts.
Jimmy (03:57):
There you go.
Harold (03:58):
And then the last piece I have is, Schulz was still doing some traveling at this point, at least to La Jolla.
They had the Rubin Awards weekend in La Jolla in 1994.
This was the awards that were given out by cartoonists for cartoonists.
And he was scheduled to discuss cartooning and answer questions of his fellow cartoonists.
(04:24):
So he was still active going around, even though he was not big on traveling, he's still doing a little bit of that in 1994.
Jimmy (04:32):
That's fantastic, Harold.
Thank you so much for your research.
I appreciate that.
So we're gonna go ahead and start taking a look at the strips now.
Now, if you want to follow along with us, there's a couple of ways you can do it.
The first thing you need to do, though, is got to go over to unpackingpeanuts.com and sign up for the Great Peanuts Reread.
(04:52):
That'll get you one email a month, and we'll give you a heads up in our little newsletter telling you what strips we're going to be covering that month.
So you can be all prepared when the episode arrives.
And then if you want to read along with me, you can go right over there to gocomics.com, and you can read all these strips for free.
(05:12):
And that's what we're going to start doing right now.
January 2nd.
It's a Sunday page.
It's a symbolic panel.
It's Charlie Brown as Saturn.
Michael (05:26):
Pretty wobbly rings there.
Jimmy (05:28):
It's pretty wobbly rings of Saturn.
And then in the next panel, it's Charlie Brown, a hard cut to Charlie Brown at school saying, wow.
Now, as we remember these Sunday strips really start on the second tier.
So on the second tier, we begin with Charlie Brown and Linus in the classroom.
And Charlie Brown says to the teacher, yes ma'am, what you just told us about the stars and the planets is really fascinating.
(05:54):
And you know who's interested in this sort of thing?
Charlie Brown concludes, my dog.
Yes, he really is.
He continues in the next panel.
So what I'd like to do right now is run home and tell him all about what you just taught us.
In the next to last panel, Charlie Brown just says, yes ma'am.
Then in the last panel, he sinks down in his seat, dejected.
(06:18):
And Linus whispers from behind, nice try, Charlie Brown.
Michael (06:24):
I'm a little unclear on his motivation here.
Jimmy (06:27):
To get out of school.
Michael (06:28):
Does he want to get out of school or does he actually want to get his dog here?
Jimmy (06:31):
No, he just wants to get out of school.
Michael (06:34):
But we've never really seen him as somebody who hates school.
I mean, he hates lunch.
Harold (06:40):
He's just falling more and more in love with his dog.
He wants to be with his dog.
That was my take.
Jimmy (06:47):
No, he just wants to get out of school.
Come on, people.
Harold (06:49):
But he's never been like that.
Has he?
Michael (06:51):
Yeah, that's right.
Harold (06:52):
I can't remember an example where he was just like, I don't want to go to school.
He's the studious one and Sally's always bugging him about stuff, and he's always rolling his eyes and sinking in his seat when she's trying to get out of school and schoolwork.
Jimmy (07:03):
Everybody needs a mental health day.
No, the giveaway here is Linus saying, nice try, Charlie Brown.
Harold (07:11):
Yeah.
Well, but that could be nice try trying to get your dog into the school again because he has done that, right?
Jimmy (07:17):
Yeah, it's because Charlie Brown wants to go.
All right, well, I will accept no other.
Michael (07:24):
Well, let's have a reader's poll.
Liz (07:26):
I think my stomach hurts would probably be a better excuse.
Jimmy (07:30):
All right, so here is the reader's poll.
Does Charlie Brown want to bring Snoopy back to school?
You on my side saying Charlie Brown just wants to go home.
Michael (07:42):
I think the strip implies that Jimmy's right, but the character of Charlie Brown would determine he'd rather have his dog there than just go out and run around for a few months.
Harold (07:54):
We'll see what the listeners think.
It'll be interesting.
Michael (07:56):
Okay.
Jimmy (07:57):
But remember, if you don't vote for me, you're dead to me.
Harold (08:03):
Jimmy's very forgiving.
Jimmy (08:04):
This is the hill I'm dying on, Peanuts, this strip.
January 3rd.
Still in class, but Linus is now it's Linus and Lydia.
So I guess Lydia just sits too behind Charlie Brown, which means that girl that Linus was sending a note to a few years ago was Charlie Brown.
(08:24):
So, all right, I guess they switched seats.
Anyway, Lydia is still behind Linus.
And Linus turns to her and says, did you miss me during Christmas vacation?
And Lydia says, did you give me a Christmas present?
Twitch Linus says, no.
And Lydia just goes right back to work and saying, I didn't miss you.
Michael (08:42):
Well, I'm glad he started off the year with a couple of Lydia strips.
Jimmy (08:45):
Yeah.
Michael (08:45):
Because I always picked them.
This is not the greatest.
But I guess she gets the point here, definitely.
Jimmy (08:54):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
And their ongoing struggle back and forth.
I do like this one a lot.
It's like, did you get me a present?
Then I didn't miss you.
It's a good zinger from Lydia.
She's still one of the great character designs.
I love her little sloping nose.
It's very different than what most Peanuts characters look like in profile.
(09:15):
The only one that has a nose similar to that that I can think of off the top of my head is Frida.
You know, he usually goes for the more bulbous look.
Michael (09:24):
I never noticed noses.
Jimmy (09:26):
You never noticed noses?
You never noticed noses?
That's, you know.
Michael (09:29):
Snoopy's nose, however.
Jimmy (09:32):
Yeah, right.
We have a whole segment of just looking at a cartoon dogs nose across 50 years.
Speaking of Snoopy, here he is.
January 5th, Snoopy and Woodstock are out in a lot somewhere and they are examining a discarded and dilapidated looking birdcage.
It was part of a sequence.
And Snoopy is talking to Woodstock and says, look here, there's a tiny little book on the bottom of the birdcage.
(09:58):
Oh, because at this point in the sequence, we have discovered that this is Woodstock's, we believe this is Woodstock's grandfather's birdcage.
He had been captured and kept as a pet.
So anyway, so look here, there's a tiny little book on the bottom of the birdcage.
Snoopy picks out the book and begins to read it.
It's a diary.
Your grandfather kept a diary while he was in the cage.
(10:21):
And then Snoopy reads to Woodstock, I've been in here for six weeks now and my attorney has never called back.
Michael (10:29):
I think this is one of the best Woodstock sequences.
Jimmy (10:32):
Yeah.
Michael (10:33):
It was surprising because it looked like a real development in his character here, discovering his deep past.
Yeah, it goes on for a week and wraps up nicely.
Yeah.
So nobody else picked any of these.
So basically his grandfather escaped.
(10:53):
Yes.
He's still flying around somewhere.
Jimmy (10:55):
It is a really good sequence.
And yeah, because the grandfather goes on in the diary to say that every once in a while, they leave him out in the porch and just, it's only a matter of time before they leave the little door open.
And then his diary entry just ends in the middle of a sentence, allowing us to assume that he did in fact escape.
(11:19):
Or it's a Moria situation and the orcs came and destroyed all of them.
It's the only two things that could possibly happen, right?
Michael (11:28):
It did bring back the traumatic moment when I left my aunt and uncle's door open and Mr.
Peeper flew away.
It was totally my fault.
I didn't know he was illicit in the house.
Jimmy (11:42):
Did Mr.
Peeper ever come back?
Michael (11:44):
No.
Jimmy (11:44):
Well, Mr.
Peeper had a better life.
Michael (11:46):
It haunts me to this day.
Jimmy (11:48):
Are you freed, Mr.
Peeper?
I think it's a good thing.
Michael (11:52):
I still look for him.
Jimmy (11:54):
As Woodstock does, Snoopy, this wraps up with Snoopy telling Woodstock to wave when he sees a bird sitting on a telephone wire, because that's what the grandfather said he wanted to do, because it may be Woodstock's grandfather.
This last panel, the look on Woodstock's face.
He just turns the eyes, slants them inward a little bit, and they just evoke so much emotion and so much sadness.
(12:25):
Incredible.
Harold (12:26):
Yeah, there's a little eyebrow on Woodstock there, which you don't always see.
Jimmy (12:30):
Yeah, just one, of course, because we don't want to overdo it with detail.
Harold (12:34):
No, Schulz is not going to give you two eyebrows if he only needs one.
Liz (12:37):
Well, it could be a forehead wrinkle.
Jimmy (12:40):
That's true.
Harold (12:41):
Yeah, see, for a furrowed bird brow.
Jimmy (12:44):
I also like the beat up looking bird cage.
Harold (12:48):
Yeah.
Jimmy (12:49):
Really good.
Harold (12:51):
Yeah, the wobbly line really works well there.
Jimmy (12:53):
And what was the bird's name again, Michael?
Mr.
What?
Peaper?
Michael (12:56):
Mr.
Peaper.
Wasn't that a Wally Cox character from D&D?
Harold (13:00):
Yes, it was.
Yeah, I've seen the complete series.
That's right.
Fun, ancient sitcom.
Jimmy (13:07):
Wait, the sitcom is called Mr.
Peapers?
Michael (13:09):
Uh-huh.
Jimmy (13:10):
I didn't know it was a sitcom until right this second.
Michael (13:14):
This show is so educational.
Harold (13:18):
For people who like things so 70 years old, it's great.
Michael (13:20):
Maybe we should put it in the educational category rather than maybe some part of the history.
Maybe some part of the history.
Jimmy (13:29):
Is there just a question mark category?
Speaking of just question marks, January 9th.
Woodstock is looking at a snowman out in the field, and he says something to himself that ends with a question mark.
Then he looks at it again from the next panel and has another question mark above his head.
(13:52):
Now he's engaged in a full-on discussion with the snowman that's just standing there.
This causes Woodstock to get upset with the snowman and he kicks it, boot, and knocks the snowman's head clean off.
Woodstock is shocked by this and goes running, of course, to his attorney.
Now look, I'm not an attorney man, but boy, I love that.
(14:17):
He runs to his attorney and Woodstock's on top of the doghouse with Snoopy, and he's telling him what happened.
Snoopy, as the attorney, says, You did what?
Well, it could be a misdemeanor or a felony, which Woodstock passes out.
Clunk falls off the doghouse.
Then he's back in position and Snoopy says, But most likely it could be considered mayhem.
(14:39):
Clunk, Woodstock passes out again.
Now he's back up again, and Snoopy says, Mayhem is depriving a human being of a member of his body.
In this case, his head, right?
Now, a snowman isn't a human being, so I think we clunk, Woodstock falls over again.
In the last panel, Snoopy looks down and his little friend off the side of the doghouse and says, how can you talk to a client who keeps feigning all the time?
Harold (15:05):
This is a really special strip.
It's great.
These characters, we know them so well, and little Woodstock has quite a conscience, doesn't quite understand the world.
I was wondering if when Woodstock got to Snoopy's doghouse and sat on top of it, if Snoopy had to go down and put on his bowtie and the hat to be the, or was he just waiting?
Jimmy (15:29):
Maybe he saw this occurring from a distance and he was like, oh, you know.
So what do you think happened?
Do you think Woodstock tries to engage the snowman in conversation and the snowman doesn't say anything?
So Woodstock assumes he's being ignored?
Michael (15:43):
Yeah, it was rude.
Harold (15:44):
I think so, yeah.
Is this being rude?
Well, I noticed there's no carrot on the nose of this.
Jimmy (15:51):
Yeah, Schulz will do this.
Harold (15:51):
He was maybe asking about the carrot.
Jimmy (15:53):
He has done this.
This is the Schulz snowman.
He will do that line down the middle of his face, which is, I guess, a stick stuck in there.
Harold (16:02):
I don't know what it is.
You think a stick he would have put out at an angle or something so we could see some branches or something?
Michael (16:08):
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
Harold (16:10):
It's very unique.
I don't know if that's the kind of snowman you made up.
They didn't have many carrots.
Jimmy (16:14):
Didn't have carrots, yep.
Harold (16:15):
Up in Minnesota.
Jimmy (16:20):
Well, you must have made a snowman when you went elsewhere, like New Hampshire.
Michael (16:24):
I've never made a snowman.
Jimmy (16:25):
You've never made a snowman?
Michael, it is pretty pointless.
It's really one of the dumbest activities.
Michael (16:32):
It's a good joke.
Jimmy (16:36):
But we did it.
It was fun.
Yeah, I love the fact that he is conveying this little drama over the first one, two, three, four, five, six panels between Woodstock and the snowmen.
That's six panels.
That's like a Sunday strip, a wordless Sunday strip in and of itself.
Then there's a really wordy, almost like 60s style Sunday strip on the second half.
Harold (17:02):
It's the 14-panel Sunday.
Jimmy (17:03):
It's a lot of stuff in here.
He liked this idea.
I think there's a lot of extra effort in it.
Michael (17:11):
I think he's on a hot streak at the beginning of this year.
Jimmy (17:14):
Yeah.
Harold (17:14):
That's a lot of really interesting stuff this year.
Michael (17:17):
Yeah.
Usually, I mean, I've gotten used to going, oh, we're going to pick anything this year.
I picked so many in January and February.
I just wrote the guys and said, hey, let's just do two months.
Harold (17:33):
In 1994, who knew?
Michael (17:35):
Yeah.
I left a bunch of them for Jimmy to pick because I knew he'd pick the Olaf ones.
Harold (17:41):
It's very strategic how we pick, yeah.
Jimmy (17:43):
Yeah, because we could pick every strip every year and talk about adventure.
Harold (17:47):
Well, that's true.
Michael (17:49):
We'd still be in 1953 then.
Jimmy (17:52):
Hey, let me ask you this.
Of all of the Woodstock drawings in this one, which one do you like the, which is the best, most iconic?
Michael (18:00):
Panel 5.
Jimmy (18:01):
Yeah, probably.
Harold (18:03):
Yeah, I'm a sucker for a little happy Woodstock.
I get Panel 3.
That's pretty classic.
You got to admit, that's pretty classic.
Jimmy (18:13):
I did not notice that he was smiling until right this second.
That, and then, so then he immediately turns and kicks.
Harold (18:21):
Yeah, this is a mercurial Woodstock.
Well, I guess not because the first panel, you said he was talking to himself, but it looks like maybe the first panel, the throwaway panel, he's talking to the snowman, and then he goes around the other side and is like, what's up with this guy?
He's not responding.
Jimmy (18:37):
Yeah, that's what it is.
Harold (18:39):
So this builds a little bit for those who have the benefit of the top tiers.
Jimmy (18:43):
Yeah.
Oh yeah, I don't think it would work nearly as well without the top tiers.
Harold (18:48):
Yeah, it would be a little out of character for Woodstock to just instantly kick his head off.
Jimmy (18:54):
Yeah, really funny.
Woodstock is still crushing it.
Harold (18:59):
Yeah, what a great character.
Like you say, those two little eyes that are just tilted a little inward on up top for this kind of forlorn, clueless look is so classic.
Woodstock owns that.
Jimmy (19:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
January 15th, Snoopy is atop the doghouse with his typewriter out and Lucy is hanging out by the doghouse and she's reading her own book.
And that book, according to Lucy, as she reads the title out is, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
And Lucy turns to Snoopy and says, You should write a book like that.
(19:36):
And then Snoopy types, If You Give a Beagle a Brownie.
Michael (19:41):
I was assuming that's a real book.
Harold (19:43):
It is.
Jimmy (19:45):
And that's what I think is so interesting about this is this is a relatively new children's book.
This came out, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie came out in the late 80s.
Harold (19:56):
85, yeah.
Jimmy (19:57):
85, mid 80s.
Okay.
So it's fairly, he wouldn't have been reading it to his own kids is what I'm saying.
Harold (20:02):
Right.
So this is Grandparent Schulz kind of showing his hand, right?
Jimmy (20:06):
Exactly.
Harold (20:07):
Either that or he gets Publishers Weekly and he's very competitive about his book sales.
Jimmy (20:11):
It could be a little of that too.
But I'll tell you if you give a mouse a cookie, like there's a whole series, if you take a mouse to the movies and stuff, they're extremely clever.
It's like a slippery slope.
Like if you do this, then you're going to have to do that and you're going to have to do that.
And they all are circular.
They start back at the beginning of you give a mouse a cookie.
(20:31):
And I just thought it was really, really cool to be able to pinpoint going, oh, he definitely read that to a grand kid.
You know, we're a long way from Albert Pason to Hume, to if you give a mouse a cookie.
I mean, honestly, if you think about just the shift, I mean, he started, when did Dr.
(20:54):
Seuss happen?
Harold (20:56):
Dr.
Seuss' first book came out in what, late thirties?
The first children's book.
Was it that?
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.
Jimmy (21:02):
Oh, okay, forget it.
Okay, but anyway, it's a long time he's been doing it.
That's my point.
January 19th, we're looking at the school bus and Sally and Linus are sitting together in the school bus on the way to school and Sally is looking out the window, upset about something and she says, Oh no, I left my lunch on the curb.
(21:23):
And then Sally says to Linus, Do you think the bus driver would turn around and go back so I could get it?
And Linus says, Maybe if you asked him nicely, to which Sally shouts, Hey, Mac.
Michael (21:37):
The reason I picked this, I have a Ukrainian student and I was trying to teach her some idioms, English idioms.
And then I thought one method would be I went and looked for songs that had English idioms as the title.
And one of them was Hit the Road Jack.
(21:58):
And then I was thinking like Jack.
Okay.
His name's not Jack.
It's there's two names that people use generically.
Jimmy (22:07):
Yeah.
Harold (22:08):
Yeah.
Michael (22:08):
Jack and Mac.
Jimmy (22:10):
Mac.
Michael (22:10):
I went, Hey, Mac.
It's just like a name you'd call a guy you didn't know.
Jimmy (22:15):
Yeah.
Michael (22:16):
And my dad's name was Mac.
So people always call him Mac.
Harold (22:20):
It sounds just like yes.
Michael (22:21):
He didn't like that.
Harold (22:22):
No.
I was thinking that this actually might work, you know.
Sally calling him Mac, I think might be kind of endearing to this bus driver.
Jimmy (22:31):
Oh, are you kidding?
I think he would die laughing and absolutely take that little girl back together.
Harold (22:36):
She's getting her lunch back, but Linus would never do that.
Yeah.
I love the contrast there.
He's a little surprised.
Jimmy (22:43):
Yeah, totally.
I grew up in a really weird place.
We did not call anybody Mac or Jack.
Do you know what the euphemism, the term of endearment is?
Harold (22:53):
Bud?
Jimmy (22:55):
Well, yes, but transmuted into butt.
Harold (22:59):
Hey, butt.
Jimmy (23:01):
Yo, butt.
Yo, butt.
And my dad was always slightly different than everybody else.
So he would not say, yo, butt.
So I swear to you, he caught my dad, loved my mom.
They were together for 60 some years.
And he always said, ho, butt.
So he called my mom, ho, butt, for 60 years.
Harold (23:23):
Oh my.
Jimmy (23:25):
But in Gerardville, no one looked askance at that.
Harold (23:28):
He was ahead of his time.
Jimmy (23:30):
So I go to therapy a lot.
Anyway, okay.
Michael (23:33):
So I think Mac is a city thing.
Harold (23:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (23:38):
Doesn't it always seem to have to do with drivers too?
Like you always think of it as a cab driver?
Harold (23:43):
That's the famous Doonesbury Strip when the guy gets picked up by a truck driver hitchhiking, and Mac is on the front of the truck, and they see K, and then the reference to the other person is Mac.
I think it was also spelled with the K.
It was just a little throwaway thing that I remember very fondly.
(24:06):
The truck driver is like, I think I can keep this guy paying the gas bills up to-
Jimmy (24:10):
Oh, that's really funny, because he's off in search of the soul of America.
Harold (24:15):
Yeah, idealism.
Jimmy (24:16):
Yeah, right.
Harold (24:19):
Yeah, that's my favorite Doonesbury Strip of all time.
Michael (24:22):
I think now would be dude.
Dude.
Jimmy (24:25):
Yeah, dude, or bro.
Bro's dude.
So when it changes then to bro, you can't even have enough to say the O, the long O sound.
Harold (24:34):
And I don't know if this is just a New York thing, but it always makes me cringe a little bit.
Is this someone in a bodega or who's a service person working and you're coming in and buying something and they call you boss?
I hate that.
Jimmy (24:47):
Oh, I hate boss.
I hate boss.
Oh.
Harold (24:52):
It's got this weird dynamic.
Jimmy (24:53):
Yeah.
Harold (24:54):
It's like I'm servile to you, but not really.
I hold you in contempt.
It's kind of the mixture that you get mixed with this politeness.
It's weird.
Liz (25:04):
And women always get doll or hun.
Harold (25:08):
Oh, right.
Oh, Diane does not like that.
Liz (25:10):
Back in the day.
Harold (25:11):
Yeah, hun is, yeah.
Liz (25:13):
Or ma'am.
I hate ma'am.
Harold (25:16):
You don't like ma'am?
Liz (25:17):
No, do not ever call a woman ma'am.
Listeners, do not call a woman ma'am.
Jimmy (25:24):
You heard it.
Harold (25:24):
So if you're going to use a term like that, what's the best thing you can use this?
Jimmy (25:30):
Sweet cheeks for girls.
Liz (25:31):
Signora.
Excuse me.
Madam?
I don't know.
Harold (25:40):
Madam is better than ma'am.
Liz (25:41):
Oh, hell yes.
Ma'am is kiss of death.
Do not ever use ma'am.
Harold (25:45):
Oh my.
So just don't use any of those is what we're saying.
You could fall into a trap.
Liz (25:53):
Yeah.
Michael (25:54):
But waitresses, old waitresses would always say hun to the customer.
Jimmy (25:58):
Oh, they still do that.
Harold (25:59):
I love hun.
Jimmy (25:59):
In Central PA.
Harold (26:01):
Yeah, that kind of stuff I love, but in our family, that's not universal.
But the thing I love about this strip visually, there's a lot to actually like, again, we're saying that wobbly line, he's really figured out how to make everything look of a piece, even though he's struggling with things that he can't control.
(26:23):
And I really admire him for that.
His use of Zip-A-Tone is unlike what I've ever seen anybody do.
The two things I love the most are on the lower left and lower right corner.
He has to make space for the date and for his signature.
And he doesn't just like carve out a circle or whatever.
He makes it hard on himself.
He jags it out.
So you've got this jaggly little space of white, because he's cut the dots with this X-Acto knife in these strange patterns, especially the Schulz one.
(26:53):
It's just really cool, and I've never really remembered seeing someone else use Zip-A-Tone the way he's using it.
Jimmy (26:59):
No, no.
I agree.
You've also very rarely seen two characters not occupying the same part of the picture plane as these are.
Linus being slightly behind Sally, and then he adjusts him forward so we could see them both, and it works really well.
Harold (27:22):
Yeah.
There's so much he's doing.
He has the rough cut so that the Zip-A-Tone doesn't go to the edge of the lines on the metal of the bus, and so you get the sense of a little bit of sheen.
In the glass that you're looking through, in Linus's cap in the second and third panels, he actually will slash out a piece of white so there's a reflection in the glass.
(27:44):
He's doing lots of stuff here, and I like it.
It looks really nice.
Jimmy (27:49):
It does.
January 22nd, Charlie Brown's hanging out in the beanbag chair, and Sally comes up behind him and says, Oh, no.
I've developed a new and improved philosophy.
Harold (28:00):
Here we go.
Jimmy (28:00):
Who cares?
How should I know?
Do you think I'm out of my mind?
Sally then continues explaining to her brother, A good philosophy helps you endure all of the troubles we have in life.
And then she repeats, Who cares?
How should I know?
Do you think I'm out of my mind?
And Charlie Brown sinks down into the old beanbag chair with his feet straight up in the air.
Michael (28:21):
I'm glad she's building on her past work.
Jimmy (28:24):
That's right.
Yes.
Harold (28:25):
She's not one to rest on her laurels.
Jimmy (28:30):
Interesting Zip-A-Tone work in panel too.
Harold (28:33):
Yeah.
Jimmy (28:33):
Through in the wavy.
I think he's getting a kick out of it.
Harold (28:37):
I do.
Yeah.
He's enjoying it.
You can tell he's willing to put in this extra work.
Jimmy (28:44):
I really feel like it looks like the lettering is huge this year, or just like these years in general, I guess.
Harold (28:51):
Yeah.
I should go back and look.
The way I used to count this stuff, because when I was making my own comics and strips, I would look at other people's work.
I just like the composition.
I would count them.
If you had text top to bottom, how many lines could you have?
Schulz is around nine or 10 in this point of his career.
(29:11):
If you go back to 1950, I'd like to know if you get like 20.
Such tiny lettering in the originals compared to this, it's night and day.
And also, he used to have equal panel widths, but in the shrinking world of comics, being printed so small in the newspapers, he's now taken up creating a wider panel width so he can slip that United Feature Syndicate copyright in there and then he'll make narrower ones because he needs every bit of space he can get.
Jimmy (29:46):
Absolutely.
February 3rd, Peppermint Patty's at the front of the classroom giving a report and she says, and then Alexander Graham Bell goes, oh no, and then he goes, Mr.
Watson, come here.
And Mr.
Watson goes, that's it.
Peppermint Patty responds to her panel.
(30:06):
Ma'am?
And then she's back in her seat and Marcy says to her, and the teacher goes, D minus, Peppermint Patty says, don't bug me, Marcy.
Michael (30:18):
So do kids still talk like this?
Jimmy (30:20):
Oh yeah.
Harold (30:21):
Yeah, they go that way and like that way.
Michael (30:23):
So this is now proper English.
Jimmy (30:25):
So you like, go.
Harold (30:26):
Yes, it's now accepted.
Again, Schulz is not cut off from the world.
He's hearing people, probably younger people in their language, whether it's on TV, at the ice skating rink, around as a grandparent, all that stuff.
He's in the mix and he's reading the time, as we know, as well as watching a lot of television.
(30:51):
And so he seems to know when something is a big enough thing in the culture that's new, that he can introduce it and add a joke about it like the goes.
Jimmy (31:05):
Yeah.
And it's interesting because he's not like, I mean, yeah, she gets a D minus.
By the way, the teacher here, again, to Harold's point that maybe this isn't the best teacher in the world.
Like the teacher can say, it says, not, it's not goes.
And then, you know, gently correct her and let her finish her report.
Instead of just giving her a D minus.
Harold (31:24):
And it seems like this teacher just follows Peppermint Patty everywhere she goes to.
You know, it's like they hold her back and then like, this teacher's like, no, I want to torture her, bring her back, bring her back up.
Liz (31:37):
Maybe if she were more beautiful.
Jimmy (31:40):
She were cuter, right?
That was, she, that's her other theory, right?
Liz (31:43):
Yeah.
Jimmy (31:44):
I'll tell you what, I think Peppermint Patty is beautiful.
Harold (31:47):
Yeah.
Jimmy (31:48):
I love, I love her character design.
Michael (31:51):
She looks better in the mud.
Harold (31:53):
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy (31:54):
Love those strips.
Harold (31:56):
She's in her element.
She and Pigpan should do a sequence together.
Jimmy (32:00):
Oh, there you go.
That's a great idea.
Hey, so while you guys contemplate that out there, we're going to take a break and come back and get into some more strips.
Well, so we'll see you in a few.
All right.
Liz (32:13):
Hi, everyone.
I just want to take a moment to remind you that all three hosts are cartoonists themselves and their work is available for sale.
You can find links to purchase books by Jimmy, Harold and Michael on our website.
You can also support the show on Patreon or buy us a mud pie.
Check out the store link on unpackingpeanuts.com.
Jimmy (32:35):
And we're back.
We don't have anything in the mailbox this week, so...
So you're worrying.
I'm going to be worried for an entire week.
I hope you people out there are happy and pleased with yourself.
Michael (32:48):
We don't have any love letters.
Jimmy (32:50):
Isn't that awful?
Well speaking of love letters, February 4th, we're back in the old classroom with Linus and Lydia, and Lydia says to Linus, I've decided to tie a pink ribbon around all my love letters.
And then she holds up the ribbon and says, see, I already have the ribbon.
And in the last panel, she concludes, but I don't have any love letters.
Michael (33:14):
Bum, bum, bum, bum.
Poor Linus.
He's like stunned.
He needs to wait.
Would he come back?
And he can't think of anything.
Liz (33:23):
But he's staring into his computer monitor.
Jimmy (33:26):
That's a book.
Harold (33:29):
Yeah, it's better to say nothing at that point, I guess.
But that does lean into the idea that she just got her first music box from Linus a couple months ago.
She doesn't have a bunch of them, right?
Jimmy (33:41):
That's right.
That's right.
Harold (33:43):
She's throwing her hand.
Point to Linus.
Jimmy (33:48):
Yeah.
Michael was saying before we started the recording, the rare front version of Lydia in Panel One.
Harold (33:56):
Yeah.
Jimmy (33:56):
It's a cuter design and profile, I think.
Harold (34:00):
Schulz is definitely drawing the old school desks.
You can really see it here because these are the wood slats with the built-in and it's a two-person one.
It's really common in the old school rooms and country school rooms and stuff.
It's interesting to see that because when you look at it from the side, it looks much more modern.
Jimmy (34:20):
Yeah.
Boy, I'm glad I never had to sit at a two-person desk.
That would not have been a pleasant way to spend the day, I don't think.
February 5th, this is my 22nd birthday.
Harold (34:33):
Happy 22nd birthday.
Jimmy (34:35):
Had a party at number 10D, Brookwood Court Apartments, Millersville University.
It was a heck of a night.
Harold (34:42):
You have a great memory.
Michael (34:45):
Did you read Peanuts every day?
Jimmy (34:47):
No, because in college, I didn't have access to a daily newspaper.
Michael (34:51):
It's called the library.
Jimmy (34:53):
I'm not going to walk to the library to read a one comic strip every day.
Harold (34:57):
It's Peanuts.
Jimmy (34:58):
No, but I want to say this.
One of the great that when I went to college and had access to a university library the first two months, I did go there constantly and I went through all the microfilm and microfiche and got any article about comics.
Harold (35:13):
Wow.
Jimmy (35:13):
I could find, because I had no access to any of that stuff.
Like from the Atlantic and Rolling Stone and places that, odd places that we're doing, especially in the 80s, the, hey, comics are cool again.
Harold (35:27):
Did you guys memorize the Dewey Decimal System numbers for comics?
Jimmy (35:32):
No, I went to seven.
Michael (35:33):
741.5.
Harold (35:35):
741.5.
That was the B line for me as a kid.
I knew exactly where to go.
Forget the kids section, you're not going to get anything.
Jimmy (35:43):
That's funny.
It's February 5th.
That's what we're talking about.
Anyway, Snoopy is out in the rain, and he's thinking to himself, there's nothing more pathetic than a little dog sitting in the rain.
Then Lucy walks by carrying an umbrella and she goes, there's nothing more pathetic than a dog too stupid to get in and out of the rain.
Then Snoopy, even soggier looking in the last panel, thinks to himself, either way, I'm pathetic.
Michael (36:08):
So you think this is Snoopy, huh?
Harold (36:11):
Yes.
Michael (36:12):
I thought it was Krypto.
Jimmy (36:14):
He looks like he does have Krypto.
I have sworn off all of the pop culture brand entertainments.
No more new Star Wars, no more new Marvel things, no any of that stuff.
But the only one I will allow myself hope and excitement for is the new Superman movie and it's obviously based on Krypto.
Michael (36:35):
Yeah, except is that Krypto or is that Snoopy?
Yeah, I think that changing breeds is one step too far.
Jimmy (36:46):
What, with Krypto?
Michael (36:47):
Yeah.
Jimmy (36:48):
Well, it's not always the same dog in the comics either.
Michael (36:52):
Yes, it is.
Well, certainly not a fuzzy dog.
Jimmy (36:56):
Well, anyway, he's adorable.
Don't take my one joy away from me.
I like Krypto.
It's all I have to live for.
Harold (37:05):
Well, I liked how you described the panel with Lucy walking by in honor of Peppermint Patty.
So Lucy goes.
Yes, really.
Jimmy (37:12):
She goes, yeah, right?
February 6th, creeping up on Valentine's Day, and here's a Sunday page.
So we start off with the old symbolic panel of Charlie Brown sitting next to an inverted heart, a heart in like a Valentine's style heart.
And then in the next panel, we cut to Lucy, who is decorating her psychiatry booth for a new job, a new gig.
(37:40):
So she has it all decorated with hearts.
And we see in the next panel that, in fact, she has turned her booth into a homemade Valentine's store.
Homemade Valentine's for the love in your life.
And Charlie Brown is sitting out as if he would when he's a psychiatric patient.
And he says to her, I need a Valentine that will impress this girl I like.
Lucy holds up a Valentine and says, then you'll want this super potent Valentine.
(38:04):
Charlie Brown says, potent?
Lucy says, it'll sweep her off her feet.
It'll knock her socks off.
Charlie Brown says, all right, I'll take it.
And Lucy says, good.
If you come around next Friday, you can pick it up.
Charlie Brown says, Friday?
Why can't I have it now?
Lucy says, it's too potent.
There's a five day waiting period.
(38:27):
Very cute.
Michael (38:28):
Yeah, she's quite the entrepreneur.
Jimmy (38:31):
She really is.
Michael (38:33):
But there's no price, so we don't know how much she sends her.
Harold (38:36):
It probably varies.
See, maybe she's learned you don't put a price on there.
The suggested donation gets you more than an actual.
Jimmy (38:44):
Yeah.
It's nice to see her branching out into different areas.
You need to diversify your revenue streams.
So it's good that she can do this.
February 13th, it's another Sunday because my pals keep wanting me to read extra long strips.
So Linus is climbing to the top of a giant mound of snow or a giant hill covered in snow.
(39:10):
I assume it's a mound of cloud snow and he climbs up to the top of it and then he stands there with his arms open wide and says, I am the king.
I'm the king of the hill.
And Lucy comes up and jumps him off it and says, no, you're not.
And then she yells, I am the king of the hill.
And then Snoopy comes up behind her, shoves her off.
And Snoopy thinks to himself, I am the king of the hill.
(39:33):
And then behind him comes Woodstock, who shoves him off.
And then Woodstock watches into a long monologue of whatever he's saying atop of the hill.
And then Snoopy looks up and says, the smaller the king, the more the talk.
Liz (39:51):
Bravo, Woodstock.
Harold (39:53):
Woodstock's had a kind of violent in 1994.
Jimmy (39:56):
Yeah, Woodstock has issues here at the beginning.
Well, he looks very cold.
He's a tiny little bird.
He probably should have migrated, so.
Got a lot to talk about.
Harold (40:06):
Yeah.
Yeah, boy, King of the Hill.
There's no more fun than King of the Hill.
Jimmy (40:12):
I was never a fan of King of the Hill, especially in Gerardville.
He got really violent.
Harold (40:18):
Oh, man.
Jimmy (40:21):
February 17th.
All right, so this is a sequence where Snoopy is in the hospital.
I can't remember.
Oh, no, it's in this one where we find out what he has, sorry.
And his his brothers have come to visit him, which is very exciting because we see not only Spike and Olaf, but we see Spike, Olaf and now Andy.
(40:45):
So they're sitting out, the three of them are sitting out in the waiting room and Spike.
Well, how are we when they're talking to each other, I guess we just say whatever, you know, you know how they go.
Harold (40:56):
Just say they go.
Jimmy (40:57):
Oh, I think we solved this.
This has been bothering me for decades.
I solved it.
Spike goes, I heard a nurse say our brother Snoopy has pneumonia.
And then Andy goes, he was always the lively one in our family.
Wasn't he in World War One?
And Spike goes, I think he just thought he was.
And he says, you know what I always wondered?
(41:17):
And then Olaf answers, where did he get the helmet and goggles?
That's just funny.
That made me laugh out loud.
And because, I mean, it is the pedantic question about the World War One flying aids to begin with, right?
Where did he get the helmet and goggles?
Harold (41:39):
You know, Schulz is taking a risk here, because he's got this delicately balanced fantasy world.
And now he's added these other brothers into the mix.
And we see their perspective on the World War One flying aids.
I think that's it.
And I think it works.
Jimmy (41:59):
Yeah, I do too.
Harold (42:00):
You might be taking some of the magic out of it, but it actually is very funny.
Jimmy (42:06):
And here's almost why, that it doesn't...
I think it works rather.
Is that Spike also, we know, has his own fantasy world.
Right?
So it's funny that he's looking at Snoopy and going, that guy's nuts.
But he himself is just as, you know, out there talking to a cactus and everything.
You know, so I think, I think that allows a little porousness to creep through and let everybody's fantasies be equally, equally real, equally fake.
Harold (42:37):
It's Spike who's saying, wasn't he in World War I?
I think he just thought he was.
Jimmy (42:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Harold (42:42):
I mean, that's really interesting.
Yeah, I'm not crazy.
Jimmy (42:45):
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
I love the drawing of Andy.
I love fluffy and it's hard to draw a fluffy dog.
If you think about the great cartoon dogs or cartoon animals anyway, they're very rarely fluffy.
Harold (43:01):
Yeah, snowy and in a tento.
Yep.
Jimmy (43:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Harold (43:06):
Love that.
Love that design.
Jimmy (43:07):
A little bit of Sandy, you could sort of say.
Harold (43:10):
Yeah.
Jimmy (43:10):
That has a texture to it, but not many.
Harold (43:13):
Yeah.
Jimmy (43:15):
It's Andy and the little orphan, Andy, I mean.
But yep, so here we go.
I love Olaf as we know.
Because February 18th, they're still sitting and waiting and talking about their brother.
Andy says, if we're all brothers, how come I'm so fuzzy?
You're so skinny and Olaf is so fat.
(43:36):
Spike says, I'm not skinny, I'm trim.
Olaf says, and I'm not fat.
Andy says, you're not fat.
And Olaf says, I'm roly-poly.
And he is, he's completely roly-poly.
(44:00):
Look, if Woodstock is the greatest cartoon design, character design of all time, Olaf is the dumbest, and I love it.
Harold (44:12):
Olaf is plush.
He's a genuine plush.
Jimmy (44:15):
Yeah.
He has no snout whatsoever.
His tongue's always out.
Michael (44:22):
Does he have eyeballs?
Jimmy (44:25):
Yeah.
They're sort of all, yeah, they're like looking up into his own head in the middle, right?
Is that kind of what's going on there?
Michael (44:32):
I don't think he has eyeballs.
I think he looks sleepy kind of.
Jimmy (44:36):
Yeah.
He definitely looks sleepy.
It's just so dumb.
Only a master could do something so dumb and make it work so well.
Love it.
Liz (44:47):
Is Rolly Polly spelled with only one L in each one?
Jimmy (44:50):
It is in his strip.
No one's changing it.
Liz (44:53):
All righty.
Harold (44:54):
How would you spell it?
Jimmy (44:55):
I think it would be two Ls, right?
Liz (44:57):
I would think so.
Harold (44:57):
No, it would be Rolly Polly.
Jimmy (44:59):
Rolly Polly.
Liz (45:00):
No, it would be Rolly Polly.
Harold (45:02):
Rolly Polly.
To me, yeah, I didn't question that.
Jimmy (45:08):
No, I think it might be, I think, yeah, it would be Rolly, right?
Like Rolly Fingers, the great baseball pitcher.
Really, you have to be a baseball player if your name is Rolly Fingers.
That or a pickpocket, right?
Those would be the only two things.
February 20th, Linus has his blanket and he's stretched out, and he yawns a big stretch and covers Snoopy's head in the blanket while he's doing this.
(45:35):
Then they both fall asleep with Snoopy leaning up against Linus in the blanket.
Then this is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven panels of Snoopy.
This is going to be wild.
Snoopy lays down on the blanket and then he positions himself.
His back of his neck is resting on Linus' lap, but then he tosses and turns and rolls over on his stomach.
(46:01):
Then we see him rolling around, fidgeting like crazy, trying to get comfortable.
This continues for the next couple panels.
Linus is still asleep, but Snoopy just cannot get comfortable.
It finally ends up then with Snoopy holding Linus' thumb and blanket position.
Charlie Brown outside sees Linus asleep atop Snoopy's doghouse.
(46:26):
Charlie Brown is perplexed.
Michael (46:28):
I'm going to nominate this for the weird strips.
No, in tier three, panel one, there's two Linus'.
Jimmy (46:36):
No, it's supposed to be the DeLuca effect, it's called, where you see multiple versions of the same figure in one panel.
But it's not generally done for stuff that's slow.
Yeah.
It's usually like a superhero bounding through a panel.
Harold (46:54):
Yeah, he cut four Snoopys on his lap in the second tier last panel.
Michael (46:59):
This is a real problem for Schulz.
He's trying to do this time distortion thing.
Jimmy (47:06):
Yeah.
Michael (47:06):
I'm not sure it's working.
Harold (47:07):
It's pretty cool.
I like it.
Jimmy (47:11):
I agree with both of you.
Harold (47:13):
Wow, you are so diplomatic, Jimmy.
Jimmy (47:15):
I like it.
I think it looks really cool and I don't think it's working.
But I love the look, man.
If I'm 44 years into a career and I'm thinking, I'm going to do something I've never done before today, that's a win.
Whether it comes out as a masterpiece or not, he's now adding something to his toolkit.
(47:35):
44 years in, that's awesome.
Harold (47:36):
Yeah.
He's being surreal about it because I love that last panel in the second tier, because Snoopy is resting on himself.
Jimmy (47:48):
Yeah.
Harold (47:50):
From a previous pose, it's impossible, but you could only do this in comics and I love that.
Jimmy (47:56):
Yeah.
Also, we ignore the baseline weirdness of the strip because we're so familiar with it.
The last panel though, and that's an insane drawing outside of Peanuts.
Could you imagine, again, if this was the first time you ever saw Peanuts?
Harold (48:15):
Right.
Light is sleeping on the top of a-
Jimmy (48:19):
A shed or whatever it is.
No, you wouldn't even know it.
You certainly wouldn't know it's a dog house, right?
Harold (48:22):
Yeah, which comes to a point.
Yeah.
Just like what on earth is going on?
Listeners, if you look up one strip from this discussion today, I recommend February 20th, 1994 to see what Schulz did here.
There's a lot of weird stuff in here.
(48:44):
If you haven't seen this before, it's worth seeing.
Even in the second panel of the throwaway, they're both sleeping and they both have a little pointer from the Z balloon for their common sleep.
Although it looks like minuses might have been an afterthought somehow because there's not an opening like you normally would have into the cloud.
Jimmy (49:08):
Yeah.
Well, it's funny because I'm working on this book in the real dark night that's going to be serialized on my substack gvillecomics.substack.com starting in February.
And one of the scenes that's from later in the book that I've been kind of contemplating is showing someone tossing and turning all night.
(49:30):
And in all my samples, I've done it over the course of like 12 panels, you know?
But doing it all in one panel, that could be interesting, right?
Yeah.
Michael (49:40):
Well, getting back to that book, I recommended that Kevin Huizinga thing.
Jimmy (49:45):
Yeah.
Michael (49:45):
The River at Night.
But he's tossing and turning all night.
That's what it is.
He's lying in bed thinking and sort of half dreaming.
And there's a long sequence where he starts seeing multiples of himself.
Great cartoonist, but it's hard to read.
Jimmy (50:03):
Yeah.
You sent a link to share that with me.
You can really draw it.
It looks great.
Liz (50:08):
And I'm talking to you, Steven Antonelli, that this is a strip you should look at.
Jimmy (50:14):
All right.
You got it, Steven.
You got called out.
Michael (50:17):
Look at this strip.
Jimmy (50:19):
February 27th.
Man, did we pick a lot of Sundays.
It's another Sunday strip.
Woodstock is in the spotlight in the symbolic first panel.
And then we cut to Snoopy watching Woodstock do a little performance on Snoopy's Supper Dish.
And he says to Woodstock, that's perfect.
Then Snoopy looks behind him and says, we'll stand by the door seat and then you go into your act.
(50:43):
Maybe we'll get a little midday snack.
And then Snoopy carries the Supper Dish in his mouth with Woodstock in it back to Charlie Brown's door.
And then they arrive and Snoopy says, okay, go to it.
And then Woodstock does his little dance on Snoopy's, the edge of Snoopy's dog dish.
And that goes on for three panels and it doesn't seem to impress anyone.
(51:05):
And then Snoopy just lies down, despondent with the dog dish on top of his head and Woodstock in the dog dish.
And Snoopy goes, don't feel bad.
Lots of shows close after one performance.
Michael (51:17):
I'd give a cookie if I saw this.
Liz (51:19):
Why didn't you kick the door?
Harold (51:23):
I'm assuming someone was at the door.
I don't know.
We don't know for sure, but I would assume that was us.
We cut, that was a panel cut out.
I don't know.
Michael (51:33):
I think they should try again.
I mean, this could be a way to make some snacks.
Harold (51:39):
Well, yeah.
It's interesting to see Snoopy's at this point in his life where he has a surrogate happy dancer.
Jimmy (51:50):
I will say Woodstock doing the happy dance is cute, but not as cute as Snoopy doing the happy dance.
Liz (51:56):
I'm not sure I agree.
Harold (51:59):
I love the opening drawing of Woodstock in the spotlight, just with wings out to the crowd.
Liz (52:07):
You would be swell.
Harold (52:10):
Absolutely.
Yeah, Woodstock Merman.
Jimmy (52:15):
Well, if you want to get more Ethel Merman references, come back next week for Unpacking Peanuts, 1994 part two.
We have reached the end of this episode, but we didn't hear from you this week, so I'm gonna be sitting here worried.
If you want to fix that, you can reach out to us and keep this conversation going and the ways you can do that.
(52:39):
First off, you can write us an email at unpackingpeanuts.gmail.com.
We always love to hear from you.
You can reach out to us on our hotline where you can call or leave a text message.
That number is 717-219-4162.
Or you can follow us on social media.
We're at Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads and at Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube.
(53:05):
And we would absolutely love to hear from you.
So that's it for this week.
Come back next week for more fun strips for Michael, Harold and Liz.
This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Michael (53:16):
Yes.
Liz (53:17):
Yes.
Be of good cheer.
Unpacking Peanuts is copyrighted by Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz and Liz Sumner.
Produced and edited by Liz Sumner.
Music by Michael Cohen.
Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark.
For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads.
(53:38):
Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube.
For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.
Hobart.
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