July 8, 2025 • 59 mins
We inch ever closer to the end of Peanuts, and so we savor each strip (and farewell) even more! Rerun continues to shine, Woodstock appears even smaller and more fragile, and Patriot Snoopy faces the frigid Valley Forge winter…in August. Plus: We agree to differ.
(Michael's Red Hand story appears in 1988 Part 1 at 27:07).
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.
For more from the show follow @unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads, and @unpackingpeanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.
Thanks for listening.
Mark as Played
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's your most beloved podcast, Unpacking Peanuts, or one of your most beloved, one of your top 10 most beloved.
Anyway, you subscribe to this, I'm assuming, or maybe not.
Anyway, welcome to the show.
It's Unpacking Peanuts.
I'll be your host, Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist.
I do things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow Up, The Dumbest Idea Ever.
(00:42):
And you can read all of my ongoing comics work right now at gvillecomics.substack.com.
And joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts, and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both for the band 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 Spells and Tangled River.
(01:06):
It's Michael Cohen.
Harold (01:07):
Say hey.
Jimmy (01:08):
And he's executive producer and writer for Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president for Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold (01:17):
Hello.
Jimmy (01:18):
And making sure everything goes smoothly and keeping us out of trouble, it's producer and editor, Liz Sumner.
Liz (01:24):
Howdy.
Jimmy (01:26):
Well, guys, we're inching ever closer to our goal.
We are at the tippy top of Mount Everest and we're about to jump.
So I'm pretty excited.
I never really thought we'd make it, I guess, in some resources of my brain.
(01:46):
So I'm pretty happy.
Some recesses in my brain, rather.
So I'm pretty happy.
Michael (01:50):
Well, we haven't made it yet.
Jimmy (01:53):
I should shut up about it.
Michael (01:55):
I like the idea of someone climbing Mount Everest just to jump off.
Jimmy (01:59):
Do you know what I think would be great?
Whoever's at the top of Mount Everest, the local municipality or whatever, they shouldn't make people give all their life savings.
Once you're already up there and go, sorry, you can only go these last 20 feet, but you have to sign everything over for it to make it.
That's exactly what you deserve if you're standing in line at the top of Mount Everest.
Michael (02:20):
Yeah.
The money goes to retrieving all the frozen bodies that are still there.
Poop.
Harold (02:25):
Yeah.
Jimmy (02:26):
Oh my God.
So, Harold, do you have anything, any backstory or anything at this point?
Harold (02:33):
No, not really.
We know what's coming.
Yeah.
There's this little bit of a quiet period for Peanuts in the News back in 1999.
I think we can just focus on the strips today.
Jimmy (02:50):
Yeah.
There's a lot to talk about in these strips.
How are you guys feeling when you see that this is the last time we see such and such a character, two characters interact, there are things like that?
How are those things starting to hit?
Michael (03:05):
Well, I'm actually picking a few for that reason.
Jimmy (03:09):
Yeah.
Michael (03:09):
Yeah.
That information is important to me.
I mean, it wasn't important to Schulz because he had no idea.
Harold (03:16):
Right.
Jimmy (03:17):
Yeah, but it is hugely important.
You see some of these characters who have had, you know, relationships going back almost 50 years, and it's the last time they'll have a new interaction.
It's pretty special.
Harold (03:29):
Yeah.
The thing that struck me reading this range, which was from May 1st to the end of September, no, end of August, was that it seemed like he had this really real flurry of, of creativity after the hiatus.
(03:50):
He was refreshed from his hiatus and he, I'm sure he backlogged a bunch of ideas because he didn't stop thinking about peanuts.
We know that.
And so there was a really lovely fresh run of, of stuff.
Reading this, these kind of felt a little more like treading water to me in some ways.
There's still some real gems, but that was just kind of the sense I had.
(04:12):
And again, every time I picked these up to read them in blocks, I realized that I'm bringing me to the strip and I don't know if I'm just in a different place when I'm reading these.
But these, these seemed to be, I don't know how to describe it, but they, they seem to be, they weren't venturing into new territories like we always seem doing as much.
(04:35):
That was my sense.
Yeah.
Jimmy (04:37):
Well, I mean, he has, you know, all we have is time and energy and he's kind of run out of both at this point.
Harold (04:43):
Well, I'm not sure how he's feeling at this point.
You know, it's hard to tell, but yeah, I don't know if what hit him, what's going to come, come that leads to the end of the strip, if that was something that he experienced quickly, or if there was just stuff that was dragging him down.
Obviously, he was stressed.
We know he was stressed and it was really hard, getting harder and harder, I'm guessing, to do these strips.
(05:07):
It's taking them longer and it was probably very, very hard as you're getting older and things take longer.
That's got to put stress on you.
If you have to keep up exactly the same output you've always had, you can't really adjust that.
Jimmy (05:22):
I mean, he's been the same output since he's been 30.
Harold (05:27):
Yeah.
Jimmy (05:28):
As a cartoonist and then every other responsibility has just increased.
Harold (05:32):
Managing an empire, yeah.
Michael (05:34):
But then again, he had total power being so popular.
He could have made a decision, I'm just going to do Sundays.
Jimmy (05:43):
Yeah.
Michael (05:43):
I'm not going to do Sundays.
Jimmy (05:45):
Yeah.
That's what I think Gary Trudeau ended up doing, is just converting it to a Sunday strip.
Whatever you felt too, whatever you were consciously aware of, I mean, he did have cancer at this point, and he didn't know it, but he had it.
Harold (05:59):
Yeah.
Jimmy (06:00):
But I took a commercial gig recently that I've been really enjoying doing, and I was up late working on it last night because I had, actually today was the deadline.
And it's hard.
It's a lot of work to be a cartoonist.
Like, oh, all right, I penciled it.
Great.
Well, now I got to ink it.
I mean, there's step after step.
(06:21):
There's really very few, even though since the whole thing is based on shortcuts, there's no shortcuts left.
Right?
And you just got to sit there and fill in all the boxes, and it's a lot of work.
And I can't imagine having drawn almost 18,000 strips.
I mean, it's an insane achievement to even contemplate.
Harold (06:43):
Yeah.
Michael (06:45):
I was surprised because, I hadn't read the strip at all in the 90s.
I might have seen one or two.
But when they published that last strip, everyone saw it.
It was in all the newspapers.
You couldn't avoid reading it.
And I was really shocked.
And how much his drawing ability had deteriorated.
(07:07):
And I was always assuming that it was kind of a line leading to that.
That it would be a degeneration, leading up to that style.
And yet reading this, we're four months away from the end of the strip, going, no, it wasn't deteriorating at all.
(07:28):
He was, these are actually almost exactly what he'd been doing throughout the 90s.
Jimmy (07:34):
Yeah, I'll be curious to think what, or to see what we think of the last few.
To see if we're seeing any difference there, right at, you know, when things got...
Harold (07:44):
Yeah, there were a few in this block of four months that I was like, oh, ouch, what's going on here?
But for the most part, given that we have been reading these in sequence, and the change is so gradual, Schulz has kind of taken me along on his journey, and I'm with him.
(08:04):
Like Michael, if I happen to open up a Sunday newspaper in the 90s and see the art, it was a shock.
But I don't feel that way anymore.
I feel like I'm nestled into where he is and what he's doing.
And it doesn't bother me the way I thought it might bother me, because I remember how much it bothered me when I would see it just randomly because I would say, oh my gosh, he is struggling.
(08:29):
This is hard.
Jimmy (08:30):
Yeah.
Well, that's the difference between art and content really, or art and even just pop culture.
Content, pop culture, what it was when it was coming out at the time, is meant to entertain you and divert you for a few seconds.
And in those instances, you can judge things easily.
You go, nope, did not entertain me.
(08:52):
Nope, not the thing I liked from before.
Harold (08:55):
Good day, sir.
Jimmy (08:56):
But when you commit to it and you go, I'm actually going to put work in to appreciate this thing, it always ends up being better.
You always end up enjoying it more.
You always end up seeing things, I think, that you never saw before.
But I don't know if you can do that until it's over.
You know what I mean?
Harold (09:16):
Well, certainly, you can't consume it in mass quantities because there's not that much new stuff if it's happening in real time.
Jimmy (09:26):
You also don't know, where are we in this?
Is there going to be another 10 years?
Harold (09:31):
Well, yeah.
Having the context, I think, is huge.
Knowing that this is going to end, obviously, at least my head, is, oh, I'm savoring it, right?
And you wouldn't be doing that if you're thinking this might go on another 12 years, right?
Michael (09:49):
Yep.
Harold (09:51):
Yep.
Jimmy (09:53):
Absolutely.
Well, with all that said, let's start taking a look at these strips.
If you want to follow along with us, the first thing you're going to want to do is go over there to unpackingpeanuts.com and sign up for our newsletter.
Sign up for the Great Peanuts Reread.
A little late to the game if you haven't, but that's okay.
Everyone is always welcome and you'll have access to all the old back issues because that'll get you one email a month from us, our little newsletter that'll tell you what we're going to be covering in the upcoming episodes, which will be even more important going forward once we get past the year 2000.
(10:27):
So once you do that, you go online, you find the strips where you can find them, and then I'll read them to you and we'll discuss them.
So let's start off with the strips.
Liz (10:37):
Oh, good.
Jimmy (10:37):
A real easy one to read.
June 6th.
Okay.
So Snoopy is out taking a little hike with the Beagle Scouts and he is a Sunday strip, and we see as the Beagle Scouts go off ahead of him, Snoopy yelling, tell Conrad not to get too far ahead.
(10:58):
But guess what?
Conrad doesn't listen.
He does go far off ahead.
And what does he come up against?
But a street sign that is the don't walk sign, meaning on a pole, there is an LED sign and has the red hand, okay, indicating do not walk.
Conrad sees this and of course, it sends his hat skyrocketing off his head.
(11:18):
This is shocking.
He goes back to the other Beagle Scouts to report what he's seen, and this is indicated by a word balloon with the red hand drawn in it.
Conrad takes them back to the don't walk sign, and the other three hats are sent flying in shock at this.
Then they race back to their Scoutmaster Snoopy, and they're all babbling about red hands.
(11:40):
Snoopy goes to see it, and of course, his hat is sent flying up his head, and his ears go straight up for good measure.
He sees the red hand on top of the pole, saying don't walk or indicating don't walk.
He decides to go back home after all of this, and looking a little shaken, he walks past Charlie Brown, who says, you're back early, what happened?
(12:03):
And Snoopy says, everywhere we went, tall creatures with red hands.
Michael (12:08):
He's only touched on the horror genre a few times.
Mostly the blanket, when the blanket came alive.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is like a horror strip.
Harold (12:20):
Yeah, and he's done this once before.
That scary red hand has popped up earlier.
But somehow, the Beagle Scouts was Snoopy.
This is just incredibly fun and charming.
These little guys are responding to this unknown hand, which strangely looks like the state of Michigan.
Jimmy (12:45):
What a coincidence that is.
Harold (12:48):
But I haven't seen this red hand.
I don't know if this was the red hand in the 90s or a red hand that he remembered.
But yeah, the thumb's kind of sticking out.
It's a different look.
And the sign is different.
I don't know why the red hand is not in the middle of the sign.
It's kind of off.
Jimmy (13:04):
Oh, no, I think I've seen those where the green is on one side and the red is on the other.
Harold (13:09):
Oh, because there's basically two different light bulbs.
Jimmy (13:12):
Yeah, because there were no blue LEDs for decades.
Harold (13:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes total sense.
So, but yeah, it's just seeing everybody respond.
I love the hat flying classic cartooning.
Liz (13:27):
Somebody didn't, somebody's hat doesn't fly.
Harold (13:30):
Yeah, I thought that was cool too.
Jimmy (13:31):
No, no, that's Conrad, because he's already seen it.
Liz (13:34):
Oh, I see.
I get it.
Michael (13:36):
Did you know when your hat flies off, there's two little marks, random marks above it?
Jimmy (13:41):
Got to be.
Otherwise, it's not an official hat shooting off your head moment.
Michael (13:47):
But there is no official mark.
These are all like totally different.
Harold (13:51):
Now, would some cartoonists put the marks below the hat showing where it had come from, or is it always above the hat?
Jimmy (13:58):
I think for some reason, above the hat feels right to me.
If it was below it, it would feel like it was being rocketed off the head more forcefully or something.
Boy, the things we talk about.
I have a college degree, for god's sake.
This is why we're here.
I'm a father.
And I'm like, I don't know when the hat flies off Woodstock.
Liz (14:20):
What do you think?
Harold (14:21):
It is three cartoonists talking about the greatest comics trip of all time.
Jimmy (14:25):
It is.
Harold (14:26):
I mean, we're the greatest of all time.
Yeah, Schulz, I think it was Sally who was upset about the red hand.
Liz (14:34):
That's when I told the story about Michael's greatest moment in his life, or Michael told the story about the red hand.
Michael (14:42):
I'm not going to do it again.
Liz (14:45):
I can put a link to the episode where we.
Jimmy (14:47):
All right.
June 23rd.
Charlie Brown sitting in the beanbag with his baseball cap on, watching some TV, and Sally's on the phone.
She says to him, Lucy's on the phone.
She wants to know why she always has to play right field.
And then Charlie Brown says, traditionally, the player who is weakest defensively plays right field.
(15:07):
And then Sally says, he says, the dumbest player always plays right field.
And Charlie Brown says, this could turn really ugly.
Michael (15:15):
Yeah.
You don't want to get Lucy mad at you.
Jimmy (15:18):
No, definitely not.
Harold (15:21):
Yeah.
This was one of two strips in a row, where that was the punch line.
He had this could turn ugly, and then this could turn really ugly.
So for those who were reading in sequence, they got a little Easter egg there.
Michael (15:37):
Okay.
That's a weird foot.
Liz (15:40):
Maybe it's his hands.
Michael (15:43):
They wouldn't reach that far.
Harold (15:44):
Those are his hands.
Michael (15:46):
You know how long his hands are?
Jimmy (15:48):
Yeah, those are definitely his hands.
Harold (15:50):
Yeah, he really elongates the characters in the beanbag chair, which is interesting.
Again, I don't know why that aesthetically made more sense to him, because we know he breaks rules all the time for whatever he thinks looks best.
Michael (16:02):
Wait, his fingers are kind of webbed.
Jimmy (16:06):
Well, no, he has his whole because two hands together.
Michael (16:08):
Oh, okay, now I see it.
Yeah, all right.
Harold (16:12):
Yeah, better to scrunchie.
Jimmy (16:14):
When in doubt, white it out.
That would have been a good choice, I think, for the hands.
One of the things that happens here, like I said before, his issues with scale become really noticeable.
Like the hands are coming from the wrong part of the body.
Like, could you imagine how long the top of his arm would be?
(16:36):
Yeah.
Or his wrists would have to be able to turn at 90-degree angles.
Harold (16:43):
It's like the Young Killers strips when he had the super tall teenagers.
Jimmy (16:47):
Yeah, right.
Harold (16:48):
The arms go on forever.
Jimmy (16:50):
I thought you said Young Killers.
I'm like, what drip is that?
That would be amazing if he did like a film noir, crew people on the lam, bunny like that.
Harold (16:59):
It's a Neil Gaiman graphic.
Jimmy (17:04):
June 29th, Charlie Brown's still in the old Bane bag, and Sally comes and says to him, do you think I should go to camp?
And Charlie Brown says, only if you want to.
And Sally says, want to?
Since when have I ever had a choice about anything?
And Charlie Brown says, how about the piano lessons?
And Sally says, I didn't want to.
(17:27):
I really think when you're a kid, everything is, you know, the burden of the world being put upon you for like, hey, watch your hands.
Oh my God, to watch my hands.
I can't.
Michael (17:41):
I had to take the garbage out once a week.
Jimmy (17:43):
Oh my God, the humanity.
They, kids today don't understand what we went through.
And you never realize how much of it's really based all around you, the whole family structure, you know.
She has a choice in everything.
Harold (17:59):
I remember swimming lessons.
That was a big one.
I hated to do the swimming lessons.
Oh, it was like torture.
You have to go down to the pool and get into the freezing water and half drown to learn how to not drown.
Jimmy (18:12):
And they're always at 8 a.m.
That's the only time I have swimming lessons.
No one has a leisurely afternoon swimming lesson.
Harold (18:19):
No, no, this is the off hours when no one in their right mind would be at the pool, unless they had an appointment.
Right.
Jimmy (18:26):
I took them all the way up to lifeguard training where you had to jump off the tie-dye fully clothed.
I'm sure we discussed this at some point.
Wearing, like, jeans, a boat.
Harold (18:36):
I had to get the swimmers.
Swimmers, that was the one I had to get to.
Jimmy (18:40):
There you go.
June 30th, Sally's on the phone again, and she says, Camp?
No, I don't want to go to your camp.
Stop calling me.
Then she says to her big brother, I told them I didn't want to go to their camp.
Charlie Brown, who's sitting in his chair reading, says, Good for you.
Then Sally says, as she climbs up on the edge of the chair to look over, she says, Really?
(19:03):
You mean that?
I did the right thing?
Charlie Brown says, Absolutely.
Then Sally says, Good for me.
Harold (19:13):
It's cool that he's doing something he has not done in 49 years.
He's not had a kid crawling over the top of an easy chair before or tucking her head underneath the bottom of the oversized armrest.
Jimmy (19:25):
This looks like he challenged himself, and because of the challenge, it elevated it, I think.
I further feel like that was something observed.
A little kid running around, hopping up on the armchair of his easy chair or something like that.
(19:46):
This is a great life lesson.
Someone called and said something, she forthrightly said her opinion and said, that will be the end of it.
That's actually the mature way to handle everything.
And it's the first way that first person possibly in Peanuts.
Is this the first time anyone acted reasonably?
Harold (20:06):
And you say that this was a strip where it looks like he kind of pushed himself to do something different and unique.
And what's interesting is this run of strips, we mentioned the lettering occasionally goes super wonky.
Here, it's really strong and that's good lettering.
(20:26):
I mean, you don't see any trouble with his lettering here.
So I don't know if it's one of those things.
This is a good day.
It says the lettering seems to be my guide to how he's feeling because it's the thing you know exactly what it's supposed to look like.
And then you kind of see it in connection to how far off it is from what we know he's shooting for.
SPEAKER_2 (20:48):
Yeah.
Jimmy (20:50):
July 4th, the symbolic panel, I assume, but maybe not, of Rerun reading a gigantic book, like not in terms of page count, but in terms of the physical size of the book, it's bigger than Rerun.
And then we have another panel on this top tier of the Sunday where Rerun just begins saying, last night, and Linus is next to him holding his blanket.
(21:15):
Then the strip begins for real with Rerun and Linus sitting there, Linus in classic thumb and blanket position.
And Rerun says, Grandpa read it to me.
It was in a story by Leo Tolstoy.
This woman had four children, C, and this is Rerun continuing, and they all slept together in a big cradle.
Linus is making no reaction to this, just sitting there with his thumb and blanket.
(21:36):
And Rerun says, when she put them to bed, she gave each one a sucking rag.
Linus perks up at this, doesn't like the sound of it.
And then there's a silent panel with Linus sitting there and just looks at Rerun, who isn't saying anything, seems to be just keeping to himself.
But then as Linus gets up to leave, Rerun turns and says, enjoy your sucking rag.
(22:01):
And then from off panel, Linus throws the blanket at Rerun, hitting him in the head, and Rerun is delighted at his little dig at his older brother.
Harold (22:12):
That's a great little moment.
That's something we haven't seen with Rerun and Linus before.
Jimmy (22:16):
Yeah.
Well, now this year, he has shown them together much more.
Yes.
And I think it's cool because you know, one, the other thing we keeps thinking of Linus as his big brother, which is true, but Linus has now become a middle child, which we were talking about in a recent episode, how people change depending on the group dynamic they're in.
Harold (22:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (22:38):
Well, you know, there's no more delicately balanced group dynamic, I don't think, than probably three siblings.
Harold (22:45):
Yeah.
Linus has largely been checked out, but we're seeing a little bit more of an engagement here.
But you certainly haven't seen Rerun take the initiative to make a point to Linus.
Other than, at least, he's done some stuff like that maybe you could say with both Linus and Lucy around him, but specifically Linus.
(23:07):
It must be in the Van Pelt jeans to dig, to do digs on people.
I don't know.
Jimmy (23:15):
Well, I think it's a classic sibling thing, right?
I mean, people joshing each other.
Well, this is also, this is the only way me and my friends spoke to each other was like teasing and I don't think anyone ever said anything sincere in my entire childhood.
Harold (23:34):
That's crazy.
Jimmy (23:35):
Oh, really?
Harold (23:36):
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy (23:37):
Like, I know there's some times I slip into talking just the way I talk to everyone I knew growing up, including my parents and grandparents and you delicate flowers like wilt.
It's really weird.
Harold (23:50):
Yeah, it seems like, you know, I'd have friends where we would be looking alongside each other at something was very like very mystery science theater.
You know, we, I remember when I was like nine years old, we've gotten a, one of those gigantic, heavy cassette tape recorders with the plug-in mic.
(24:11):
That was the best thing for our family to have.
So, you know, we'd invite a friend over and we would be doing parodies of TV commercials and stuff in the recorder, but we wouldn't be digging on each other.
Jimmy (24:24):
Oh yeah, so you'll, you guys, right?
Cause you will make fun of people who are either dead or not present.
Got it.
Harold (24:30):
Yeah, well, yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah, we were, we were looking at stuff together.
We weren't, we weren't trashing each other.
We were looking at stuff.
Jimmy (24:38):
But that was the love, like I love those guys.
Like that, there was.
Harold (24:41):
Oh, no, I know.
I had a friend from Youngstown, Ohio, who said, yeah, that was, that was absolutely.
And the fact that we allowed each other to say the most horrible things that certainly in, in a PC culture absolutely would not fly.
But I mean, he made impassioned arguments for why it was so important that the things that we had in common and what we had different, we were able to dig each other incredibly hard.
(25:12):
And that signified something to them that they were really close, that they had the right to do that with each other.
Jimmy (25:20):
Well, yeah.
And if an outsider does it, it doesn't work.
Harold (25:24):
Right.
But it defines you as an insider, yeah.
Jimmy (25:28):
Yeah.
And you also wouldn't talk to an outsider like that.
If you don't have the closeness and you don't have the friendship to build on, you're just mean.
Harold (25:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (25:37):
And that's the hard part.
And that's why I think it's hard, like, because those cultures and those groups, like your friend and I had, they're not everywhere.
Harold (25:46):
Right.
So some people will look at what you grew up with and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about or where you're coming from.
Right.
Right.
And it's weird, little rerun in that fourth panel, the parentheses are gone around his eyes.
He has a little eyebrows instead.
(26:07):
And he just looks, he looks different.
It's almost like visually he's graduated into something in this strip, as well as in terms of the theme and what's going on in the strip.
That him being hit with the blanket in the last panel, and with the big smile on his face, his tongue sticking out is adorable and absolutely new.
(26:30):
We have not seen that of any character.
I don't think I remember ever seeing a character happily being hit or something.
Yeah.
It's really special.
It's like, oh, this is a peanuts I've never seen before, and that's cool seeing that this late 1999.
Jimmy (26:46):
That's one of the things with cartooning that's difficult to do.
Because there's not dialogue in that particular panel.
But a lot of times, the facial expression like it is in this is different than, or it implies something different than the overall content of the panel, right?
(27:06):
So if someone says something, and the character is smiling, it's different than if they say the same exact thing, but the character is frowning, right?
Harold (27:13):
Absolutely.
Jimmy (27:13):
And if Rerun just had an open mouth like shocked look, it would be a totally different thing.
Harold (27:20):
Oh, yeah.
This is a joyous strip in a strange way.
Yes.
Even though he's ticked off Linus.
Jimmy (27:28):
Right.
But who isn't that ticked off probably either?
Harold (27:32):
Well, yeah.
And in a way that it's like being healthily ticked off.
Jimmy (27:38):
Yeah.
Harold (27:38):
Yeah.
Jimmy (27:39):
Yeah.
Harold (27:39):
Yeah.
And very cleverly ticked off by this little Rerun who is, he's got a lot of interesting insights.
Absolutely.
Jimmy (27:52):
July 11th, Charlie Brown's at camp and he's standing at the end of a dock, then he sits down, and who should appear next to him but good old Peggy Jean.
And he says to her, Peggy Jean!
And she goes, Brownie, Charles!
And they both look very happy to see each other.
And Charlie Brown says, I didn't know you were here at camp.
Actually, I was just thinking about you.
(28:14):
And then Peggy Jean leans on one of the pillars of the dock and says, I wasn't going to camp this year, but my boyfriend said he'd be here.
And then she walks off the deck saying, anyway, I promised to meet him over by the soccer field.
And Charlie Brown says, boyfriend?
And then he calls out after her, but remember when?
Remember when?
Remember?
(28:35):
And then there's just a silent panel as he watches out after her.
And he goes to a payphone and calls his sister and says, Sally, put Snoopy on the phone, will you?
And she does.
And Snoopy says, woof.
And Charlie Brown says, thanks.
I needed to hear a friendly voice.
That's a good one.
Michael (28:53):
And, of course, that is the final piggy gene.
Harold (28:58):
Wow.
Jimmy (28:59):
Well, that's a great one.
Sad.
Michael (29:01):
I always thought it was very odd that she just disappeared.
Harold (29:06):
Yeah.
Michael (29:06):
It looked to me like Schulz was taking a big gamble on really changing one of the characters.
And, yeah, he just kind of dropped it.
So he wraps it up here.
Jimmy (29:17):
Yeah.
When you see that, I mean, wrapping it up is exactly what's going on.
And I mean, as you see these next couple of months, it's hard to not feel like things are getting wrapped up, even though they couldn't have been consciously, you know?
But if you were going to write a good ending to piggy gene that fits with Charlie Brown, and you don't want it to make it a happy one, this is a great one.
Harold (29:41):
Yeah.
I mean, it's crazy.
He's sitting out by himself on the dock at this camp.
And then he turns to his right, and she is kneeling next to him at the end of the dock.
Jimmy (29:51):
Yeah.
Harold (29:52):
And she's just shown up to tell him that she wasn't going to go to camp, but her boyfriend said he's got to go meet him.
That was it.
She just says his name, and she doesn't go, hello.
Couldn't say great to see you.
She just came to tell him that she's got a boyfriend, but she's got to go.
Well, Charlie Brown.
Michael (30:11):
And here's the big twist.
Next one.
Jimmy (30:16):
July 13th, Charlie Brown and Linus are hanging out at the thinking wall, and Linus says, I just saw the little red haired girl down at the playground.
We had a nice talk.
She sure is cute.
And Charlie Brown says, did she say anything about me?
And Linus says, did she what?
And Charlie Brown says, I can't stand it.
Michael (30:33):
Oh, yeah, Linus, man, stabbing his friend in the back.
Jimmy (30:38):
Yeah.
Harold (30:39):
Is he?
Yeah.
Or is he just talking to the little red haired girl who happens to be in the school?
Michael (30:45):
You don't tell Charlie Brown that he told her.
Liz (30:47):
You do if it's innocent.
Jimmy (30:48):
It's never in it.
Michael (30:50):
If you're aware.
Jimmy (30:50):
Look at that sly smile on Linus' face.
Liz (30:53):
That's not sly.
It's just happy.
Jimmy (30:57):
He's a devil, as my mother would say.
Harold (31:02):
I'm with Liz.
Jimmy (31:03):
No, I mean, obviously, he was doing nothing wrong.
And clearly, the little red haired girl is just the bee's knees.
But he could have mentioned Charlie Brown.
It wouldn't have hurt him.
Harold (31:16):
Well, when you're living your life, I'm assuming we who read Peanuts would think that Charlie Brown's pining.
But Linus is only around for part of his pining.
So he's just living his life.
He's on the playground.
I mean, come on.
Liz (31:31):
And in the next panel, after Charlie Brown repeats himself, Linus can say, yes, we had a long talk about you.
He just misunderstood.
Harold (31:44):
Linus has given Charlie Brown a lot of chances with the little red haired girl.
And he's tried to push him forward.
And I think it would not be inappropriate to wash your hands of that and just go on.
Jimmy (31:56):
Well, I wouldn't.
Yeah.
But I wouldn't say she was cute.
And I wouldn't talk.
I wouldn't say, hey, you know that girl you're playing about?
I talked to her today.
Boy, she is cute.
And also, I didn't mention you.
Harold (32:07):
I would, especially if you agree that she's cute.
That's something you got in common.
That's not bad.
Jimmy (32:12):
I guess.
And I guess we'll agree to differ.
SPEAKER_2 (32:17):
Okay.
Harold (32:19):
Great drawing of Linus in the second panel.
Jimmy (32:21):
Yeah.
Harold (32:22):
It's up to you to decide if he's being sly or not.
Listeners, is he looking sly?
He's definitely looking happy.
He's off in another place, it seems like.
Liz (32:33):
This is why he doesn't understand what Charlie Brown said.
Harold (32:37):
Yeah.
Right.
Jimmy (32:38):
He's contemplating.
Concentrating on making out with Charlie Brown's One True Love.
Harold (32:43):
We can't.
Jimmy (32:46):
I know what's happening.
July 14th.
Moving on.
We're out here on the old pictures mound and there's Schroeder, Charlie Brown, and Lucy.
Schroeder says, that sounds like a fire engine.
Charlie Brown, ever the quick mind says, something must be on fire.
And Lucy says, well, it sure isn't our picture.
(33:07):
And then she laughs as she walks back out to the right field.
And Schroeder says, let's see Charlie Brown.
Let her get about 10 feet away.
Then throw your glove at her knowing it's not going to hit her.
Yeah, not if she lets her get as far as 10 feet away.
But this I picked because this is the last time we see Schroeder and Charlie Brown together.
Michael (33:32):
Really?
Jimmy (33:33):
Yeah.
Michael (33:33):
Wow.
I missed that note.
Yeah.
Breaks my heart.
Yeah, there's going to be a lot of heartbreak coming up.
Yeah.
A lot of goodbyes, many, many partings.
Liz (33:44):
Eek, let's just stop the podcast now.
I don't want to have this much pain.
Jimmy (33:50):
Be of good cheer.
Michael (33:51):
Yes.
Yeah, this next one is a heartbreaker.
Jimmy (33:54):
Well, how about we take a break and then come back?
Liz (33:57):
A heartbreak?
Jimmy (33:58):
A heartbreak.
Yeah, we'll take a heartbreak and come back.
And that sounds like we're going to have baby aspirin.
All right, we'll take a break and then we'll come back and we'll check mail and do stuff like that.
Harold (34:16):
OK.
Liz (34:17):
Hi, everyone.
We may have finished the Great Peanuts re-read, but we're not finished talking about these strips.
We have lots more to say about the characters, the art, the humor, the pathos, and how the strip developed over the 50 years.
Starting in September, new episodes will be available twice a month, exclusively on Patreon.
(34:40):
After the three-month season is finished, they'll be available for everyone without a paywall.
We hope you'll stay with us on this amazing ride.
To sign up, go to patreon.com/unpackingpeanuts.
Jimmy (34:55):
All right, we're back, Liz.
I'm hanging out in the mailbox.
We got anything?
Liz (34:58):
We do.
We got an email from super listener John Adama, who writes, here is what happens when a tangent of the podcast intersects with a tangent of peanuts.
And he sends us a YouTube link, which is Vince Guaraldi and Brazilian jazz guitarist Bola Sete playing I'm a Loser.
Jimmy (35:23):
Beautiful version of that.
I have that album.
Well, I have the Greatest Hits album.
And there's a couple of his collaborations with that guitar player.
I really like that.
I think it's real good.
Liz (35:34):
Boy, I really didn't.
Jimmy (35:36):
Oh, you didn't?
Liz (35:37):
No, I love bossa nova.
I love Brazilian music, but that version of I'm a Loser did not work for me at all.
Harold (35:44):
Well, there you go.
Jimmy (35:46):
That's it.
This email has divided Unpacking Peanuts.
Harold (35:50):
Degree to disagree once again.
Jimmy (35:52):
Once again.
Harold (35:55):
There we are.
I have a shout out.
Okay.
So I got a job at Archie Comics.
I was helping them out trying to figure out their business because they've lost a bunch of people in upper management.
And I just got pulled in to help them sort things out.
And then I got hired.
And the very first day after I signed the contract was the first day of the New York Comic Con.
(36:18):
And so I was invited down to just be at the booth because I still lived in Virginia and we were getting ready to make the big move.
But I was down there.
I think Stan Lee showed up, got to shake his hand.
It was cool.
And then this couple walked up into the booth and this lady asked about one of the guys who had been running the second generation of this family owned Archie business.
(36:40):
And I had to tell her that he passed away.
Well, she had dated him.
Oh my god.
And she was like, I'm sorry, so sorry to hear that.
I said, do you have any more details?
I said, I'm sorry, I just started at Archie like yesterday.
And then the guy who was with her said, so you just got a job?
The Archie is in Mamara, New York, right?
(37:02):
Just north of us.
And I said, yes.
He said, are you moving to the area?
I said, yeah.
And he said, what areas are you looking at?
I said, I'm looking at a town called Rye.
He says, oh, I live in Rye.
You do?
And I said, yeah.
And he said, is there any place in Rye you're looking at?
He says, well, there's this beautiful little cottage on 9 Beck Avenue in Rye.
(37:23):
And he said, that's across the street from me.
Jimmy (37:26):
Oh my gosh.
Harold (37:27):
And I'm like, what?
And he said, yeah.
And he says, and by the way, I'm the pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Rye.
If you're looking for a church home, he gave me his business card.
And he said, I'd love to see you.
And I was kind of floored by it.
And I saw it that evening.
(37:47):
I called up Diane, who was down in Virginia, my wife.
And I said, I just met this guy.
He's the senior pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church.
And he would be our neighbor across the street if we get this guy, which we did get.
But when I was telling Diane, it's like, yeah, this guy's the senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church.
She says, I was just online today trying to find a church.
And I picked Trinity Presbyterian Church.
(38:08):
I was like, you're kidding me.
So that was just really cool because that, that was the first neighbor, first friend and my church and my pastor, all in one little meeting.
He's like, I don't tend to run into senior pastors of churches at Comic Cons.
I don't know about you guys.
It's kind of, kind of unusual.
(38:29):
And we did wind up going to that church.
That's my church today.
And I just want to send a shout out to he's, Craig is also a super listener of Unpacking Peanuts and Craig Higgins.
And he just retired after 30 years at our church.
So I just wanted to give him a shout out.
Jimmy (38:45):
That's fantastic.
Liz (38:46):
Wow.
Jimmy (38:46):
Well, enjoy your retirement.
That's, that's wonderful.
Liz (38:50):
Congratulations.
Jimmy (38:52):
And thank you for listening.
Liz (38:53):
And writing.
He communicates too.
Harold (38:55):
Yes.
Jimmy (38:56):
So that's, that's the mailbox.
If you want to reach out, I would love to hear from a lot of you as we reach the end.
Here's the other thing I would love.
Do this for me, for a favor.
We, I have, I have read to you.
How many strips have I have read to these people over the air?
Liz (39:11):
Let's see, like 20, 20 for 150 episode, 160, something like that.
20-ish.
Jimmy (39:17):
Using my math skills, that's a lot.
So if you want to thank me for reading those peanut strips poorly to you in your ear, give us a review.
I would love for us to get a whole bunch of reviews here as we wrap this thing up.
It's been a huge joy for us, but it's also been a lot of work.
So if you've enjoyed this, let us know.
(39:38):
That would be just, I would consider it a personal favor.
And also remember, if I don't hear, I worry.
So you don't want to insult me and make me worry.
Liz (39:47):
And we're not going away.
Jimmy (39:49):
No.
Liz (39:49):
We're just coming to the conclusion of a season.
Jimmy (39:54):
Yes, exactly.
Harold (39:55):
A season of seasons.
Jimmy (39:57):
But I want you to do this before we wrap up.
So if you got a chance to leave a review for us anywhere, wherever you listen to it, in the next week or so, go ahead and do it.
That'd be great.
Michael (40:08):
Yeah.
Harold (40:09):
Thank you.
Michael (40:09):
All right.
Jimmy (40:10):
What do you say we get back to the old strips?
July 17th, Charlie Brown and Franklin are hanging out at the thinking wall.
And Charlie Brown says, Is your grandpa still playing golf?
And Franklin says, Yes, but he's given up trying to shoot his age.
Now he's trying to shoot the temperature.
They walk away.
Franklin says, It was hot yesterday.
(40:30):
He shot a 102.
Michael (40:34):
And so we bid farewell to one of the most favorite characters, the thinking wall.
Liz (40:40):
No.
Michael (40:42):
This is the last appearance.
Harold (40:45):
Wow.
Wow.
Jimmy (40:48):
That hurts for some reason.
He never made the thinking wall think, did he?
That's really good.
Like, when everything was thinking, like the school was thinking and rocks were thinking, the thinking wall itself never, we never heard of it.
Michael (41:02):
It was a good old wall.
Jimmy (41:03):
It was a good old wall.
Liz (41:04):
It continues on our t-shirts and our logo.
Harold (41:08):
Yes.
Wow.
And reading this one, of course, again, based on Schulz being at the end of his life, and it's kind of, it's also poignant.
Shooting your age.
Michael (41:23):
Yeah.
Jimmy (41:26):
I like this drawing, though.
I like them at the thinking wall, and I like the little gate, even though the gate is super rickety.
But that's okay for a gate.
Harold (41:34):
You like the stripes on Franklin's shirt?
Jimmy (41:39):
Oh my God.
That's so weird.
I didn't even recognize it.
Harold (41:43):
It's a 90s thing, I'm guessing.
Jimmy (41:44):
Yeah.
Really weird.
But that's the good looking comic strip.
Again, when you see Charlie Brown's head, you're not seeing any tremor.
No.
You see, though, the gate, and it looks like it's barely held together.
It's held together by his sheer willpower.
Harold (42:02):
Yeah.
Jimmy (42:02):
But Charlie Brown's-
Harold (42:03):
It's a beautiful zippotone that complements it.
Yeah.
Again, I don't know anybody who did zippotone quite the way this was done.
Whoever was doing it, it's nice.
Liz (42:14):
Well, wouldn't it have been Photoshopped by this point?
Jimmy (42:17):
No.
Harold (42:18):
It doesn't look it?
It doesn't look it.
I'm guessing some of it is still-
Jimmy (42:22):
I mean, I'm sure this was still that way.
To do it Photoshopped with zippotone, you'd have to actually scan the zippotone in and then move it around like a texture.
Liz (42:33):
Oh, I see.
Jimmy (42:33):
Just like paint with it.
So I think it'd probably be easier.
Liz (42:36):
I get it.
Jimmy (42:37):
Now you can.
In Clip Studio Pro.
By the way, if anyone's ever been playing around with Clip Studio Pro as a cartoonist, there's a whole setting where you could just create a layer of tone and then draw with your stylus, zippotone to look however you want.
Shadows in the wall that perfectly match your personality.
Michael (42:57):
I had no idea I did that.
Jimmy (42:59):
Are you serious?
I'll show you how when we hang up.
Harold (43:02):
I'll tell you how.
Jimmy (43:04):
Yeah, but it's really cool.
Actually, when I was working on some stuff recently, I was really into it.
I finished all my stuff up and then gave it a day before I handed it in.
Then I went back and I took all the Zippotone out because I was just having fun doing it.
I'm like, this looks like a crazy person.
Harold (43:24):
It's an amazing, amazing program.
I'm assuming a lot of our artists, listeners know about Clip Studio Paint.
But for those of you who are not artists or cartoonists, it was made in, I believe, in Japan, specifically for manga artists.
It's amazing to have a program that's made for cartoonists.
(43:46):
It also has other capabilities.
You can do animation in.
Jimmy (43:48):
You can do animation on it.
Harold (43:49):
It's crazy.
It's crazy what you can do.
You can bring in 3D modeling and all sorts of stuff for layers.
It's cool to have a program made for cartoonists.
And it's also cool that Clip Studio Paint works just as well in an iPad as it does on a Mac or a PC, which is not very common for software.
(44:11):
It's really art software.
So it's incredibly cool.
I'm super grateful to have it.
I'm working on a Sweetest Beasts picture book right now in there.
It's great.
Jimmy (44:21):
Yeah, I've just spent a whole week.
I'm working on a secret project.
I got hired to do something that has been really fun.
Put a little cramp on my other schedule, but I've been really enjoying what Clip Studio is able to do.
It's great.
August 1st.
Interesting that this is an August strip because we see Snoopy at Valley Forge, and he is in his Revolutionary War getup with a super tiny Woodstock, also in Revolutionary War getup next to him.
(44:53):
Snoopy, they both are sitting on a log half buried in the snow and warming themselves at a fire.
And they both are called from off panel, and Snoopy says he wants us, and then we see him and Woodstock saluting outside a log cabin, and they're both dressed in a Revolutionary War finery.
(45:15):
And Snoopy says, Patriot Snoopy and Patriot Woodstock reporting, sir.
And he's just talking to whoever is in the log cabin.
Snoopy continues, yes, sir, we can do that.
And then he turns to Woodstock, who is carrying a giant rifle that is, what, five times the size of him, four times the size of him.
(45:36):
And Snoopy says to him, General Washington wants us to deliver this message to Thomas Payne.
Snoopy then reads the message, which, what's the ethics of this?
I'm not sure.
Harold (45:46):
It's not an envelope.
It's not sealed with wax.
Jimmy (45:50):
So Snoopy reads it and it says, Dear friend, I'm concerned of your welfare.
Are you well?
Tell me your thoughts.
And then Snoopy arrives at Thomas Payne's house and says, Mr.
Payne, a message from the general.
Do you have a response?
And then apparently Thomas Payne gives him a response because Snoopy reads, These are the times that try men's souls.
(46:11):
Snoopy reads and goes, That's too depressing.
I'll change it a little.
And then he brings it to Washington and says, Here you are, sir.
And Snoopy says to Woodstock as they walk away, I see my message made him feel better.
And Woodstock asks the question and Snoopy says, I said, No problem.
Have a nice day.
(46:38):
I don't know why, but that really makes me laugh.
Michael (46:42):
The strip, I mean, the Woodstock with the gun is why I picked this strip.
The Woodstock.
Harold (46:49):
So cute.
Michael (46:50):
It's a tiny gun for Snoopy, but it's just like humongous for Woodstock.
Jimmy (46:54):
And he never stops carrying it on his shoulder.
He is ready.
Harold (46:58):
Yeah.
Michael (46:59):
This seems to fall in this weird Netherland of, it seems more real than most of his fantasies.
Jimmy (47:08):
Yeah.
Michael (47:08):
It's really developed.
So it's almost like he's positing there was a Snoopy in a Woodstock back then.
Jimmy (47:16):
Oh, wait a second.
That's amazing.
If you could do like a universe of Snoopy's all appearing throughout, yeah, which of course he kind of does.
But this is like a really extreme version of it.
Harold (47:29):
Yeah.
Well, what's unique about this version of Snoopy is usually Snoopy is doing something that's got aspiration in it, right?
He's going to be, I'm going to be another animal because that's cool.
I'm going to be a world one flying ace.
I'm going to be Joe Cool.
And even though playing those characters can have their downsides, there's something about it that is, I think, more aspirational than this is.
Liz (47:57):
Patriot Snoopy isn't aspirational?
Harold (48:00):
Well, he's Patriot Snoopy, but he's Patriot Snoopy with bandaged feet.
Yeah, yeah, right.
And it just seems like he's in a place of hardship, baked in hardship whenever we see him in this space.
And so, yeah, you got, and then you got Woodstock.
Look at that little drawing of Woodstock on the bottom tier, the third panel in.
(48:22):
That is just insanely adorable and strange at the same time.
I like all of them.
Jimmy (48:28):
I love the panel in the second tier where they're walking past the tree.
Harold (48:35):
Yeah, gosh, he did spend a lot of time on this.
You can see a lot of thought, extra trouble to make this strip.
And we've seen that a lot with these ones that have to do with war.
And again, you think about somebody who went through that early in life, and it's something that never leaves you, right?
(48:57):
And he is processing it.
On top of that, this is one of the strips that jumps out to me as artistic struggle.
I noticed whatever size he's working on the Sundays versus the Dailies, he has a lot more trouble with the lettering if he's struggling on the Sundays because of the size of whatever he's writing compared to the Daily.
(49:21):
It's not the same size, but he's using, I think, the same tool.
That upper right-hand corner throwaway panel, Patriot Snoopy and Patriot Woodstock Reporting Sir, that's struggle on that lettering.
It doesn't look like his traditional lettering.
But then you've got that little centerpiece one where he's reading Washington's note to Thomas Paine, and that looks pretty darn good.
(49:51):
This one made me think of struggle, and then, of course, the whole theme is struggle.
And then Snoopy trying to take some of the struggle out in this letter.
I don't know.
It works really well.
It's got of a piece.
It's super special.
Jimmy (50:05):
Yeah.
I love the little birds in the background.
The other thing, it's like it's August that this came out, right?
Is that right?
And it's all winter.
Harold (50:15):
Yeah.
And it feels cold when you're reading it.
Jimmy (50:18):
Yeah.
I don't have anything further really to say about that, but that's just-
Harold (50:24):
Well, the thing that hits me when you say that is he's not going to get another winter.
Jimmy (50:28):
Yeah.
Harold (50:28):
He hadn't done it now.
We wouldn't have it.
That's sad.
Jimmy (50:33):
Yeah, it really is.
Liz (50:35):
Well, he gets November through February.
That's winter.
Michael (50:38):
In California, not so much.
Liz (50:41):
True.
Jimmy (50:44):
August 11th, Emily, Snoopy, and Charlie Brown are all dancing.
Then we see the Arthur Murray School step diagrams explaining what they're doing, which is a chaotic, crazy mess with girls' feet, boys' feet, and dog paws.
Liz (51:05):
But it's two kinds of dog paws.
Jimmy (51:09):
Well, it's left feet and right feet.
I don't know what that means.
Michael (51:13):
The black and white must be left and right.
Liz (51:18):
Or front and back.
Jimmy (51:20):
Years ago, I said I had five strips that were the all-time greatest, and this is one.
Michael (51:26):
This is not one.
Jimmy (51:28):
No, this is one.
Michael (51:30):
What?
Jimmy (51:31):
I'm only kidding.
I don't understand it.
Yeah, I don't really understand it.
But I guess-
Harold (51:38):
I picked this one.
It's just, yeah.
Well, again, we're in context reading this.
It's like, okay, he's got a little nice last-minute burst of joy here.
Well, yeah.
The only joke is, when I first read it, because I'm so used to the language of what he's doing, it's like there's no joke.
But of course, the joke is you've got Snoopy's paws in the mix of the Arthur Murray.
(52:03):
And three of them are dancing and it's this crazy diagram.
Jimmy (52:06):
The drawing of them dancing is great.
I love the drawing of them dancing.
Whoever is doing this Zip-a-Tone, adding the little white, actually, hold on a second.
I wonder.
All right, this is gonna, can I speculate wildly?
And I will say, I'm probably wrong about this.
(52:28):
But when you put Zip-a-Tone down on paper and then let it sit there for years, it shrinks.
It doesn't always line up perfectly.
I want, so this is either someone very delicately, no, you know what?
Yeah, it must be someone-
Harold (52:43):
That would be too much serendipity every single time.
Jimmy (52:46):
Right, it wouldn't have worked with the lines and stuff.
Right.
So someone is going in and putting those little highlights in her hair, which is with an X-Acto knife, which is not easy.
Harold (52:55):
This is the best use of Zip-A-Tone I've ever seen.
Jimmy (52:58):
Really?
Harold (52:58):
Whoever's doing it.
Yeah, because of the using the edges to not go up to the line or itself, but creating little highlights by cutting short of that.
Yeah.
Over and over again, really good choices, whoever's doing it.
Looks amazing.
Yeah, it looks better.
There's Zip-A-Tone and lots of comic strips, and all of those duo shades and all of that.
(53:23):
But the more I look at this, I'm like, this is a real artistic use of shading.
It's nice.
Jimmy (53:31):
Just I can just ask you guys right now, what are your thoughts?
I don't think I've ever talked either about that.
What do you guys think of duo shade?
For our listeners out there, that's when, to get those dots effects that you would get right there in her hair, to give it a tone, that's where the paper is already printed with dots that you can't see.
And then you put a chemical on it and it develops the dots.
(53:54):
But it gives a very different kind of grungier look.
What do you guys think of that?
Michael (53:58):
My personal feeling is it looks terrible in black and white, but with color over it, it looks great.
Jimmy (54:04):
If you put the color over it, it does make a difference.
That's interesting.
Harold (54:08):
For me, all I can think of when I see it are the original strips that I've seen what they look like now, 70 years later.
And I just smell chemicals and toxicity whenever I see it.
Jimmy (54:23):
So toxic.
Harold (54:25):
So toxic.
Jimmy (54:26):
I can't imagine people using those several times a day.
Poor old Roy Crane.
Harold (54:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't envy anybody who committed to that and had to live with it.
And the strips don't hold up well.
Jimmy (54:44):
Do you think that affects the value of the original art?
Like Howard Shakin's American Flag is considered a classic of the 80s comics, right?
I'm not talking about Buzz Sawyer and stuff, which obviously is going to have value because it's in the pantheon of things and Crane is a great cartoonist.
But do you think it takes, like if you're just a regular level cartoonist that has pages to sell that are all yellowing and stuff, do you think that hurts the value?
Michael (55:12):
Oh yeah, I'm sure.
Harold (55:13):
Yeah.
I would think so.
I think it hurts it less than if, it's like in the world of comic books.
It's crazy.
When I first got involved in comic book collecting, this would be like early 80s.
The difference between something that was in just ratty condition and really good condition was like three times.
Michael (55:32):
Yeah.
Harold (55:32):
And then all of a sudden the collectors get into it and they're like, no, I want the ultimate one.
And so the value of the one that's in ratty condition kind of stays low.
The ones that are like the 9.9 graded by professionals against all standards of comics, all of a sudden it's like 20, 40, 100 times.
Michael (55:51):
But originally it's different because each one is one of a kind.
Harold (55:55):
Yeah, but that was my point was that if you have somebody who always did the same thing and you only have the ratty version, then it probably doesn't hurt as badly.
Jimmy (56:06):
Because it is what it is.
Harold (56:08):
Yeah.
It's like, like, like Walt Kelly, whenever he would send off a pogo strip, apparently he would fold them.
And if you could get an unfolded one, and then there were like 100 folded ones, then the unfolded ones are going to go through the roof, I'm guessing, for some strange reason, because someone's looking for the rare unfolded one he handed to somebody versus mailing it.
Jimmy (56:28):
Schulz did that for years as well.
Sent them to the syndicate, folded in half, which is just so weird.
Harold (56:35):
Yeah.
This trip, he'd have a hard time doing that.
Jimmy (56:38):
Yeah.
Harold (56:38):
So it's one panel.
Jimmy (56:39):
Yeah.
You got to have that space between panels two and three.
He can fold it.
And finally, August 19th, Rerun is sitting there, and Lucy comes in holding a book, and she's yelling, Why are you just sitting there?
And she holds up a book and yells at him, This is a book.
You know what a book is, don't you?
(57:01):
And this ends Rerun flying butt over tea kettle.
And she sits next to him as he's dazed and confused, and she calls off panel.
Nothing, mom.
I'm just encouraging him to read.
Michael (57:12):
Man, this kid's going to grow up really messed up.
Jimmy (57:15):
He's going to have some nervous tension.
Harold (57:17):
Become an underground cartoonist.
Michael (57:18):
Yep.
Harold (57:20):
Well, given that he was just being read Tolstoy, Lucy's being a little hard on him, I think.
Jimmy (57:28):
Yep.
Harold (57:29):
Yeah.
Jimmy (57:29):
And you know, Lucy has probably never read a book in her life.
Harold (57:35):
Yeah.
And this is the last appearance of mom.
Liz (57:38):
Oh, there you go.
Jimmy (57:40):
Well, guys, we have one more episode left of this year and then one more episode left of the whole shebang.
Is that right?
Liz (57:50):
No, actually, it's not right because after we recorded this, the guys picked so many strips to talk about that we're doing a fourth episode for 1999.
So, based on what I know in this moment, we've got three more episodes of the reread plus the season finale, and then we go into our new format.
Jimmy (58:10):
Then we've already, we've decided what our first post-re-read series is going to be, right?
Liz (58:19):
Yes, but we shouldn't tell them now.
Jimmy (58:21):
All right, we're not going to tell them, but we figured out what our next season is going to be.
How we're going to approach this having read all 17,897 strips.
So, we'll probably reveal that in the next episode or two.
So, you know, please, no wagering.
So, with all that said, as we approach the end, this has been a joy.
(58:44):
It's a joy every week, not just because I get to hang out with my pals and talk about what I love, but also because all you fine people are out there listening.
And I love it.
It's just been so great.
And I think I can say that for all of us.
We have had a wonderful time.
So, it's not over yet.
Come back next week where we're going to be wrapping up 1999.
SPEAKER_2 (59:06):
No, we're not wrapping it up.
Jimmy (59:08):
So with all that said, come back next week.
For Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
SPEAKER_2 (59:14):
Yes.
Liz (59:15):
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.
(59:36):
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.
Harold (59:47):
Uh, well.
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's your most beloved podcast, Unpacking Peanuts, or one of your most beloved, one of your top 10 most beloved.
Anyway, you subscribe to this, I'm assuming, or maybe not.
Anyway, welcome to the show.
It's Unpacking Peanuts.
I'll be your host, Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist.
I do things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow Up, The Dumbest Idea Ever.
(00:42):
And you can read all of my ongoing comics work right now at gvillecomics.substack.com.
And joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts, and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both for the band 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 Spells and Tangled River.
(01:06):
It's Michael Cohen.
Harold (01:07):
Say hey.
Jimmy (01:08):
And he's executive producer and writer for Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president for Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.
Harold (01:17):
Hello.
Jimmy (01:18):
And making sure everything goes smoothly and keeping us out of trouble, it's producer and editor, Liz Sumner.
Liz (01:24):
Howdy.
Jimmy (01:26):
Well, guys, we're inching ever closer to our goal.
We are at the tippy top of Mount Everest and we're about to jump.
So I'm pretty excited.
I never really thought we'd make it, I guess, in some resources of my brain.
(01:46):
So I'm pretty happy.
Some recesses in my brain, rather.
So I'm pretty happy.
Michael (01:50):
Well, we haven't made it yet.
Jimmy (01:53):
I should shut up about it.
Michael (01:55):
I like the idea of someone climbing Mount Everest just to jump off.
Jimmy (01:59):
Do you know what I think would be great?
Whoever's at the top of Mount Everest, the local municipality or whatever, they shouldn't make people give all their life savings.
Once you're already up there and go, sorry, you can only go these last 20 feet, but you have to sign everything over for it to make it.
That's exactly what you deserve if you're standing in line at the top of Mount Everest.
Michael (02:20):
Yeah.
The money goes to retrieving all the frozen bodies that are still there.
Poop.
Harold (02:25):
Yeah.
Jimmy (02:26):
Oh my God.
So, Harold, do you have anything, any backstory or anything at this point?
Harold (02:33):
No, not really.
We know what's coming.
Yeah.
There's this little bit of a quiet period for Peanuts in the News back in 1999.
I think we can just focus on the strips today.
Jimmy (02:50):
Yeah.
There's a lot to talk about in these strips.
How are you guys feeling when you see that this is the last time we see such and such a character, two characters interact, there are things like that?
How are those things starting to hit?
Michael (03:05):
Well, I'm actually picking a few for that reason.
Jimmy (03:09):
Yeah.
Michael (03:09):
Yeah.
That information is important to me.
I mean, it wasn't important to Schulz because he had no idea.
Harold (03:16):
Right.
Jimmy (03:17):
Yeah, but it is hugely important.
You see some of these characters who have had, you know, relationships going back almost 50 years, and it's the last time they'll have a new interaction.
It's pretty special.
Harold (03:29):
Yeah.
The thing that struck me reading this range, which was from May 1st to the end of September, no, end of August, was that it seemed like he had this really real flurry of, of creativity after the hiatus.
(03:50):
He was refreshed from his hiatus and he, I'm sure he backlogged a bunch of ideas because he didn't stop thinking about peanuts.
We know that.
And so there was a really lovely fresh run of, of stuff.
Reading this, these kind of felt a little more like treading water to me in some ways.
There's still some real gems, but that was just kind of the sense I had.
(04:12):
And again, every time I picked these up to read them in blocks, I realized that I'm bringing me to the strip and I don't know if I'm just in a different place when I'm reading these.
But these, these seemed to be, I don't know how to describe it, but they, they seem to be, they weren't venturing into new territories like we always seem doing as much.
(04:35):
That was my sense.
Yeah.
Jimmy (04:37):
Well, I mean, he has, you know, all we have is time and energy and he's kind of run out of both at this point.
Harold (04:43):
Well, I'm not sure how he's feeling at this point.
You know, it's hard to tell, but yeah, I don't know if what hit him, what's going to come, come that leads to the end of the strip, if that was something that he experienced quickly, or if there was just stuff that was dragging him down.
Obviously, he was stressed.
We know he was stressed and it was really hard, getting harder and harder, I'm guessing, to do these strips.
(05:07):
It's taking them longer and it was probably very, very hard as you're getting older and things take longer.
That's got to put stress on you.
If you have to keep up exactly the same output you've always had, you can't really adjust that.
Jimmy (05:22):
I mean, he's been the same output since he's been 30.
Harold (05:27):
Yeah.
Jimmy (05:28):
As a cartoonist and then every other responsibility has just increased.
Harold (05:32):
Managing an empire, yeah.
Michael (05:34):
But then again, he had total power being so popular.
He could have made a decision, I'm just going to do Sundays.
Jimmy (05:43):
Yeah.
Michael (05:43):
I'm not going to do Sundays.
Jimmy (05:45):
Yeah.
That's what I think Gary Trudeau ended up doing, is just converting it to a Sunday strip.
Whatever you felt too, whatever you were consciously aware of, I mean, he did have cancer at this point, and he didn't know it, but he had it.
Harold (05:59):
Yeah.
Jimmy (06:00):
But I took a commercial gig recently that I've been really enjoying doing, and I was up late working on it last night because I had, actually today was the deadline.
And it's hard.
It's a lot of work to be a cartoonist.
Like, oh, all right, I penciled it.
Great.
Well, now I got to ink it.
I mean, there's step after step.
(06:21):
There's really very few, even though since the whole thing is based on shortcuts, there's no shortcuts left.
Right?
And you just got to sit there and fill in all the boxes, and it's a lot of work.
And I can't imagine having drawn almost 18,000 strips.
I mean, it's an insane achievement to even contemplate.
Harold (06:43):
Yeah.
Michael (06:45):
I was surprised because, I hadn't read the strip at all in the 90s.
I might have seen one or two.
But when they published that last strip, everyone saw it.
It was in all the newspapers.
You couldn't avoid reading it.
And I was really shocked.
And how much his drawing ability had deteriorated.
(07:07):
And I was always assuming that it was kind of a line leading to that.
That it would be a degeneration, leading up to that style.
And yet reading this, we're four months away from the end of the strip, going, no, it wasn't deteriorating at all.
(07:28):
He was, these are actually almost exactly what he'd been doing throughout the 90s.
Jimmy (07:34):
Yeah, I'll be curious to think what, or to see what we think of the last few.
To see if we're seeing any difference there, right at, you know, when things got...
Harold (07:44):
Yeah, there were a few in this block of four months that I was like, oh, ouch, what's going on here?
But for the most part, given that we have been reading these in sequence, and the change is so gradual, Schulz has kind of taken me along on his journey, and I'm with him.
(08:04):
Like Michael, if I happen to open up a Sunday newspaper in the 90s and see the art, it was a shock.
But I don't feel that way anymore.
I feel like I'm nestled into where he is and what he's doing.
And it doesn't bother me the way I thought it might bother me, because I remember how much it bothered me when I would see it just randomly because I would say, oh my gosh, he is struggling.
(08:29):
This is hard.
Jimmy (08:30):
Yeah.
Well, that's the difference between art and content really, or art and even just pop culture.
Content, pop culture, what it was when it was coming out at the time, is meant to entertain you and divert you for a few seconds.
And in those instances, you can judge things easily.
You go, nope, did not entertain me.
(08:52):
Nope, not the thing I liked from before.
Harold (08:55):
Good day, sir.
Jimmy (08:56):
But when you commit to it and you go, I'm actually going to put work in to appreciate this thing, it always ends up being better.
You always end up enjoying it more.
You always end up seeing things, I think, that you never saw before.
But I don't know if you can do that until it's over.
You know what I mean?
Harold (09:16):
Well, certainly, you can't consume it in mass quantities because there's not that much new stuff if it's happening in real time.
Jimmy (09:26):
You also don't know, where are we in this?
Is there going to be another 10 years?
Harold (09:31):
Well, yeah.
Having the context, I think, is huge.
Knowing that this is going to end, obviously, at least my head, is, oh, I'm savoring it, right?
And you wouldn't be doing that if you're thinking this might go on another 12 years, right?
Michael (09:49):
Yep.
Harold (09:51):
Yep.
Jimmy (09:53):
Absolutely.
Well, with all that said, let's start taking a look at these strips.
If you want to follow along with us, the first thing you're going to want to do is go over there to unpackingpeanuts.com and sign up for our newsletter.
Sign up for the Great Peanuts Reread.
A little late to the game if you haven't, but that's okay.
Everyone is always welcome and you'll have access to all the old back issues because that'll get you one email a month from us, our little newsletter that'll tell you what we're going to be covering in the upcoming episodes, which will be even more important going forward once we get past the year 2000.
(10:27):
So once you do that, you go online, you find the strips where you can find them, and then I'll read them to you and we'll discuss them.
So let's start off with the strips.
Liz (10:37):
Oh, good.
Jimmy (10:37):
A real easy one to read.
June 6th.
Okay.
So Snoopy is out taking a little hike with the Beagle Scouts and he is a Sunday strip, and we see as the Beagle Scouts go off ahead of him, Snoopy yelling, tell Conrad not to get too far ahead.
(10:58):
But guess what?
Conrad doesn't listen.
He does go far off ahead.
And what does he come up against?
But a street sign that is the don't walk sign, meaning on a pole, there is an LED sign and has the red hand, okay, indicating do not walk.
Conrad sees this and of course, it sends his hat skyrocketing off his head.
(11:18):
This is shocking.
He goes back to the other Beagle Scouts to report what he's seen, and this is indicated by a word balloon with the red hand drawn in it.
Conrad takes them back to the don't walk sign, and the other three hats are sent flying in shock at this.
Then they race back to their Scoutmaster Snoopy, and they're all babbling about red hands.
(11:40):
Snoopy goes to see it, and of course, his hat is sent flying up his head, and his ears go straight up for good measure.
He sees the red hand on top of the pole, saying don't walk or indicating don't walk.
He decides to go back home after all of this, and looking a little shaken, he walks past Charlie Brown, who says, you're back early, what happened?
(12:03):
And Snoopy says, everywhere we went, tall creatures with red hands.
Michael (12:08):
He's only touched on the horror genre a few times.
Mostly the blanket, when the blanket came alive.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is like a horror strip.
Harold (12:20):
Yeah, and he's done this once before.
That scary red hand has popped up earlier.
But somehow, the Beagle Scouts was Snoopy.
This is just incredibly fun and charming.
These little guys are responding to this unknown hand, which strangely looks like the state of Michigan.
Jimmy (12:45):
What a coincidence that is.
Harold (12:48):
But I haven't seen this red hand.
I don't know if this was the red hand in the 90s or a red hand that he remembered.
But yeah, the thumb's kind of sticking out.
It's a different look.
And the sign is different.
I don't know why the red hand is not in the middle of the sign.
It's kind of off.
Jimmy (13:04):
Oh, no, I think I've seen those where the green is on one side and the red is on the other.
Harold (13:09):
Oh, because there's basically two different light bulbs.
Jimmy (13:12):
Yeah, because there were no blue LEDs for decades.
Harold (13:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes total sense.
So, but yeah, it's just seeing everybody respond.
I love the hat flying classic cartooning.
Liz (13:27):
Somebody didn't, somebody's hat doesn't fly.
Harold (13:30):
Yeah, I thought that was cool too.
Jimmy (13:31):
No, no, that's Conrad, because he's already seen it.
Liz (13:34):
Oh, I see.
I get it.
Michael (13:36):
Did you know when your hat flies off, there's two little marks, random marks above it?
Jimmy (13:41):
Got to be.
Otherwise, it's not an official hat shooting off your head moment.
Michael (13:47):
But there is no official mark.
These are all like totally different.
Harold (13:51):
Now, would some cartoonists put the marks below the hat showing where it had come from, or is it always above the hat?
Jimmy (13:58):
I think for some reason, above the hat feels right to me.
If it was below it, it would feel like it was being rocketed off the head more forcefully or something.
Boy, the things we talk about.
I have a college degree, for god's sake.
This is why we're here.
I'm a father.
And I'm like, I don't know when the hat flies off Woodstock.
Liz (14:20):
What do you think?
Harold (14:21):
It is three cartoonists talking about the greatest comics trip of all time.
Jimmy (14:25):
It is.
Harold (14:26):
I mean, we're the greatest of all time.
Yeah, Schulz, I think it was Sally who was upset about the red hand.
Liz (14:34):
That's when I told the story about Michael's greatest moment in his life, or Michael told the story about the red hand.
Michael (14:42):
I'm not going to do it again.
Liz (14:45):
I can put a link to the episode where we.
Jimmy (14:47):
All right.
June 23rd.
Charlie Brown sitting in the beanbag with his baseball cap on, watching some TV, and Sally's on the phone.
She says to him, Lucy's on the phone.
She wants to know why she always has to play right field.
And then Charlie Brown says, traditionally, the player who is weakest defensively plays right field.
(15:07):
And then Sally says, he says, the dumbest player always plays right field.
And Charlie Brown says, this could turn really ugly.
Michael (15:15):
Yeah.
You don't want to get Lucy mad at you.
Jimmy (15:18):
No, definitely not.
Harold (15:21):
Yeah.
This was one of two strips in a row, where that was the punch line.
He had this could turn ugly, and then this could turn really ugly.
So for those who were reading in sequence, they got a little Easter egg there.
Michael (15:37):
Okay.
That's a weird foot.
Liz (15:40):
Maybe it's his hands.
Michael (15:43):
They wouldn't reach that far.
Harold (15:44):
Those are his hands.
Michael (15:46):
You know how long his hands are?
Jimmy (15:48):
Yeah, those are definitely his hands.
Harold (15:50):
Yeah, he really elongates the characters in the beanbag chair, which is interesting.
Again, I don't know why that aesthetically made more sense to him, because we know he breaks rules all the time for whatever he thinks looks best.
Michael (16:02):
Wait, his fingers are kind of webbed.
Jimmy (16:06):
Well, no, he has his whole because two hands together.
Michael (16:08):
Oh, okay, now I see it.
Yeah, all right.
Harold (16:12):
Yeah, better to scrunchie.
Jimmy (16:14):
When in doubt, white it out.
That would have been a good choice, I think, for the hands.
One of the things that happens here, like I said before, his issues with scale become really noticeable.
Like the hands are coming from the wrong part of the body.
Like, could you imagine how long the top of his arm would be?
(16:36):
Yeah.
Or his wrists would have to be able to turn at 90-degree angles.
Harold (16:43):
It's like the Young Killers strips when he had the super tall teenagers.
Jimmy (16:47):
Yeah, right.
Harold (16:48):
The arms go on forever.
Jimmy (16:50):
I thought you said Young Killers.
I'm like, what drip is that?
That would be amazing if he did like a film noir, crew people on the lam, bunny like that.
Harold (16:59):
It's a Neil Gaiman graphic.
Jimmy (17:04):
June 29th, Charlie Brown's still in the old Bane bag, and Sally comes and says to him, do you think I should go to camp?
And Charlie Brown says, only if you want to.
And Sally says, want to?
Since when have I ever had a choice about anything?
And Charlie Brown says, how about the piano lessons?
And Sally says, I didn't want to.
(17:27):
I really think when you're a kid, everything is, you know, the burden of the world being put upon you for like, hey, watch your hands.
Oh my God, to watch my hands.
I can't.
Michael (17:41):
I had to take the garbage out once a week.
Jimmy (17:43):
Oh my God, the humanity.
They, kids today don't understand what we went through.
And you never realize how much of it's really based all around you, the whole family structure, you know.
She has a choice in everything.
Harold (17:59):
I remember swimming lessons.
That was a big one.
I hated to do the swimming lessons.
Oh, it was like torture.
You have to go down to the pool and get into the freezing water and half drown to learn how to not drown.
Jimmy (18:12):
And they're always at 8 a.m.
That's the only time I have swimming lessons.
No one has a leisurely afternoon swimming lesson.
Harold (18:19):
No, no, this is the off hours when no one in their right mind would be at the pool, unless they had an appointment.
Right.
Jimmy (18:26):
I took them all the way up to lifeguard training where you had to jump off the tie-dye fully clothed.
I'm sure we discussed this at some point.
Wearing, like, jeans, a boat.
Harold (18:36):
I had to get the swimmers.
Swimmers, that was the one I had to get to.
Jimmy (18:40):
There you go.
June 30th, Sally's on the phone again, and she says, Camp?
No, I don't want to go to your camp.
Stop calling me.
Then she says to her big brother, I told them I didn't want to go to their camp.
Charlie Brown, who's sitting in his chair reading, says, Good for you.
Then Sally says, as she climbs up on the edge of the chair to look over, she says, Really?
(19:03):
You mean that?
I did the right thing?
Charlie Brown says, Absolutely.
Then Sally says, Good for me.
Harold (19:13):
It's cool that he's doing something he has not done in 49 years.
He's not had a kid crawling over the top of an easy chair before or tucking her head underneath the bottom of the oversized armrest.
Jimmy (19:25):
This looks like he challenged himself, and because of the challenge, it elevated it, I think.
I further feel like that was something observed.
A little kid running around, hopping up on the armchair of his easy chair or something like that.
(19:46):
This is a great life lesson.
Someone called and said something, she forthrightly said her opinion and said, that will be the end of it.
That's actually the mature way to handle everything.
And it's the first way that first person possibly in Peanuts.
Is this the first time anyone acted reasonably?
Harold (20:06):
And you say that this was a strip where it looks like he kind of pushed himself to do something different and unique.
And what's interesting is this run of strips, we mentioned the lettering occasionally goes super wonky.
Here, it's really strong and that's good lettering.
(20:26):
I mean, you don't see any trouble with his lettering here.
So I don't know if it's one of those things.
This is a good day.
It says the lettering seems to be my guide to how he's feeling because it's the thing you know exactly what it's supposed to look like.
And then you kind of see it in connection to how far off it is from what we know he's shooting for.
SPEAKER_2 (20:48):
Yeah.
Jimmy (20:50):
July 4th, the symbolic panel, I assume, but maybe not, of Rerun reading a gigantic book, like not in terms of page count, but in terms of the physical size of the book, it's bigger than Rerun.
And then we have another panel on this top tier of the Sunday where Rerun just begins saying, last night, and Linus is next to him holding his blanket.
(21:15):
Then the strip begins for real with Rerun and Linus sitting there, Linus in classic thumb and blanket position.
And Rerun says, Grandpa read it to me.
It was in a story by Leo Tolstoy.
This woman had four children, C, and this is Rerun continuing, and they all slept together in a big cradle.
Linus is making no reaction to this, just sitting there with his thumb and blanket.
(21:36):
And Rerun says, when she put them to bed, she gave each one a sucking rag.
Linus perks up at this, doesn't like the sound of it.
And then there's a silent panel with Linus sitting there and just looks at Rerun, who isn't saying anything, seems to be just keeping to himself.
But then as Linus gets up to leave, Rerun turns and says, enjoy your sucking rag.
(22:01):
And then from off panel, Linus throws the blanket at Rerun, hitting him in the head, and Rerun is delighted at his little dig at his older brother.
Harold (22:12):
That's a great little moment.
That's something we haven't seen with Rerun and Linus before.
Jimmy (22:16):
Yeah.
Well, now this year, he has shown them together much more.
Yes.
And I think it's cool because you know, one, the other thing we keeps thinking of Linus as his big brother, which is true, but Linus has now become a middle child, which we were talking about in a recent episode, how people change depending on the group dynamic they're in.
Harold (22:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (22:38):
Well, you know, there's no more delicately balanced group dynamic, I don't think, than probably three siblings.
Harold (22:45):
Yeah.
Linus has largely been checked out, but we're seeing a little bit more of an engagement here.
But you certainly haven't seen Rerun take the initiative to make a point to Linus.
Other than, at least, he's done some stuff like that maybe you could say with both Linus and Lucy around him, but specifically Linus.
(23:07):
It must be in the Van Pelt jeans to dig, to do digs on people.
I don't know.
Jimmy (23:15):
Well, I think it's a classic sibling thing, right?
I mean, people joshing each other.
Well, this is also, this is the only way me and my friends spoke to each other was like teasing and I don't think anyone ever said anything sincere in my entire childhood.
Harold (23:34):
That's crazy.
Jimmy (23:35):
Oh, really?
Harold (23:36):
Oh, yeah.
Jimmy (23:37):
Like, I know there's some times I slip into talking just the way I talk to everyone I knew growing up, including my parents and grandparents and you delicate flowers like wilt.
It's really weird.
Harold (23:50):
Yeah, it seems like, you know, I'd have friends where we would be looking alongside each other at something was very like very mystery science theater.
You know, we, I remember when I was like nine years old, we've gotten a, one of those gigantic, heavy cassette tape recorders with the plug-in mic.
(24:11):
That was the best thing for our family to have.
So, you know, we'd invite a friend over and we would be doing parodies of TV commercials and stuff in the recorder, but we wouldn't be digging on each other.
Jimmy (24:24):
Oh yeah, so you'll, you guys, right?
Cause you will make fun of people who are either dead or not present.
Got it.
Harold (24:30):
Yeah, well, yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah, we were, we were looking at stuff together.
We weren't, we weren't trashing each other.
We were looking at stuff.
Jimmy (24:38):
But that was the love, like I love those guys.
Like that, there was.
Harold (24:41):
Oh, no, I know.
I had a friend from Youngstown, Ohio, who said, yeah, that was, that was absolutely.
And the fact that we allowed each other to say the most horrible things that certainly in, in a PC culture absolutely would not fly.
But I mean, he made impassioned arguments for why it was so important that the things that we had in common and what we had different, we were able to dig each other incredibly hard.
(25:12):
And that signified something to them that they were really close, that they had the right to do that with each other.
Jimmy (25:20):
Well, yeah.
And if an outsider does it, it doesn't work.
Harold (25:24):
Right.
But it defines you as an insider, yeah.
Jimmy (25:28):
Yeah.
And you also wouldn't talk to an outsider like that.
If you don't have the closeness and you don't have the friendship to build on, you're just mean.
Harold (25:37):
Yeah.
Jimmy (25:37):
And that's the hard part.
And that's why I think it's hard, like, because those cultures and those groups, like your friend and I had, they're not everywhere.
Harold (25:46):
Right.
So some people will look at what you grew up with and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about or where you're coming from.
Right.
Right.
And it's weird, little rerun in that fourth panel, the parentheses are gone around his eyes.
He has a little eyebrows instead.
(26:07):
And he just looks, he looks different.
It's almost like visually he's graduated into something in this strip, as well as in terms of the theme and what's going on in the strip.
That him being hit with the blanket in the last panel, and with the big smile on his face, his tongue sticking out is adorable and absolutely new.
(26:30):
We have not seen that of any character.
I don't think I remember ever seeing a character happily being hit or something.
Yeah.
It's really special.
It's like, oh, this is a peanuts I've never seen before, and that's cool seeing that this late 1999.
Jimmy (26:46):
That's one of the things with cartooning that's difficult to do.
Because there's not dialogue in that particular panel.
But a lot of times, the facial expression like it is in this is different than, or it implies something different than the overall content of the panel, right?
(27:06):
So if someone says something, and the character is smiling, it's different than if they say the same exact thing, but the character is frowning, right?
Harold (27:13):
Absolutely.
Jimmy (27:13):
And if Rerun just had an open mouth like shocked look, it would be a totally different thing.
Harold (27:20):
Oh, yeah.
This is a joyous strip in a strange way.
Yes.
Even though he's ticked off Linus.
Jimmy (27:28):
Right.
But who isn't that ticked off probably either?
Harold (27:32):
Well, yeah.
And in a way that it's like being healthily ticked off.
Jimmy (27:38):
Yeah.
Harold (27:38):
Yeah.
Jimmy (27:39):
Yeah.
Harold (27:39):
Yeah.
And very cleverly ticked off by this little Rerun who is, he's got a lot of interesting insights.
Absolutely.
Jimmy (27:52):
July 11th, Charlie Brown's at camp and he's standing at the end of a dock, then he sits down, and who should appear next to him but good old Peggy Jean.
And he says to her, Peggy Jean!
And she goes, Brownie, Charles!
And they both look very happy to see each other.
And Charlie Brown says, I didn't know you were here at camp.
Actually, I was just thinking about you.
(28:14):
And then Peggy Jean leans on one of the pillars of the dock and says, I wasn't going to camp this year, but my boyfriend said he'd be here.
And then she walks off the deck saying, anyway, I promised to meet him over by the soccer field.
And Charlie Brown says, boyfriend?
And then he calls out after her, but remember when?
Remember when?
Remember?
(28:35):
And then there's just a silent panel as he watches out after her.
And he goes to a payphone and calls his sister and says, Sally, put Snoopy on the phone, will you?
And she does.
And Snoopy says, woof.
And Charlie Brown says, thanks.
I needed to hear a friendly voice.
That's a good one.
Michael (28:53):
And, of course, that is the final piggy gene.
Harold (28:58):
Wow.
Jimmy (28:59):
Well, that's a great one.
Sad.
Michael (29:01):
I always thought it was very odd that she just disappeared.
Harold (29:06):
Yeah.
Michael (29:06):
It looked to me like Schulz was taking a big gamble on really changing one of the characters.
And, yeah, he just kind of dropped it.
So he wraps it up here.
Jimmy (29:17):
Yeah.
When you see that, I mean, wrapping it up is exactly what's going on.
And I mean, as you see these next couple of months, it's hard to not feel like things are getting wrapped up, even though they couldn't have been consciously, you know?
But if you were going to write a good ending to piggy gene that fits with Charlie Brown, and you don't want it to make it a happy one, this is a great one.
Harold (29:41):
Yeah.
I mean, it's crazy.
He's sitting out by himself on the dock at this camp.
And then he turns to his right, and she is kneeling next to him at the end of the dock.
Jimmy (29:51):
Yeah.
Harold (29:52):
And she's just shown up to tell him that she wasn't going to go to camp, but her boyfriend said he's got to go meet him.
That was it.
She just says his name, and she doesn't go, hello.
Couldn't say great to see you.
She just came to tell him that she's got a boyfriend, but she's got to go.
Well, Charlie Brown.
Michael (30:11):
And here's the big twist.
Next one.
Jimmy (30:16):
July 13th, Charlie Brown and Linus are hanging out at the thinking wall, and Linus says, I just saw the little red haired girl down at the playground.
We had a nice talk.
She sure is cute.
And Charlie Brown says, did she say anything about me?
And Linus says, did she what?
And Charlie Brown says, I can't stand it.
Michael (30:33):
Oh, yeah, Linus, man, stabbing his friend in the back.
Jimmy (30:38):
Yeah.
Harold (30:39):
Is he?
Yeah.
Or is he just talking to the little red haired girl who happens to be in the school?
Michael (30:45):
You don't tell Charlie Brown that he told her.
Liz (30:47):
You do if it's innocent.
Jimmy (30:48):
It's never in it.
Michael (30:50):
If you're aware.
Jimmy (30:50):
Look at that sly smile on Linus' face.
Liz (30:53):
That's not sly.
It's just happy.
Jimmy (30:57):
He's a devil, as my mother would say.
Harold (31:02):
I'm with Liz.
Jimmy (31:03):
No, I mean, obviously, he was doing nothing wrong.
And clearly, the little red haired girl is just the bee's knees.
But he could have mentioned Charlie Brown.
It wouldn't have hurt him.
Harold (31:16):
Well, when you're living your life, I'm assuming we who read Peanuts would think that Charlie Brown's pining.
But Linus is only around for part of his pining.
So he's just living his life.
He's on the playground.
I mean, come on.
Liz (31:31):
And in the next panel, after Charlie Brown repeats himself, Linus can say, yes, we had a long talk about you.
He just misunderstood.
Harold (31:44):
Linus has given Charlie Brown a lot of chances with the little red haired girl.
And he's tried to push him forward.
And I think it would not be inappropriate to wash your hands of that and just go on.
Jimmy (31:56):
Well, I wouldn't.
Yeah.
But I wouldn't say she was cute.
And I wouldn't talk.
I wouldn't say, hey, you know that girl you're playing about?
I talked to her today.
Boy, she is cute.
And also, I didn't mention you.
Harold (32:07):
I would, especially if you agree that she's cute.
That's something you got in common.
That's not bad.
Jimmy (32:12):
I guess.
And I guess we'll agree to differ.
SPEAKER_2 (32:17):
Okay.
Harold (32:19):
Great drawing of Linus in the second panel.
Jimmy (32:21):
Yeah.
Harold (32:22):
It's up to you to decide if he's being sly or not.
Listeners, is he looking sly?
He's definitely looking happy.
He's off in another place, it seems like.
Liz (32:33):
This is why he doesn't understand what Charlie Brown said.
Harold (32:37):
Yeah.
Right.
Jimmy (32:38):
He's contemplating.
Concentrating on making out with Charlie Brown's One True Love.
Harold (32:43):
We can't.
Jimmy (32:46):
I know what's happening.
July 14th.
Moving on.
We're out here on the old pictures mound and there's Schroeder, Charlie Brown, and Lucy.
Schroeder says, that sounds like a fire engine.
Charlie Brown, ever the quick mind says, something must be on fire.
And Lucy says, well, it sure isn't our picture.
(33:07):
And then she laughs as she walks back out to the right field.
And Schroeder says, let's see Charlie Brown.
Let her get about 10 feet away.
Then throw your glove at her knowing it's not going to hit her.
Yeah, not if she lets her get as far as 10 feet away.
But this I picked because this is the last time we see Schroeder and Charlie Brown together.
Michael (33:32):
Really?
Jimmy (33:33):
Yeah.
Michael (33:33):
Wow.
I missed that note.
Yeah.
Breaks my heart.
Yeah, there's going to be a lot of heartbreak coming up.
Yeah.
A lot of goodbyes, many, many partings.
Liz (33:44):
Eek, let's just stop the podcast now.
I don't want to have this much pain.
Jimmy (33:50):
Be of good cheer.
Michael (33:51):
Yes.
Yeah, this next one is a heartbreaker.
Jimmy (33:54):
Well, how about we take a break and then come back?
Liz (33:57):
A heartbreak?
Jimmy (33:58):
A heartbreak.
Yeah, we'll take a heartbreak and come back.
And that sounds like we're going to have baby aspirin.
All right, we'll take a break and then we'll come back and we'll check mail and do stuff like that.
Harold (34:16):
OK.
Liz (34:17):
Hi, everyone.
We may have finished the Great Peanuts re-read, but we're not finished talking about these strips.
We have lots more to say about the characters, the art, the humor, the pathos, and how the strip developed over the 50 years.
Starting in September, new episodes will be available twice a month, exclusively on Patreon.
(34:40):
After the three-month season is finished, they'll be available for everyone without a paywall.
We hope you'll stay with us on this amazing ride.
To sign up, go to patreon.com/unpackingpeanuts.
Jimmy (34:55):
All right, we're back, Liz.
I'm hanging out in the mailbox.
We got anything?
Liz (34:58):
We do.
We got an email from super listener John Adama, who writes, here is what happens when a tangent of the podcast intersects with a tangent of peanuts.
And he sends us a YouTube link, which is Vince Guaraldi and Brazilian jazz guitarist Bola Sete playing I'm a Loser.
Jimmy (35:23):
Beautiful version of that.
I have that album.
Well, I have the Greatest Hits album.
And there's a couple of his collaborations with that guitar player.
I really like that.
I think it's real good.
Liz (35:34):
Boy, I really didn't.
Jimmy (35:36):
Oh, you didn't?
Liz (35:37):
No, I love bossa nova.
I love Brazilian music, but that version of I'm a Loser did not work for me at all.
Harold (35:44):
Well, there you go.
Jimmy (35:46):
That's it.
This email has divided Unpacking Peanuts.
Harold (35:50):
Degree to disagree once again.
Jimmy (35:52):
Once again.
Harold (35:55):
There we are.
I have a shout out.
Okay.
So I got a job at Archie Comics.
I was helping them out trying to figure out their business because they've lost a bunch of people in upper management.
And I just got pulled in to help them sort things out.
And then I got hired.
And the very first day after I signed the contract was the first day of the New York Comic Con.
(36:18):
And so I was invited down to just be at the booth because I still lived in Virginia and we were getting ready to make the big move.
But I was down there.
I think Stan Lee showed up, got to shake his hand.
It was cool.
And then this couple walked up into the booth and this lady asked about one of the guys who had been running the second generation of this family owned Archie business.
(36:40):
And I had to tell her that he passed away.
Well, she had dated him.
Oh my god.
And she was like, I'm sorry, so sorry to hear that.
I said, do you have any more details?
I said, I'm sorry, I just started at Archie like yesterday.
And then the guy who was with her said, so you just got a job?
The Archie is in Mamara, New York, right?
(37:02):
Just north of us.
And I said, yes.
He said, are you moving to the area?
I said, yeah.
And he said, what areas are you looking at?
I said, I'm looking at a town called Rye.
He says, oh, I live in Rye.
You do?
And I said, yeah.
And he said, is there any place in Rye you're looking at?
He says, well, there's this beautiful little cottage on 9 Beck Avenue in Rye.
(37:23):
And he said, that's across the street from me.
Jimmy (37:26):
Oh my gosh.
Harold (37:27):
And I'm like, what?
And he said, yeah.
And he says, and by the way, I'm the pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Rye.
If you're looking for a church home, he gave me his business card.
And he said, I'd love to see you.
And I was kind of floored by it.
And I saw it that evening.
(37:47):
I called up Diane, who was down in Virginia, my wife.
And I said, I just met this guy.
He's the senior pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church.
And he would be our neighbor across the street if we get this guy, which we did get.
But when I was telling Diane, it's like, yeah, this guy's the senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church.
She says, I was just online today trying to find a church.
And I picked Trinity Presbyterian Church.
(38:08):
I was like, you're kidding me.
So that was just really cool because that, that was the first neighbor, first friend and my church and my pastor, all in one little meeting.
He's like, I don't tend to run into senior pastors of churches at Comic Cons.
I don't know about you guys.
It's kind of, kind of unusual.
(38:29):
And we did wind up going to that church.
That's my church today.
And I just want to send a shout out to he's, Craig is also a super listener of Unpacking Peanuts and Craig Higgins.
And he just retired after 30 years at our church.
So I just wanted to give him a shout out.
Jimmy (38:45):
That's fantastic.
Liz (38:46):
Wow.
Jimmy (38:46):
Well, enjoy your retirement.
That's, that's wonderful.
Liz (38:50):
Congratulations.
Jimmy (38:52):
And thank you for listening.
Liz (38:53):
And writing.
He communicates too.
Harold (38:55):
Yes.
Jimmy (38:56):
So that's, that's the mailbox.
If you want to reach out, I would love to hear from a lot of you as we reach the end.
Here's the other thing I would love.
Do this for me, for a favor.
We, I have, I have read to you.
How many strips have I have read to these people over the air?
Liz (39:11):
Let's see, like 20, 20 for 150 episode, 160, something like that.
20-ish.
Jimmy (39:17):
Using my math skills, that's a lot.
So if you want to thank me for reading those peanut strips poorly to you in your ear, give us a review.
I would love for us to get a whole bunch of reviews here as we wrap this thing up.
It's been a huge joy for us, but it's also been a lot of work.
So if you've enjoyed this, let us know.
(39:38):
That would be just, I would consider it a personal favor.
And also remember, if I don't hear, I worry.
So you don't want to insult me and make me worry.
Liz (39:47):
And we're not going away.
Jimmy (39:49):
No.
Liz (39:49):
We're just coming to the conclusion of a season.
Jimmy (39:54):
Yes, exactly.
Harold (39:55):
A season of seasons.
Jimmy (39:57):
But I want you to do this before we wrap up.
So if you got a chance to leave a review for us anywhere, wherever you listen to it, in the next week or so, go ahead and do it.
That'd be great.
Michael (40:08):
Yeah.
Harold (40:09):
Thank you.
Michael (40:09):
All right.
Jimmy (40:10):
What do you say we get back to the old strips?
July 17th, Charlie Brown and Franklin are hanging out at the thinking wall.
And Charlie Brown says, Is your grandpa still playing golf?
And Franklin says, Yes, but he's given up trying to shoot his age.
Now he's trying to shoot the temperature.
They walk away.
Franklin says, It was hot yesterday.
(40:30):
He shot a 102.
Michael (40:34):
And so we bid farewell to one of the most favorite characters, the thinking wall.
Liz (40:40):
No.
Michael (40:42):
This is the last appearance.
Harold (40:45):
Wow.
Wow.
Jimmy (40:48):
That hurts for some reason.
He never made the thinking wall think, did he?
That's really good.
Like, when everything was thinking, like the school was thinking and rocks were thinking, the thinking wall itself never, we never heard of it.
Michael (41:02):
It was a good old wall.
Jimmy (41:03):
It was a good old wall.
Liz (41:04):
It continues on our t-shirts and our logo.
Harold (41:08):
Yes.
Wow.
And reading this one, of course, again, based on Schulz being at the end of his life, and it's kind of, it's also poignant.
Shooting your age.
Michael (41:23):
Yeah.
Jimmy (41:26):
I like this drawing, though.
I like them at the thinking wall, and I like the little gate, even though the gate is super rickety.
But that's okay for a gate.
Harold (41:34):
You like the stripes on Franklin's shirt?
Jimmy (41:39):
Oh my God.
That's so weird.
I didn't even recognize it.
Harold (41:43):
It's a 90s thing, I'm guessing.
Jimmy (41:44):
Yeah.
Really weird.
But that's the good looking comic strip.
Again, when you see Charlie Brown's head, you're not seeing any tremor.
No.
You see, though, the gate, and it looks like it's barely held together.
It's held together by his sheer willpower.
Harold (42:02):
Yeah.
Jimmy (42:02):
But Charlie Brown's-
Harold (42:03):
It's a beautiful zippotone that complements it.
Yeah.
Again, I don't know anybody who did zippotone quite the way this was done.
Whoever was doing it, it's nice.
Liz (42:14):
Well, wouldn't it have been Photoshopped by this point?
Jimmy (42:17):
No.
Harold (42:18):
It doesn't look it?
It doesn't look it.
I'm guessing some of it is still-
Jimmy (42:22):
I mean, I'm sure this was still that way.
To do it Photoshopped with zippotone, you'd have to actually scan the zippotone in and then move it around like a texture.
Liz (42:33):
Oh, I see.
Jimmy (42:33):
Just like paint with it.
So I think it'd probably be easier.
Liz (42:36):
I get it.
Jimmy (42:37):
Now you can.
In Clip Studio Pro.
By the way, if anyone's ever been playing around with Clip Studio Pro as a cartoonist, there's a whole setting where you could just create a layer of tone and then draw with your stylus, zippotone to look however you want.
Shadows in the wall that perfectly match your personality.
Michael (42:57):
I had no idea I did that.
Jimmy (42:59):
Are you serious?
I'll show you how when we hang up.
Harold (43:02):
I'll tell you how.
Jimmy (43:04):
Yeah, but it's really cool.
Actually, when I was working on some stuff recently, I was really into it.
I finished all my stuff up and then gave it a day before I handed it in.
Then I went back and I took all the Zippotone out because I was just having fun doing it.
I'm like, this looks like a crazy person.
Harold (43:24):
It's an amazing, amazing program.
I'm assuming a lot of our artists, listeners know about Clip Studio Paint.
But for those of you who are not artists or cartoonists, it was made in, I believe, in Japan, specifically for manga artists.
It's amazing to have a program that's made for cartoonists.
(43:46):
It also has other capabilities.
You can do animation in.
Jimmy (43:48):
You can do animation on it.
Harold (43:49):
It's crazy.
It's crazy what you can do.
You can bring in 3D modeling and all sorts of stuff for layers.
It's cool to have a program made for cartoonists.
And it's also cool that Clip Studio Paint works just as well in an iPad as it does on a Mac or a PC, which is not very common for software.
(44:11):
It's really art software.
So it's incredibly cool.
I'm super grateful to have it.
I'm working on a Sweetest Beasts picture book right now in there.
It's great.
Jimmy (44:21):
Yeah, I've just spent a whole week.
I'm working on a secret project.
I got hired to do something that has been really fun.
Put a little cramp on my other schedule, but I've been really enjoying what Clip Studio is able to do.
It's great.
August 1st.
Interesting that this is an August strip because we see Snoopy at Valley Forge, and he is in his Revolutionary War getup with a super tiny Woodstock, also in Revolutionary War getup next to him.
(44:53):
Snoopy, they both are sitting on a log half buried in the snow and warming themselves at a fire.
And they both are called from off panel, and Snoopy says he wants us, and then we see him and Woodstock saluting outside a log cabin, and they're both dressed in a Revolutionary War finery.
(45:15):
And Snoopy says, Patriot Snoopy and Patriot Woodstock reporting, sir.
And he's just talking to whoever is in the log cabin.
Snoopy continues, yes, sir, we can do that.
And then he turns to Woodstock, who is carrying a giant rifle that is, what, five times the size of him, four times the size of him.
(45:36):
And Snoopy says to him, General Washington wants us to deliver this message to Thomas Payne.
Snoopy then reads the message, which, what's the ethics of this?
I'm not sure.
Harold (45:46):
It's not an envelope.
It's not sealed with wax.
Jimmy (45:50):
So Snoopy reads it and it says, Dear friend, I'm concerned of your welfare.
Are you well?
Tell me your thoughts.
And then Snoopy arrives at Thomas Payne's house and says, Mr.
Payne, a message from the general.
Do you have a response?
And then apparently Thomas Payne gives him a response because Snoopy reads, These are the times that try men's souls.
(46:11):
Snoopy reads and goes, That's too depressing.
I'll change it a little.
And then he brings it to Washington and says, Here you are, sir.
And Snoopy says to Woodstock as they walk away, I see my message made him feel better.
And Woodstock asks the question and Snoopy says, I said, No problem.
Have a nice day.
(46:38):
I don't know why, but that really makes me laugh.
Michael (46:42):
The strip, I mean, the Woodstock with the gun is why I picked this strip.
The Woodstock.
Harold (46:49):
So cute.
Michael (46:50):
It's a tiny gun for Snoopy, but it's just like humongous for Woodstock.
Jimmy (46:54):
And he never stops carrying it on his shoulder.
He is ready.
Harold (46:58):
Yeah.
Michael (46:59):
This seems to fall in this weird Netherland of, it seems more real than most of his fantasies.
Jimmy (47:08):
Yeah.
Michael (47:08):
It's really developed.
So it's almost like he's positing there was a Snoopy in a Woodstock back then.
Jimmy (47:16):
Oh, wait a second.
That's amazing.
If you could do like a universe of Snoopy's all appearing throughout, yeah, which of course he kind of does.
But this is like a really extreme version of it.
Harold (47:29):
Yeah.
Well, what's unique about this version of Snoopy is usually Snoopy is doing something that's got aspiration in it, right?
He's going to be, I'm going to be another animal because that's cool.
I'm going to be a world one flying ace.
I'm going to be Joe Cool.
And even though playing those characters can have their downsides, there's something about it that is, I think, more aspirational than this is.
Liz (47:57):
Patriot Snoopy isn't aspirational?
Harold (48:00):
Well, he's Patriot Snoopy, but he's Patriot Snoopy with bandaged feet.
Yeah, yeah, right.
And it just seems like he's in a place of hardship, baked in hardship whenever we see him in this space.
And so, yeah, you got, and then you got Woodstock.
Look at that little drawing of Woodstock on the bottom tier, the third panel in.
(48:22):
That is just insanely adorable and strange at the same time.
I like all of them.
Jimmy (48:28):
I love the panel in the second tier where they're walking past the tree.
Harold (48:35):
Yeah, gosh, he did spend a lot of time on this.
You can see a lot of thought, extra trouble to make this strip.
And we've seen that a lot with these ones that have to do with war.
And again, you think about somebody who went through that early in life, and it's something that never leaves you, right?
(48:57):
And he is processing it.
On top of that, this is one of the strips that jumps out to me as artistic struggle.
I noticed whatever size he's working on the Sundays versus the Dailies, he has a lot more trouble with the lettering if he's struggling on the Sundays because of the size of whatever he's writing compared to the Daily.
(49:21):
It's not the same size, but he's using, I think, the same tool.
That upper right-hand corner throwaway panel, Patriot Snoopy and Patriot Woodstock Reporting Sir, that's struggle on that lettering.
It doesn't look like his traditional lettering.
But then you've got that little centerpiece one where he's reading Washington's note to Thomas Paine, and that looks pretty darn good.
(49:51):
This one made me think of struggle, and then, of course, the whole theme is struggle.
And then Snoopy trying to take some of the struggle out in this letter.
I don't know.
It works really well.
It's got of a piece.
It's super special.
Jimmy (50:05):
Yeah.
I love the little birds in the background.
The other thing, it's like it's August that this came out, right?
Is that right?
And it's all winter.
Harold (50:15):
Yeah.
And it feels cold when you're reading it.
Jimmy (50:18):
Yeah.
I don't have anything further really to say about that, but that's just-
Harold (50:24):
Well, the thing that hits me when you say that is he's not going to get another winter.
Jimmy (50:28):
Yeah.
Harold (50:28):
He hadn't done it now.
We wouldn't have it.
That's sad.
Jimmy (50:33):
Yeah, it really is.
Liz (50:35):
Well, he gets November through February.
That's winter.
Michael (50:38):
In California, not so much.
Liz (50:41):
True.
Jimmy (50:44):
August 11th, Emily, Snoopy, and Charlie Brown are all dancing.
Then we see the Arthur Murray School step diagrams explaining what they're doing, which is a chaotic, crazy mess with girls' feet, boys' feet, and dog paws.
Liz (51:05):
But it's two kinds of dog paws.
Jimmy (51:09):
Well, it's left feet and right feet.
I don't know what that means.
Michael (51:13):
The black and white must be left and right.
Liz (51:18):
Or front and back.
Jimmy (51:20):
Years ago, I said I had five strips that were the all-time greatest, and this is one.
Michael (51:26):
This is not one.
Jimmy (51:28):
No, this is one.
Michael (51:30):
What?
Jimmy (51:31):
I'm only kidding.
I don't understand it.
Yeah, I don't really understand it.
But I guess-
Harold (51:38):
I picked this one.
It's just, yeah.
Well, again, we're in context reading this.
It's like, okay, he's got a little nice last-minute burst of joy here.
Well, yeah.
The only joke is, when I first read it, because I'm so used to the language of what he's doing, it's like there's no joke.
But of course, the joke is you've got Snoopy's paws in the mix of the Arthur Murray.
(52:03):
And three of them are dancing and it's this crazy diagram.
Jimmy (52:06):
The drawing of them dancing is great.
I love the drawing of them dancing.
Whoever is doing this Zip-a-Tone, adding the little white, actually, hold on a second.
I wonder.
All right, this is gonna, can I speculate wildly?
And I will say, I'm probably wrong about this.
(52:28):
But when you put Zip-a-Tone down on paper and then let it sit there for years, it shrinks.
It doesn't always line up perfectly.
I want, so this is either someone very delicately, no, you know what?
Yeah, it must be someone-
Harold (52:43):
That would be too much serendipity every single time.
Jimmy (52:46):
Right, it wouldn't have worked with the lines and stuff.
Right.
So someone is going in and putting those little highlights in her hair, which is with an X-Acto knife, which is not easy.
Harold (52:55):
This is the best use of Zip-A-Tone I've ever seen.
Jimmy (52:58):
Really?
Harold (52:58):
Whoever's doing it.
Yeah, because of the using the edges to not go up to the line or itself, but creating little highlights by cutting short of that.
Yeah.
Over and over again, really good choices, whoever's doing it.
Looks amazing.
Yeah, it looks better.
There's Zip-A-Tone and lots of comic strips, and all of those duo shades and all of that.
(53:23):
But the more I look at this, I'm like, this is a real artistic use of shading.
It's nice.
Jimmy (53:31):
Just I can just ask you guys right now, what are your thoughts?
I don't think I've ever talked either about that.
What do you guys think of duo shade?
For our listeners out there, that's when, to get those dots effects that you would get right there in her hair, to give it a tone, that's where the paper is already printed with dots that you can't see.
And then you put a chemical on it and it develops the dots.
(53:54):
But it gives a very different kind of grungier look.
What do you guys think of that?
Michael (53:58):
My personal feeling is it looks terrible in black and white, but with color over it, it looks great.
Jimmy (54:04):
If you put the color over it, it does make a difference.
That's interesting.
Harold (54:08):
For me, all I can think of when I see it are the original strips that I've seen what they look like now, 70 years later.
And I just smell chemicals and toxicity whenever I see it.
Jimmy (54:23):
So toxic.
Harold (54:25):
So toxic.
Jimmy (54:26):
I can't imagine people using those several times a day.
Poor old Roy Crane.
Harold (54:34):
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't envy anybody who committed to that and had to live with it.
And the strips don't hold up well.
Jimmy (54:44):
Do you think that affects the value of the original art?
Like Howard Shakin's American Flag is considered a classic of the 80s comics, right?
I'm not talking about Buzz Sawyer and stuff, which obviously is going to have value because it's in the pantheon of things and Crane is a great cartoonist.
But do you think it takes, like if you're just a regular level cartoonist that has pages to sell that are all yellowing and stuff, do you think that hurts the value?
Michael (55:12):
Oh yeah, I'm sure.
Harold (55:13):
Yeah.
I would think so.
I think it hurts it less than if, it's like in the world of comic books.
It's crazy.
When I first got involved in comic book collecting, this would be like early 80s.
The difference between something that was in just ratty condition and really good condition was like three times.
Michael (55:32):
Yeah.
Harold (55:32):
And then all of a sudden the collectors get into it and they're like, no, I want the ultimate one.
And so the value of the one that's in ratty condition kind of stays low.
The ones that are like the 9.9 graded by professionals against all standards of comics, all of a sudden it's like 20, 40, 100 times.
Michael (55:51):
But originally it's different because each one is one of a kind.
Harold (55:55):
Yeah, but that was my point was that if you have somebody who always did the same thing and you only have the ratty version, then it probably doesn't hurt as badly.
Jimmy (56:06):
Because it is what it is.
Harold (56:08):
Yeah.
It's like, like, like Walt Kelly, whenever he would send off a pogo strip, apparently he would fold them.
And if you could get an unfolded one, and then there were like 100 folded ones, then the unfolded ones are going to go through the roof, I'm guessing, for some strange reason, because someone's looking for the rare unfolded one he handed to somebody versus mailing it.
Jimmy (56:28):
Schulz did that for years as well.
Sent them to the syndicate, folded in half, which is just so weird.
Harold (56:35):
Yeah.
This trip, he'd have a hard time doing that.
Jimmy (56:38):
Yeah.
Harold (56:38):
So it's one panel.
Jimmy (56:39):
Yeah.
You got to have that space between panels two and three.
He can fold it.
And finally, August 19th, Rerun is sitting there, and Lucy comes in holding a book, and she's yelling, Why are you just sitting there?
And she holds up a book and yells at him, This is a book.
You know what a book is, don't you?
(57:01):
And this ends Rerun flying butt over tea kettle.
And she sits next to him as he's dazed and confused, and she calls off panel.
Nothing, mom.
I'm just encouraging him to read.
Michael (57:12):
Man, this kid's going to grow up really messed up.
Jimmy (57:15):
He's going to have some nervous tension.
Harold (57:17):
Become an underground cartoonist.
Michael (57:18):
Yep.
Harold (57:20):
Well, given that he was just being read Tolstoy, Lucy's being a little hard on him, I think.
Jimmy (57:28):
Yep.
Harold (57:29):
Yeah.
Jimmy (57:29):
And you know, Lucy has probably never read a book in her life.
Harold (57:35):
Yeah.
And this is the last appearance of mom.
Liz (57:38):
Oh, there you go.
Jimmy (57:40):
Well, guys, we have one more episode left of this year and then one more episode left of the whole shebang.
Is that right?
Liz (57:50):
No, actually, it's not right because after we recorded this, the guys picked so many strips to talk about that we're doing a fourth episode for 1999.
So, based on what I know in this moment, we've got three more episodes of the reread plus the season finale, and then we go into our new format.
Jimmy (58:10):
Then we've already, we've decided what our first post-re-read series is going to be, right?
Liz (58:19):
Yes, but we shouldn't tell them now.
Jimmy (58:21):
All right, we're not going to tell them, but we figured out what our next season is going to be.
How we're going to approach this having read all 17,897 strips.
So, we'll probably reveal that in the next episode or two.
So, you know, please, no wagering.
So, with all that said, as we approach the end, this has been a joy.
(58:44):
It's a joy every week, not just because I get to hang out with my pals and talk about what I love, but also because all you fine people are out there listening.
And I love it.
It's just been so great.
And I think I can say that for all of us.
We have had a wonderful time.
So, it's not over yet.
Come back next week where we're going to be wrapping up 1999.
SPEAKER_2 (59:06):
No, we're not wrapping it up.
Jimmy (59:08):
So with all that said, come back next week.
For Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
SPEAKER_2 (59:14):
Yes.
Liz (59:15):
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.
(59:36):
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.
Harold (59:47):
Uh, well.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.