Charles Schulz’s Peanuts is a master class in how to do a comic strip. This week Kumar and Tim are focusing on a five-year period of Schulz’s career, 1957 to 1961, and 25 Sunday strips that demonstrate Schulz’s skill at dialog-free comics. You might want to read the strips before listening; see below!
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Continue reading #754 “Peanuts”: Schulz’s Silent Sundays 1957-1961
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While we’ve talked before with Austin Tichenor and John Roberson about adapting comics to the stage, we’ve never talked about (or even thought about!) adapting the lives of comics creators to that stage! But Lenny Schwartz has done it, and more than once, writing and directing “Co-Creator” (about Bill Finger and his claim to the Batman legacy) and “The Man Who Saw Snoopy” (about Charles Schulz, of course!). And he has another in the works on Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.
This week Lenny tells Tim about writing these plays, just how much credit Bob Kane and Stan Lee may actually deserve, how Schulz used Peanuts as his diary, and much more.
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Charles Schulz’s Peanuts is one of the most beloved comic strips of the 20th century. But while some prefer the hilariously cruel and despairing tone of the first half of the series, it seems that the public perception of Peanuts is more in line with the cute, commercial tone it took on in its second 25 years.
This week Tim and Kumar come back to Peanuts, more than seven years after reviewing the Schulz bio, to delve more into the strip itself. What is the nature of the Peanuts kids? What motivates them? How does Peanuts (especially in its first half) fit an existentialist view of the world?
Also discussed: the recent movie — what was good or bad. Was showing the Little Red Haired Girl a good idea? Plus, a nod to a few of Schulz’s more interesting panel compositions, and, what Peanuts strip does Tim want on his wall?
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A couple of years ago, when BOOM!’s imprint for kids, KaBOOM!, announced they would be publishing a Peanuts comic book of new material, I vowed not to touch it with a fifty-foot kite string. Never mind if it was good or not; that wasn’t the point. I just had no more interest in reading Peanuts-not-by-Schulz than I did in reading Watchmen-not-by-Alan-Moore.
This wasn’t just because I assumed that a great creation carried on by someone other than its original creator was just not going to be the same. I also knew that Schulz did not want any more Peanuts strips created when he was gone. (The family agreed to the creation of the KaBOOM! series by splitting hairs: Sparky wanted no one to make further Peanuts STRIPS, but nobody said anything about Peanuts COMIC BOOKS. Um, OK.)
So when The Peanuts Movie was released last year, my first impulse was to go no where near that, either. At first.
FLASHBACK! Monte Schulz, son of Charles, claims to have been “horrified” by the David Michaelis bio of his father. Should he have been? (Originally published November 24, 2008)
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FLASHBACK! Leading into our review of David Michaelis’ controversial Schulz biography, “Schulz and Peanuts,” Tim and Kumar talk about the strip itself, how it influenced what came after, and how, in politics and social issues, it took no sides — and all sides. (originally published November 17, 2008)
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In 1957, the Russians were winning the space race. After the successful launch of Sputnik, the Russian space program was under pressure to further embarrass the U.S. by launching a living thing — a dog — into orbit. This is the story of Laika, who made a historical splash big enough to get a vague mention in Peanuts. Nick Abadzis’ graphic novel on the topic reaches even higher thematically, and delivers. Tim and Brandon review.
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11/24/08 Schulz and Peanuts pt. 2
Monte Schulz, son of Charles, claims to have been "horrified" by the David Michaelis bio of his father. Should he have been?
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Paige Braddock talks to Tim about Jane’s World, The Martian Confederacy, and … Peanuts?!
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Brandon and Tim begin a two-part Skype discussion, starting with Dr. Strange: the Oath! Also, Brandon reads from a 1959 Charles Schulz essay on developing a comic and asks Tim about how he developed Spider-Hag!
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