Michael Giltz: Good Grief! Celebrating Peanuts http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/good-grief-celebrating-p_b_70256.html [4/5/2009 8:35:58 PM] APRIL 5, 2009 HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING STYLE GREEN WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY 23/6 VIDEO BLOGGER INDEX ARCHIVE Make HuffPost Your HomePage Get Email Alerts Twitter: Follow Us BIG NEWS : Angelina Jolie | Madonna | Chris Brown & Rihanna | Paul McCartney | More...</p><p> LOG IN | SIGN UP Michael Giltz | BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Email Print Be the First to Submit This Story to DiggGood Grief! Celebrating Peanuts Posted October 29, 2007 | 01:18 PM (EST) Read More: American Masters , Books , Charles Schulz , Charlie Brown, Comic Strips , Doonesbury , Gary Larson , Hal Hartley , Pbs, Peanuts , The Far Side , Tv, Walter Cronkite, Breaking Entertainment News Tonight on PBS's American Masters, they take a close look at the life of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz.</p><p> Linked to the new biography by David Michaelis, it focuses on the parallels between Schulz's real life and the strip, as well as the very real melancholy Schulz dealt with his whole life.</p><p> The book and this episode are both acclaimed, but personally, watching the story of an artist's life always makes me antsy - if they're important enough to write a biography or make a documentaryabout, I'd rather focus on the work that made them famous in the first place.</p><p> With Peanuts, the most successful - and most successfully merchandised -- comic strip in history,that's always been easy.</p><p> There's a Charles Schulzmuseum, DVDs of animated specials and of course countless reissues of the strips in book form over theyears.</p><p> But the most exciting and satisfying Peanuts project is the ambitious 25 volume masterpiece The Complete Peanuts being created by publisherFantagraphics.</p><p> They've recently put out volume eight, The Complete Peanuts: 1965-1966 ($28.95; Fantagraphics), and like all the previous volumes, it's beautifully designed by graphic novelist Seth and a joy to behold.</p><p> The influence of Peanuts is obvious, of course, and reflected by the range of people who've written introductions to these volumes: director Hal Hartley, novelist Jonathan Franzen, jazz artistDiana Krall and newsman Walter Cronkite are just some of the names who've revealed theirpassion for Peanuts.</p><p> What's less obvious is the pleasure to be had in reading Peanuts in big gulps.</p><p> Comic strips are really on the lowest rung of appreciation among hardcore comic book aficionados.</p><p> At the heart of their love is the comic book, followed closely by the graphic novel, mangas and the like.</p><p> Frankly, goto most comic book stores and they care more about movie spin-offs of Spider-Man than a childish comic strip, collections of which are usually relegated to a dusty bottom shelf.</p><p> And I can'ttell you how many artists and fans I've spoken to who foolishly dismiss the landmark Doonesburystrip as poorly drawn and without interest.</p><p> So Fantagraphics took a major gamble in devoting so much time and effort to Peanuts and it's paid Popular Stories on HuffPost Fashion Face-Off! 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Celebrating Peanuts http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/good-grief-celebrating-p_b_70256.html [4/5/2009 8:35:58 PM] Michelle Obama's Clothing Has Sean Hannity All Out OfSorts Cenk Uygur: Have WeReached the Tipping Pointon Guns? RICHARD POPLAWSKI,Pittsburgh Gunman, Kills 3Police Officers Dr.</p><p> Rachel Ehrenfeld: DoesIran Harbor Osama binLaden? Guilt-Free Glamour What Are You Reading? SNL: Madonna And Angelina In Weekend Update...</p><p> Reality Star Jade Goody Buried In Lavish...off tremendously.</p><p> While serial strips like Doonesbury and Gasoline Alley (aka Walt & Skeezix, just out with Volume Three of its complete strips ) are obvious beneficiaries of being reprinted in full, the appeal of reading one or two years of Peanuts in a row is less obvious.</p><p> Certainly a poorly done comic strip would be a bore.</p><p> Heck, they're a bore even one day at a time.</p><p> Alternately, a brilliant one panel work like The Far Side by Gary Larson has been rightly collected in two massive volumes, but devouring them one after another dulls the pleasure.</p><p> Not so with Peanuts.</p><p> The first volume saw Schulz find his feet.</p><p> Later editions saw characters change and morph into the people we know so well.</p><p> The most recent book -- covering 1963-1964 -- was Schulz's most wacky and satirical, a key moment when he was deciding whether to commitfully to the reality of these kids or use the strip as a launching pad for less durable but more easilyproduced social satire.</p><p> Schulz chose the kids and the results flower in the current volume.</p><p> Snoopy battles the Red Baron for the first time and becomes a writer, Linus grapples again with his belief in the Great Pumpkin,baseball games are lost and Lucy proves that if she were emailing people in the computer age youcan be certain most of her messages would be delivered IN ALL CAPS! Your favorite characterdepends on your mood - I love Lucy's crabbiness one minute and Linus's sweet nature the next.But the eternal loser Charlie Brown is the heart of the matter.</p><p> Read the strips one after another and you'll marvel how Schulz balanced so nimbly between the genuine concerns of childhood (the kid you have a crush on, nervousness over meeting new people, fighting with your siblings and friends) and droll comments on the wishy-washiness of life.</p><p> Linus is watching TV and gets furious when Lucy arbitrarily turns it off, righteous in his anger.</p><p> Then when he's exhausted his pique, Linus says to himself, "It was a lousy program anyway." When Schroeder gets annoyed by Lucy draping herself over his piano and he walks away, she barks, "THE TRUTH IS YOU'RE EMBARRASSED BY A PRETTY FACE! THAT'S IT, ISN'T IT?"And in the next panel: "A PRETTY FACE MAKES YOU UNEASY, DOESN'T IT? HUH? DOESN'TIT?" And in the final panel she says reflectively, "He shouldn't feel that way....</p><p> Lots of people getembarrassed in the presence of a pretty face..." It's that final panel that nudges the strip into greatness -- the way Schulz quietly shows us comforting and deluding ourselves just to get through the day.</p><p> The cultural impact of Peanuts has been ongoing for decades. (Would Christmas be the same without them?) But republishing theentire series in one gorgeous volume after another is really the first time we can truly take a stepback, appreciate his work as a whole and ultimately wrap our arms around the accomplishment ofCharles Schulz.</p><p> Sometimes, happiness is a warm book.</p><p> Comments for this post are now closed Email Print More in Entertainment...</p><p> HuffPost Stories Surging Right Now "Washington Unplugged" Arianna was on CBS' "Washington...</p><p> Huff TV Arianna Appears on ABC's "This Week" Roundtable With George Stephanopoulos (VIDEO) Arianna was a guest this morning on... "BRUNO" TRAILER! Calamity, African Babies, Chase Scenes And More (NSFW VIDEO) IT'S HERE! 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Celebrating Peanuts http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/good-grief-celebrating-p_b_70256.html [4/5/2009 8:35:58 PM]Comments 0 Pending Comments 0 Comments are closed for this entry Buy a link here Sponsored Links "My Teeth Are so White" Read the trick, discovered by a mom, to turn yellow teeth white.</p><p> CathysTeeth.com Be Pain Free in 2009 No More Back or Neck Pain.</p><p> Free MRI Review, Get Your Life Back! www.LaserSpineInstitute.com I'm Happy I Lost My Job After I got laid off, I found a easy way to make $7k a month online... http://coreyhasmoney.com/ca Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to View Comments: Newest First Expand All You must be logged in to reply to this comment.</p><p> Log in or AIG Computers India Barack Obama Michelle Obama Sports Olympics Housing Crisis Fox News MORE BIG NEWS PAGES » Books by this author A cabin of one's own: New England's MacDowellColony celebrates 100years of artistic utopia.And the gay and lesbianartists who prosperedthere celebrate ... (Thenational gay & lesbiannewsmagazine) by Michael Giltz Affairs to remember:Farley Granger beddedAva Gardner, ShelleyWinters, and LeonardBernstein.</p><p> In hisautobiography, IncludeMe Out, Hitchcock's muse... (The national gay &lesbian newsmagazine) by Michael Giltz American Masters BooksCharles SchulzCharlie BrownComic StripsDoonesburyGary LarsonHal HartleyPbsPeanutschemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of...</p><p> HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES Bloggers Index Read All Posts by Michael Giltz Related Tags This Blogger's Books from Michael Giltz: Good Grief! Celebrating Peanuts http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/good-grief-celebrating-p_b_70256.html [4/5/2009 8:35:58 PM] HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING GREEN STYLE WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY FUNDRACE ARCHIVE Advertise | Login | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Jobs | FAQ: Comments & Moderation | FAQ: Huffpost Accounts | Contact Us Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | Archive | User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type The Far Side Tv Walter Cronkite
