Jimmy: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is, Unpacking Peanuts. we are starting another year today. We're in good old 1993 and Ill be your host for the proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. I did things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons not to Grow up. The Dumbest Idea Ever. And you can read my new comic right now at gvillecomics.substack.com. and it's for free.
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. It's Michael Cohen.
Michael: Say hey.
Jimmy: 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. And he's currently in my dining room. Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hi
Michael: call the police.
Jimmy: And of course, we're joined by our producer and editor, Liz Sumner.
Liz: Greetings.
Jimmy: Well, guys, we're here. We're ready to start another year. Does anyone have any sort of preamble, Anything that, they need to get off their chest before we get into it?
Michael: I thought it was fairly interesting that of the strips we picked this week and there were no duplicates, which is very odd, there's usually at least one.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Michael: So everybody has a completely different sense of what makes a good strip.
Jimmy: Well, that's pretty interesting. We'll get a real portrait of what each of us like. We should, fess up maybe to some of the ones who picked what. People will know whose taste is who's right.
Harold: That's a good idea.
Jimmy: One thing I thought that was interesting, is that he starts the year the same way as he started last year with Snoopy going to Charlie Brown’s school.
Harold: Yeah, there's a lot of non sequiturs in this first four months. Kind of silly non sequitur stuff, I think more so than I've seen at all any other time. That's one thing I noticed.
Michael: I found that generally the quality of the strips seems to be decreasing slightly, but the amount of good ones seems to be going up.
Harold: That's interesting.
Michael: So I found I was picking more, but the ones that I didn't pick, a lot of them I actually didn't get.
Jimmy: I do sort of understand what you're saying there, I think. Yeah, I think there is a wider gap between the really good ones and the ones that are head scratchers.
Michael: Yeah, but the head scratchers are more fun to talk about.
Jimmy: Yeah, he could fill up a whole podcast with just head scratchers. Maybe that's another episode. it won't be the weirdest. Just the ones we didn't quite get.
Michael: Yeah, there's a few here which, I don't know. They might be obscurities, but I have no idea what he's getting at.
Jimmy: Well, this will be fun. We could get at it together.
Michael: All right.
Jimmy: And if you guys out there want to follow along with us, well, there's a couple things you should do. The first thing is you want to go over to our website, unpackingpeanuts.com and there you sign up for the great Peanuts reread. And that will get you one email a month from us letting you know what strips we're going to be covering in every single episode. And then, if you just want to follow along with us because, these are all free on gocomics.com do you could just go over there, type the date in, and follow along with us. Or, of course, the Fantagraphics volumes are also available if you want to order those. But the nice thing about living here in the 21st century is that we have lots of access to art. So once you do all that, come on back. And, away we go.
January 2nd, Charlie Brown is sitting in the beanbag chair watching some tv. And, Sally comes from behind and says to him, I'm thinking maybe when I grow up, I'll be a beauty queen. Then she asked him, do you have to be really beautiful? Charlie Brown, without taking his eyes off the tv, says, probably. To which Sally replies, do they have a sort of fairly kind of, you know, cute queen?
Michael: I'll fess up to picking this one. generally, I like Sally strips the best, and I really like the fact that he's using this lingo in that last panel, which is the kind of thing you'll hear from a little kid.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: In the 90s, he seems to have his ear attuned to some things that are happening around him.
Jimmy: Yeah. Yep, it's good. And she is such a consistent character. He really knows her.
Harold: Yeah, she seems, it's weird. Even though she, she kind of has a strange way of seeing things as a character. She seems really grounded. He is doing some more kind of interesting, surreal things with the other characters. But Sally you know, Sally just has the crazy way of seeing things, but she really feels like a, you know, a kid you might run into. He's just got a unique perspective on life.
Jimmy: Her hair really got out of control over the years. Right. If you look at her in profile, that is, that is a wild, wild haircut. I really feel there's some Rhonda energy. It starts kind of silly and ends up being just bizarre a lot of ways.
Harold: Yeah. Or is this, is this like the end of the, 80s, early 90s? Crazy hair as well.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. I'm not even thinking so much about those bangs in the front that, that ball in the front. I'm thinking about the weird, you know, 57 Chevy style fin that comes off the back.
Harold: Yeah, that is pretty unique. You know, you think you look at it a while, it your head starts to hurt. He's like, wow, that is a pretty wild look she's got going.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Maybe it's cause she has the big poof on the front, she can't see what she's doing in the back. No one's going to tell her.
Liz: A lot of us had that poof in the early 90s.
Jimmy: Oh, absolutely.
January 8th. this is part of a little sequence that Charlie Brown has taken Snoopy into class with him. And Snoopy slowly is becoming more involved with the class. And at this point he's actually just for fun in quotes, taking a true false test with Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown sitting there going true, false, true, false. And then Snoopy next to him taking the same test thinks true, true, false, true. And Charlie Brown then looks over and asks him, how are you doing? To which Snoopy slyly takes away his paper, from Charlie Brown's eyes and says, no peeking.
Jimmy: I picked this one. This made me laugh because of. I just thought Snoopy in the last panel was funny. That was a great drawing. But this is the first. Harold always points out that these kids cheat in school regularly. And this is the one kid is the dog that, won't stand for it.
Harold: Yeah, he's got his standards.
Jimmy: Especially as it turns out that as the sequence goes on, he gets a perfect hundred on the test.
Liz: I don't think Charlie Brown is actually cheating. He's just asking.
Harold: Well yeah. But he's trying to help out his little dog. Yeah, I like the look of this one. he has four different setups. If you look at it from a camera perspective, there's like, an initial side view, which is so classic for Peanuts, with Snoopy in front of Charlie Brown at the seat, which looks unique. And then you see, what might be the edge of a blackboard on the side or a window with the curtains down, or they're taking the test at midnight. I'm not sure. And then you have black on the base of the desk. And then you zoom in on Snoopy. And this is one of those things as a cartoonist where you make choices. Where you decide, there's a character behind another character, but you're just focusing on the character in the front. So Charlie Brown disappears. You're just zooming in on the shot where we would have absolutely see Charlie Brown, just like we did in the first panel. But Schulz decides that we're not going to see Charlie Brown at all, just Snoopy. And that works really, really nice nicely here. And the little black on the bottom of the desk looks really nice, too. You're talking about spotting blacks. I think this one has kind of an appealing look to it. And then we. On the third panel, we move around to. Toward the front, favoring Snoopy. And you barely to see Snoopy's head over the top of the desk, which I think is a great composition.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Charlie Brown talking to Snoopy. And then we go back to where we were originally, except with that really unique side shot of Snoopy taking his paper away from Charlie Brown so he can't peek.
Jimmy: It's so smart to do that second panel without including Charlie Brown. Cause I would have tried to. I would have made it a mess of it. I think it would have been really difficult to do. But, you know, the other thing, you know, if you included the figure behind him. but the other thing that makes this work is black and white. Because if you had to select the color m, you would, you know, now it's not just.
Harold: You'd have to make an abstract color. Right. That.
Jimmy: Yeah, you'd have to. Yeah. Or leave it white or something like that.
Harold: And then. Then you're kind of in Snoopy's world, and. Except that there's whatever was in the first panels, but if you did it.
Jimmy: The same color as the wall, Charlie Brown would disappear.
Harold: Right. So you. If you say it was a pale yellow, you'd have to go to a pale green or.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: I, deal with that problem. Usually I would draw the other character in there, no matter how terrible it looked. Something that sort of goes into the abstract. I'd leave the panel borders out. That would be a solution.
Jimmy: That's a. Yep, that's a great idea.
Harold: Did Schulz ever do that?
Jimmy: I don't think so.
Harold: I mean he, I think he did in the Sundays, maybe. Maybe.
Jimmy: I don't think even in the Sundays.
Harold: Not even in the Sundays. That's interesting. You know, it's one of those things that maybe never dawned on him. Or he's like, that's not what I do, or I have rules or. That's interesting.
Jimmy: Yeah, that's a real art, a smart way to handle it though. If you could take away the panel border entirely. I like that idea.
Harold: What's also interesting, just from the perspective of looking at the strip today, I'm looking at the way it would have been seen in the newspaper with the copyright notice right in the middle, running up, in the gutter between panels two and three. Schulz actually puts more space between panels two and three than he does, between one and two and three and four, I guess to make room for the syndicate copyright. But that'd be interested to know if I would go back and look at the Fantagraphics version. It's super rare that, just like we say, he's a formalist in keeping the panel borders. There would be this odd gap that's a little bit wider without that once, you know, Fantagraphics , they take out the copyright notice so you'd have this little weird extra space between the two panels.
Jimmy: Very interesting.
January 10th. So we start off with one of those symbolic panels. I guess it's a snowman, but the snowman's head is replaced by a giant baseball. And he's also wearing a, baseball glove. And then we cut to Lucy, who's out in what used to be the outfield but is now covered with snow. And she says, now what's he doing? And we see that she goes into the infield and Charlie Brown's standing there reminiscing on top of the pitcher manund. And he's talking and he says, I love to come out here to my snow covered pitchers mound and relive all those good memories. To which Lucy says, what good memories? And Charlie Brown says, the games we played, Some we won, some we lost. To which Lucy says, we lost them all. Charlie Brown continues, there were some close ones all right. Lucy says, like 54 to nothing. And Charlie Brown now is like mimicking the pose of a pitcher on the mound and says, and all the perfect strikes I pitched. And Lucy walks away saying, and the time you walked 24 hitters in a row. Charlie Brown then bends over, scoops up some snow, makes it into a snowball and whap, smacks Lucy right in the back of the head with it. And then Charlie Brown on the pitcher manund with a smile on his face says, that's the best pitch I threw all year.
Michael: Well, he's totally delusional.
Jimmy: Totally. Right.
Harold: Except for the last panel. He, he was probably right about that.
Jimmy: Oh, that part. Yeah, yeah.
Michael: You can't face the truth.
Harold: But that is really satisfying at the end. He's got the big smile and it's not the wishy washy smile. It. So that's a full, wide smile.
Michael: But she didn't do anything wrong.
Liz: she deserved it. He was just having a good--
Michael: Too bad, get down to earth kid.
Harold: But isn't it funny that he's delusional and she keeps taking him back to reality and then, then that last panel when he throws it and says it's the best pitch through all year, he's probably right. So he's been brought back to reality by Lucy. She's doing them favors.
Jimmy: Guess. Boy, you can pretzel twist your way into any to making anyone nice.
Harold: But no, this is this thing about Lucy that we've been talking about in the past where the relationship between Lucy and Charlie Brown is complex. She enjoys engaging with him. You know, she set up that psychiatric booth pretty much for Charlie Brown. And here she is coming out in the snow into the empty lot where they play the games and she's choosing to engage with them. She doesn't ignore him. It's like she likes Charlie Brown. She likes at least hanging out with Charlie Brown. And what comes out of interacting with him. Right.
Jimmy: Yeah, I think she likes torturing, him. I think that's what she comes out interacting with him.
Harold: But yeah, I mean, but here is. Is she. I don't know. It's complex because she is speaking the truth back to him. It's not an unpleasant truth, but maybe that is doing some favors. Because she seems to put herself in that role of.
Jimmy: Well, that's the thing though.
Harold: I've set people straight.
Jimmy: Yeah, she puts herself in that role. Who asked her to? That's. That's the issue. Yeah, nobody asked. He's just stand in there. He's not engaging with anyone.
Harold: She. But she knows that he comes to her all the time for her perspective. So you know, there's, there's that relationship. It is pretty complex.
Michael: He deserves it.
January 18th, So Peppermint Patty and Franklin are walking, out to enjoy their lunch at the, lunchtime at school. They got their brown bags and Peppermint Patty says to Franklin, Martin Luther King said, I have a dream. And they sit down and a bench together and they're eating their lunch. And Peppermint Patty continues, before that we wouldn't be sitting here. And then Franklin says, and I wouldn't be trading you a carrot stick for a French fry. But to which Peppermint Patio replies, that's not an even trade. Franklin.
Michael: That was very surprised that you guys didn't pick this because this gave me a lot to think about. I think this is actually an important strip. And it's also, I think Schulz tiptoeing into something and then deciding he wasn't gonna do that. I mean, Franklin's been around what, since 68 or something?
Jimmy: I think, yeah.
Michael: So doing the math, like 25 years. This is the first time I think anybody's made a reference about him being, an African American.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: There was one when she was skating and talking to him and I can'tember NHL Franklin.
Jimmy: Yeah, that’s right.
Michael: So there was one. He's really addressing it for the first time because the first two panels are topical.
Michael: And could go in many, many directions. But it seems like you have to. Once you bring up that subject, you've got to follow through on the thought. But he doesn't. He just totally drops that and, and goes for this joke which I don't even really get about trading stuff. Trading snacks at lunchtime.
Harold: You didn't trade snacks at lunchtime.
Michael: No, I ate alone.
Jimmy: That's the saddest thing I've ever heard.
Michael: but, but that has nothing to do with opening panel. I don't think you can open that door and then just ignore it.
Jimmy: Well, well, first off, this is Martin Luther King Day that this strip appeared on. and that was pretty new at the time. This has only been like the seventh year for it. Could it possibly be that, Franklin is changing the subject and because maybe Franklin doesn't feel like he wants to discuss this. Is that possibly it? And he's just like changes the subject to. And he's also trying to get a French fry rather than his carrot stick because of course he comes from a stable home with normal, food habits and Peppermint Patty. He probably got something from a drive through.
Harold: Well, I find it interesting that, and this feels very Schulz to me that as they're walking to the bench to have their lunches, it's not Franklin who says it. Yeah.
Jimmy: It's Peppermint Patty. Yeah.
Harold: And that says a whole lot too, right? You know, it's Peppermint Patty who's bringing it up. And then he's listening and then it's not like he's really changing the subject because the next thing he says, and I wouldn't be trading you a carrot stick for a French fry after she said we wouldn't be sitting here.
Jimmy: Well that's just a very clever way of changing the subject.
Harold: Well, and here's the other thing that maybe adds to the confusion of this strip is if Peppermint Patty has been, walking to school four hours ago with some hot french fries four hours later. I think the carrots looks probably better.
Jimmy: Yeah, French fries, cold french fries, they're no good. But are they better than a carrot stick? See that's actually.
Harold: Yeah, that's a tough one. This is still crisp, you know.
Liz: Well, the reason Michael doesn't understand it is because he really likes carrot sticks.
Michael: Yeah, I do like French fries too.
Harold: Four hour old French fries, you can't.
Jimmy: Even really reheat a french fry.
Harold: It's hard. Yeah. You need a good toaster oven. Yeah.
Jimmy: By that point it's just easier to go get more french fries.
February 6th, Charlie Brown is lying, in his bed at night, tucked in up to his neck in the covers. And he says to himself, sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, is it all worth it? He rolls over and says to himself. Then a voice says, who are you talking to? Then another voice says, you mean to whom are you talking? He rolls back over towards us and says, no wonder I lie awake at night.
Jimmy: Yeah, I just relate to that one totally.
Harold: Yeah, that's a thinker. You know who else in comics is putting something like this out there?
Jimmy: Yeah, this Charlie Brown lying awake at night, in bed, contemplating the mysteries of the universe, really becomes a bit of a thing in the 90s. Yeah, I like the way, I like the scratchiness of the pen, on, on the pillows and the, the blanket and stuff like that. It's like a thicker and like there's more variation in the line than a lot of times.
Harold: And yeah, again, it looks, it really looks nice. The blacks are really nice. The little window panes in the third panel are great. And there is something very unsettling that you get pulled into Charlie Brown's world because it's not like he's talking to one. There's one voice in his head. There are two different voices in his head. Wonder who, who are these voices? What's going on? And then it's like, yeah, I maybe lay lie awake. Two.
Jimmy: It's really cute. I like, the one little hint of window in panel three. So it's not just a black void, you know. You know, he's in his room.
February 14th, it's a Sunday. And we start with the symbolic panel of a US Mailbox, talking to, just a regular at home mail ##box because that's a normal thing. And, they've been chatting, and apparently the at home mailbox says to the US Mailbox. I've been thinking the same thing for years. Charlie Brown walks up to the US Mailbox, the most basic simple drawing of a mailbox in the history of drawings of mailboxes. And he puts his valentine into the U.S. mailbox. And the mailbox rejects it, sends it flying out at Charlie Brown. And the mailbox thinks to itself, keep your valentine, kid. But undaunted, Charlie Brown bends over, picks it up, puts it back in the mailbox, and sure enough, it gets shot out again. And the mailbox thinks, if she doesn't love you already, a valentine won't help. Charlie Brown puts it back in yet again because this kid doesn't quit. It's rejected yet again. And the mailbox says, I've been around a long time, kid. I know how these things go. But still, Charlie Brown shoves it back in the mailbox. It comes ejected out once more with the mailbox saying, take it from me, kid. They'll break your heart. Keep your valentine. But Charlie Brown is not one to give up. So he puts the valentine back in the mailbox. And then the US Mailbox, finally resigned, says to itself, oh, well, what do I care? And then he arrives. Charlie Brown arrives back home. Sally is sitting there watching TV in her bean bag, and Charlie Brown says, there's a strange new mailbox down in the corner.
Harold: This is kind of that surreal world that he's really playing around with it around this time. That stood out to me. I made a note when I was reading the strips, and the way I put it was there. Yeah, there's a lot of surreality, a lot of non sequiturs mixed with things that are really on the nose, which makes m a strange year.
Michael: Yeah. Well, let's think about all the objects that have that have consciousness in this world. There's this school wall.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Right.
Michael: Wasn't there a rock
Jimmy: Probably.
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: I think in the desert, I think one of the rocks thought something.
Jimmy: Yeah. They got the mailbox now.
Harold: Yeah. Which is weird because that leans into Spike's world. If they actually are sentient.
Michael: Spike's world is like Carlos Casteneda, where everything has a. Everything is alive. Right. In the desert.
Harold: Well, he treats it like that. And usually the gag is that it's not right. But every once in a while, he can't help but give it its own thought, you know, or at least it's not responding back in a way. Spike in here, right.
Jimmy: It's. He's really confident. in that first panel drawing that mailbox with no details whatsoever. I mean, there's nothing that says US Mail on it. There's not the little box with the hour. You know, the times of pickup on it or anything like that.
Harold: And then the fact that the mailbox. The home mailbox is open with the flag down, and it's facing. Looks like it's facing directly at the other mailbox, as if it's moved. To have a conversation is an extra.
Jimmy: Level with its mouth open.
Harold: Yeah. Yes. Because there would never be a mailbox right in front of an open mailbox. So it really does feel like one of them has gone to visit the other one and talk. It's nuts.
Michael: I just had the amusing thought of wondering what Carlos Casteneda books would be like with the Peanuts characters in it. Charlie Brown would be Carlos, of course. Who'd be Don Juan? Would it be Linus?
Jimmy: I've only ever listened to one on audiobook once, so I can't help you.
Michael: Oh.
Liz: You'll have to report to us.
Jimmy: You'll have to report.
Harold: Yeah, Maybe we have a listener who's,
Michael: Yeah, okay. Listeners who would be Don Juan?
Jimmy: Joe Shlabotnik.
March 5. Linus and Franklin are hanging out at the thinking wall. And Franklin says to Linus, my grandpa says that after all these years, he still doesn't understand life. For instance, last week he bought a new car. And then Franklin concludes with but he got the flu anyway.
Harold: Okay, here's one I don't get.
Michael: Yeah me either
Michael: We don't understand this one.
Harold: Head scratcher. Was there an ad that somehow was referencing this?
Jimmy: No.
Harold: Otherwise, I have no idea what this might have been referring to.
Jimmy: I think what he's just saying is that you can have objects and you can have material possessions. You could even look forward to them buying them. But it's not going to change the fact that you could get to flu. What?
Michael: Grandpa must know this.
Harold: I would think so, yeah. I'd never met anybody who'thought that somehow. I mean, we know obviously, people you'll buy material possessions and hope it fulfills you. But.
Jimmy: Well, that's all I think it is all. That's all he's saying. They're not going to protect you.
Harold: So Grandpa thought if you bought a new car, you'd never get the flu again. That. Yeah, that's,
Jimmy: Well, okay. I mean, I think there's layers to that. I think, you know, look, here's how I would imagine that grandpa is happy because he bought a new car.
Harold: Uh-huh.
Jimmy: Right. But then he gets the flu. And then he says, then his grandson calls him, hey, Grandpa, how's your new car? And the guy goes, oh, it's great, Franklin. You know, I was really happy. But you know what didn't stop me from getting the flu. And then the kid relays the story, not telling the dad joke as a part of it, just telling the dad joke part of it, as if it's straight. And that's what gets to this.
Michael: Okay, so you're making excuses for a bad Peanuts strip.
Jimmy: I don't think it's a great strip. I'm just explaining it.
Harold: Well, another thing, just looking visually here, there's something I didn't notice him doing before with Franklin, now that he's using zipatone instead of-- Which I think think does look better than him doing those straight lines, for shading, on Franklin, he's cutting out here and there around Franklin's eye. And it's inexact because you're cutting around a dot being there or a part of a dot at, least the version I'm looking at here again, which is the version that would have been seen in the newspaper with the copyright symbol and all of that. It just looks kind of weird to me. To my eye.
Jimmy: Yeah. I think it's because he didn't want at all. He was worried that it would mush together with ink bleed or dot gain in the printing. And that's the why he was hedging his bets.
Harold: Maybe he saw something wasn't working so well. Yeah. And he's trying to experiment. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. And what you would do the way to. If that was the problem, though, the way to fix it would be to go to fewer dots per inch.
March 7th it's a Sunday strip. It starts off with a symbolic panel. Charlie Brown is asleep on top of a drawing of his kite in much the same way that Snoopy sleeps atop of the doghouse, if you can imagine such a thing. And then, we cut to Lucy, who's at her psychiatry booth just chilling, waiting for, a patient to show up. And Charlie Brown comes flying by with the kite. he's running towards the psychiatric booth. Lucy sees him coming and, is shocked by this. He runs right past it, knocks over the stool. Then the kite gets caught between the psychiatric booth and Lucy pulling Lucy out of the booth, sending the two of them flying, butt over tea kettle. And then they both land, just a mess of string and a broken kite. And Lucy says to Charlie Brown, you're a blockhead. Five cents, please.
Michael: I did pick this one. I just like the fact that he took two of his most popular tropes, put them together, and did a mix mixtape. Did-- not a mixtape.
Jimmy: Mashup
Michael: Mashup of two of his most popular gags.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Yeah. Well, we know now for sure that Lucy does accept walk ins.
Jimmy: Yeah, she's just sitting there waiting. Charlie Brown, man, that's a big butt you got there in that next last panel. you gotta watch that, buddy.
Harold: So he's literally leaping through from the behind through, the opening in her psychiatric booth with his, with his kite string. That's amazing.
Michael: Reminds me of the time that, we were at Comic Con. Me and Jimmy are sitting there and old Rob Liefeld, the Image guys are like playing some kind of chase game. And Liefeld just jumped over our table. Am I remembering that, right?
Jimmy: That wasn't me.
Michael: It wasn't you?
Jimmy: No, no.
Michael: Maybe it was Mark.
Jimmy: It must have been.
Michael: Yeah, yeah, we're just sitting, like stunned, like he like, just ignored us and like knocked over all our stuff.
Harold: Oh, really? He didn't even say sorry?
Michael: No.
Jimmy: Oh, no, because, you know, if I was there, it would have ended with like the police getting called. So, you know, I wasn'there could you imagine? Oh, boy.
Harold: Wow. You know, he probably could have afforded to pay you for a few of the damaged books. Yeah, he probably could have made everything whole.
March 8th. Linus. Or is it rerun?
Michael: It's Linus.
Linus is building a tower of blocks. It looks actually like they're playing Jenga. because it's possible that he's trying to remove a block. It's hard to say. It's Linus and Snoopy. And then Snoopy sneezes directly on the Jenga Tower. And Linus is shocked by this, holds on for a second, but then it turns out the tower doesn't fall. And then Linionus says bless you, and the tower falls to pieces, sending them both flying.
Jimmy: Little delayed reaction.
Michael: Yeah. This is weird. I mean, I think Linus is getting infantilized, in a lot of these strips, going back to the early days when he was a little kid, this is what he'd do. He'd build these incredible towers of blocks. And we see a lot of them this year. You know, he's sitting on the floor playing with stuff and I don't think we've seen a lot of that since 50s.
Liz: Well, maybe it is Rerun.
Michael: Yeah. Except then he wouldn't do the striped shirt.
Jimmy: No, he does do the striped shirt, doesn't he?
Harold: At this point, the shirt and, and the hair does look Linus hair. Not, not, Rerun here. But this is something that Rerun would have taken over in a couple of years. It's like maybe Schulz made the decision to really let Linus be a certain thing and, and let Rerun take over with that, particularly with the relationship with Snoopy.
Jimmy: Right, right.
Harold: But I picked this one. I was just surprised by the fourth panel, that after the fact, after Linus says bless you to Snoopy for his sneeze, that the, the blocks go flying. I just thought it was funny. And again, it's just kind of part of the surreality of some of the gags he's doing now. It's got a different feel to me than previous strips. We know we've certainly gone into the surreal a lot in this strip, but this is. They're just, I don't know, there's. They're silly and surprising in a way that seems different to me.
Jimmy: y. Absolutely. All right, so let's take a break right there. Come back on the other side. We'll answer the mail and discuss some more strips.
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VO: All right. Hi everyone. Have you seen the latest Anger and happiness index? Have you admired the photo of Jimmy as Luke Skywalker? Or read the details of how Michael co created the first comic book price guide? Just about not every little known subject we mention is referenced on the unpacking Peanuts website. Peanuts obscurities are explained further and other stories are expanded more than you ever wanted to know. From Albert Paycent Terhun to Zipitone, Annette Funicello to Zorba the Greek. Check it all out@unpackingpeanuts.com/obscurities.
Jimmy: Al right, and we're back. Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox. Do we got anything?
Liz: We do. We got a couple of things. Tim Young writes, I'm listening to you talk about 1992, and I've been reading the strips each year, and I was disappointed that you missed a Peanuts obscurity on May 2nd of 1992 when Snoopy's golf game is interrupted by someone shouting, you the dog. I did read a paper in the 90s, the Japan Times, which carried syndicated columnist Mike Royco. I remember him writing about a golf event where some guy kept shouting you the man. I can't seem to find a lot about it online, but I do get the impression that this became a kind of meme with people regularly shouting at golf events in 1992. Apparently, this was particularly aimed at the then teenage Tiger woods, to whom at least one crowd in February 92 chanted You're the kid .
Michael: Whoa. Well, I believe that.
Jimmy: I totalIly believe it. Yeah.
Michael: The reason we didn't pick it. I would have discuss it is we didn't pick the strip probably because we didn't understand it,
Liz: and because we hate golf strips.
Harold: I hadn't heard that story. That's fascinating. Was. I was thinking of a much broader level that, you know, that was obviously a saying that was showing up in the mid-90s or early 90s. and for some reason, when I thought of it, I thought of Arsenio Hall.
Jimmy: Oh, the dog pound.
Harold: The dog pound, yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah. But you never call. You would never say, you the dog. You would say to someone, yo, dog. You know, you the dog.
Harold: But you're. Anyway, this explanation makes a hundred times more sense and is more plausible than me just making random TV connections.
Jimmy: Yeah. The thing about golf drives me crazy. And, this is like everything you need to know about class in America. Right. So if you're playing baseball, they're throwing that ball 100 miles an hour within inches of your face, and 40,000 people are screaming at you, you suck. You can't hit right. Golf, the ball is sitting there on a tee on a beautiful green field. Sh. The rich white guy is playing a game. Drives me nuts. Go ahead, Jack. Nicholas, let's see what you can do.
Harold: That is interesting. Yeah. That the decorum in golf is crazy.
Jimmy: For the dumbest, most absurd thing. And I. My dad's looking down at me from heaven, being. He's very upset with me right now. He loved golf. And got a hole in one once. And it was like the highlight of his life. But barring that, golf. Stop it.
Harold: Yeah. And Schulz never got a hole in one. He was very disappointed m that that never happened.
Jimmy: I still have my dad's hole in one trophy he got because I couldn't throw it away.
Liz: And we also heard from our pal Shaylee. She's been busy, but she didn't want us to worry, so she got in touch again.
Jimmy: Thank you, Shaylee.
Liz: And she, she writes, I was finishing up part three of 1990 and I was intrigued with the large fan base that Peanuts has from all over the world. I've really loved seeing the huge influence it has on the audience in Japan. If I ever plan on traveling outside of North America, I'll have to check that out with my sister. She's, always wanted to visit Japan because she loves the culture and the nerdy stuff.
Harold: Yeah, that would be an amazing.
Jimmy: Well, maybe you could get a group trip too, because my daughter Anna. That's one of her bucket list places to visit.
Harold: That would be cool. Yeah, we should, we should get one of those, Perillo tour things going well.
Jimmy: Didn't we promise to go to Japan apparently.
Harold: Oh, we did. Oh my.
Jimmy: All right. Because we're going to see the pizza place.
Michael: when we hit our millionth subscriber.
Jimmy: There you go.
Michael: Let's go.
Harold: Well, there is the museum in Japan. Maybe the museum in Japan would have us. We've got, we've got listeners there. Hello, everybody in Japan. Yeah, give us, give us a shout out. give us a text or an email if you're actually.
Liz: And we've been charting very high in South Korea as well. So maybe I could spin around there.
Jimmy: Can you imagine people on the other side of the world listening to our silly podcast? It's like the neatest feeling and so strange. Like, wow.
Harold: Yeah. For all the bad things people say about the Internet, there's some pretty amazing, mind blowing things about it that just never, never we could have imagined being in this place.
Jimmy: It is crazy that you can watch or listen to. I mean this show is a perfect example. But so many of them, just deep dives into whatever the thing that your thing is that's really is cool. And you know, we don't focus on that enough.
Liz: And we got a review on Apple podcasts from Deb P, who writes, I've certainly learned a lot of new things about Peanuts and Charles Schulz listening to this podcast, as well as the time periods in which Charles Schulz was drawing the strip the hosts have an enthusiasm for Schultz's work that shows through in every episode. And they have a lot of fun examining Peanuts year by year, making this a very enjoyable podcast. They cover Schulz's drawing techniques, what he was doing in a given year where pop culture was at the same time, and give, a running index of happiness and anger in the strip for each given year. They also explain peanut obscurities, those references Schulz made that were timely when he wrote them, but can be head scratchers now. You won't find a better Peanuts podcast out there than this one. So be of good cheer and give this show a listen if you want to learn a lot about peanuts.
Harold: Oh, thank you, Deb. That's a real honor to hear that.
Liz: That's it for my part of the mail. What do you have, Jimmy?
Jimmy: well, we got some, texts from Captain Billy. One of those. Every episode is somebody's first, you have to explain who Liz is.
I think CBS carried the specials to the 2000s, then they moved to ABC till Apple bought them. Boo Apple. All right, well, that's editorial by Captain Billy not me, but they are producing new specials. The Marcie one is extra good. Oh, that's good to hear. That's very cool.
Harold: Cool. I'd like to see that. I don't have Apple tv. I maybe need to splurge, given all the new stuff out there.
Liz: It's really inexpensive. I mean, I think it costs, like, six bucks.
Harold: Ah, maybe I'll give that a go. All right, well, thanks, Captain Billy.
Jimmy: Yeah. So, guys, if you want to keep in touch, remember, if you don't keep in touch, I worry. You can, shoot us an email. We're unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. you can call or text the hotline 717-219-4162. And, you can follow us on social media. I'll give you that litany at the end of the show, but, yeah, we always love hearing from you. And as we approach the 2000, the end of the run of strips, let us know what you'd like for us to do afterwards. That would be great. we can figure out what we'd like to do together.
Harold: Yeah. And if you do want to give us a review like Deb just did, we so appreciate that. And it definitely helps people discover unpacking Peanuts. You might like it.
March 9th. Oh, this is really good one. So Sally is, trying to butter some toast, and she's very frustrated. She says this butter is practically frozen. And then she Yells at the top of her lungs, Nobody told me life was going to be this hard. Charlie Brown comes in and sees her. At this point, Sally continues ranting. I hate getting up in the morning. School drives me crazy. And now she, with a look of absolute ferocity on her face and frustration, is buttering it. And she says, and now I have to butter my toast with chunky butter. To which Charlie Brown says, chunky butter?
Michael: Yeah, chunky butter is one of the worst things in the world.
Jimmy: The worst.
Michael: But if you leave the butter out, then t you got to worry about it going bad.
Harold: Well, yeah, now chunky peanut butter, I'm all for that.
Jimmy: Well, you can leave. You don't need to refrigerate butter.
Liz: You do in the summer.
Michael: Okay. Yeah. Because I hate it when it breaks the matzos. Do you hate it when the butter, like, breaks the matzohs?
Jimmy: Oy do II hate it when they break the matzohs.
Harold: Poor Sally is'struggling with life.
Jimmy: Yepah. But no, I totally agree with this. It is a real frustration if you have to put a big chunk of butter and you can't -- that's terrible.
Michael: That's the worst.
Jimmy: I love the drawing, of her in the fourth panel because we have another five panel daily here.
Harold: But I mean, yeah, if you saw that just by itself, you might even guess it's not by Schulz. She looks so different.
Jimmy: Yeah. Pure frustration and rage. One big tooth in the middle of her mouth. I find that hard to do as a cartoonist, to draw teeth, because sometimes you want to do it for a cheesy grin or something like that.
Harold: uh-huh.
Jimmy: I think, I think it's hard to draw cartoon teeth.
Michael: Really, it's best not to do it.
Jimmy: Most of the time. It is 90% of the time for sure.
Harold: Eliminate all teeth. Yeah, I love drawing cheesy teeth. I that's one of the easiest things for me.
Michael: So lion teeth.
Harold: It's the qualms we have about the way things look in reality and all that. Yeah.
Jimmy: we’ll trade-- you could draw my teeth and I'll draw your trees.
Harold: Deal.
Jimmy: There you go.
March 14th. it's a symbolic panel. Linus is sitting there with his blanket and looking up above his head. He sees a storm cloud gathering just over him. And he's looking up and he has round the. You can see the whites of his eyes. Very unpeanuty looking. Then in panel two, we cut to him in thumb and blanket position and from off panel we hear oh, no. And then we see it's Lucy, who, is looking at a mess of comic books lying on the floor. And she says, all right, who's been in my comic books? Linus hears this and realizes that he's in trouble. So he quickly, ducks underneath his blanket and he sits there with it over his head saying, a storm is approaching. Everyone take cover. But Lucy's not following it. She walks right up to Linus under the blanket and says, you've been in my comic books again, haven't you? And she's showing him the wrinkled up magazines. Then she's yelling, I tried to keep them in order, and now you've messed them all up. You drive me crazy. From now on, leave them alone and stay out of my room. Then she walks away. Linus is still just sitting there under the blanket. And, when she leaves, he pulls himself out from the blanket, gets back in thumb and blanket position and says, the storm abates. The sun comes out. Peace reigns again.
Michael: The man's a poet.
Jimmy: Yeah. This is classic.
Harold: Really bad with comic books, but really.
Liz: Good with sisters who are angry.
Harold: Yeah. So, Michael, did this make you cringe, seeing how Linus treats comic books?
Michael: I think I stole a lot of my sister's comic books. I had to read those Modeling with Millie.
Harold: Right.
Jimmy: But now a lot of people don't know, like, Cause you did write the first comic book price guide was the Argosy Guide to Comics Fandom. Was that it? Don't be.
Michael: Argosy Price Guide.
Jimmy: Argosy Price Guide.. And you were what, 14, 13?
Michael: 15.
Jimmy: 15. Okay. So how did you know when you were a kid to keep your comics-- Cause your collection is stunning. How did you know to keep them so nice and that this was something worth preserving? Were you just that way about everything or comics in particular?
Michael: I knew because, my friend Tom and I were avidly racing around LA on our bikes trying to find comics in old bookstores. They usually had a little pile stuff, you know, two or three years old and, you know, for a dime, that was pretty typical. yeah. So, I mean, that was the only way we could get old comics. And there was no way you could buy them otherwise. It just. They basically had no value. yeah. Then the thing is, one day we stumbled on Collector's Bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard. And we were directed to climb some stairs up into the place where Bert Bloom, the son of the owner of the bookstore, had his comic book empire. and we never saw anything like this in our lives. This was actually the greatest moment in my life is the Walking in and the room, the table, the walls, all, golden age comics.
Harold: Wow.
Michael: Which we'd never, never seen one. We'd heard about them, but we'd never seen them. And they were going for. I mean, the stuff I drooled after was like, All Star comics and Captain America, and they were as much as like five bucks each.
Jimmy: Wow.
Michael: All Stars were ten. Captain Americas were five.
Harold: So 50 times their original cost.
Michael: I had 25 cents allowance a week. so obviously I couldn't buy anything. But we worked for Bert for a couple years.
Jimmy: Oh, wow.
Michael: Mostly like boxing the recent comics. There's an outer room where they just, you know, alphabetical, or these are all the Detective comics go in this box. Anyway, we would do that. He'd pay us like a dollar an hour in trade. But we learned the value. We learned that jeeze comics can be worth five bucks.
Jimmy: Right, right.
Michael: And so, we started taking care of our comics.
Harold: So how did he take care of a comic that was worth $5? Did he stick it in some sort of bag like we do today?
Michael: No, no, no. There were no bags. he did have his little cabinet which he let us look in because we actually, there were times when he went out to lunch and me and Tom would kind of run the place.
Jimmy: Yeah
Michael: You opened the cabinet and there was, you know, action number one for 100 dollars.
Jimmy: Wow.
Michael: And, you know, so we actually had those in our hands and looked at him. He trusted us foolishly. Yeah. So. And eventually, I can't remember, but, you know, little plastic bags came along and we just started, realizing that, wow, you know, this might be worth 10 bucks someday. And so when we'd go to buy the new comics, every week we'd go to farmers market, and the lady there let us dig through the comics before they were put out on the racks. And we, we'd look for condition.
Harold: Oh, wow.
Michael: And, you know, we'd go through and there's a little bend in the corner. So generally the comics I had were like stupendous condition, and I took really good care of them.
Liz: for 65 years you took care of them.
Michael: Well, that led to the Price Guide, which at the time was not a big deal to us, except there was another bookstore that wanted to get start doing comics. And he had this brilliant idea that, hey, you know, he knew we worked for Bert and he said, hey, you guys, you know, you know what comics are worth? I'll pay you 20 bucks to compile a price guide to comics. And he was going to sell it. You Know, run ads and some of these zines and thought he can get rich. So yeah, we made our 20 bucks each and took like two days and we just made up prices.
Harold: But you had some idea, right? This was. You remembered what was?
Michael: Well, we did have some idea, but we didn't do any research. We were just lazy. We just thought, wow, 20 bucks.
Liz: Well, you based it on the theory of old books too, right?
Michael: We didn't know anything about anything except that a hundred was sort of the top action number one.
Harold: So we, in retrospect, if you go back and flip through that, how do you feel you did given where everything went?
Michael: Oh, terrible. It's like the worst thing in the world. It was like two 15 year olds trying not to do any work.
Harold: So how old were you the first time you went into that upper room and saw those comics?
Michael: Oh, it. 14. 15. 14 probably.
Harold: That must have been amazing.
Michael: Yeah, no, it was, it was. I mean really, because at that time you like an old guy yeah in those days. No, you, no one. The comics did not acknowledge their previous history.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: I mean you have these comic characters going back in the 40s, but outside of an occasional like maybe a panel or something in the letters column where someone will write in and you know, we'd realize, wow, there'all these superheroes from the 40s and just the thought of that, we didn't know anything about them, what they looked like, but we did know Captain America because he had come back in Marvel. And so that's, that was my fantasy was to like see a Captain America. And then we just happened to stumble on a place that had all of them and could have bought them all for like a couple hundred bucks. But that's the way it goes.
Harold: In what year did the Argosy comic book price d come out?
Michael: 65.
Michael: Yeah. And they're actually quite valuable because there was only a few copies printed. They were reprinted. Someone did an edition in the 90s.
Harold: I have my copy,
Michael: A reproduction of the original price guide. Those are fairly cheap if you want to see how bad it is.
Harold: That's so cool, Michael.
Michael: Yeah. Bill Shelley. And yeah, the official notice, the official word of it being the first price guide was Bill Schelly who wrote books about comic fandom, had a book called the Golden Age of Comic Fandom and had a page on it saying this is the first price guide. So we didn't even know it was the first price guide. We had had no idea. Anyway, that's -- I'm gonna be forgotten for everything else except for that.
Jimmy: Holy smokes. Do you know how much, do you know how much a, high quality copy of your Argosy comic book prize guide would get?
Michael: Over a grand.
Jimmy: You have 1200 bucks.
Harold: You should have put that in a plastic bag.
Michael: I did, but my copy somehow disappeared.
Jimmy: First known comic book price guide published in 1965. Five years before the first published overstreet. Fewer than 50 copies are known to exist. 7.0, in 2020 went for $1229.
Michael: That's probably my copy.
Michael: Course I try not to think about it.
Jimmy: I understand that. I understand that.
March 16th. I really related to this one. So, Lucy walks up to Charlie Brown, who's on the pitchers mound. And, Lucy has her baseball cap on top of her head, but underneath the baseball cap, between her head and the cap is her baseball mitt. And she says to Charlie Brown, I can't play today, manager. I couldn't find my glove. To which Charlie Brown responds, wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that your glove was on your head and your cap on top of your glove? Lucy just turns around, walks away and says, I'll go home and look around again. If I can't find it, just start without me.
Michael: The funny thing. Well, this is a funny strip, but, here we have a comic strip, a funny comic strip running for. I have to do the math. 43 years. Charlie Brown never makes jokes. Yeah, this is like as close to a joke he is.
Harold: Dry, dry joke teller.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. I remember there was a big deal when we got to fifth grade, because in fifth grade you could use the soda machine at lunch. Okay. up to fourth grade you had to get milk or just drink something out of your thermos. But in fifth grade you could use the soda machine. And I was standing in line waiting for it, and I took one quarter out and I couldn't find my second quarter. So I took the first quarter and I put it between my lips. You hold it there. And then I'm patting around trying desperately find my second quarter. And I find the second quarter. I put it in the machine, but now I can't find the first quarter. I'm just patting myself on my -- and just look at my friend Frankie standing behind me, like, looking at me like, you're the dumbest person I've ever met. So I relate And that's not getting any better. That was fifth grade. I would have 600 graphic novels today published today if I wasn't always looking for a pen.
Michael: The apple pencils. Mine disappears at least once a day.
Jimmy: That's the most horrifying thing because they're not cheap.
Michael: They should put a little clip on so it doesn't roll.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. Can you you know you could do find my iPhone on everything. Can you do find my apple pencil.
Liz: But it'll just say it's at your house.
Jimmy: That's true. Yeah, right. Well that good? Yeah, yeah.
Harold: it's in your mouth.
March 17th. Oh boy, this is great. Snoopy is bringing his pal Woodstock to try out for the baseball team. So Woodstock has a tiny little baseball cup and a tiny little baseball glove. And Snoopy says to him, now when we ask him if you can play, don't let him know you're so sure. Then they walk up to the pitchers mound, smiles on both of their faces. But Charlie Brown, is kind of, you know, talking to them and he says, you have a friend who wants to play on our team. And but because he's taller, so much taller than Woodstock, he just says where? He didn't even look down to see him. And we see an unbelievably frustrated and depressed Woodstock down there by Charlie Brown’s shins.
Michael: I was so excited when I read this. I m went like, oh, this is going ta be a great sequence. I really want to see Woodstock try to like field of you know, a hard the line drive. Yeah. It didn't happen.
Jimmy: What a missed opportunity, I think to have Woodstock on the team. Right, right. it could have been funny. You could even see him like co playing, you know, he could be in Snoopy's hat, something and playing short stuff with.
Michael: Right.
Jimmy: Yeah. I love Woodstock in the baseball cap.
Liz: He can't be any worse than Lucy.
Jimmy: Yeah, right.
Harold: I love the little jumble of the Woodstock hash marks in a big pile in the middle of the balloon. I would love to have known what that sounded like.
Jimmy: Yeah.
March 21st. Charlie Brown in his role as manager is handing out the new baseball caps. And that's what we see in our first panel. Panel two, Lucy just arrives at the field saying what's going on? And now we see Charlie Brown has all the caps out, standing on the pitchers mound and he's going to start handing them out. He goes, and everyone who made the team this year gets a new cap. Schroeder is s the first to come up and he says, here you go Schroeder, you deserve it. Puts the cap on his head. Then he tosses one to Pig Pen and saying, here you are, Pig Pen. Try to keep it clean. And then he even puts one on Snoopy's head, saying, this is for you, Snoopy old pal. Lucy is watching this. And then finally he gives one to Linus, saying, here you go, Linus. A brand new cap. And then Lucy's standing there just looking at Charlie Brown. Not a word passes between them. Then Charlie Brown reaches out for something, turns around and gives Lucy a new cap. But it's not a baseball cap. It's a dunce cap. And she walks back out into the outfield saying, I don't know if I've made the team or not.
Jimmy: New Cap Day in Little League was the big day, but I knew kids that signed up for Little League just to get the cap and then quit.
Harold: It's like going to the free cap day at the Minor League Baseball.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. So this was just a real, flashback for me for New Cap Day. I still have some of my little caps.
Harold: I mean, talk about Charlie Brown's dry humor. Totally deadpan, passing this out. He was prepared.
Jimmy: Yeah, he prepared this.
Harold: Yeah. Right. So there's something to be said for the Charlie Brown humor. It's definitely there. And, this is the time he gets to be kind of the, Oprah Winfrey of the pitcher's mound-- you get a cap.
Jimmy: All right, guys, so how about, we call it there. I think we got some good strips coming up, but they deserve all the time and attention we can give to them. So, let's push those back to next week, and we'd love to have you guys come back next week.
And if you want to keep this conversation going between now and then, there's a couple different ways you can do it. First, we would love for you to go over to our, website, unpackingpeanuts.com do sign up for the Great Peanuts reread and get that one email a month letting you know what we're going to be covering. And also you can shoot us an email unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. You can give us a call on our hotline, 717-219-4162, or you can find us on social media. We are unpackpeanuts on Instagram and threads and unpacking peanuts, on Facebook, Bluesky and YouTube. And remember, I want to hear from you, because when I don't hear, I worry. So with all that said, come back next week for more 1993 for Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying? Be of good cheer.
Harold: Yes.
Liz: Yes.
Harold: Be of good cheer.
Liz: Be of good cheer.
Michael: Yes. Be of good cheers.
Liz: yes.
Harold: Yes.
VO: 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. 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.
Michael: Mash up.