1995 Part 2 - Woodstock is Emotionally Bankrupt!
- Unpacking Peanuts
- 5 days ago
- 32 min read
Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. we're looking at 1995 today. I'll be your host for the proceedings. My name's 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 my new comics are available for free at gvillecomics.substack.com.
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 original editor of Amelia Rules, the co creator of the original comic book price guide, and the creator 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 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. A former Vice president of Archie Comics and the creator of the Instagram sensation Sweetest Beasts, Harold Buchholz.
Harold: Hello.
Jimmy: And making sure everything runs smoothly, it's producer and editor Liz Sumner.
Liz: Greetings.
Jimmy: All right, guys, we're here deep in the 90s, second part of 1995. If nobody has a preamble, I think we should just get right into these strips.
Michael: Oh, yeah, let's do it.
Jimmy: All right, so if you characters out there want to follow along, first thing you want to do is go over to unpackingpeanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts reread, and that'll get you one email a month, from us letting you know what strips we're going to cover. And then you can just go over to gocomics.com, type in peanuts, type in the dates, and, read along with us for free. Because that's how things work here in the, mid
Michael: future.
Jimmy: In the future, in the year 2000. all right, so with all that out of the way, let's pick things upon…
May 8th, Lucy, and Linus are hanging out. Linus is in classic thumb and blanket position. And Lucy says, and you do it all the time. It drives me crazy. She continues on the next panel. Why can't you see that? Why, why do you insist on. And then, interrupting this scene comes in rerun and rerun says, are you two fighting? And Linus says, she's fighting. I'm just sitting here.
Michael: That's a good one.
Jimmy: That's a good punchline.
Michael: Now, have we seen Rerun and Linus in the same panel before?
Harold: It's been rare, Right? Yeah. It was kind of strange seeing the two of them together. although I think that's not a bad idea from Schulz's perspective, given he's got to differentiate them..
Michael: And one thing he's doing is, strangely enough, is Rerun's head is smaller in relationship to his body than Linus.
Harold: that is kind of odd.
Michael: And usually depict younger kids as having bigger heads.
Jimmy: Wow. That's true.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: I didn't notice that. That's interesting.
Harold: That is interesting. Wonder what's behind that choice. Is that consistent? Are we gonna see that again?
Jimmy: It is the exact opposite. Normally, if you're gonna cartoon a little kid, it's a giant head and a little body. Cause that's little kids.
Harold: Or, you know, and strangely, it works. Those little overalls sure do help him look young.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: And he looked kind of baggy on him. I think that helps him too.
Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. I love also just seeing the three Van Pelts together.
Harold: Yeah. It's. It's. How rare is.
Michael: Yeah. That's certainly the first triplet.
Jimmy: Triplet.
Michael: Triplet panel.
Jimmy: yeah.
Harold: I do like Lucy's sweatshirt.
Jimmy: Yep. Yep. And, her. I'm gonna say corduroy pants. Yeah. And I also wanted to kind of just note, as we're looking through there, it felt to me that, like, his art was tighter in a lot of strips. And then once in a while, you would see one go really, kind of astray with the tremor and just fatigue sitting in.
Michael: But I picked a wonky one just because it was so wonky.
Jimmy: I'm curious to see which one that is because, Yeah, I saw it. Noticed a couple like that.
Harold: Yeah. But this one in particular does look pretty. Pretty solid.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: The blacks in Lucy's hair, for some reason, help a lot.
Jimmy: Yeah, that's true.
Harold: I don't know why that. I guess because it's. It seems like a solid, clean.
Jimmy: Yeah. Grounds it. Yeah. Yeah. And he's not doing the jangly blacks or anything like that. I mean, just the very littlest bit of highlight on her.
Harold: Yeah. Well, maybe Lucy's not wearing corduroys. Maybe they're referee pants because she's refereeing life.
Jimmy: Maybe. And here we see on…
May 9, the three van Pelts sitting on a couch. Linus and Rerun are sitting on the bare base of the couch because Lucy has stolen the two other additional cushions, piled them on top of her cushion, and she is sitting, on them packed, stack three high. So she's way taller than both of her brothers and they're all watching tv. But Rerun says to Linus, maybe someday you can explain her to me.
Jimmy: Okay.
Harold: I like this one.
Jimmy: I do too.
Liz: Princess and the Pea.
Jimmy: Princess and the Pea.
Harold: It's interesting that Schulz has twice chosen to have Linus with the blanket. This seems like he's very self conscious about Rerun and Linus being differentiated when they are together because, we haven't seen a whole lot of this, you know, sucking the thumb and holding the blanket.
Jimmy: No, not at all. it is really smart to finally put them together like this and give them a three way family dynamic as opposed to just, you know, Lucy and Linus that we've had for so long.
Harold: It's surprising that he hasn't gone here before, given how rich this could be. You know, he's lucky. He's unlocked something, it seems like.
Jimmy: Yeah, definitely. Well, he's unlocked something with Rerun. Rerun has just blossomed everywhere this year, and that's kind of Fun to see.
May 14th, it's a Sunday. Schroeder's out there. He's playing, ah, catcher, as is his want. but he either says to himself,
Jimmy: do we assume that's what he's doing? He just is saying the word. E flat.
Michael: Yeah.
Jimmy: Okay.
So he says E flat. And then he walks away from wherever he was looking and says that was it. E flat. And then he, goes out to the good old pitcher’s mound to talk to Charlie Brown. And he says, do you know who Robert Schumann was? And Charlie Brown says, a composer. And Schroeder says he had a mental breakdown. At one point he thought he heard angels singing to him. Charlie Brown, listens, thinks about this and says, I have the same thing. I keep hearing something too. It comes and it goes. And Schroeder says, like maybe a musical note. And Charlie Brown says, no, it's a different sort of sound. E flat?And then, we hear from out in right field, it's Lucy yelling, try to get the ball over the plate, you blockhead. And then Charlie, Brown says to Schroeder, that's it.
Michael: This E flat business is a little mysterious.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Because it doesn't quite relate to the joke.
Harold: Right.
Michael: and he comes. Doesn't he come in again with another E flat reference?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Do you think it's a second he had a second thought about in the bottom left tier having Schroeder repeat E Flat. Just Charlie Brown. Given that it wasn't in there. Imagine you didn't have the top tier. Yeah, that would be even particularly. I mean, it is still mysterious, but. Yeah. The E flat, for those of you listening, you don't have. The strip in front of you is kind of shoehorned in between Charlie Brown.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: And Schroeder. It's kind of rare. They don't. He doesn't do it a lot. Where, you'll have, within a single panel, a character having two different balloons. And it is in time between the time Charlie Brown fires, we think. I guess.
Jimmy: I thought I heard someone's guitar. Oh, you didn't know Michael plays the music live.
Michael: No, it's not me. It's Liz and her little phone machine.
Harold: I was just feeling like Schroeder for a minute.
Michael: Yeah. I wouldn't. As a matter of fact, if those two panels that weren't there at the top, I would have read that as him going a. Like, he's Canadian or something.
Jimmy: yeah. Like. Yeah. I wonder. I don't understand why. It's because if you don't have the top two, the top tier, then don't put E flat at all. Because. Yeah, I don't recognize.
Michael: I think it's a code. I think it's. Communicate something.
Harold: I mean, I like the idea that Schroeder is hearing E flat and then the first thing he thinks of is, Robert Schumann's mental breakdown. He's a little concerned, I guess, because, Yeah, I. I didn't. I looked it up. I was reading about Schumann because of this.
VO: Peanuts Obscurities Explained
Harold: Kind of a sad story. He died in his 40s in a mental institution. and. But he did claim, like, angels and demons were. Were, like, speaking to him and also giving him songs and music.
Jimmy: Oh, wow. And all Schroeder's getting is an E flat.
Michael: I think he's got tinnitus, which I have. And it's kind of just a constant musical tone sounding.
Harold: Yeah. Is it super high?
Michael: I've learned to totally ignore it.
Harold: I do, too. Yeah, I've got it. I've had it for years and years. I don't. It's just been such a part of my life that the only time I hear it is when someone talks about it and then I hear it.
Jimmy: Like, being aware of your tongue.
Harold: Yeah, exactly. Boy, this is going to be a tough show. Have you guys ever done the thing-- this drives Diane crazy? Because you're ever in a room where there's like resonance or you're in like a cave or whatever.
Jimmy: Oh, the amount of times I've been in a cave, of course.
Harold: Come on. No, like, right outside of where we live, we have this little vestibule or apartment place where if you are at a certain kind of low register, it resonates. The whole walls resonate. And when I hear that, I, like, I start going, trying hmmm to find it. And then it's like the whole place reverberates.
Michael: It's like, what happens now in my room is. So I've got all these musical instruments I've collected and people have given them to me. They're all hanging on the wall in my room. And when I sneeze, it, like, sets the whole room off.
Harold: You're just at the right pitch. That's interesting.
May 18, Snoopy in his French Foreign Legion outfit is leading the Beagle Scouts across the desert. And he, is thinking to himself or going, here's the world famous sergeant of the Foreign Legion leading his troops across the desert. As they march under a moonlit sky, they sing a stirring fight song. And then we see the Beagle Scouts singing, a little song of their scratchy graphics. And then Snoopy turns and looks at them and says, Some Enchanted Evening is not a stirring fight song.
Michael: What I like is on, panel two, it's got the right amount of syllables in the little hatch marks.
Jimmy: Oh, it does. Oh, that's amazing.
Harold: Now we have a clue. We now have a clue about how these little birds are.
Harold: Can you imagine in the anime if they animated this and they actually had them chirping Some Enchanted Evening? That would be a good use. Too bad we don't have Snoopy. We can't hear Snoopy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he couldn't do this gag, right?
Liz: I think you could turn Some Enchanted Evening into a stirring fight song with the.
Jimmy: And you know what? It would have the, added advantage of being quite vexing to the enemy because they're like, what are they singing?
Harold: Yeah, yeah, you can hear those. Hear the brass. And the tube is going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Jimmy: There we go. That's Michael. whip that up. So we'll have our new theme song for next episode.
Michael: Okay. The marching version.
May 24. Snoopy, in his classic vulture pose, is atop a very spindly looking Charles Schulz tree. And Woodstock is on another branch looking down. And he asks Snoopy a question. And Snoopy, without moving at all from his vulture position, says, sure, I don't care what you do. And then two panels of Woodstock, going off, probably to his nest. And in the second one, he comes back carrying a tiny little chair, which he then sets up on his perch on the tree. And Snoopy, as the vulture says. But a real vulture never sits in a chair.
Michael: I picked this particularly. I'm a huge vulture fan. That was always my favorite Snoopy impersonation. And I think, old Snoopy can't pull it off. He's not as flexible as young Snoopy.
Jimmy: Well, that's what happens.
Michael: Especially the eye there. Just looks wrong to me.
Harold: Oh, the eye. Well, I noticed. Didn't he have a, full back arc through the top. Top of the head to the ears back in the day?
Michael: Well, his snout used to bend.
Harold: Yeah. At the collar. Now he doesn't have the full drop on the head the way he used to.
Michael: Yeah, it's pretty sad, vulture.
Jimmy: But what's crazy about it is it is like an old dog. I mean, I know no dog would do that, but do you know what I'm saying? He does look like the same dog, just older. Doing a weirder thing. Not as well, you know, which I relate to.
Michael: Yeah, my snout doesn't bend anymore.
Jimmy: Not at all.
Liz: Judy Sladky said that she had some trouble doing the vulture too.
Jimmy: Oh, there you go.
Harold: Oh, man. Yeah, that's got to be rough. Now that we know what we know about some enchanted evening, I'm going to start trying to figure out the syllables for each of these chirps for Woodstock. So I think here, Woodstock is saying, do you mind if I get a chair?
Jimmy: That's right. Do you mind if I get a chair? I don't care what you do. Oh, wow, that's really,
Harold: Do you think Schulz was doing that now?
Jimmy: I do in his head. I mean, never in my life did I ever think that until some enchanted evening. But now I do.
Harold: Wow, that blows my mind.
Michael: So we can decode everything now.
Jimmy: Every single one now.
Michael: Yeah, let's do it.
Harold: I think that's. Well, there's a whole book of Woodstock decoded, and it's just strips where we pop in.
Jimmy: The subtitle is the tragic story of how three cartoonists lost their minds.
Harold: Right. Well, this was a surprise to me. This is my first time reading these strips and cracking, the book to 1995, the Fantagraphics editions. But every single two year span book has an introduction. And I was very surprised to see the introduction was done by two writers, from Riftrax. And on the front cover, Rifftrax is A kind of a spin off of Mystery Science Theater, which I produced and wrote on, as you guys hear every time, unless you fast forward through our introductions. But I didn't know that they had done this. It was two writers, who worked on the show. And then they got, I guess, the three. The three main, guys, who had worked at Mystery Science Theater to actually riff some strips. So if you are a Mystery Science Theater fan, see if you can get a hold of the 1995-96 edition. And they actually riff, some, some Peanuts dailies. And some of them were very funny. So. Thought that was cool.
Jimmy: Oh, that's very cool.
May 29, it's a panoramic, panel, and we got the Big Four all hanging out at the thinking wall. And Linus says to Charlie Brown, so you don't think Jesus ever owned a dog? And then, Charlie Brown says, no, I doubt it. And then Lucy says, but why? Why? And then Snoopy goes, if he had a dog, all the apostles would have wanted one.
Michael: Yeah, we used to talk about the Big Four.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Because back in the day, the rule was at least one of these characters had to appear in every strip, which held true for, like, 20 years.
Jimmy: Uh-huh.
Michael: And, I don't think this is the Big Four anymore.
Jimmy: All right, let me ask you a question. Who would be the Big Four these days?
Michael: Well, I think Peppermint Patty. I mean, Linus is making a little bit of a comeback, but he was kind of written out for a while. So I think she would be the Number Four at this point. If you're just talking in terms of number of panels they appear in.
Jimmy: Yeah, that's interesting.
Harold: Yeah. I never would have thought Linus would have kind of fallen off as much as he has in the past years. But he is making a comeback.
Jimmy: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Harold: And seeing Rerun almost makes me feel like Linus is there.
Jimmy: And of course, I'm certain you all know, that this is referenced in the classic REM Bonus track, Rhythm Was the Best Revenge, which just starts with Peter Buck asking. It's just studio chatter. And he says, I always wonder, do you think Jesus had a dog? And then it just sends the whole band into this.
Michael: So that's why you picked this one.
Jimmy: I think it's. I really think Peter Buck read this strip.
Harold: When was that recording session?
Jimmy: You know, after this, it would have been in the 2000s. But it's so strange that. I mean, did Jesus have a dog? Is a pretty specific thing. And it felt like he was just. It was not meant to be, you know, actually released. He was just goofing around in the studio. And I think, I think. I think he stole it. I think he stole it from here. And I don't blame him. It's a good one.
June 5th. this is the middle of a little sequence where Sally has decided she is going to leave, home. So we see her with, the classic hobo sack on the stick, which has a name, but I can't remember what it is. But, she's back at her house now and Charlie Brown's sitting there reading the one book he owns. And he says to her, I see you decided not to leave home. And then Sally says, I had to. I walked all the way around the block. My life didn't get any better, so I came home. She just sinks into the ground next to him.
Michael: Well, this actually is, the end of the sequence, which I had high hopes for because I thought seeing Sally travel around the world would be an interesting, great idea.
Jimmy: Right.
Michael: I could do it, you know, I'd be happy to see that.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: But no, it was fairly short sequence. And then she walks around the block and comes home. Why is she wearing a Civil War hat?
Jimmy: It's a very weird hat. it's a very weird hat. Ah, I like her in the hat. I think it's cute. I think it's very cute.
Harold: I think her hair looks least crazy when she's wearing that hat.
Jimmy: yeah, Some of those wings are tucked in, I think.
Harold: Yeah. It's a nice look from the profile, particularly.
Jimmy: Anyone know what that's called? The sack on the stick.
Harold: Yeah. Bindle stick.
Jimmy: Bindle stick.
Harold: Or a bindle. A bindlel, I guess.
Michael: Yeah. So you have the little. The world is when you're. You're little because.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: I don't know. I mean, I used to wander, but I don't know if I ever actually went around the block because I discovered later, years later, me and my sister went back to where we used to live in LA and drove around the block. And there was a Catholic school there. I didn't know that.
Harold: Wow. I never got to go around the block. I lived on a cul de sac.
Jimmy: I remember wanting, to go to the Jiffy Mart, which was the little store in town when I was 8 years old and my mom needed stuff and I was like, I can get it. I can totally get it. I can go to Jiffy Mart myself. And, so they. I mean, my mom very reluctantly gave me the money And I went down to Jiffy Mart, and when I came out, I was so proud. And then I saw about a half a block away, my dad with walking the dog. My dad had never walked the dog in his life. And I was like, she sent him to spa. It really irritated me.
Harold: I just realized I lived in three cul de sacs in a row growing up. Age of 5 all the way through.
Liz: Explains a lot.
Jimmy: School, right? Do you know that's where bag end comes from? Michael in Lord of the Rings, is that cul de sac the bottom of the bag? Yeah.
Michael: Never thought of that. I thought it had to do with Baggins, but.
Jimmy: Well, I think it's a. It's a double, double whammy there.
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: Well, and maybe that explains why I love Richard Thompson's cul de sac strip so much. That is an amazing strip. If you guys have not seen. Our listeners have not seen Richard Thompson's cul de sac. I think that is a masterpiece.
Jimmy: I have an autographed edition gifted to me by my good pal Harold Buchholz, so. And Richard Thompson sadly passed away. So that's all we're getting from him. And it. He's a great, great, great artist. And was a-- I only met him once, but an unbelievably nice person, it seemed.
Harold: Yeah.
June 18th. Linus, having, been sitting around, I guess, for a while in thumb and blanket position, yawns mightily. And this attracts the attention of his, arch enemy, Snoopy, whose ears are pricked up, as he looks out from behind a chair. Then Linus goes back to classic thumb, and blanket position. And we see just the tiniest little Snoopy in the distance, sneaking up on him. Then in the next panel, Klomp, Snoopy whizzes in, and steals the blanket. And for the first time, we also see that Lucy, was sitting next to Linus, this time reading a book. And, Snoopy drags Linus off panel. We hear, augh. Bonk. And then, Lucy goes to see exactly what has occurred. And Snoopy has somehow shot right out the mail slot of the door. But, Linus’s big noggin was not able to do that. So Linus is still on this side of the door holding his blanket, and dazed. Cause he hit his head. And then Lucy runs outside and sees. Well, she has run outside. She runs to the window and sees that Snoopy is on the other side of the door, still holding on. And he's also dazed because he was racing and got, Pulled back. And, then it just ends with Lucy going back to the book she's reading and saying excessively weird.
Michael: It is excessively weird. And, I mean, you can only do this in a comic strip, right?
Harold: Yeah.
Michael: This is really good cartooning.
Harold: My favorite is Snoopy just peeking his head outside of the, you know, the edge of the panel, far away. That's just hilarious.
Jimmy: And because, you know, you don't have any possible indication of perspective, that could also just be a tiny little Snoopy sneaking in from the side. But because, Schulz has the confidence to present it to you to us as Snoopy in the background, we buy it as Snoopy in the background wholesale. Totally. It's so cute. I also like Snoopy knocked silly. I like him knocked silly even better than Linus knock silly.
Harold: So is that blanket in his mouth or his tongue?
Jimmy: I think that is his blanket. As that, we're gonna have to take.
Harold: A look at the coloring.
Jimmy: Yeah. Is that the blanket and tongue? Is that what you're saying? Like the tongue sticking out over the blanket?
Michael: No, there's a. You see a tongue, but it's in the second last panel.
Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Interesting.
Michael: I think that's.
Jimmy: Yep. That's a good looking strip. I like the whole outside of the Van Pelt house too. That's. That looks really nice. And, like, super clean. Super clean lines.
Harold: Now, although it strangely looks, maybe because of the way the door handle is, that it's weird. It feels like the door is at an angle, but everything else is straight on.
Jimmy: the door handle is at the angle. I think you're right. I think it's a slight. Yeah, Yeah. I bet it looks good, in color. I'm looking at it in black and white. I bet the color flattens out.
Harold: I think the other. Maybe the other piece of that is the way he has the, edge of the, stoop. It's got that little concrete, thing at an angle that maybe coincides with the door. So there's like, two things going on.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: In terms of perspective.
Jimmy: Okay, well, that seems like a good place as any to take a little break. so, we're gonna go get a beverage or something like that. And, you listen to this message, and then we'll see you on the other side. Be right back.
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VO: Hi, everyone. I just wanna take a moment to remind you that all three hosts are cartoonists themselves and their work is available for sale. You can find links to purchase books by Jimmy, Harold and Michael on our website. You can also support the show on Patreon or buy us a mud pie. Check out the store link on unpackingpeanuts.com.
Jimmy: All right. And we're back. Hey, Liz. I'm, hanging out in the mailbox. Do we got anything?
Liz: We do. Paul Hebert writes and. Hey, gang, just a quick note to tell you about a couple of newish biographies of Charles Schulz. Would love to hear your takes on them at some point. the first is by Luca. I don't know how to pronounce that. Debus. And Francesco Matteuzzi. it's called the title is Funny Things: a Comic Strip Biography. And the second is by Yuzuru Kuki. Forgive me if I'm mangling anybody's name. And it's the manga biography of Charles M. Schulz.
Jimmy: Very interesting.
Michael: Well, for somebody who had a boring life, he sure gets a lot of biographies.
Jimmy: Chapter 12. He sits at the desk again. That's very cool.
Liz: And Wade Weston writes. Just finished listening to your 1985 Part 3 episode. Your listener who thinks You're in love Charlie Brown is the most depressing cartoon of all time Is obviously not familiar with Why Charlie Brown? Why?
Jimmy: Oh, yeah.
Liz: or What have we learned? Charlie Brown.
Harold: Yeah.
Liz: Both deal with very difficult topics, but with sensitivity. I think both are worth watching, but not to be watched alone. Or at least not without supportive friends on speed dial. And then he adds, also, Yellow Submarine is a brilliant and innovative film and is one of my all time favorite movies. Anyone who disagrees is wrong.
Jimmy: Well, first, I admire you coming out hot. that's the way you're gonna defend something? That's the way to do it, my friend. I'm gonna bet he is a millennial or younger. because like, for Gen X people, we didn't really have that many opportunities to see Yellow Submarine to develop any kind of attachment to it.
Harold: I will say Yellow Submarine is way better than the Beatles Saturday morning cartoon.
Jimmy: Well, yes, that is true. It is way better than that. and I think my thing about Yellow Submarine is just that it feels so Beatles-- It's barely adjacent. Yeah, right. You know, it's not the real Beatles voices or whatever.
Harold: Well, it's a shame that they got kind of turned off by what was done with the Saturday morning cartoon. And so they didn't want anything to do with the making of this feature.
Jimmy: Right.
Harold: Until they saw it after the fact and added that little, little postscript where they were the live action because it was too late to do anything. Animation.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: Seen it sooner. They might have been.
Michael: I think they just. It was just to, fulfill their contract. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: I heard that they liked it, that they. That they actually liked it and they wanted to do that.
Jimmy: Oh, they did. Like, I think it's two things. One, they had to do it whether they liked it or not, because they had to appear in it to fulfill the contract. But it is true that once they saw it, they did like it and were like. They even went to the premiere and all that kind of stuff.
Harold: They were.
Jimmy: They ended up being big fans about it. But it's always just been that and, like, Yellow, not Yellow Submarine. I don't know if that's what we're talking about Magical Mystery Tour. They were just, like, impossible to see in the 80s and 90s.
Harold: Yeah. And when we had a slightly edited version in the United States as well. my wife Diane, huge Beatles fan. and she loves animation, she loves Yellow Submarine. She'd already seen it multiple times. And, Hey Bulldog had been dropped from the US Version. Yeah.
Michael: That's horrifying.
Harold: And you're sitting and watching this movie that you think, you know, inside out, and all of a sudden there's like this unexpected bonus. Things like.
Michael: What?
Harold: Wait, wait, what, what, what? Oh, my gosh.
Jimmy: Yeah. Hey, Bulldog got no respect for decades.
Michael: Oh, yeah. Now it's like, top 10.
Jimmy: Yeah, right? Yeah. And I will say this. I don't know if you can hear this, but that is the lid on my Yellow Submarine cookie jar, so.
Harold: Oh, there you go.
Jimmy: I do have. I do have some of it.
Liz: That's it for the mail.
Jimmy: All right. We heard, from super listener Shayle Robson, who says, hey, guys, it's Shaylee Robson.
Shaylee: I was just finishing up listening to 1993 for the comics, and I figured I'd tell you my strip of the year. My favorite would have to be July 18, where Charlie Brown was assuring Snoopy things would be all right during his time of need. I just think it was so genuinely sweet seeing how much Charlie loves his dog and made me think of my close relationship with my dogs. Mainly my girl Luna. She means the world to me and I just think that our pets are such blessings. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well and I hope that your eyes are doing nicely, Jimmy. And yeah, I look forward to your next episodes. Be a good year.
Jimmy: I love, that strip. I think, yeah, it's just one of the best of the year. And, yeah, and I totally agree. I love seeing, Charlie Brown's more real life dog owner role With Snoopy, you know, after decades of being kind of vexed and only the guy who, you know, gives him his food, now they're a much closer, like, master and puppy owner or puppy, relationship.
Harold: Yeah, that's a great strip. I love that attitude. And I have to throw it out there to, whoever's listening to us. In Guatemala. We are number three right now. In Guatemala, according to. So that's exciting. I don't know if one person's downloading everything we've ever done.
Jimmy: Whoever you are out there, thank you. Keep it going.
Harold: Thank you. Yeah. And we're down from number three, so I don't know what's been going on in Guatemala.
Jimmy: Wow. All right, well, we got to make a trip and find out when we do our Unpacking Peanuts world tour. All right, guys, let's go back to the old strips.
June 23, Rerun is at Charlie Brown's house, outside. He's just knocked, on the door, and he says to Charlie Brown, ask your dog if he wants to come out and frolic. Charlie Brown answers everyone by saying, yesterday you asked him if he wanted to come out and play. And then Rerun says, we're upgrading the neighborhood.
Harold: Yeah, he's raising the game here. Rerun. This is the last five years of Peanuts as I know it.
Michael: He uses this setup a lot this year.
Michael: It was just like Rerun used to be on the back of the bike. Right now he's knocking to see if Snoopy wants to come out. Must be 10 of these this year.
Harold: So you think this is the front door or the back door?
Jimmy: I think Rerun's a backdoor guest.
Harold: I think so, yeah.
Jimmy: Backdoor guests are best, as they say. I like, there is something about the kid who doesn't have a dog and the friends who do have dogs. I had two close friends when I was very little, Marnie Marquette and Frankie O'Neill. And they didn't have dogs. And they loved my dog Spunky. Like they would come and visit Spunky more than they would come and visit me.
Harold: Well, when you're an only child, it helps to have somebody else there to mix it up, right?
Jimmy: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Frankie eventually did get a dog named Barkley, which is a great name for a dog.
Harold: What kind of dog did you have?
Jimmy: I had an apricot poodle. yeah, Never had the ridiculous poodle like haircut. Just had the puppy cut. Very smart. He, could kick field goals. I had a little, I had a little toy, field goal Set, up. And a little plastic football. And you could tell, him hike. And he'd run up and he'd kick it with his front paws. Through the paws. Yeah. That's the best you as a good puppy.
June 25th, Lucy's out, skipping rope. And she's doing that and two panels. This is Sunday. And then, on tier two, she is explaining to Rerun exactly what's going on. She says, see, you twirl the rope around and you jump up and down. To which Rerun replies, why would I want to do that? And then Lucy says, because it's fun. It's doing something. And then Rerun says, why do I have to do something? And he continues with, I don't like to do anything. I just like to hang around. This has actually caused Lucy to stop jumping. But then she resumes by saying, you can't just hang around. That's no way to live. You're going to waste your whole life. And then she sees Snoopy just chilling out, leaning up against a rock. And he thinks, don't look at me. I'm just hanging around.
Michael: This is a whole new side of Rerun's personality.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: Which hasn't been played up at all. He just wants to hang around. I mean, that's.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Michael: I mean, that makes for a good character to have a little something like a joke generating personality trait. But I don't know if we see it again.
Harold: Mostly seen him trying to do things right. Yeah.
Michael: He seems to be a pretty active kid.
Jimmy: I love just hanging around. Hanging out, I would say, though. But hanging out, I think is an art form. I think people have lost the ability to just hang out.
Michael: Well, I don't know. I think hanging out has to do with other people. Hanging around you could do by yourself.
Jimmy: Well, that is true. Yeah, that's true. That's true.
Harold: Yeah. There's a whole thesis on hanging out. I think it was in the whole world's crazy. the Amelia Rules series.
Jimmy: No, it's in the fourth one. Whatever the fourth book's called.
Harold: Oh, really? Was that late in the.
Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Harold: Oh, my gosh. For some reason I had that pegged at the very beginning. Ah.
Jimmy: It was a free comic book day issue that, ended up in volume four. Yep. Hanging out.
Michael: They're talking about Amelia Rules.
Jimmy: Oh, yeah, right.
Harold: We're just.
Jimmy: Actually, we're just talking amongst ourselves and sort of forgot there was a show going on
June 26th. And it's a panoramic, one of my favorites. Here we See a semi forlorn looking Woodstock sitting on the stump of a tree, and then, leaning up against, another tree is Snoopy. And Snoopy goes, you're emotionally bankrupt. Scott Fitzgerald was emotionally bankrupt. We're all emotionally bankrupt.
Jimmy: And that's the entire strip.
Harold: That's a left fielder. Yeah.
Michael: The one thing I've learned from this podcast is predicting who's gonna pick which strips. And there's just no doubt in my mind, okay, Jimmy's gonna pick this one.
Jimmy: You were right,
Michael: Frankly, I don't get it.
Jimmy: No, I don't get it either. I love it, but I don't get it. But I did go down a rabbit hole. I've actually used. Just this week, I put out the very first episode of my, new graphic novel in the Real Dark Night on Substack. And I used this as, a quote at the beginning as a little epigraph. And so I went down a whole rabbit hole of what it is. So Scott Fitzgerald went through a period in the 30s, when he was, well, he was depressed and he was. And all kinds of things. And he chronicles it in a book called the Crackup. And he also wrote a short story just called Emotional Bankruptcy. So I think what it is, is I think Schulz read the story Emotional Bankruptcy and then just was contemplating it. And instead of the character in the book and the story being emotionally bankrupt, he put it to, Fitzgerald. And I think it's impossible. What I love about it is imagine this in Beetle Bailey.
Harold: Plato might have said it. Right.
Jimmy: Yeah. Right.
Michael: This is not the language of comics. I have to put a plug in. I have to put a plug in Jimmy's new strip,
Liz: which is available on Substack.
Michael: yeah, Check it out. I think this is absolutely brilliant.
Jimmy: Oh, get out of here.
Michael: And, it's one of the best things I've ever read. I can't wait to read more. And it starts, a couple days ago. So go to Substack and start reading this thing. It's really amazing.
Jimmy: Oh, well, thank you. That makes me feel so good. All right, let's just end the podcast here.
Harold: Well, I mean, it makes sense that Schulz would, would not mention the concept of Fitzgerald as emotionally bankrupt if Fitzgerald didn't specifically go there. Because that would be unusual for Schulz.
Jimmy: Yes, yes.
Harold: To, to just say his emotionally bankrupt. This real life person. Yeah, well, and for those of you who are listening, who may not know who's, F. Scott Fitzgerald is. Jimmy, do you want to give any background, just who this is in case we got some people going, scratching their heads.
Jimmy: Well, he's a 20th century writer, most famous for writing the Great Gatsby. he's, the namesake of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the good old Star, Spangled Banner, and yeah, he was a very popular writer, who then just became, a very unpopular writer. But then in World War II, GIs started getting copies of the Great Gatsby sent to them through some. I don't know what the program was, if it was Reader's Digest or whatever. And then that is suddenly is what made that become reconsidered in, like, one of the American classics.
Harold: Yeah. And he sadly died before World War II even began.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: I mean, it's amazing that he died at 44. And he wrote. Yeah, four novels and 164 short stories.
Jimmy: And some screenplays, too.
Harold: I don't know. Not bad. Yeah.
Jimmy: Yeah, not bad.
Harold: Yeah. Michael, you might be surprised that I selected this one as well. Although one of the reasons was, this is an interesting week of dailies. Between the six dailies, there were nine panels drawn.
Jimmy: Wow.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely a weird week.
Harold: I'm wondering what was going on in Schulz's life.
Jimmy: Yeah, there could very well be some extenuating circumstances in his life that's causing that. And that is a really. Just a nice bonus for him as a person, having changed the format, that he can do a couple panoramics or a couple. Two panelers, you know, and because he doesn't abuse it, because he'll also do, you know, five panel ones. We've seen at least one of those, you know, this year so far, so. Or this episode, rather so far, I think, Woodstock looks really forlorn.
Harold: Yeah. Boy. But, it is strange that, you know, Schulz is assigning this to Snoopy and to Woodstock. That's a bit of a surprise in itself. You know that Woodstock is getting, this analysis by Snoopy.
Jimmy: Yeah. Yep. And we never really find out why. That was just it.
July 10th. Snoopy and Woodstock are atop the doghouse, looking up in the sky. And Snoopy says, why are you sitting here when you could be up there flying around with all those other birds? And Woodstock chirps an answer, and Snoopy says, I know what you mean. I'm not a joiner either, by the way.
Michael: That's what I'm, saying.
Jimmy: I'm not a joiner.
Harold: No way. You got to do that. Syllables.
Michael: No.
Jimmy: I'm not, really, a joiner type.
Michael: No, I'm not really a joiner.
Harold: Joiner. Yeah, I'm not really a joiner. Yeah, this is fun.
Jimmy: If we actually decoded this, and some.
Michael: Of them are bigger, so it's the emphasis. I'm not really a joiner.
Harold: Not really a joiner.
Liz: That must be going a little too far.
Jimmy: Yeah.
July 12th. Snoopy and Woodstock are outside, just, perusing a field. And we see a long, black, sort of furrow and, raised portion of the grass. And Snoopy explains to Woodstock, moles have very weak eyes. They dig tunnels just under the ground and hunt worms and insects. And then Woodstock says something, and Snoopy answers, you're right. It's a tough way to make a living.
Michael: What's Woodstock saying?
Jimmy: Two, three. Boy, that is a, tough way to make a. No, that is a, tough way to make a, living. That is a tough way to make a living. Exclamation point.
Michael: That is.
Jimmy: Yeah, it's a tough way to remember.
Harold: Woodstock decoded.
Jimmy: Wow. Guys, I'm worried about us. I just don't think that's. That, I mean, we may be right about this, and that upsets me. We have looked at this too closely.
Harold: 150 episodes.
Liz: I was just going to say that there's, an element of Lucy in the way that Snoopy is explaining moles have very weak eyes.
Harold: Oh.
Jimmy: Ah, that is true. Yeah.
Harold: Yeah.
Jimmy: Except Snoopy's actually telling a real fact as opposed to whatever Lucy would have come up with. But that's definitely a little theme that has gone on for years. You know, the one character explaining things to the slightly more younger or more innocent character.
Liz: Dog splaining.
Jimmy: Dog splaining.
July 16th. Spike is in World War I, and he's, of course, not a flying AC. He's just an infantryman stuck in a trench. And, we see him telling us that in panel one, I'm in the infantry. And then the second panel, Snoopy is out on a mission as the Flying Ace, and he says, the flak is heavy today. And then he looks down from his SOP with Camel and says, good grief, there's my brother Spike. Apparently, he lands, the Sopwith Camel and goes and greets Spike. Hey, Spike, I was flying over the trenches when I saw you. To which Spike says, I'm in the infantry. And Snoopy says, are you getting ready to lead a charge over the top? And Spike says, the last time I looked over the top, someone threw a rock at me. And then Snoopy says, well, I have to get back to the aerodrome. I write to mom and tell Her, I saw you. And this leaves Spike down, in the little trench. And he yells back after Snoopy, tell her I'm in the infantry and I miss her. Tapioca pudding. And then Snoopy's back on the stop with camel flying in the other direction, saying, that's Spike. He's a real soldier, always thinking of duty. And then it ends with Spike in the trench again, saying, when you're in the infantry, you never get tapioca pudding.
Michael: I hate this strip.
Jimmy: All right, what don't you like about it?
Michael: In my head, we've established a rule that what Snoopy's imagining could be anything, but nobody else is in the scene. But he's had people in the scene before.
Jimmy: Uh-huh.
Michael: This is, like, too weird, because it's like they're both having the same fantasy at the same time and kind of meet.
Jimmy: Uh-huh.
Michael: this violates all the rules for me.
Jimmy: Well, here, I could give you something, a way to look at it. Maybe Snoopy's also hallucinating Spike.
Michael: Yeah, but we see Spike's thoughts.
Jimmy: Yeah, that's true. the reason I picked it is just because of all the black ink. Yeah, it's another one of his forays into Frank Miller territory. You know, it's just. It's really struck me as graphically completely unique when I. Completely unique, but pretty, rare to see all that black ink just smudged all over the place. Given me, you know, his D-day strip vibes again.
Harold: I'd like to see this one in color.
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: I have to say, I just noticed that this was my dad's 65th birthday when this came out. Oh, wow. Although he was never in the infantry.
Jimmy: Good.
August 2nd. Snoopy, in his famous lawyer guise, is defending a bunny. And, the bunny is sitting right next to him. And Snoopy says. What I'm trying to say, your honor, is that my client was severely wronged by Mr. McGregor. When Mr. McGregor chased my client, this innocent little bunny with a rake, he caused him great emotional distress. And then both Snoopy and the bunny sniff and wipe a tear away from their eye. And then this bunny actually snuggles up to Snoopy in the courtroom, and Snoopy says, you, Honor, may we have a 10 minute recess?
Harold: Michael, can you guess who picked this up?
Michael: Oh, yeah, Harold's gonna pick this one. Anything with a bunny, it's Harold's turf.
Harold: This is a whole week long sequence, right?
Jimmy: Yeah.
Harold: That's nice. the bunny is, very cute and very unusual. I don't know anybody else who draws bunnies the way Charles Schulz does, but I like it.
Jimmy: It kind of reminds me of, like, a bunny sock puppet. You know, like, it's such a minimal bunny face. I really like it, too. I mean, I could absolutely see a, version where the bunny and Snoopy and Woodstock hang out together and become. Become pals. I can totally see that. Yeah.
Harold: So does everybody know who, Mr. McGregor is? This is from Peter, Rabbit. Right? I don't know if it's maybe the very first Peter Rabbit.
Jimmy: Oh, wow. No, Beatrix Potter. I didn't catch that. Oh, I should have known because of that cool movie, which I don't think is in any way accurate, but it's a wonderful movie. Mrs. Potter.
Harold: Ms. Potter. Oh, that is a great movie. I love Ms. Potter. Yeah, there's a lot of. Yeah, a lot of cool things in there. That was made by the guy who, did Babe. Oh, yeah.
Jimmy: Harold told me to, rent it for my kids. So I went to Redbox. I rented it. I liked it so much I did not return it. And they just charge you, like, 20 bucks when you. Or they did back in the day.
August 17th. Charlie Brown is helping out his sister Sally with her homework. And he says to her, all right, how much is five times ten? To which Sally replies, how, should I know? And Charlie Brown says, how about six times 20? To which Sally replies, who cares, Charlie Brown? How about 2 times 11, Sally? Are you kidding? And then Charlie Brown says, I hope these aren't too hard for you. And Sally says, do I look discouraged?
Michael: So guess who picked this?
Jimmy: No question.
Michael: I’m a sucker for the who cares attitude from Sally.
Jimmy: It's great. So, so funny. And I love that. Do I look discouraged?
Michael: Yeah.
Harold: Got that, that little bored look in her eye there.
Jimmy: Yep. I gotta say, I think this was a good run of strips that we chose. I liked that was. I think that was a stronger sequence, of months than the first sequence, of months in good old 1995.
Harold: It's interesting. I, I would have the opposite reaction, really, to this group. Yeah, I had a harder time picking strips.
Jimmy: Oh, interesting.
Michael: Yeah, I did too.
Harold: but I really do think it has to do with where I am in my life. And not so much Peanuts.
Michael: Yeah, well, they were all worth discussing now, the ones we picked.
Harold: Yeah, absolutely. There's tons of interesting stuff in here.
Jimmy: Absolutely. And, if you want to continue this discussion, there's a couple different ways you can do it. The first thing you could do is go over to unpackingpeanuts.com, sign up for the Great Peanuts reread and get that one email a month that will let you know the strips that we are covering. And then once you do that, you get that, you follow along with us. If you have something to say, you could write to us. We're unpackingpeanuts@gmail.com. you can also call us on the hotline at 717-219-4162 or you can follow us on social media. We're unpackpeanuts on Instagram and threads and unpackingpeanuts on Facebook, blue sky and YouTube. And we, would love to hear from you because remember, when I don't hear, I worry.
But that's it for this week. Come back next week when we cover, more strips from 1995 until then. From Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.
Michael: Yes, be of good cheer.
Liz: 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 Unpack Peanuts 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.