Peanuts
Last week at the library I checked out The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 . I had a set of
Peanuts books acquired when I was 5, which I read to ribbons over the next 8
years or so.Anyway, it was kind of
interesting seeing all the early strips, with characters that largely
disappeared later, like Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) and
Shermie. Charlie Brown is kind of a smart-aleck, and has not yet evolved into
the melancholy loser of later
years.There was an interview with
Schulz at the end, and I was surprised to learn that he always hated the name
"Peanuts." Apparently it was chosen at random (based on the Peanut Gallery from Howdy Doody) by some
marketing weasel, and Schulz had nothing to do with it and couldn't get it
changed. It was also a little weird to see the vitriol he poured on Garry Trudeau , the unprofessional antithesis of
everything a cartoonist should be,
apparently.Not as good as I remembered
it being, overall, but interesting -- and much better than the vast majority of
the later stuff.
Filed Tue - February 1, 2005, 10:48 AM in
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