Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts, the podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is Unpacking Peanuts. We're about halfway through 1988 right now, a little less than halfway. And I'm excited to be here. And who am I? Why I'm your host for these proceedings. My name is Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist who did things like Amelia Rules, Seven Good Reasons Not To Grow Up, the dumbest idea ever. And I'm serializing my new work at gvillcomics.substack.com. Joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts, and fellow cartoonists.
He's a playwright and a composer, both for The Bay and Complicated People, as well as for this very podcast. He's the original letter of Amelia Rules, the co-creator of the original comic book Price Guide, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, a Gathering of Spells and Tangled River. It's Michael Cohen.
Say hey.
And he's the 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. It's Harold Buchholz.
Hello.
Well, guys, it's nice to be back here on another Tuesday, my favorite day of the week. You know, attacking another batch of peanut strips. Liz, how are you doing?
I'm doing pretty darn well.
I never talked to you at the beginning. You are?
Yeah. Yeah. Tuesday is kind of my favorite day as well.
Awesome. All right. Well, and we hope you guys out there at least rank it in your top seven days of the week. Okay. So guys, we had a huge preamble last time. I think we just get right to the strips. What do you guys say?
Let's do it. Sure.
Okay. And if you characters out there want to follow along, you should know the drill by now. You go over to gocomics.com. You could type in the dates as I read them. Or if you want to be a good student, be teacher's pet, you go over to unpackingpeanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts re-read. They'll get you an email once a month that will give you a list of the strips we'll be discussing in every episode so you could read ahead. All right. With all that said, let's go to the strips.
May 10th, it's a single panel daily. Charlie Brown is sitting on the couch with his sister and he seems to be reading Sally a book. Charlie Brown reads the book which says, but David won the fight when he hit Goliath in the head with a stone. To which Sally replies, what did Goliath's mom say about that?
I don't think she was very happy.
No, it probably wasn't a great day in the Goliath household. I always remembered this one. Again, this is like the strip, the area of the strip that is far from my favorite and far from the one I've read the most, but this one really struck with me. The other thing I think that's cool about this, I was thinking about, we were picking a ton of strips last episode and saying, it seemed like he was in a real zone. He was kind of firing on all cylinders again.
Part of it to me honestly seems like that Alan Moore thing where it's like you change one thing, don't panic and change a million things. All he changed is, you know what? I'm going to change the amount of panels.
Yeah. We've talked about this. Jimmy and Michael, how does that aesthetically change the experience of this trip for you guys? Does it? Can you palpably tell that something feels different in the Peanuts world?
Well, something did feel different. Yeah. I got to disagree with Jimmy's thesis there because, yeah, I was really excited that the first four months of 1988 seemed to be like, was really hitting and I thought it was the best since 1970. But the ones that I liked best in the first two months actually came before. He started shifting to fewer panels.
It's interesting. Yeah.
So I don't know if they're related. I picked a lot of strips from January, February and the first time he diverged from a four panel format on the dailies was March 1st. So he had two months of really good material before he did that. So I don't know if that affected it. And in reference to the one we just read, I'm not a big fan of these one panel strips.
Well, the one panel ones definitely are the least, my least favorite. But for this one to me, it just works. I think it would have been, I mean, you could have broken it up. You could have had another part of the quote from Charlie Brown and then a silent panel, and that would make up four panels.
Well, I think what's really unusual about this strip is the fact that the punch line is actually the setup for a punch line. I mean, most people would think what Goliath's mom said would be the joke.
Right.
And here the joke is that this is what a little kid would think about hitting people in the head with stones or something little kids do, and then they always get yelled at.
Right. Do you feel that's a cheat, Michael? Or do you think that's just a Schulz different way of approaching?
Well, I think it's unique that it's basically a character based joke. Rather than a Goliath gag.
Oh, yes.
But I didn't find this Goliath gag.
You know, that old, that genre. Yeah, that trope.
Everybody.
Oh, another Goliath gag.
Everybody gets stoned.
But anyway, anyway, I didn't I didn't pick this because I didn't I like the set up, but it didn't seem like it was like a complete thought.
Well, I think that what what you're reacting to then is the the format rather than the joke, because I think this is basically the same joke as what did the other team think? You know, that that famous, right? And that builds and builds and builds. It's a Sunday. And, you know, the Linus, they were screaming. They were cheering. Everyone was happy. What did the other team think or how the other team feel? I guess it's the punchline. And everybody loves that one. This is this is the same thing.
It's just instead of that build, it's he got hit in the head with the stone. What does mom say about that? You know, it's so the timing is because there's no panels. There's no gutter between them. It's like to me reads, it's an instant response from Sally. Yeah.
It's just a little snapshot of their life kind of.
That's a really good way to put it.
Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it.
Yeah, yeah. And that's really interesting to me because I feel something different in this single panel. We're so used to seeing the characters small and cramped in the classic style. That's what he was working with from day one. And now, we've gone to Cinemascope and HD panel. And we know it's larger in the newspaper now because of an extra height compared to width. So this must really be a different experience for somebody reading in the newspaper as well because it's actually bigger.
And I was noticing when he got a little extra height a few years ago, but he also was having to make his lettering so much bigger because he knew it was so much smaller in the paper. It's amazing how big the lettering is and how much it's taking up. And aesthetically, I think he was doing as good a job of that as he could. And I think his lettering is a real hallmark of this strip.
I think there's something about that lettering that it's indefinable, but it's something that he's well, he was a master letterer. He started lettering professionally. That was the thing that, you know, he got his first work and he's, he's really, really good at it and he created his own alphabet lettering style. And that's something not to be diminished. There's a, there's just a feel about that. That's hard to put your finger on, but it's, it's distinctly Schulz.
And it complements the tone of the strip. But here it's taking up less space. And I feel like it's, it's starting to breathe again a little bit more. Let's say compared to earlier versions of the strip when the lettering was so tiny, it's getting back to that often. And I kind of like that. I like the idea that Charlie Brown and Sally are together on this couch. We couldn't have done that before on a daily, I don't think. It just would have been too tiny. Oh, yeah.
And so there's, there's this sense of, I don't think unity is the right word, but there's this sense that the strip in its staccato style, having the four panels all this time, lent itself to the characters being kind of divided or alienated with each other a little bit more in some ways. And there is something about hopping panel to panel that adds a bit of attention. And the tension is not there in this strip.
So it's a brother and a sister sitting on a couch together, and it has this different vibe that's kind of laid back. And I like it. I think it's kind of cool. I'm really intrigued that I get that feeling simply because it's a single panel.
Yeah, I like that way. Michael said about it's just like a little vignette into their lives. I mean, that is a great way to look at that. And I think everything you say is true. And I love that picture of the two of them on the couch together. That feels very familial. It feels very homey, you know?
Yeah. No, I think the lamp on the right, though, looks like the lava lamp died.
Yes, that's exactly what it looks like. Exactly. It looks like there's some liquid that has congealed at a weird angle.
I think that's an Ikea ectorp couch.
So if you would like to order that, click on our affiliate link.
And I'm wondering what that jangly book cover is, because it's...
It matches the pillow.
He's not reading the Bible. He must be reading like kid stories from the Bible or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It kind of looks like a cover of Howard the Duck comic or something, I don't know. It's the jangly book.
And then May 13th, a two-panel, Marcie and Peppermint Patty sitting out there at the school lunchtime. And Peppermint Patty reaches in her bag and says to Marcie, I've decided to start eating more vegetables for lunch. Marcie says carrot cake is not a vegetable.
So this is an informative science.
One to grow on.
Because I do not know this.
Right. So when did this time out with wasn't it Ronald Reagan who is saying that ketchup was a vegetable? Was that a thing?
That's right. That is the ketchup is a vegetable.
It was Nancy.
Yeah. Well, it probably was a little bit before this, but yeah, ketchup is a vegetable. Well, one of my favorite restaurants in the world, Weaver Dee's delicious Fine Foods in Athens, Georgia. Mac and cheese is a vegetable.
Wow. I like that.
That's a stretch.
Well, at one point it started as some type. There's flour in there, right?
Well, technically flour is not a vegetable.
Well, it's a grain. It's a grain, right? Oh, right.
It's a grain.
So actually, of the three we just mentioned, and tomatoes are a fruit, so actually Patty is the closest. She actually has carrots. So good on you, Patty. Hang in there.
Where does everybody stand on carrot cake? That's an important issue.
Thumbs up. I like carrot cake. My wife does not like it at all. My wife does not like carrot cake.
Michael, you have not eaten a piece of cake this century at least, right?
Eight billion carrots. I can imagine it being good. I just haven't had it.
Cynthia makes you sugar-free carrot cake. You've liked that.
See? I liked it.
There you go. All right. Thanks, Liz.
Mikey likes it.
It's another peanut obscurity. I'm agnostic for carrot cake. I'll have it, but not if there's another cake available.
Well, that's kind of the-
But I'm a huge zucchini bread fan, so I'm an enigma.
Banana bread, zucchini bread, yeah.
I love banana bread.
What about pumpkin bread?
Love pumpkin bread.
Yeah, a little less than the others, but yeah.
Well, now that we've dealt with the serious issues of life, I feel like we can go back to the strips here. May 14th, Snoopy is asleep on top of second base, and Charlie Brown comes out and says, I hate to say anything, but second base was not meant to be a pillow. If somebody hits a triple, they're going to step right on your head, which Snoopy says, keep the ball low.
Closing his eyes, again, going back to sleep.
This is kind of an insider joke. I mean, I think if you don't know baseball, you would not get the connection between keeping the ball low and somebody hitting a triple.
Right. Yeah. I had to think a little bit about it because I'm just not a sports guy. I was like, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, but you put it together too.
Yeah. I do have a problem though, because even if they hit a double, Well, you have tons of problems.
That's a whole other podcast.
I have a problem because even if somebody hits a double, they're going to step on his head.
Well, this is interesting because this is exactly this insane thing I was thinking about while I was reading this script.
Well, if he's sliding in, as Snoopy would.
That's exactly what I was about to say. Yes, Harold. That was the way I made peace with him. He could slide in and technically not disturb Snoopy too much.
I love that third panel of Snoopy going back to sleep. It's a close up on him that you couldn't have done with the four-panel strip. This strip is made possible to look this good. We basically zoom in on him and he's vertical. You have to show the base and you have to show Snoopy's head and then his body and his feet. Just that extra width, it gives Schulz the right to zoom way in on Snoopy. That's just a beautiful panel to me that I've never seen before in a daily. I'm like, oh, that's so cool.
He's now able to do some things he hasn't been able to do for 38 years.
Yeah, absolutely.
Does not look comfortable.
I think again, we've talked about this before when someone's lying down, instead of having the little arm drag on the ground, he just has it out vertically. If you look at it too hard, you think like, oh my gosh, he's strained to keep his arm off the ground horizontally, is what I meant to say. So, yeah, and yet, in Schultzian style, somehow it works, unless you overthink it like I can do sometimes.
Well, what about Snoopy Watch? He's an odd shape.
It's Snoopy Watch.
Well, his stomach and his butt kind of have the same volume as on either side of his leg, which I think is a little unusual.
Yeah, I've been there myself.
But I like it. I like that look. It is very cute plush toy Snoopy, you know. If this were a plush toy, I'd be getting it. Yeah.
I think old 50 Snoopy could have done this much better because that long snout could have just curled over the...
Yeah, that would have been cool, right?
It's real cute.
He's a little too pudgy for this now, I think.
I love the pudgy Snoopy. There is something so cuddly and cute about the pudgy Snoopy that really does me in. The thing I find about Snoopy as we've gone through this, and so occasionally we'll go back and look at an old one for a special episode or whatever, or I'll just flip through. Right in front of my art desk is all of the Fawcett Crest books I collected through my life, all of Michael's original paperbacks from when he was a kid. So sometimes I just pick them up and flip through them.
And whatever I'm looking at, I think, oh, that's the best era of Snoopy, right?
Yeah, he's morphed way more, way, way, way more than any of the other characters.
Yeah. Yeah.
It really-
And I am amazed that they work, it works all different styles.
That's what I don't understand fully. It really does work in all those styles. The other thing I don't know is has there been another character in any comic that has changed visually that much? Like Garfield does change.
With a single- Yeah, Garfield changed a lot. But I think to the better and the same way, he gets a little rounder and cuter. But the original was so close to another artist style that I'm happy for Jim Davis that he found something was uniquely his own.
Yeah.
Snoopy, it is amazing that he's changed so much. What I often note, artists do change the style and the look of the characters, but generally what happens, and maybe you'll agree with this anyway for Schulz, Michael, but is that they nail it at the point when people accept it and it becomes a hit, and then over the years, they go off the rails into a place that's much less appealing. You're like, it's the later version of that character or whatever by this artist.
I don't get that feeling with Peanuts. I know Schulz tried at the end of his life to get all of the licensing to move in the direction of where he was at the moment. They honored that for a number of years after he died, and then as they were putting more and more classic strips out, and of course, we have animations starting in 1965, which is a very different Snoopy.
What I see is he's broadened out a little bit more in terms of where he is in the licensing, but it does seem like the Snoopy that Schulz wound up with stuck in the public's eye. A little kid to me is the one who's going to decide, which is the version of Snoopy that's going to survive. It's way closer to this later Snoopy than it is to any of the earlier Snoopy.
I don't know anything about the toys. What did the comic strip Snoopy morph into the toy Snoopy?
No, I think that no, but I'm fairly certain and I have no direct insight into this, but I'm fairly certain that they were constantly trying to make sure that the current licensing stuff looked like the more recent Snoopys.
To the point that when I was, and this might be me projecting it, but in the early years of Comic Con when we would go, and not the early years of Comic Con, but early years of us going, which would be the early 2000s, they even had a Snoopy plush that the material made it look like it was a wavy line. Do you remember that?
Oh, gosh, yes.
Yeah. So I think it's the opposite. I think he's changing his style just by working every day and it naturally changing and him not being, not having model sheets or anything like that. But then I think it made it difficult for everybody else to make sure that the toys looked like that.
But I do think that you'd agree that they've backed off on that. So like two-year 1999 Snoopy is no longer the one that is forced on people. You're seeing more and more merchandise out there that is more representative. Let's say a 1962 Snoopy was selling as a specialty item, let's say was selling three times what the 1999 Snoopy was. The licensing would move toward the 1962 Snoopy.
I think it does. I think there was a period of time probably when Schulz was very sensitive about wanting it to be the current stuff, that I think that mattered more. I think this is the era of that. I think eventually you'd just let that go and you'd have to see it as a totality or like a life's work. Then, yeah, the 1965 Snoopy, 62 Snoopy or whatever, that's great on a greeting card. But I really remember the 80s greeting cards having the wobbly line, even though someone else was doing it.
Yeah.
But who would be the second most morphed character?
That's a good question.
Charlie Brown. I think the size of the head is something that's changed. And I think in general, all of his characters, he started doing this little cup-shaped mouth at some point a few years ago, which he didn't do before. I mean, even looking at this strip, the second base strip we were just looking at, Charlie Brown's mouth would not have looked like that previously. But I think all the characters have that mouth shape now.
I'm thinking back and the kids don't seem relative to one another that different. If I had to choose one, I would say, of course, some of them were introduced as babies.
That's true.
I would say Lucy. Lucy shifted.
The saucer eyes, the pajama.
Yeah. Yeah. But not by a lot.
Then, going back really far, violet. You could say that early violet is a totally different character. You could say that was very interesting.
Well, and there was a serious change of hairstyles.
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
I mean, generally, this Charlie Brown right here wouldn't look too far at a place if he had pasted him into a 1955.
Now, when you say this is a later day mouth that he's drawing, can you explain exactly what you're seeing there that is different than it used to be?
I think he, I mean, I'd have to go back and study it, which I'm too lazy to do. I think he used to have the open mouth as kind of a triangle. I mean, coming to a point. And I started noticing. Yeah. In the 70s, it was this much more gentle line.
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I definitely see what you're saying.
I mean, we can go back and look at at some point to some earlier strips and see. I think it was mostly the mouth that have morphed.
I remember early 50s stuff was was hard angle, like little triangle versus a little Picasso look sometimes.
You know? Yeah. OK, that'll be an episode of pure craziness. What did surprise look like in 1958 versus surprise in 1988 or something like that?
But boy, it's so true that, Michael, what you're saying is that the this strip in various ways has gone from angles to curves. I mean, the infamous W, you know? That was all points. And then he said, hey, in a single stroke, instead of me going line down, line down, line down, line down in a single stroke, I can do a W, you know? And all of a sudden it's all curves. And you're seeing it in the mouth, Snoopy's getting rounder, we're saying. It's really interesting.
Even the balloon pointers get this weird curve.
But I think it's gentler characters.
Yes.
Charlie Brown here is not yelling at Snoopy. He's making a comment. Whereas think of before there'd be some kind of expression about like you're stupid.
Well, yeah, as opposed to him coming up and saying, I hate to say anything, but, right?
Yeah.
It's a gentle way to start a joke.
And it goes back to that anger happiness index. We saw it through the roof in the late 50s and then it's generally just trailed off. It's a different strip in that regard. Yeah. It's the edges are there a lot of edges that have been rounded on this strip.
May 25th, Charlie Brown and Franklin are out for a walk on a beautiful spring day. And Franklin says, My grandpa went to his high school's 40th reunion last night. He's also been to a college reunion and an army reunion. They're on the street corner now looking both ways before they cross, which I like. And now they're buying a ticket for a show, I guess. And Franklin says to Charlie Brown, He has a new career. He goes back to things.
Now, I want to talk, Michael mentioned, I believe, in last episode, streakiness. And the thing I find interesting about this is we've had Franklin now for, oh, a couple of decades. And now he figures out what to do with him. Franklin's invested in his family. He's close to his grandfather and he is his pal, Charlie Brown to talk to about these things. And why did it take that long? I don't know, but suddenly it's there and it's like, oh, yeah, this is his personality. This is what it always was.
When they met on the beach was, did they have any, I feel the tone was the same. I don't remember if they had any deep conversations.
Very early, we find out that Franklin's dad was in the military, but I can't, I don't know if that's the first time or not.
Yeah.
I don't know if this is characterization so much as something to hang the dialogue on.
Yeah, well, OK, maybe I shouldn't have expressed it as a characterization thing, but it works for the character. It gives him something to do in this world. It tells you as much about him as the piano says about Schroeder.
Yeah.
Well, they were talking about dads together, and now they're moving to grand dads. I think it's so sweet because this is Schulz as granddad, thinking of jokes because he's a granddad, and he's moved up a generation because he's moved up a generation in what they talk about. And I do like the little moments where they're just sharing their kid-like insights with one another.
Well, I think this strip is showing them as good friends who do things together. They could have easily been standing at the thinking wall. Yeah. But here they're taking a walk, they're standing. I think it's a bus stop. They're waiting at a bus stop, they're going to the movies together. That doesn't add anything. In fact, they're going to a movie is not anything to do with this strip.
I have a theory what movie it is. What's that? Because that movie came out on this day, and that movie was the top-grossing film that came out in May of 1988.
Hang on. 1988. You think you would be able to tell by what he's talking about?
Or the end?
No. This is the release date of the biggest movie in May. It was May 25th, so odds are. 1988. Odds are. It's the one that a kid could go to without having to have an adult let them in.
I can't think. I could name 100 movies from 1989. I cannot at the moment name one from 1988.
It's a sequel. I'll give you a hint. It's a sequel.
A sequel. No, no idea.
Crocodile Dundee 2.
Oh, boy.
That's the one to go to on May 25th.
Speaking of going back to things, May 25th, 1988 was Michael's and my first date.
Wow. What did you do? We went to see Crocodile Dundee 2.
No, we went to the beach, and he told me the story of the Red Hand.
Oh, which we saw a couple of the last episode here.
I think about that all the time. That is one of the most chilling stories I've ever heard in my life. That's a great story. Well, I am glad you obviously had a good time, Liz.
We did.
Because you're still putting up with his nonsense.
Yes.
Well, there's one other thing that's new or unique in this trip. I don't know if it's the first time, but it's certainly within a few months that something else has changed in this particular strip. I'm trying to go back really quick and flip through and see if this is the first one or not.
Well, you're always throwing these things at us. No, I'm always stumped when you come up with these things.
In just this panel and in this strip, rather, I mean, and what am I?
It's something he hasn't done before visually, before to my knowledge until this strip. I could be wrong, but I'm flipping back through and I think it's true.
People looking in opposite directions.
That's what I was going to say.
Really?
Yes, it is and I'm not proud that that was the time. Yes, I was going to say that.
Okay. It's the second time he's done it. Second time he's done it. He did it two days earlier.
Really? Tell us. Come on.
He used Zip-a-Tone on Franklin to give the shade.
Oh my gosh. How could we not notice that? The podcast is canceled.
I like it way better than him having to do this much lines.
Yeah. I'm amazed that I didn't notice that.
Wow. I think we should be ashamed of ourselves, Michael.
Yeah. I resign from the show.
Let's re-record this and say it. Yeah.
Okay. Take two.
Is it that there's Zip-a-Tone on Franklin?
Excellent insight, Liz. I was going to say the same thing.
The editor has that wonderful finest day, how this plays.
Yeah. You'll know how. Well, you won't. You'll either think we're really smart or really honest, depending on what version of this podcast goes out. Oh boy. June 7th. It's a baseball game. Charlie Brown's on the mound and he yells, All right, Lucy, let's look alive out there. Be ready. Pay attention. Concentrate. To which Lucy replies, Why? Then Charlie Brown says, That's a good question.
Well, I picked this one because really this is sports. What's the point? I mean, why? I mean, none of this stuff makes sense.
I mean, all right, Jimmy, go into your thing on the value of sports.
Here's what I have to say about. No, no. Why though? If you ask that question, you're going to find yourself going down very interesting paths in life. I think it's one of the best questions you can ask yourself. I'll give a real small version of why I think why is the- because I picked this one as well. There was a YouTube channel I watched every single day, especially during the pandemic and it was all about comics and I loved it. It ended tragically, but I loved it.
They were one day saying, you know what, never color the sky blue. You should color it all different colors would be more interesting. I was like, yeah, I agree with that. Absolutely. Then they said it a second time. I'm like, okay, you said that. Then they said it a third time. I'm like, okay, I'm coloring all my skies blue now. You never said why, you just said, don't do it.
I'm like, all right, well, if you have such a great reason for why, include it, tell me why, because you can't make it look good. All right, well, there's a lot of things you can't make good. I've seen your comics. I don't think that necessarily should affect it.
She's never caught a ball as far as we know. Why look alive out there? What difference is that going to make?
All right, and also in terms of the value for sports, I got nothing. I got nothing to get out of there.
When it comes to life, there's worse things to do than just living your life, looking alive, being ready, paying attention and concentrating. You know what? There's something to that.
Boom. There you go. That's the best advice I think you've ever gotten on this podcast. So here, that is great. We're going to take a break. We'll come back, answer the mail, finish up some strips and we'll see you on the other side.
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 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 Peysen to Hune to Zipatone, Annette Funicello to Zorba the Greek, check it all out at unpackingpeanuts.com/obscurities.
And we're back. Hey, Liz, do we got anything in the mailbox?
We do. We got one from David Cher, longtime fan of the podcast. He writes, while seeing my parents, July 4th weekend, I was able to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Oh, that's a great meeting.
Yeah. We've been there. It was wonderful. They're currently exhibiting What Me Worry? The art and humor of Mad Magazine.
Oh, cool.
The exhibit is fantastic and large and very mad. It'll take a solid time commitment to see everything displayed. To my surprise, what they happen to have on the wall are two original Charles Schulz strips, one of which you talked about on the podcast. It's from the Mr. Sack Sequence, where Charlie Brown ends up seeing Alfred E. Newman in the sky.
Oh, I would love to see the original of that.
Yeah.
I'd want to be able to see if there was a tracing of Alfred E. Newman, in a lightbox situation.
How tortured is the inking?
Get it just right.
He says, interestingly, I was visiting the museum on July 5th, the same date this particular Peanuts, Alfred E. Newman strip came out in 1973. On the original artwork, you can see a message written by Schulz to Mad editor Al Feldstein. It says, for Albert B. Feldstein, with every best wish, Charles M.
Schulz.
And David sends us photographs from his visit.
Very neat.
Cool. Yeah, I didn't know the Rockwell Museum was doing stuff like that.
Yeah, they did a few years ago one where they had Howard Cruz, Dave Sim, Terry Moore, and maybe someone else. And I don't remember what the theme was, but they had a whole show of just those cartoonists, which was amazing. Pete Craig Russell, I think, was the other one.
Wow. Well, thanks, David. That's really cool. It makes me want to go back to the museum and check that out.
Oh, it's such a great place.
It really is. It's very cool.
We got two things from the hotline, two texts. This is from Jim Meyer, super listener, Jim Meyer, who says, Count me in as a major Spike fan. Hey. To me, Spike is Snoopy's shadow, a representation of where his fantasies could lead if he didn't have Charlie Brown and the others grounding him. I think he adds some good old existentialism to the strip, BOGC, Jim Meyer.
Wow.
It's a really good way to look at it, I think.
Really?
That's fascinating. Yeah. The idea that Snoopy's in this little hammock in this suburban neighborhood.
Yeah.
Yeah, but which would you rather do, talk to a cactus or get shot down by a German pilot?
I think you got a chance with the pilot. I think the cactus, it's a losing situation the minute it starts.
Yeah. Good point.
I do think that is what people, like that existentialism feel to it. I think that is what people who respond to Spike respond to. We had a listener in a previous episode who said something similar, that it's a representation of those long dark night Schulz would have sometimes.
Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that's the part of it that maybe disturbs me a little bit, is that there's this stasis with the cactus and all of this, where it's like Spike has something in him to push beyond where he is, and he always falls back. That's the part of it, the kind of like, oh, you know.
I never really thought of that. But that is an interesting depression metaphor.
But Spike doesn't give up. Yeah. Which is cool. You know, Spike is not someone who just gives up. He's always taking another go and it's cool.
But it is existential. It's waiting for cactus.
Yes, it is. It's absolutely. And there's one other one. This is from Molly D who says, Hello, loving the podcast and racing to catch up. I am intrigued by your discussion of Woodstock's design. While I always regarded him as a cutie, I was surprised to hear your effusive praise for this particular character. I'd love to hear more about what you artists can see that we mere mortals can't. Oh, boy. As an artist, I can tell you. Please never stop the podcast and be of good cheer. Molly D.
Oh, thanks, Molly.
Yeah. No, it's not as an artist. It's the fact that we're talking about these panels and looking at them for 10 minutes and you kind of go, wow, how did they get that little expression on this character that's so small?
Yeah.
It's a classic thing of doing so much with so little. You know, how many lines are in Woodstock's head and how simple are they? And how does he draw it in a way that only he could draw it? How did he come to that as a bird? It's not a bird.
How did he come to that as a bird?
But it's a bird.
Yeah. The two things that you guys said that I would sum it up as is how small it is. How did he get an expression on that tiny, small little character and how is that a bird? Yet it is a bird. And that's just a unique genius that, and we, you know, talking about actually characters that change over time.
If you consider that before there was Woodstock, there were those really, realistically, really, you know, relative to Schulz, realistically drawn birds that hung around Snoopy's dog house back in the late fifties and into the sixties.
The realistic birds that played poker and.
No, no, before that, before that, way before that, when they were when they were actually bird looking beings that were around. And then they morphed into this thing where it's not based on some sort of. You usually either you feel like there's some sort of observation. But like you look at Woodstock's head, there's nothing like bird like about it, except that there is an alienness in the, in his stoic expressions that birds have.
Yeah.
And how does that occur when it's a dot, which is the same dot of ink that's on Charlie Brown's head and then Linus' head? Why does it read like that? And I think the answer is genius.
Well, I mean, you talk about images as icons and you talk about, you know, the letters of the alphabet as icons. And I mentioned this very recently, how Schulz is getting so close to making an image, almost as if it's like a word, a representational word. And I love that in cartooning. I think it's unique and for some reason, I almost always am attracted to the things that boil down the essence of something into just a few lines.
And Woodstock is probably, I mean, there's got to be another character that's simpler, but I can't think of one, right? But it's uniquely his. And just like you said, Jimmy, how is Woodstock uniquely Schultz's? How does he own that when it's almost like a letter in the alphabet that everybody could use because it's so few lines? And that to me is genius. Like you said, that is the beauty of cartooning. And that's what I love about Schulz in general.
And Woodstock is the apotheosis of what can be done with simplifying, simplifying, simplifying, and yet it still has your signature on it. It's amazing.
Yeah. And plus the fact that you can't ever understand what he's saying. So it's, it's really as simple as you can get.
Yeah.
Right.
And yeah, and it takes a real level of confidence to put, okay, this character is going to take up one twentieth of the panel. And like you say, you're not going to be able to understand a word. However, you're going to love them.
Yeah, it's going to be one of everybody's favorite characters.
Yeah.
So that's the end of the mailbox. If you want to reach out to us, you can email us at unpackingpeanuts.gmail.com. You can also reach out to us on social media. I'll give you those handles at the end. I just wanted to say one last thing. It's a little sad. You guys don't know this out there, but there was another member of our team here almost every single episode. My little puppy, Ginny, would sit here and listen to us every week as we record, and she passed away this weekend.
She lived a great life. She was 13 years old. She was a little white Bichon, and I figured if anybody would appreciate the sadness of losing a puppy, it would be people who like a Snoopy podcast. I just wanted to say thanks to her for being by my side for all this time, and rest in puppy power, Ginny.
Oh, she was a sweetie.
To Ginny.
To Ginny. All right, let's get back to those strips. June 16th, Snoopy has gone to visit his brother, Spike, out in the desert for a little dose of existentialism. And he's out there because Spike has convinced him that the 1988 Olympics have moved to Needles, California, from Korea. And Snoopy has gone out to sell merch. So Snoopy is upset at this point, and he says to Spike, I came all the way out here to help you sell souvenirs at the Olympic Games. I came because you're my brother.
Now you say that a cactus told you that the games have been moved from Korea to Needles. Then Snoopy finishes this up with, I can understand talking to a cactus, but listening? And Spike says, I get lonely. Well, boy, this is kind of what our listener was talking about. You know, because Snoopy is constantly talking to things he doesn't see or are imaginary. But Snoopy is suggesting that he has one foot closer in reality, right? Because, well, he's not listening to his imaginary beings.
Okay, but think about this, because I've been staring at this strip for five minutes. Okay, imagine you're on this scene, you're kind of eavesdropping on this scene, right? You don't hear either of them. Imagine this strip, just the pictures. No words. It's insane.
Well, the whole thing is insane. Here's a great, here's something I was thinking about recently. Actually, I thought about it once we got that text from the listener who was Jim. I thought, there is a universe where I can see in the late 60s, some cartoonist, say some hippie cartoonist coming out with a strip about a dog in the desert talking to a cactus, and that's the whole strip. And I think there would be a Nancy Fest style celebration of whoever that guy is.
Schulz is able to incorporate things that would be enough to sustain someone else's entire strip, and he just has it off as a little side world. And I think that's actually why some people don't jive with it, because it's not the part of the world that they're most connected to. But if it were separated from it, I think you would find a lot that is funny, a lot that's poetic, a lot that's interesting. It's always good looking. It's really, really an interesting thing.
It could be a totally separate strip I never read.
Yeah.
Yeah, I just, it's too on the mark. I find it way too depressing.
The thing that strikes me about this strip is Snoopy's role in it is the first time I've seen Snoopy in this role, where he's like the voice of reason to somebody who has a flight of fancy bigger than him. He does. Yeah. And that grounds Snoopy, and he's also doing it because he's loyal to his brother. You know, Snoopy's often this kind of, I'm on my own, I'm doing my own thing, I'm disconnected from everybody else in my own fantasy world.
And here he enters into somebody else's fantasy world out of loyalty as a brother. And then he's trying to speak some sort of, if not reason, at least he's trying to understand his brother. It's like, wow, this is a Snoopy I have never seen before.
Yeah, they're usually corresponding and letters and stuff.
Yeah. You saying that, do you know what it makes me think of?
What's that?
Michael will know this. The movie Crumb, it's a documentary about Robert Crumb and his brother Charles. They are both recipients of the same genes that has led them off in various different directions. And Robert Crumb was able to take his weird fantasies that were really, I think, painful to him more than anything else and become a world famous artist. And Charles Crumb didn't. And it's really a depressing place to go after thinking about it. But for a strip about two dogs in the desert.
But it seems like there's something to that, like because there's a scene in the, I mean, not that Schulz was thinking of it or knew anything about this at this point. But there's a scene where Robert Crumb goes back and visits his brother Charles. And there's so much connection there. And so and yet oceans of difference.
And one of them, even though he's done the most insane comics anyone's ever done, is totally sane and one is stark raving mad.
Right.
And they're both cartoonists. They both do weird stuff. But Crumb is dealing with the real world. All right. Or at least his imaginary world.
Yes, it is. It's interesting. And I don't know, like, what is it? Is there some level of control someone has over that? Or is it, you know, what's the difference between being really imaginative and being schizophrenic? You know, like, I don't know.
It's hard to tell. Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to tell.
Yeah. And how many how many great artists crossed the line, unfortunately?
Well, I mean, but clearly a lot of great artists were totally nuts.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
William Blake, I mean, that stuff's nuts.
Yeah.
But it's also great art.
Yeah. Whereas somewhat well, there's there's Joyce again. That that reads as nuts. But he was saying, I mean, he might have been a jerk in a lot of ways, but he was saying. Silence from the Peanut Gallery. All right. Moving on to July 2nd.
Well, I was just thinking about William Blake and what you said about Blake, because I went to a Blake exhibit of the Tate Gallery that was really well done and deeply disturbing, deeply, deeply disturbing. Yeah. And yet, the thing is that I don't know that he was insane, and that's what makes it even more just.
Well, you can believe crazy things and not be crazy. That's what I think.
Oh, I do that every single day.
Hey, let's do a pun.
Plus, I really like the fact that we have the peanut gallery.
Yeah. I didn't even mean that as a pun. It just came out. That was really funny. Oh boy. Blake is one of those guys that is just a total blind spot to me. It's weird that you can't keep everyone in your mind or in your field of vision, and I just know almost nothing about that guy, except the quote in Watchmen.
Yeah. That's a whole other massive discussion. But yeah, Blake, it was pretty dark.
There you go.
July 2nd. Snoopy is walking down the street not thinking about Blake or anything else. But he comes across a road sign that just says, Dip. And in the next panel, he does just that, lowering his head by about six inches.
And I don't know if either of you would pick up on this or anybody out there is going to pick up on this, but I can't help. When I look at that third panel, do you guys know Jim Woodrooting Strip, Jim?
Oh, of course.
And Frank is character Frank walks like that all the time.
Oh, that's true.
That's his pose because he's in this crazy world where horrible things happen all the time. And he's kind of like, it's a very cautious walk, like something really weird could happen in any second.
You never know. Yeah. What's funny is you said that it made you think of another comic. It made me think of another comic too, but a different one. What one's that? One of the most famous BC comics of all time. February 9th, 1970. You got BC on his wheel. He's running on his wheel, his little single wheel transportation device, and he's going by a thing, a sign that says dip in road. And then he goes by a very goofy looking guy sitting on a rock.
And then the last panel just says, I don't believe it.
But that word wouldn't mean anything to anybody anymore. No one would call anyone a dip for the last 40 years.
We're bringing it back now.
That's a good question. I have our younger listeners can tell us that they know that one or not. Is this is a BC obscurity?
It's a BC obscurity, but the word is extinct. If you said he's a dip, it wouldn't mean anything.
I think people would figure it out. July 12th, Lucy comes up to the old pictures man and says to Charlie Brown, What would your fantasy team be, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown says, a team that doesn't have you on it. Lucy walks back to the outfield saying, I should never ask questions like that.
He would never have done that years ago.
Sure he would have.
No, no, no.
He would say something nice.
No, no, no, no.
That is a classic put down. Yeah, he would.
Listeners, write in and tell us Charlie Brown's previous put downs to Lucy. He's definitely done it.
I think 50s Charlie Brown might have done it.
Absolutely.
Smart aleck Charlie Brown might have done it. Or angry Charlie Brown, late 50s.
I think there's well into the 60s and 70s he would do this. Not always, but sometimes.
Not always.
It is great to see Lucy put in her place. But you know, something struck me about Charlie Brown. He's a manager and a pitcher of this baseball team, right? And every player's role should be to do whatever it takes within the rules of the game to win. That's the thing. That's even how you honor the other team you're playing, right? Charlie Brown is not just a player. He's the manager and he knows that at least Linus is better to be the pitcher, but he won't step down. He won't not be the pitcher.
He could easily fix his team if he just put himself at first base. I mean, he might be a disaster first base too, but at least you're not going to be giving up 600 more runs. That's a selfishness.
But keeping her in right field is a good move as a manager.
For him, yeah, but I'm just saying for his own sake.
That's a really good insight. He's self-centered and obsessed enough that that's non-negotiable and there's nobody who cares enough to challenge him.
Right, yeah. So it's doomed to fail. That's an interesting, that's like the Alan Moore, just change one thing, Charlie Brown, don't pitch. See what happens and your life might change the next day.
Okay, that's our pitch for the next Apple special. Don't pitch Charlie Brown.
Don't pitch Charlie Brown. That's great.
Pitch of the week.
Actually, I have it already broken down story-wise. We'll have a meeting afterwards. All right. July 15th, it's Lydia. She is back and she has been hanging out with Linus here. She says to him, thank you for the chocolate sundae, Linus. Linus says, you're welcome. Maybe we can do it again sometime. Lydia turns, looks at him, gives him an appraising gaze and then says, I don't think so. I don't find you very interesting.
Leaving Linus alone in the last panel, leaned up against a tree and he calls himself Joe Beige. Lydia is a genius.
Oh, she's so good. Lydia, you just jerk us all over the place. Oh my gosh.
I wouldn't have expected Schulz to come up with a character like this. Okay. She's evil in a different way than violet and Patty were evil.
She's a master manipulator.
Yeah.
She's stoically playful with Linus, which I think is fascinating and that's what would make me fascinated with Lydia. If she would give you a moment, she would engage with you even to tell you that she shouldn't be engaging with you, but she doesn't go away. That would drive me nuts like Linus.
You know, Schulz, ladies out there in the audience, if you want to find-
Take some notes.
Yeah, this will work.
But the fact that this is what I find interesting is the fact that she doesn't find him interesting. Linus, the most interesting complex character in modern literature, but of course, is not interesting.
She totally finds him interesting. That's why she's out for the Chocolate Sunday. She just knows the exact right thing.
Unless she's out for the Chocolate Sunday. But I think you're right, Jimmy. I think that they're, yeah, she's playing him and Linus is very unusually being very literal. Because he cares so much about her. Linus can be very figurative about things, but here he's being literal when she's messing with him and he's falling for so often.
Well, maybe he's not interesting with her because he's afraid of she thinks he's too weird. He is pretty weird.
I wonder how much of his weirdness she's aware of at this point.
She doesn't know about the blanket?
He hasn't gone on. Well, she does know about the blanket, but he hasn't gone on about the great pumpkin. That's, I think, the deal breaker for a lot of people.
Okay. I hope that comes up sometime soon.
The second panel is unusual. Very rare that we don't have that little parenthesis around the back of Linus' eye. When she's telling him, she doesn't find him very interesting. Do you think he did that on purpose to get a different look out of Linus? Because that's a very different look.
Yeah. Sort of shock in a way. Like who? I'm the most-
Yeah.
Just a character in the strip.
It somehow takes him out of himself and more focused on her maybe.
Yeah. I love the smile on her face in Padawan because she knows she's playing him.
Also, my other comment, what's wrong with beige? I think beige is a great color.
The name Joe Beige, it's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with being a Joe Beige.
Yeah. It's like Joe Bean, antonio Carlos, Joe Beige. Yeah. What's wrong with beige? I didn't think the punchline was good because I think he could have said something more interesting than Joe Beige.
So you're agreeing with Lydia.
Yeah. Right. I think he's very dull when he's with her.
I liked Joe Beige personally.
Yeah, I did too.
Yeah. Kind of cool.
Well, does the Joe blank thing exist? I mean, obviously people did it before Peanuts, but it's so a part of Peanuts because of the Joe cool thing and like other characters constantly referring to themselves as Joe something or another.
It's such a neat little haiku kind of way of saying something in two words. He's able to let you know what he's feeling.
Yeah, now this, I don't know how they would translate this when they try right in his other languages, because this would not be a joke in any other language.
Is someone would have to do some heavy lifting over at a syndicate in France?
Yeah, July 16th, Lydia calls Linus and she says, Hi Linus, this is Lydia. In the second panel, Linus is on the phone and he says, if you don't find me very interesting, why do you call me? And then Lydia says, there's nothing on TV.
Man, he's really angry. I've never seen Linus so angry.
Yeah, he's angry in that second panel for sure.
This is really an interesting little relationship here. Yeah.
But the big smile on her face, obviously she's happy to talk to Linus. She's not just bored.
Here's the genius of this, I think. We always see Lydia with Linus and we never see that big smile. Linus can't see her. This is Lydia as she actually is, right? She's thrilled to be talking to Linus. But she also knows this is how... Well, it's two things. This is how you keep them on the hook, and this is how I don't get hurt by engaging in this relationship. Because if I ever say that...
She's playing us, right? Yeah, yeah. Because we get to see that there's something there, even though Linus can't see it.
It's really sophisticated writing and cartooning that I think just wishes by you when you're reading it in the newspaper. But if you're a crazy person and you read them this closely, you really do find little things that just add so much richness to it, and I think that's one of them. All right, we're bringing it on home.
Just three left.
August 2nd. Marcie and Charlie Brown are hanging out at the beach, and Marcie says, they're actually having a little picnic, and Marcie says, I love fortune cookies. Don't you, Charles? She says, mine says, you will have a happy day. What does yours say? Charlie Brown reads his and it's, we're sorry, but we're not in now. If you leave your name and number, we'll try to get back to you. That's a pretty good fortune cookie joke, but the best fortune cookie is Gary Shandling's.
Do you know this one?
No.
And they're all eating Chinese food at a restaurant and they're reading their fortune cookies and Gary Shandling opens his and it says, I peed in your rice. Hey, are these things supposed to be handwritten?
Oh man. I picked this strip because I was just really happy to see that on what apparently on their own, Charlie Brown and Marcie have made a little date to go out to the beach and they're both sitting on the same blanket and they've got a picnic basket and a little cup and then looks like they're finishing up with the fortune cookies. I haven't seen this before with Marcie independently somehow. I'm assuming maybe she was the one that made it happen, but she made it happen.
I didn't think these two had it in them. But I'm very glad they did. It's cool to see it. It's not the punchline, it's just the premise that Marcie and Charlie Brown would go off and do something together.
And that goes back to what Michael was saying. It's like, oh, it's like a little moment. The important thing about it is, oh my gosh, these two characters are having this little picnic. And I actually think it's another really well-drawn strip. I do like the use of Zip-A-Tone on the blanket. I think that looks really good. If I think he would have done a pattern, it would have been too busy. If he left it blank or black, it wouldn't have been clear. So I think it looks real good.
But there is a problem. There is a problem with the Zip-A-Tone. If you look between his feet in panel one, there's a little chunk there that should be Zip-A-Tone.
That's all. That is the main of the Zip-A-Tone. Yeah. Okay. So guys out there in podcast land, look at Marcie, panel one. Look at her fortune cookie and look right below it. You'll see that part of the blanket Zip-A-Tone between her two toes. If you go over to Charlie Brown, you'll notice, as Michael's saying, he left it out. Because you would have to...
Or it fell off.
That's even worse.
Or it fell off. Yeah.
Yeah, because they were just adhesive backed sheets of film that had those dots that you're seeing there printed on them. And you would just cut a piece that's roughly the size of the blanket, but slightly larger. And then with an X-Acto knife, follow along those ink lines to cut out all the excess Zip-A-Tone. And in some instances, you just missed something. I was really bad. I did it in my first amateur comics, Shades of Grey, and I used it a lot.
That was Shades of Grey, after all.
You had to find some way to do it. That's actually true. And I was so bad at it because I picked stuff that was way, the dot pattern was way too fine. Or if I had a tear in the Zip-A-Tone, I'd be like, well, I'll just patch it. You won't be able to tell, but you can always tell.
It's so hard to line it up.
And then God forbid you had to put Zip-A-Tone over white out because that can't, that will moray. It's real. You have no idea how much easier digital art is. And I know that young people get very upset when you say digital art is easier, but that's why it exists. Because if it wasn't easier, no one would be doing it, including me.
Well, in a future episode, I'm going to share a guy from 1989's predictions of where comics were going to go. And that includes some of these things. Very interesting. Look forward to that.
August 7th, it's a Sunday, and Sally is upset in her nightgown. She says, the world hates me. I mean, how can I go on living? That's pretty extreme. She's so upset, she slumps in an easing chair, and her brother comes over to comfort her. She says, and everything is hopeless and my life is ruined. And Charlie Brown says, I know how you feel, but remember, tomorrow is another day.
As she walks back to her room, he follows her saying, it's like what grandpa always says, go to sleep and when you wake up, it'll be a new day and everything will be all right. So Sally goes to sleep, wakes up, looks outside and then goes to Charlie Brown's room and screams, it's 5.30 and it's a new day and everything isn't all right. And in the last panel, this ends Charlie Brown flying.
He is now at the base of his bed on the ground and he says, I have a feeling grandpa never gets up before noon. Hey, go grandpa, team grandpa.
No, but I think there's some genetic thing going on with his family. The parents need to be checked. They're both seriously depressed kids.
Yeah, no, I mean, that is that is like, how can I go on living? Yeah, it's very sad, actually, if you just think about that, you see Sally and you love Sally as a character, and then you look at that little drawing. And there's something about the fact that she's in her jammies. She's got no shoes on. It's like very vulnerable. Like, it feels like this must be a real panic attack because the middle of the night and, you know, the only person she can talk to is her brother.
And that second to last panel with her, with the gigantic mouth and the noses to the sky, that makes me think of like 20 years earlier in the strip. You know, there's something about this that just takes me back there. This is a really strong strip.
For sure. Really, really good. And then we end with this anomaly. August 9th, Charlie Brown and Sally are sitting on the couch again. So we're ending as we began this episode. And Charlie Brown reads another book to her, and it says, Thomas Hardy once saw, in quotes, a handsome maid with large, innocent eyes, end quote, riding in a cart. She was obviously very poor, which made Hardy wonder what her beauty would lead to. And Sally answers, four-wheel drive pickup commercials.
Which is, by the way, a very 80s punch line, you know? A couple things. First off, I think that's a good-looking drawing. I think that couch looks great. I love the upholstery, all that. I love the little candelabra. Weird to have in a 1988 suburban living room. But here's my question. Do you think that lettering was shrunk down? That's a lot of words in that panel with Charlie Brown. And he either crammed it all in. I mean, I don't think he did.
I think that was lettered separately and shrunk down on a photocopier. But I could be wrong.
I don't think so because the thickness of the letters match the larger lettering for Sally's line. So I would guess he had he did it on the paper, because otherwise it would look thinner if he used the same pen anyway. That's that's my take on it.
I don't know. That would be really I mean, I believe you. You're probably right. You know, if you want to get out there, he's working bigger.
Oh, that's bigger now.
Well, if you're out there betting bet with Harold, he will know more than me. But I still I'm going to go to my grave saying that was unless unless Benjamin Clark could tell us differently. Jangly Black on the left.
I don't know anything about the lettering. But my question is, what book is he reading?
He's reading a book about Thomas Hardy.
He's eight years old. Who's reading a book about Thomas Hardy at eight years old?
Charlie Brown.
Remember, Sally has been assigned to read Tess of the D'Urbervilles for the summer, and she wants to see the movie, hoping it's going to come on, so she doesn't have to read the book. Now, Charlie Brown is reading stuff to her about this guy for her report. So maybe this is the Cliff Notes, and she won't even read the Cliff Notes, and she's asking Charlie Brown to read the Cliff Notes to her.
I think that's a really weird quote to Paul, because, like, made Hardy wonder what her beauty would lead to. I think I know what Hardy is thinking about, and I think that's a weird, like, how do you make money with your beauty back in those days? Right? It's a weird thing to see in a peanut strip. But the four-wheel-drive pickup commercials cracks me up. The use of Zip-a-Tone, I think, is really nice. I think the...
What happened to the... After the lava lamp broke down, they got some candles.
Well, and a completely different couch.
Yeah, that's a very nice couch.
It's not an Ink Torp.
No, they went over to get a Broyhill or something.
I think this is a real couch, and I love that term. I love the pen work on it. Like it's, you know, tremor, shmimmer. Check out those zippy lines on the arms of the couch. Whip, whip, whip. Love it. It's so satisfying with a pen like that when you have it going well, which happened to me once, I think, in 1991.
He looks like he was burning through this strip. Yeah, I mean, he went he did this super fast. And that's the feeling you get. He used to say, you know, when I get an idea I like, I just got to get it out of me as fast as I can get it out of me. I think that's a really healthy thing for a cartoonist who's got a daily deadline.
Yeah, that's true.
Versus like, oh, I have to get every line right. I had to redo it seven times to get it just the way I want it.
Right. And you know, the funny thing is, I went through a period in these years casting around before I came up with this idea to do the substack thing. And, you know, you're changing this, you're changing that. It always looks like you, you know what I mean? There's almost nothing you can can do that won't make it look like you know.
It's your signature. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, guys, that brings us to the end of the strips we picked for this week. I thought it was a fun episode. I love getting to talk to my pals and I love hanging out with you guys. If you want to keep that conversation going, we would love to hear from you. Email us unpackingpeanuts at gmail.com or you can follow the show or at Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and Threads and at Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky and YouTube. And of course, you can always call or write to our hotline.
And that number is 717-219-4162. And remember, when I don't hear, I worry about you. So that's it for this week. Come back next week where we wrap up 1988. Until then, from Michael, Harold and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, Be of Good Cheer!
Yes!
Yes! Be of Good Cheer! Unpacking Peanuts is copyrighted by Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen and Harold Buchholz. 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.
Waiting for a cactus.