The Future Is Open, Charlie Brown

Mike Sterling has been collecting and posting about the different ways people have imagined the Peanuts gang growing up, and I have to say, as many times as I've laughed at Eric Schwartz's song, "Charliesomething," it's this option by Peter Gillis that really gets to me.

Rob

Schroeder and Hobbes

Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) has reviewed David Michaelis's controversial new biography of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Here's one interesting passage:

The strips used as illustrations in "Schulz and Peanuts" are reproduced at eye-straining reduction and are often removed from the context of their stories, but they vividly demonstrate how Schulz used his cartoons to work through private concerns. We discover, for example, that in the recurring scenes of Lucy annoying Schroeder at the piano, the crabby and bossy Lucy stands in for Joyce, and the obsessive and talented Schroeder is a surrogate for Schulz.

Reading these strips in light of the information Mr. Michaelis unearths, I was struck less by the fact that Schulz drew on his troubled first marriage for material than by the sympathy that he shows for his tormentor and by his ability to poke fun at himself.

Lucy, for all her domineering and insensitivity, is ultimately a tragic, vulnerable figure in her pursuit of Schroeder. Schroeder's commitment to Beethoven makes her love irrelevant to his life. Schroeder is oblivious not only to her attentions but also to the fact that his musical genius is performed on a child's toy (not unlike a serious artist drawing a comic strip). Schroeder's fanaticism is ludicrous, and Lucy's love is wasted. Schulz illustrates the conflict in his life, not in a self-justifying or vengeful manner but with a larger human understanding that implicates himself in the sad comedy. I think that's a wonderfully sane way to process a hurtful world.

The whole review is worth a read. As is, I imagine, the whole book.

Rob

(Via Mark Evanier.)

You Might Wanna See This

But then again, you might not: a fashion show with designs based on Charles Schulz's Peanuts.

Joe Cool, eat your heart out.

Rob

Race For Your Honor, Charlie Brown!

Rich at the Captain Comics boards gave me the heads-up to this little art project: adapting the Peanuts gang to manga.

(Frieda's kinda cute. That really freaks me out.)

UPDATE: Also from the boards, this time from the Baron: Recognize these kids?

Rob

The Team-Up You Never Expected

Peanuts Meets Marvel. (There’s some ads at the top of the site… just scroll down)

Rob
(Thanks, Shlabam!)