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Good grief! “Peanuts” and the death of comics

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:01:00 +0000

From the international headquarters of Things Ain't What They Used to Be, a bulletin: This weekend marks the 60th anniversary of "Peanuts," which debuted Oct. 2, 1950. After honoring the date by revisiting Fantagraphic Books' handsomely designed anthologies of Charles Schulz's strips -- highly recommended to any "Peanuts" fan -- I want to pose a couple of questions here.

First, is there any recent-vintage daily comic strip being published regularly in North America that's as widely recognized, never mind beloved, as "Peanuts"?

And second, is such a scenario even possible?

I'm pretty sure the answer to both questions is "no." But I'm throwing them out anyhow in hopes that someone will persuade me otherwise. I love the comic strip form, but I feel fairly certain it's either dead or doomed -- because even if there were somebody out there doing early Schulz-quality work, who would know about it? I mean, besides die-hards who consciously go spelunking for good new strips online and spread the word when they find something? Seriously, does anyone even do that? The world has changed to the point where that's less possible, maybe impossible.

“I only dread one day at a time!”

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:37:00 +0000

For 45 years, Charles Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts" was part of the furniture of American culture. More ubiquitous and essential to the '60s and '70s than bell-bottoms or shag carpeting, "Peanuts" was almost as pervasive as that supreme totem of Americana, Coca-Cola -- and in my house, even more so, since we were forbidden to drink soda, while the place was littered with as many paperback cartoon collections as could be bought with the allowances of five children. Most remarkable of all, everybody liked "Peanuts": adults as well as children, hippies and straights, Middle America and the coasts, highbrows and the salt of the earth. According to David Michaelis' new biography, "Schulz and Peanuts," by 1971, Schulz had 100 million readers and the fourth-highest sales figures of any 20th century author.

Blue Glow

Wed, 10 May 2000 16:00:00 +0000

Series

Dawson is none too happy that Pacey stole his girl on Dawson's Creek (8 p.m., WB). Beverly Hills 90210 (8 p.m., Fox) airs its next-to-last episode (the finale runs next week), followed by the special 90210: The Final Goodbye (9 p.m., Fox). Goodbye, already! On The West Wing (9 p.m., NBC), the staff awaits the president's new favorability rating. The Drew Carey Show (9 p.m., ABC) has another big production number, in which Geppetto, er, Drew sings his heart out to Kate.

Specials

Here's to You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years (8 p.m., CBS) looks back at memorable moments from the Peanuts strip and TV specials. Whoopi Goldberg, Faith Hill and Joe Montana (football, get it?) pay their respects. A child psychologist (Mare Winningham) discovers that her own daughter is bulimic in the new TV movie Sharing the Secret (9 p.m., CBS).

Sports

Baseball:

White Sox at Red Sox (7 p.m., ESPN2)

Dodgers at Diamondbacks (10 p.m., ESPN2)

NBA Playoffs:

Pacers at 76ers (8 p.m., TNT)

Suns at Lakers (10:30 p.m., TNT)

Talk

David Letterman (CBS) Kelsey Grammer, Caroline Rhea

Jay Leno (NBC) Joaquin Phoenix, LeAnn Rimes

Politically Incorrect (ABC) Al Franken

Conan O'Brien (NBC) Roma Downey

A “Peanuts” virtual quilt

Fri, 18 Feb 2000 17:00:00 +0000

Weeks before the death of Charles M. Schulz on Saturday, Internet cartoonists began piecing together an online tribute to the creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang. The ongoing project is a virtual quilt, which knits together panels drawn by professional cartoonists, amateur comic artists and "Peanuts" fans.

The Charles M. Schulz Tribute Quilt now includes nearly 100 squares, including a red-haired girl penned by Greg Evans, creator of "Luann," which says "From all the red-haired girls, we'll miss you Sparky!" And Bill Holbrook, creator of "Kevin and Kell" and "On the Fastrack," drew one of his own characters lying on top of Snoopy's doghouse.

Letters to the editor

Thu, 17 Feb 2000 17:00:00 +0000

Strangers in the night
BY CHRISTINE SCHOEFER
(02/15/00)

Christine Schoefer's article was quite interesting and informative, but missed one salient facet of flirting: It's cruelty. For any man or woman who is unattractive to the opposite sex -- and especially those for whom this has always been the case -- "flirting" might better be described as "taunting."

It is one thing for a person to flirt or be flirted with when they are confident in the knowledge of their own attractiveness. They can enjoy flirting in its more innocuous social context. But for people who are the opposite, whose self-knowledge is of a sadder sort, flirting becomes inherently degrading.

This is best summed up in a short passage I read in a book many years ago: "She stroked his hand in the friendly and familiar but uninviting way women had with unattractive men." It is cruel to "flirt" with people who are obviously outside of the society of courtship, and unnecessary.

Blue Glow

Fri, 11 Feb 2000 17:00:00 +0000

Series

Funding for Dr. Morris' project -- Michael -- may not be renewed on Now and Again (9 p.m. Fri., CBS). Julianna Margulies hosts Saturday Night Live (11:30 p.m. Sat., NBC). King of the Hill (7:30 p.m. Sun., Fox) concludes its two-parter with Hank under suspicion for murder, and a recurring character bites the dust on The Simpsons (8 p.m. Sun., Fox). Hint: The episode is called "Alone Again, Natura-diddl-ly." Noel and Ruby await the results of a pregnancy test on Felicity (8 p.m. Sun., WB). On the conclusion of a two-part episode of The X-Files (9 p.m. Sun., Fox), Mulder finally learns the truth about his sister's disappearance. No lie. A central mystery will be solved. Or so says Chris Carter. Melfi's shrink helps her unravel her feelings for Tony on The Sopranos (9 p.m. Sun., HBO). Helen and Bobby clash (what else is new) over a murder case involving a detective's son on The Practice (10 p.m. Sun., ABC).

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Specials

Chekhov, Marx and synergy

Mon, 27 Jul 1998 17:10:00 +0000

Tina Brown is leaving the New Yorker to go to Miramax where, according to the New York Times, her mandate will be "inventing a magazine ... to dig up the kind of articles that might be turned into movies and television specials that Miramax, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, would have the capacity to help package, circulate and promote."

Many enterprising publishers, in a similar spirit of vertical integration, are looking to their own backlists, fiction and nonfiction alike, and, with minor adjustments, increasing the works' synergistic potential. Below, some of their efforts:

Three Sisters and a Baby

By Anton Chekhov

Scribbler's, $11

The Prozorov house. Olga, wearing a dark-blue high school teacher's dress, stands and walks about, distractedly. Masha, in black, sits reading. Irina is lost in thought at the window in a white dress.

OLGA: It's a year ago today that Father died, May fifth, on your birthday, Irina. It was very cold and it snowed.

IRINA: I don't want to think about it ...

OLGA: And it's almost 11 years exactly since we left Moscow.

(A knock is heard.)

MASHA: If only we could return. Sell this house, and return to Moscow. I'm sick of it!

Ben Folds Five

Sun, 01 Jun 1997 19:00:00 +0000

Ben Folds Five in New York? There's something not right about that. Here's New York: You're going someplace really swell, so you get all dressed up and leave with plenty of time to spare. A big accident on the bridge ties you up for a while, then some crucial avenue is blocked off for no reason. You're an hour late. Finally, you park. Illegally. All parking spots in New York are illegal. When you finally arrive at that really swell place you were going to, the building is in flames. All your friends were inside, and now they're dead. Your car goes rattling past with its side window broken, dragged by a tow truck. A pack of wild dogs encircles you, and you notice your zipper's been open the whole time.

Everything that ever happens in downtown New York is like that. If you're going out to a Motvrhead show, or a particularly lurid production of the Nibelungen, the local ambiance can even bolster the experience. But when it's Ben Folds Five on the menu, the effect is a little more complex -- more like, say, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" broadcast over a prison security-cam.