Saturday, January 08, 2005

Peanuts

I'm a big fan of the Peanuts comics. I grew up on the cartoon specials which were seasonal greetings for me. they were a part of my holiday(s) and part of my year. I also liked the comic strips and shared a tender regard for them along with one of my closest childhood friends. about 8 or 9 years ago i purchased a book that collected the Peanuts strips, but it was unlike any i'd seen before. they were from the early 50's and they were amazing. they looked different. they were different. Charles Schultz had yet to find the mold he would use for decades in drawing these kids. in finding his footing, he drew some genuinely wonderful strips.

One thing that made these strips stand out in 1950 (and in some ways today) was that their themes were revolutionary. they weren't "funny animals" like Disney. they weren't action heroes like tarzan. they weren't troublemaking kids like the Katzenjammers. They weren't Soap Opera melodramas.

They were interesting little kids that talked about things like art, science, classical music, disappointment, hope, acceptance, and the little victories and defeats of any human life. In short they were like all of us and like none of things you'd ever see in the paper. Over the Next few months I want to share with you a few of these strips. I'll put up a few that represent first appearances of well known characters and things. I'll also include some great examples of Charles Schultz's work in (to my mind) his prime. I will also include a short bit of commentary about what you seen. Please note that all strips are copyright United Feature Syndicate, Inc. and/or Charles Schultz unless otherwise noted. Further note that any such artwork appears here only for review and scholarly evaluation.

I hope you will enjoy what is to come.

4 comments:

G. E. Light said...

My piano teacher growing up Andre Nosco had immigrated from Paris in the middle fifties had the greatest collection of books of the original Peanuts cartoons. I once asked her why? Her response was that "they were so Americain . . . . that they represented freedom during the Cold War."

It's amazing how such a simple cartoon could carry even back then such serious psychic heft.

What did you get for Halloween?
I got a rock.

Anonymous said...

You remember finding those old Peanuts books in West Point? We found a little drug store that still had a couple of the old, old Peanuts books on the racks for 50 cents!! Rock, rock on! It had the kid named "5" in it. And the GIANT heads...and snoopy looked more dog like. Good stuff.

Polly said...

oh yeah! that's exactly the stuff that'll be coming. we'll have the 1st strip, each major character's first appearance, the first appearance of the zig zag shirt, and some interesting stuff that you'll like. i'm gonna try to do 1 or 2 a week.

gorjus said...

Yes, those are the ones! The good ones. It soon dissolved into cyclical sap.