The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life

The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life
Author: Andrew Blauner
Publisher: Library of America
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1598536176

A one-of-a-kind celebration of America's greatest comic strip--and the life lessons it can teach us--from a stellar array of writers and artists Over the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culture—hilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of fans, their beguiling four-panel adventures and television escapades offering lessons about happiness, friendship, disappointment, childhood, and life itself. In The Peanuts Papers, thirty-three writers and artists reflect on the deeper truths of Schulz’s deceptively simple comic, its impact on their lives and art and on the broader culture. These enchanting, affecting, and often quite personal essays show just how much Peanuts means to its many admirers—and the ways it invites us to ponder, in the words of Sarah Boxer, “how to survive and still be a decent human being” in an often bewildering world. Featuring essays, memoirs, poems, and two original comic strips, here is the ultimate reader’s companion for every Peanuts fan. Featuring: Jill Bialosky Lisa Birnbach Sarah Boxer Jennifer Finney Boylan Ivan Brunetti Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell Rich Cohen Gerald Early Umberto Eco Jonathan Franzen Ira Glass Adam Gopnik David Hajdu Bruce Handy David Kamp Maxine Hong Kingston Chuck Klosterman Peter D. Kramer Jonathan Lethem Rick Moody Ann Patchett Kevin Powell Joe Queenan Nicole Rudick George Saunders Elissa Schappell Seth Janice Shapiro Mona Simpson Leslie Stein Clifford Thompson David L. Ulin Chris Ware

Charlie Brown's America

Charlie Brown's America
Author: Blake Scott Ball
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190090480

Despite--or because of--its huge popular culture status, Peanuts enabled cartoonist Charles Schulz to offer political commentary on the most controversial topics of postwar American culture through the voices of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang. In postwar America, there was no newspaper comic strip more recognizable than Charles Schulz's Peanuts. It was everywhere, not just in thousands of daily newspapers. For nearly fifty years, Peanuts was a mainstay of American popular culture in television, movies, and merchandising, from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to the White House to the breakfast table. Most people have come to associate Peanuts with the innocence of childhood, not the social and political turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s. Some have even argued that Peanuts was so beloved because it was apolitical. The truth, as Blake Scott Ball shows, is that Peanuts was very political. Whether it was the battles over the Vietnam War, racial integration, feminism, or the future of a nuclear world, Peanuts was a daily conversation about very real hopes and fears and the political realities of the Cold War world. As thousands of fan letters, interviews, and behind-the-scenes documents reveal, Charles Schulz used his comic strip to project his ideas to a mass audience and comment on the rapidly changing politics of America. Charlie Brown's America covers all of these debates and much more in a historical journey through the tumultuous decades of the Cold War as seen through the eyes of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang.

The Peanuts Book

The Peanuts Book
Author: Simon Beecroft
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 0744034876

From the backyard to outer space, Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts has been charming the world for more than 70 years. In this celebration of Schulz and his beloved work, explore rarely seen sketches, influential comic strips, and collectors' artifacts. Pore over evolving artworks of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the gang. Chart the rich history of Peanuts as it grew to become the world's favorite comic, and travel from 1950 to the present day, from California to Japan. Every page of this visual guide is an exhibition to treasure. Discover the enduring and nostalgic charm of Peanuts in this stunning anniversary book. With a foreword by Stephen Colbert. © 2020 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

Now Comes Good Sailing

Now Comes Good Sailing
Author: Andrew Blauner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2023-03-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0691247951

From twenty-seven of today’s leading writers, an anthology of original pieces on the author of Walden Features essays by Jennifer Finney Boylan • Kristen Case • George Howe Colt • Gerald Early • Paul Elie • Will Eno • Adam Gopnik • Lauren Groff • Celeste Headlee • Pico Iyer • Alan Lightman • James Marcus • Megan Marshall • Michelle Nijhuis • Zoë Pollak • Jordan Salama • Tatiana Schlossberg • A. O. Scott • Mona Simpson • Stacey Vanek Smith • Wen Stephenson • Robert Sullivan • Amor Towles • Sherry Turkle • Geoff Wisner • Rafia Zakaria • and a cartoon by Sandra Boynton The world is never done catching up with Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), the author of Walden, “Civil Disobedience,” and other classics. A prophet of environmentalism and vegetarianism, an abolitionist, and a critic of materialism and technology, Thoreau even seems to have anticipated a world of social distancing in his famous experiment at Walden Pond. In Now Comes Good Sailing, twenty-seven of today’s leading writers offer wide-ranging original pieces exploring how Thoreau has influenced and inspired them—and why he matters more than ever in an age of climate, racial, and technological reckoning. Here, Lauren Groff retreats from the COVID-19 pandemic to a rural house and writing hut, where, unable to write, she rereads Walden; Pico Iyer describes how Thoreau provided him with an unlikely guidebook to Japan; Gerald Early examines Walden and the Black quest for nature; Rafia Zakaria reflects on solitude, from Thoreau’s Concord to her native Pakistan; Mona Simpson follows in Thoreau’s footsteps at Maine’s Mount Katahdin; Jennifer Finney Boylan reads Thoreau in relation to her experience of coming out as a trans woman; Adam Gopnik traces Thoreau’s influence on the New Yorker editor E. B. White and his book Charlotte’s Web; and there’s much more. The result is a lively and compelling collection that richly demonstrates the countless ways Thoreau continues to move, challenge, and provoke readers today.

The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation

The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation
Author: Charles Solomon
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 629
Release: 2013-01-18
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1452126208

For “fan[s] of all things Charlie Brown animated . . . gives you insight as to what . . . Charles M. Schultz felt about these TV and film adaptations” (MTV News). For the first time, this deluxe visual history treats Peanuts fans to an in-depth look at the art and making of the beloved animated Peanuts specials. From 1965’s original classic A Charlie Brown Christmas through the 2011 release of Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, animation historian Charles Solomon goes behind the scenes of all forty-five films, exploring the process of bringing a much-loved comic strip to life. The book showcases the creative development through the years with gorgeous, never-before-seen concept art, and weaves a rich history based on dozens of interviews with former Peanuts directors, animators, voice talent, and layout artists, as well as current industry folk. Filling a void in animation publishing—there is no other history or art book of the Peanuts specials—this volume celebrates five decades of the artistry and humor of Charles M. Schultz and the artists who reimagined the comic for the screen. “This engaging art book features dozens of interesting interviews, but the real treasure is all the often-seen images and little-seen artifacts associated with the five decades of Emmy-winning Peanuts specials.” —The Washington Post “The beautiful, display-worthy book unfolds the history of the Peanuts TV specials and is filled with interviews with the creators of the ’toons; insider scoop on the productions; and fun, exclusive material like storyboards, Charles Schulz’s model sheets, scripts, original cels, and publicity materials.” —Yahoo! TV “A compelling journey through Schulz’s world.” —Sioux City Journal

Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos

Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos
Author: Michelle Ann Abate
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2023-03-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1496844211

Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" sheds new light on the past importance, ongoing significance, and future relevance of a comics series that millions adore: Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts. More specifically, it examines a fundamental feature of the series: its core cast of characters. In chapters devoted to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Franklin, Pigpen, Woodstock, and Linus, author Michelle Ann Abate explores the figures who made Schulz’s strip so successful, so influential, and—above all—so beloved. In so doing, the book gives these iconic figures the in-depth critical attention that they deserve and for which they are long overdue. Abate considers the exceedingly familiar characters from Peanuts in markedly unfamiliar ways. Drawing on a wide array of interpretive lenses, Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos invites readers to revisit, reexamine, and rethink characters that have been household names for generations. Through this process, the chapters demonstrate not only how Schulz’s work remains a subject of acute critical interest more than twenty years after the final strip appeared, but also how it embodies a rich and fertile site of social, cultural, and political meaning.

From Krakow to Krypton

From Krakow to Krypton
Author: Arie Kaplan
Publisher: Jewish Publication Society
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2010
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0827610432

Jews created the first comic book, the first graphic novel, the first comic book convention, the first comic book specialty store, and they helped create the underground comics (or "Comix") movement of the late '60s and early '70s. Many of the creators of the most famous comic books, such as Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, and Batman, as well as the founders of MAD Magazine, were Jewish. From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books tells their stories and demonstrates how they brought a uniquely Jewish perspective to their work and to the comics industry as a whole. Over-sized and in full color, From Krakow to Krypton is filled with sidebars, cartoon bubbles, comic book graphics, original design sketches, and photographs. It is a visually stunning and exhilarating history.

A Peanuts Christmas

A Peanuts Christmas
Author: Charles M. Schulz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005-10
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 9780345484079

"Deck the hall with a brand-new collection of favorites from Christmas Past!"--Cover.

Schulz and Peanuts

Schulz and Peanuts
Author: David Michaelis
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2008-10-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0060937998

Charles M. Schulz, the most widely syndicated and beloved cartoonist of all time, is also one of the least understood figures in American culture. Now, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis gives us the first full-length biography of the brilliant, unseen man behind Peanuts: at once a creation story, a portrait of a native genius, and a chronicle contrasting the private man with the central role he played in shaping the national imagination. Schulz and Peanuts is the definitive epic biography of an American icon and the unforgettable characters he created.

The American Dream and Dreams Deferred

The American Dream and Dreams Deferred
Author: Carlton D. Floyd
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2022-11-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1793634122

The American Dream and Dreams Deferred: A Dialectical Fairy Tale shows how rival interpretations of the Dream reveal the dialectical tensions therein. Exploring often neglected voices, literatures, and histories, Carlton D. Floyd and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer highlight moments when the American Dream appears both simultaneously possible and out of reach. In so doing, the authors invite readers to make a new collective dream of a better future, on socially just, multicultural, and ecologically sustainable foundations.