All patrons who attended the 2001 Peanuts-themed ice show at Santa Rosa's Redwood Empire Ice Arena had an opportunity to purchase this gorgeous program.
These articles are arranged from the most recent down, so you'll always find the newest news about Charlie Brown and his friends toward the top; older articles will be located further down, or on previous pages.
Good grief! Who stole Snoopy?
December 29, 2001
By Doug Moe
The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin
It was back in the 1980s that Joe Wiederholt, a professor at the UW School of Pharmacy, received a particularly memorable response on a year-end student evaluation form.
Such responses rarely give tact a high priority.
"You are a great teacher," a student wrote. "But your ties suck."
Joe mentioned it that night at home and his wife, Peggy, laughed and said, "They're not wrong."
It became a running joke in the family. Joe's sister sent him a necktie that featured the famed cartoon pup Snoopy doing his "Joe Cool" bit with the sunglasses.
Snoopy became something of a calling card for Wiederholt. Students and friends delighted in finding Snoopy ties and knickknacks and passing them along to the professor.
It should be noted that Wiedenholt had a serious side - indeed, he was one of the most decorated professors in the School of Pharmacy.
He grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and went to college at Creighton University in Omaha. By the time Joe and Peggy landed in Madison in 1981, he had already redesigned the U.S. Army pharmacy technician training program and received the Army Commendation Medal. He quickly became a favorite of students, winning various teacher of the year awards, and in 1988 Wiederholt received the Rufus A. Lyman Award for Best Published Paper in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.
Joe was only 44 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. That was 1994, and he was determined the disease would not beat him. He went through chemotherapy and the cancer went into remission. It was natural for Joe to use the experience to help teach others. He became involved in writing a patient-oriented diary/workbook for cancer patients titled "The Write Track." His pharmacy students would not be surprised to learn the book was so on target with patients that more than 100,000 have been distributed and the publisher is planning another printing.
The cancer came back in the fall of 1999, but Wiederholt continued to teach. The awards didn't stop, either. Wiederholt received the 2000 Distinguished Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the 2001 Creighton University Presidential Citation in recognition of distinguished special service to pharmacy education.
The Christmas of the cancer's return, 1999, Joe received a gift of a light-up Snoopy Santa - the perfect lawn ornament for the man who had turned a questionable taste in neckties into a personal trademark, always good for a grin.
Joe and Peggy displayed the Santa during the holiday season a year ago. In May, Joe lost his fight with cancer.
Peggy put the Snoopy Santa on the front porch of their Rolla Lane home this year. "In Joe's memory," Peggy said. Many friends and pharmacy students made a point of driving by.
The morning of Dec. 24, Peggy discovered that the Santa Snoopy was gone. Stolen.
I'm not sure what to say about someone who would steal something like that on Christmas Eve.
"We're having trouble finding another one," Peggy was saying Friday.
If anyone knows where Peggy and her family can find another of the lighted-up Snoopy Santas, please let me know and I'll pass the information along.
And if anyone reading this is having a little problem facing themselves in the mirror, well, I'm sure Peggy would welcome Snoopy's return with no questions asked.
McDonald's in doghouse over Snoopy sales
December 28, 2001
CNN
HONG KONG, China - Mainland Chinese authorities have accused McDonald's of illegally selling Snoopy dolls with its meals in the city of Guangzhou and causing a commotion among some young customers, Chinese state media reported Friday.
The Guangzhou Trade and Industry Bureau said McDonald's is only licensed to sell food and drinks, but the company broke the rules by selling 233,140 dolls during a promotion in April and May, according to an account in the state-owned Nanfang Daily newspaper.
The newspaper said the promotion "instigated a buying spree, created chaos at one point and seriously affected the physical and mental health of children and teen-agers."
A McDonald's spokeswoman in Guangzhou, who identified herself only as Amy, said by telephone that the company had received no notice of the trade bureau's allegation. She declined any further comment.
The Nanfang Daily said the Snoopy toys were sold for 10 yuan (U.S. $1.20) each to customers who bought meals in Guangzhou's 34 McDonald's outlets, bringing in 2.33 million yuan (U.S. $281,672).
U.S.-based McDonald's could face a fine of up to 100,000 yuan (UD $12,821) if the Trade and Industry Bureau of Guangdong province upholds the allegations made by the city trade bureau, the newspaper said.
Guangdong province borders Hong Kong, where McDonald's has sold similar dolls in various promotions. One sale in 1998 created a black market for the dolls and led to people fighting and shoving as they stood in long lines outside the McDonald's outlets.
Coloring the classics
The Grinch has Lacey resident to thank for his bright green color
December 23, 2001
By Jim Carlile
The Olympian (Washington state)
LACEY -- Uvon Young has a personal connection to two of the most enduring cartoons in animation history.
Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, made in 1965, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, made in 1966, has become an annual holiday ritual for many families.
But when Lacey resident Young, 85, watches the movies, she remembers painting thousands of individual frames for the cartoons that were filmed at a rate of 16 per second. And her late husband, Ray, was one of the animators for both cartoons.
Working alongside Ray, Young also befriended some of animation's biggest names, including Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and Mel Blanc.
Jones is famous for creating the characters Wile E. Coyote, Pepe le Pew, Marvin the Martian and the Road Runner.
Avery created Daffy Duck, Droopy, Chilly Willy and the personality of Bugs Bunny. He also coined the phrase, "What's up, doc?"
Blanc provided the voice for several favorite cartoon characters, including Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig.
All three men were considered part of animation's Golden Age.
During the 1960s Young worked on many memorable cartoons. But her favorites -- and the ones she still watches most often -- are the Peanuts cartoons and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
"I still watch those every year when they come on," Young said. "There are always parts where I say, 'Oh, I remember that,' or, 'I did that part.' "
Even more fun is seeing the awe of her great-grandkids when they are told she was the one who painted the lime green of the Grinch or the blazing yellow of Charlie Brown's shirt.
Her work was not restricted to cartoons, and she recently got an unexpected opportunity to see some of that other work. She was up late a few nights ago watching re-runs on cable when The Carol Burnett Show came on.
"I was part of the team that did the opening cartoon to that show," she said.
Animation cels
Young has dozens of cels from many of the projects she worked on. Cels are transparent acetate sheets that animators draw on with ink and are subsequently colored in by painters.
Painters such as Young filled in the cels on the reverse side of the sheet. Cel animation is the technique used to make most animated cartoons.
After the cels are painted, they're placed over backgrounds, and a special camera is used to photograph the cels and backgrounds.
But filming the cels was the tail end of a much larger process.
"The first thing that would happen is they would get the story. Then they would do the voices and draw the pictures to match the voices," Young said. "Most people think it's the other way around."
Though Young painted the cels for a living, she also used to get spare cels and paint them during her lunch breaks, so she could pass them on to her kids and grandkids.
In her collection of cels, Young has a few from the first Beatles cartoons, several from Peanuts programs, and cels that include characters such as Woody Woodpecker, Mr. Magoo, The Flintstones, Scooby Doo and Smokey Bear. Her collection is so valuable that she keeps it in a bank deposit vault. She won't speculate on how much her collection is worth.
Cartoon transformations
Her work not only entertained millions of cartoon fans, but it also helped mark another historic occasion.
Young worked for years at an ink-and-paint service, where she never knew what kind of project was coming next. One of the most memorable projects was for NASA during the first moon launch in 1969.
"When the shuttle was on the dark side of the moon and it couldn't be seen, we showed it in animation," she said. "I was one of only three people to work on that."
She said she missed painting for awhile after retiring in 1972.
"It was a dream job," she said. As much as she loves the art of animation, it's getting harder for her to watch new cartoons.
"I watch some, but I'm disgusted because they're so crudely animated," Young said.
She's not the only one to think so. Ruth Hayes, a faculty member at The Evergreen State College, teaches animation history, theory and techniques. Hayes appreciates the days when Tex Avery and Chuck Jones cartoons were more common.
"The differences between the Chuck Jones cartoons of the 1940s and '50s and what we see now is the actual movement in Chuck Jones' cartoons are more fluid and have a rubbery quality," Hayes said. "Those cartoons involve a lot more physical humor and are more about gags. They're not so talky, like cartoons are now."
Among her favorite cartoons by Chuck Jones are "What's Opera, Doc?" (1957) and "Duck Amuck" (1953). From that era, she said, cartoons didn't need an excuse to be nonsensical.
"Elmer Fudd didn't need an excuse to start singing opera to Bugs Bunny. That sort of thing happened all the time," she said. "Now, especially with a lot of Saturday morning cartoons, there must be a reason for something to happen."
Beginnings
Those nuances aren't lost on Young, who at 85 has watched animation evolve. She got into animation in 1939 when her husband taught her how to paint. And her husband first broke into cartoons when he was a 10-year-old growing up in Los Angeles. His local paper had a children's page, and he drew a comic strip for it.
As a young man, he decided to pursue animation as a career by moving to New York with his friend Tex Avery. He met and married Uvon in 1939, and the rest is history.
"It has been an interesting life," she said.
A museum portrait of the Peanuts gang
December 13, 2001
Seth Stern
The Christian Science Monitor
Charles Schulz never dreamed how popular his drawings of an imaginative beagle and a forever-hopeful boy would become when the first Peanuts comic strip appeared on Oct. 2, 1950.
But his cartoons struck a powerful chord. During a 50-year run that ended only with Mr. Schulz's death last year, he drew 17,897 strips. Peanuts appeared in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. (And don't forget the numerous TV specials, two plays, and four feature-length films.)
A new exhibit celebrating Schulz's life and work, called "Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle The Art of Charles Schulz," is on view at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., through May 31. It will then travel to Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Kansas.
The exhibit chronicles the development of each character through Schulz's original sketches and sample four-panel strips, which were drawn 14-1/2 inches tall and 30 inches long.
Smile at the early Snoopy of 1950, when his ears were bigger and blacker. Shake your head at Charlie Brown's persistence as Lucy pulls away the football or his baseball team loses yet again.
Schulz was inspired by the cartoons of his day, such as Popeye and Krazy Kat, but he drew on his ordinary childhood to create an entirely new comic strip. Charlie Brown was the American Everyman, modeled on Schulz's own "round, ordinary face." He thought up Peppermint Patty when he walked through his living room and saw a dish of the candies on a table.
Cartoon animals were part of Schulz's life from his boyhood in 1920s Minneapolis. His uncle nicknamed him Sparky, after a comic-strip horse. His first drawing was published when he was 15 a portrait of the family dog, in "Ripley's Believe It or Not" magazine. After high school, Schulz took correspondence courses in art and served in the Army.
Unlike other cartoon strips that had detailed drawings and story lines, Schulz's art and dialogue were spare. A dozen recurring devices made his cartoons unique, including Linus's blanket, Snoopy's doghouse and Red Baron fantasies, and Lucy's counseling booth.
Quietly, Schulz also chronicled the nation's social changes. Franklin, the first African-American character, made his "Peanuts" debut in July 1968 - the summer of the worst race riots in American history.
Minnesota Life Sells Sunburned Charlie Brown For $14,000
December 12, 2001
PRN Newswire
SAINT PAUL, Minnesota - "Sunburned Charlie Brown," the round-headed kid with the whopper of a sunburn, was sold at auction today by Minnesota Life Insurance Co. for $14,000.
The high bidder wishes to remain anonymous.
Sunburned Charlie was designed by Troy Olin, an artist for the TayMark company in White Bear Lake. His skin is bright pink, except where his sunglasses had rested on his face before he pushed them up on his head. Charlie's shirt is decorated with Walleyes and fish hooks, and he's wearing white socks with his sandals. In one hand he holds a bottle of suntan lotion labeled "Sunblockhead, SPF #1."
"We chose this design for its versatility," said Robert Senkler, chairman and president of Minnesota Life. "We are donating all proceeds from the sale to Minnesota Business Academy. We wanted a Charlie that could fit in anywhere, to maximize the fund-raising potential." The academy is a public high school in the St. Paul district and chartered by a business group focused on preparing high school students for the world of work. Senkler is chairman of the school's fund-raising committee.
"We enjoyed having him on our front step all summer," said Joanne Benson, chief education officer of the academy. "We were sorry to see him go, but will put the $14,000 to good use."
The statue was part of the "Charlie Brown Around Town" event sponsored this summer by the Capital City Partnership, of which Senkler is the incoming chairman. Dozens of statues of Charlie Brown were decorated in as many themes and displayed throughout the community. During the summer of 2000, the Capital City Partnership sponsored a similar event in which statues of Snoopy, Charlie Brown's dog in the Peanuts comic strip, were decorated and displayed in St. Paul.
Minnesota Life sponsored a Snoopy statue decorated as a voyageur - an early Minnesota settler - that sold for $27,000. That buyer also chose to remain anonymous. Both statues were displayed at the Minnesota Business Academy, located in the former home of the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Minnesota Life Insurance Company provides financial security for individuals and businesses in the form of insurance, pensions and investments. Founded in 1880, Minnesota Life ranks among the most highly rated insurance groups in the United States. Minnesota Life serves over six million people with $260 billion of life insurance in force and $18.6 billion in assets under management. Its combined work force of 4,400 people is located at its St. Paul headquarters and agencies and offices across the country.
'It's All About Christmas, Snoopy' cool,clean family entertainment
December 11, 2001
By Debra D. Bass
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Don't be fooled by the title. "It's All About Christmas, Snoopy!" is a little about Christmas, but it's mostly just an excuse to have some old-fashioned family fun.
This year's show features more than a few would-be sexy, sultry numbers where ice dancers slink around the ice to tunes like "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You," presumably to tantalize adults.
Still, all remains firmly in G-rated territory aimed at the family demographic with young children.
Not every landing is perfect, not all the gags are funny, not all the synchronized bits are polished, not everything is original (well, it's a revue, so nothing is really original) and some skits are clearly just icing for this nostalgic romp starring Snoopy (Judy Sladky).
Like the Butter and Egg Days Parade, the ice show is more of a civic obligation than a riveting cultural performance. That said, it revels in hokey splendor.
The show provides the usual hodgepodge of themed ice skating skits, such as this year's "Snoopy's Candyland," Snoopy Music Television's production of "Christmas Break" and "Welcome to the Wild, Wild West," that have been delighting families at Redwood Empire Ice Arena for 16 years.
Stalwarts will have fun identifying their favorite choreography and stunts from ice shows past, and newcomers will gain a local badge of honor. And don't think that means they won't have a good time in the process. There's plenty to applaud on and off the ice, but it comes and goes in bursts.
Director Karen Kresge Titolo crafts a two-hour production that is mostly playful, and Jennifer Langeberg provides lavish costumes to complement the frenzy of eclectic scenes from the ensemble.
Most stunning is a luminous underwater scene in the second act that uses black light to create a variety of wildly colorful iridescent floating fish.
And the ensemble also shines in simple monochromatic costumes from the opposite end of the spectrum. Dressed in either all black or all white, Titolo has the ice dancers accompany a piano concerto with their movements.
Soloists Rory Flack Burghart, 2000 American Open pro figure skating champion, and Eric Millot, a four-time French national champion, provide some much-needed heat in the chilly arena, revving up the crowd with multiple performances, including "Respect" by Burghart and a '70s television theme-show medley by Millot.
Rosanna Tovi, a U.S. national medalist, and Andrei Bannikov, a Russian national medalist, form a stunning duo as they twirl and twist their way into soaring poses.
And then there's Vladimir Tevlovski, who reprises his feat of skating upside down and flipping over Snoopy, when he's not engaging in a few ahhhhh-inspiring turns on the runway-length trampolines on both sides of the ice with other professional tumblers.
Bottom Line It's a welcome installment to the local ice show tradition, which is both predicable and fun. Like the annual parade or a trip to the circus, it mixes a few surprise twists in with the traditional fare we've seen before.
Music review Cyrus Chestnut & FriendsA Charlie Brown Christmas
December 7, 2001
By Robert Eisele
The Kansas City Star
Expectations collided with reality at the Carlsen Center on Friday night when jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut and his combo unveiled "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
Judging from the number of youngsters in the audience, many appeared to be expecting a stronger connection between the concert and the groundbreaking animated television special. Given the title and the prominent display of the familiar Charles Schulz characters in the show's advertising, this was not an unfair assumption.
What the crowd got instead was an extended primer in jazz instrumentation and improvisation, with arrangements loosely based on some of the melodies from the 35-year-old Christmas special.
Chestnut, who was accompanied by Michael Hawkins on bass, Neal Smith on drums, Gary Bartz on saxophone and Mark Whitfield on guitar, is an immensely talented musician. His musical instincts were consistently on target, and his flights of improvisational fantasy were often enjoyable. But the source material, which, after all, consisted primarily of background scoring for a 30-minute television program, was stretched far too thin for a full two-hour concert.
Composer Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Is Coming" opened the show with an up-tempo, saxophone-driven piece full of the anticipation of childhood.
"My Little Drum" offered themes and variations on "The Little Drummer Boy," with Whitfield contributing some nice call-and-response riffs on his bright, cranberry-red guitar.
Notes cascaded like snowflakes throughout "Skating," another Guaraldi tune that recalled the gentle whimsy of the television special.
Vocalist Vanessa Rubins joined the group for the wistful "Christmas Time Is Here," which suffered from a pace that was just this side of funereal.
"My Favorite Things," which has no connection to the television show and only a marginal link to the holidays, was the first of several numbers added in an apparent attempt to needlessly pad the program's length.
Chestnut's fanciful take on Beethoven's "Fur Elise" was one of the show's more imaginative numbers, offering a contemporary spin on the classics to close out the concert's first act.
By the time the program's second half began, the crowd had thinned considerably. Those who left at intermission missed a good deal more extraneous material, though the group's propulsive version of the distinctive "Linus and Lucy" theme brought to mind indelible mental images of a beagle dancing with joyful abandon atop a pint-size piano in a school auditorium.
In a different format - and with an abbreviated running time - the show would have made a marvelous introduction to the jazz form for young audiences. But the lengthy program on view at the Carlsen Center was often a bloated and tedious affair that proved to be a turnoff for youngsters and oldsters alike.
Good ol' Charles Schulz
'Peanuts' exhibit illuminates the high art of comic revolutionary artist
December 6, 2001
By Timothy Cahill
The Albany (New York) Times Union
We've had a lot of grief lately, and none of it good. Now comes Charlie Brown and the rest of the "Peanuts" gang, lightening the load as they have for half a century.
The beloved comic strip has entered the realm of art at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in an exhibit titled "Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle." In 52 original drawings, longtime fans - and their children and grandchildren - can revel in the deadpan humor and benevolent wisdom that has made "Peanuts" so much a part of the American soul.
The show is also a homage to "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, who started the strip with just seven newspapers in 1950, but who today is read by 350 million daily readers in 2,600 papers worldwide.
The show features all the familiar characters and well-known situations of the comic strip. You'll see Linus and his blanket, Schroeder and his piano, Lucy and her psychiatrist's stand. Charlie Brown confronts all the frustrations that have plagued him from the beginning the losing baseball team, the pulled-away football, the kite-eating tree, the Little Red-Haired Girl. And of course Snoopy is here, sleeping on his doghouse, battling the Red Baron and wryly commenting on the passing parade.
Minor players also appear, from Pig-Pen, who wears "the dust of countless ages" and always needs a bath; to Frieda, with the "naturally curly hair"; to Spike, Snoopy's hangdog brother. The exhibit, which runs through May 5, 2002, also includes scattered artifacts of the "Peanuts" phenomenon, from toys to TV shows to advertisements, that helped make the characters more familiar than our neighbors.
Cartoonist as artist
The traveling exhibit was designed to "emphasize the art of Charles Schulz," according to Ruth Gardner Begell, director of the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, which organized it. "We wanted to emphasize Schulz as an artist, and what he's done to our psyches."
The exhibit is about both evolution and revolution. The revolution is the way "Peanuts" changed the art of the comic strip.
Schulz made comics both simpler and more sophisticated. Before "Peanuts," Begell points out, "cartoons looked more like illustrators' work"; they were visually dense drawings that emphasized adventure and physical humor. The show includes examples of these earlier strips, which often filled an entire newspaper broadsheet page, including "Popeye," "Terry and the Pirates" and "Krazy Kat."
Schulz removed almost all of the shading, modeling and background detail in his comic, drawing simplified figures in spare backgrounds. One look at the comics page today is enough to see how that approach changed the art form; most daily cartoons follow the same style.
Changing the look
The evolution is how Schulz, who started the strip as a 28-year-old struggling cartoonist, developed his cartooning skills throughout his career.
"He was always in quest of the perfect line," Begell explained. Schulz, who drew with ink and a steel-nibbed pen, eventually found the confident, expressive stroke that we associate with the cartoon.
"He worked at that," Begell noted. "If you look at his earlier strips, he didn't want those reprinted. That confident line is not there."
Schulz tweaked the look of his characters through the years. In a 1953 strip, Snoopy appears to be a hapless pup unsuccessfully chasing a flitting songbird. Two decades later, he's the savviest beagle on the block, now trailed by his bird sidekick, Woodstock. As the exhibit demonstrates, similar transformations took place for all the characters.
At the same time Schulz was paring down the style of the comics, he was also raising the bar on its substance.
"Except for a few strips, no one then really investigated everyday family life and real feelings," Begell said. "Peanuts," she added, was about "the interior landscape of people."
Familiar flaws
Schulz brought a rich stew of Western history and culture to the comics. Freud, Beethoven and Bible verses shared space with two world wars and the Great Pumpkin. The "Peanuts" crew is beset by anxieties, insecurities and flaws that are familiar to children and adults.
As Schulz aged, Begell explained, the content of the strips changed. "His strips in the earlier days were meaner," she said, noting the almost-diabolical glee with which Lucy upends Charlie Brown with the football, or the malicious tones of the kids who call him "blockhead."
"His characters mellowed," said Begell. "In the later strips, they were more contemplative. There was more timing humor, more gag humor."
Many of the original cartoons, which measure 2-1/2 feet wide by more than a foot deep, are hung at kid-level, and it's common to see families walking through the show reading aloud the four panels of the typical daily strip. Schulz was a careful writer, and began each strip with notes and scraps of dialogue, filling in the pictures later.
Like a stand-up comic, the cartoonist often went through multiple rewrites to get the timing just right. "He fine-tuned it till it was machine-gun-style," Begell said.
Schulz produced 17,897 "Peanuts" strips in his lifetime. The handful of strips in the show doesn't begin to scratch the surface of its history, but work instead to trace its development.
"We wanted to find strips that had all the factors that made them the funniest," Begell said. "Most of the strips introduce the characters, or illustrate what makes them typical, or indicate the breadth of (Schulz's) career."
An artistic send-off
In 1999, Schulz announced he was retiring, and that his comic strip would retire with him. (It's not uncommon for cartoonists to sell their strips to other artists - think of "Blondie" or "Dennis the Menace" - so that the characters live on long after their creator has left the scene.)
Shortly afterward, Schulz received a note from painter Andrew Wyeth
"I have been thinking of you and your remarkable quality of expressing in simple, direct statements the American way of life," wrote Wyeth, whom the cartoonist had often named as an artistic hero. "It has brought pleasure to so many of us."
Schulz died on Feb. 12, 2000, the day before the last new "Peanuts" ran in Sunday newspapers across the country. Since then, by popular demand, newspapers, including the Times Union, have been reprinting "Classic Peanuts," and the strip routinely leads in readers' polls.
"Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle" is a monument to the wealth of humor and insight Schulz created. Coming now, as the holidays work to leaven the aftermath of this fall's cataclysms, the exhibit is a gift to us all.
Peanuts reconsidered
Time.comix looks at "The Art of Charles M. Schulz"
December 4, 2001
By Andrew D. Arnold
Time Magazine
When three flame emails burned up my mailbox I lost half my
readership over a crack about Charlie Brown. In spite of Charles
Schulz’s Peanuts being the definition of a mainstream, co-opted
comicstrip, it would seem that the cynical, iconoclastic comixcenti hold
it as close to their hearts the rest of America. Could I have been wrong
to dismiss Charlie Brown’s 50 years of antics as a "crudely-drawn
dwarf’s repetitious bumblings?"
As luck would have it a new book, "Peanuts The Art of Charles M.
Schulz," addresses just such doubts about the most popular comicstrip in
the history of the world.
As edited and designed by Chip Kidd, "The Art of Charles M. Schulz"
($29.95; Pantheon Books; 336 pp.) goes way beyond another collection of
Peanuts strips.
The title really means what it says, presenting Schulz’s work as a
fine-art monograph might. The pages are slick and in full color, even
for black and white strips, bringing out a texture and clarity of line
you never get with standard reproductions. Source materials vary from
original art with the (rare) corrections clearly visible, to yellowing
clips of the newspapers they appeared in.
Arranged in a general chronological order, the book traces the
evolution of Schulz’s style, beginning with an unpublished G.I.
sketchbook he created during World War II. Other rarities include his
pre-Peanuts gag strips and developmental sketches for strips and books.
Preserving the tone of a monograph Kidd adds some minimal commentary,
pointing out stylistic changes or historically important strips. Of the
more than five hundred strips reproduced, most come the 1950s and
sixties, which connoisseurs consider Peanuts’ heyday for its level of
literary wit and shocking acerbity. Normally an example would be
provided here but none translate well enough into just words — a sign of
great cartooning.
Preservation of the "gag" sometimes takes a backseat to an in-depth
examination of Schulz’s line, both as he originally drew it and as it
reproduced in newspaper print.
One page has just Charlie Brown's head in extreme close-up, the
better to see the attack and fade of Schulz’s elegantly simple penwork.
So here’s my mea culpa for the "crudely drawn" comment. The book makes
it clear that Schulz was a cartoonist’s cartoonist. His dedication and
natural talent for the daily gag strip format has no equal.
The portraits of Peanuts dolls and other licensed properties
scattered throughout the book testify to the massive, pop-culture
success of Peanuts. What the book does not get into are the larger
artistic ramifications of Peanuts’ popularity. A quick glance at any
newspaper comics page will reveal one of them. The art of American strip
comics has died a painful death since Peanuts first appeared —
suffocated by the weed-like proliferation of cutely-drawn, smart-alec
kids and animals who always deliver some dull "payoff" in the last
panel. Is Peanuts to blame, or just the first in a trend of dwindling
comics expectations?
Greater minds than mine see Charlie Brown's follies (pining for the
red-haired girl, getting the football yanked away from him, having his
kite eaten by a tree) as profound metaphors for man's struggle against
the universe, among other things.
Sort of a cartoon "Waiting for Godot," I guess. Something about the
ease with which the characters got adopted by commercial interests gives
me doubts about this. After so many years Peanuts began to feel more
like comfort-art than anything challenging. But really, just
entertaining the idea of Schulz’s work as more than doodles means that
it has artistic merit.
It certainly deserves as fine a book as "Peanuts The Art of
Charles Schulz." Kidd has done a wonderful job of presenting this
important artist’s work in a prestige format. Even non-Peanuts fans can
marvel at the dazzling layouts and attention to detail. Books like this
elevate not just the subject but the medium as a whole. Oh yeah, and
it’s pretty funny too.
"Peanuts The Art of Charles Schulz" can be found at any regular
bookstore and smarter comic book stores.
Top 10 Holiday Movies at Blockbuster
December 4, 2001
PRN Newswire
Watching holiday movies is now a season tradition for two-thirds of Americans, and helps set the mood for family celebrations, according to a survey by Blockbuster.
Whether it's "Miracle on 34th Street," "Frosty the Snowman," "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" or "Christmas Vacation," holiday movies have become an integral part of the season's celebrations, according to survey results.
Top 10 Holiday Movies at Blockbuster
(based on top-renting holiday movies at Blockbuster stores in 2000)
1) "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas"
2) "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"
3) "A Christmas Story"
4) "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer"
5) "Jack Frost"
6) "White Christmas"
7) "Frosty The Snowman"
8) "A Charlie Brown Christmas"
9) "It's A Wonderful Life"
10) "Miracle on 34th Street"
The heart of Charles Schulz
A loving tribute to the artist whosedisappointments led to a comic strip of remarkable depth
December 1, 2001
By Jeet Heer
The Canadian National Post
"The Art of Charles M. Schulz" is perhaps the most lavish tribute any cartoonist has ever received. Assembled by Chip Kidd, the most influential designer in contemporary publishing, the images in this thick book have been culled from a variety of sources, including Schulz's high-school yearbook and his private notebooks.
Kidd's aim is to make us look with fresh eyes at something that might seem dull with familiarity the comic strip universe populated by Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts gang. In the last half-century, Peanuts has been collected in scores of books, which have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide. But only now has this comic strip been published in a volume commensurate with its worth. Unlike previous collections, Kidd's is constructed so that we actually look at Schulz's art from a variety of angles, rather than just a quick glance and a chuckle at the joke.
Sometimes we are shown Schulz's raw sketchbook drawings, in other instances, his more polished original art or reprints - for instance, from a scrapbook from the early 1950s, when Schulz was still learning his craft. Yellowed with age and marked in the corners with Scotch Tape, these pages take us back to a time when Charlie Brown looked like a little kid and Snoopy walked on all fours like a real dog. They remind us that fantasy elements such as the Great Pumpkin came into the strip slowly, as Schulz gained confidence.
Much of the art in the book is reprinted as it originally appeared in newspapers, so that we can see, for instance, little dots that constituted colour on the newsprint of the Sunday pages. In reproducing the art this way, Kidd is placing Schulz in history, reminding us that before Peanuts characters became ubiquitous figures in the world of advertising, theatre and television, they were simple pen-and-ink creations. Most of us first encountered Charlie Brown as a bundle of lines and dots, slightly off-register. Returning us to this original childhood view, Kidd reacquaints us with the purity of Schulz's art.
Kidd's approach to Peanuts contrasts sharply with some other readings of the strip, which have frequently been theory-heavy. For instance, in "The Gospel According to Peanuts" (1964), the Rev. Robert L. Short interpreted Peanuts in theological terms Linus's faith in the Great Pumpkin is an example of the sin of idolatry, while Snoopy is a Christian struggling between good and evil in a complex universe. By contrast, Italian novelist Umberto Eco gave the comic strip a Freudian spin. Schulz's characters, he argued, "are the monstrous infantile reductions of all the neurosis of a modern citizen of industrial civilization."
For some neo-Darwinian theorists, comic strip characters such as Charlie Brown illustrate the evolutionary phenomenon of neoteny, the retention of childhood features in an adult Because animals have an instinctive desire to protect the young, cartoon characters that display babyish features (roundness, softness, big heads) tend to be highly popular, especially if they, like Charlie Brown, embody youthful looks and adult problems.
All of these theories are suggestive, but none gets to the heart of Schulz's achievement The essence of his art is failure.
"All the loves in the strip are unrequited," Schulz once noted. "All the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; the Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football is always pulled away."
Schulz's own words, quoted in the book from interviews, make it clear the theme of failure that permeated Peanuts was derived from his deepest feelings about his own life.
Schulz was born in 1922 and, like Charlie Brown, was the son of a barber. While he was close to his parents, school made him deeply unhappy "High school was a total disaster for me," he recalled. "I just failed everything. I hated the whole business."
At age 20, he was drafted into the army while his mother was dying of cancer, which he described as "a loss from which I sometimes believe I never recovered." Although he gained confidence in the army and proudly served among the Allied forces that landed at Normandy, military service did not cure his feelings of alienation. If anything, it heightened them "The three years I served in the army taught me all I need to know about loneliness," he said.
Civilian life brought to Schulz a new set of disappointments. Working as an art instructor, he courted a colleague named Donna Johnson, an attractive redhead. She eventually rejected him in favour of another suitor. This failed courtship may have planted the seed for Schulz's lifelong obsession with unrequited love. In Peanuts, Charlie Brown loves "the little red-headed girl," Peppermint Patty has a crush on Charlie Brown, Lucy pines for Schroeder, and Sally wants to be Linus's girlfriend. Almost never are would-be lovers' affections returned.
Peanuts, which Schulz created in 1950, and continued drawing until shortly before his death in 2000, was therefore a paradoxical creation the successful product of failure. Schulz took the keen disappointments of everyday life and transformed them into a comic strip with remarkable depth of feeling. During the peak years of his creativity, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, Peanuts delivered a daily laugh while at the same time being sad, whimsical, angry, melancholy and sweet. Aside from George Herriman's Krazy Kat, no other comic strip has ever had the emotional range of Peanuts.
Perhaps because of his own underlying self-doubt, no matter how successful Schulz became, he never lost his fundamental modesty. Schulz thought of himself not as an artist but as a craftsman, and sometimes looked upon his long career as "a waste of time." But, as millions of fans knew, and readers of this book will appreciate, he was wrong. All his deeply felt pain transformed into art.
Cedar Fair, L.P., announces plans for world-class rollercoaster and family ice show at Cedar Point for 2002 season
November 20, 2001
PRN Newswire
SANDUSKY, Ohio - Cedar Fair, L.P., a publicly traded partnership which owns and operates six amusement parks and five water parks, has announced plans for $13 million in capital expenditures for the 2002 operating season at Cedar Point, located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo, including a world-class roller coaster and a Peanuts-themed ice show.
Richard L. Kinzel, president and chief executive officer, reported that the centerpiece of Cedar Point's 2002 capital program will be the world's tallest and fastest "double impulse" roller coaster.
"This new thrill ride, named Wicked Twister, will be Cedar Point's 15th roller coaster, and it will be the eighth world-record-breaking ride the park has introduced since 1989," said Kinzel.
Wicked Twister will use linear induction motors to smoothly launch passengers out of the coaster's station at a maximum speed of 72 mph in 2.5 seconds, propelling them halfway up the ride's first 215-foot-tall tower before briefly pausing and then reversing and accelerating up a second 215-foot-tall tower. The coaster will continue to propel its passengers up and down its U-shaped steel track a total of five times - forward three times and backward twice - during an intense 40-second ride. Atop each of the 215-foot-tall towers, passengers will "twist" through spiraling 450-degree corkscrews to add to the excitement.
Commenting on Cedar Point's other big capital project for next season, Kinzel said, "In 2002, we will also be focusing our capital spending on families with the introduction of a Peanuts-themed ice show that will feature Snoopy and four other popular Peanuts characters."
The new 30-minute ice extravaganza will be called "Snoopy Rocks! On Ice" and will be located in the former Cedar Point Cinema building that previously hosted the park's IMAX film presentation.
"The 2002 season will be an exciting one at Cedar Point," added Kinzel. "Wicked Twister will reinforce the park's position as the thrill ride capital of the world, and 'Snoopy Rocks! On Ice' will introduce a brand new type of family entertainment to the park. Including the $13 million in capital expenditures for the 2002 season, Cedar Fair will have invested more than $120 million in Cedar Point over a five year period."
The partnership previously announced a $5 million capital expenditures program for the 2002 season at Michigan's Adventure, located near Muskegon, Michigan, which will feature the addition of seven new rides and attractions, as well as various upgrades to its picnic, merchandise and restroom areas.
Kinzel concluded by explaining that capital expenditure plans for the 2002 season at the partnership's other parks are in the process of being finalized and will be announced in the near future.
Cedar Fair's six amusement parks are Cedar Point, located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo; Knott's Berry Farm, near Los Angeles in Buena Park, California; Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pennsylvania; Valleyfair near Minneapolis/St. Paul; Worlds of Fun, located in Kansas City, Missouri; and Michigan's Adventure, near Muskegon, Michigan. The Partnership's water parks are located near San Diego and in Palm Springs, California, and adjacent to Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm and Worlds of Fun. Cedar Fair also operates Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, under a management contract.
Free skating for Schulz birthday
November 17, 2001
By Chris Smith
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
To celebrate the birthday of Charles Schulz, the family of the late cartoonist is inviting the public to a free skating session Tuesday at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena.
Schulz, who spawned a creative empire with his globally distributed "Peanuts" comic strip, was born Nov. 26, 1922, in Minneapolis. He lived in Sonoma County for more than 40 years.
He had the ice arena built on West Steele Lane in 1969. He had lunch at a table in the arena cafe nearly every day.
Schulz was 77 when he died in Santa Rosa of complications of cancer Feb. 12, 2000.
The free skating session will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Complimentary root beer and chocolate cookies will be served.
The free session could not be held on his birthday because the ice arena will close to the public Nov. 25 so that preparations can begin for the annual holiday ice show.
ABC Television Network continues a holiday tradition with the animated Classic, 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'
Whoopi Goldberg hosts new behind-the-scenesdocumentary on the beloved Christmas special
November 7, 2001
ABC Press Release
The classic half-hour animated Christmas-themed PEANUTS special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," created by late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, will air for the first time on the ABC Television Network on Thursday, December 6 (8-9 p.m. EST). In addition to the original Emmy Award-winning special, a behind-the-scenes story of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, will air immediately following the special.
Peanuts focuses on the anxieties and joys of childhood as expressed by an ensemble cast of children who often seem wise beyond their years. Among them are the lovable Charlie Brown, who perseveres despite continuous failure; the philosophical, blanket-carrying Linus; the fussbudget Lucy, who dispenses psychological advice for a nickel from behind a concession stand; and toy-piano virtuoso Schroeder. Central to the comic strip is Charlie Brown's dog, Snoopy, who first stood on his hind legs in 1958 and became extremely popular for his imaginative adventures as a number of characters.
In the digitally-remastered 1965 special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," Charlie Brown complains about the overwhelming materialism that he sees everywhere during the Christmas season. Lucy suggests that he become director of the school Christmas pageant, and Charlie Brown accepts, but it proves to be a frustrating struggle. When an attempt to restore the proper spirit with a forlorn little fir Christmas tree fails, Charlie Brown needs Linus' help to learn what the real meaning of Christmas is.
For the very first time, a 17-minute behind-the-scenes story of how "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was created will air immediately following the special. Hosted by Academy Award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, the mini-documentary will include interviews with producer Lee Mendelson, animator/director Bill Melendez and the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz -- who will show how the Peanuts characters almost never made it to television. In addition the original cast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" from 37 years ago will be seen for the very first time. The story also includes a tribute to composer Vince Guaraldi ("Linus and Lucy," "Christmastime is Here").
The cast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" includes Peter Robbins (Charlie Brown), Christopher Shea as (Linus), Tracy Stratford (Lucy), Chris Doran (Schroeder) and Sally Dryer (Violet).
"A Charlie Brown Christmas" was executive-produced by Lee Mendelson and created and written by Charles M. Schulz. Bill Melendez is the producer and director, and Vince Guaraldi is the music composer.
The Price for Chuck
November 5, 2001
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Here, in the order in which they were sold, are the 63 Charlie Brown statues and what they brought at Sunday's auction.
Sotheby's, which conducted the sale, does not release the names of buyers.
St. Paul's Man About Town, $15,000
Happy Campers, $9,500
You're a Winner, Charlie Brown, $5,500
A Diamond in the Rough, $8,000
Good Grief!, $10,000
Fun Is Good, Charlie Brown, $9,500
Language of Love, $3,250
Bagpiper Charlie, $6,000
Charliemagne, $4,250
It's the First Date, Charlie Brown, $17,000
Heartland Charlie Brown, $7,500
Big Catch Charlie Brown, $6,000
Where Is Everybody?, $10,000
You're a Good Drummer, Charlie Brown, $9,500
We Are All Related, $7,000
You're a Tiger, Charlie Brown, $8,000
Louisiana Spin, $8,000
Grand Slam Charlie Brown, $11,000
Chef Charlie, $8,500
Judge Charlie Brown, $8,000
Prince Charlie, $8,000
Home Is Where the Heart Is, $21,000
Charlie's Cookin', $8,000
Charlie Crown, $4,750
Shave and a Haircut, $5,500
Railroad Charlie, $13,000
Chalkboard Charlie, $7,500
You're a Good Cub Scout, Charlie Brown!, $5,500
Head in the Clouds, $6,500
Romanian Traveler, $3,500
Firefighter Charlie, $6,000
Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues, $5,000
Milkman Charlie, $4,750
Vacation, $7,500
The Team Player, $10,000
No Blockheads Allowed, $4,250
Under Construction Brown, $5,500
Butter Sculpture Charlie, $3,250
World Neighbor, $11,000
Good Grief! I'm Part of Minnesota History!, $3,250
Swirlie Charlie, $6,500
Let Freedom Ring, $6,500
The Great Pumpkin, $3,500
Fire and Ice, $3,750
Chamber Orchestra Charlie, $4,000
River Captain Charlie, $4,000
A Penny for Your Thoughts ... and a Gumball, $4,000
Imagination and Innovation, $3,000
Seasons of Charlie Brown, $3,750
Charlie Brownus Around Townus, $11,000
Mr. Soapy, $4,000
L'Artist, $3,500
It's a Big World, Charlie Brown, $3,750
Good News Charlie Brown, $3,500
Spread Your Wings and Fly, Charlie Brown, $4,000
Impressionist Charlie, $3,750
You Can Do It!, $4,000
Northern Nights, $4,000
Photog Charlie, $3,250
Charlie Brown, Yellow, Purple, Red and Green in Designer Hat, $30,000
Classic Charlie Brown, $15,000
Patriotic Charlie Brown, $12,000
You're a good man...
November 5, 2001
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Sunday's auction of 63 Charlie Brown statues was called a success by those involved, not only for the money it brought -- $459,000 -- but also for intangibles created by St. Paul's tribute to the late cartoonist Charles Schulz.
Before the sale at the Mall of America in Bloomington, there was some concern that a flagging economy, the terrorist attacks on the East Coast and the continued mystery of anthrax would put a damper on this year's tribute.
In fact, the sale was delayed for six weeks because of the attacks, but all doubts were erased when the first of the 5-foot-high statues of Schulz's main character sold for $15,000. The average price for the statues was $7,300, well below the average of about $16,000 that Snoopy statues fetched last year, but "this is a different time, a different year," said Paul Verret, president of the St. Paul Foundation.
The foundation oversees the Charles M. Schulz Fund, which gets the proceeds from this year's "Charlie Brown Around Town" (featuring 102 Charlie Brown statues) and last summer's "Peanuts on Parade" (102 Snoopy statues). The money goes to scholarships and to build a series of bronze sculptures in downtown that will be a permanent tribute to Schulz.
A share of the proceeds from this year's auction will go to relief efforts on the East Coast. A special "Patriotic Charlie," created specifically for the auction to raise money for the relief effort, sold for $12,000.
"Besides being fun, the project built a lot of 'social capital' -- people doing things together, getting things done," Verret said.
Lee Koch, vice president of Capital City Partnership, which helped coordinate this summer's sale and tribute, said the effort "absolutely was a success. Now we can do all the things we planned -- the bronzes, the scholarships and money for relief ... and there are a lot of happy statue owners out there tonight."
Craig Schulz, son of Charles Schulz, said 10 percent of the money will go to relief.
"This auction was way more than just a fund-raiser. It was a tribute to my dad and the 50 years he spent every day doing his comic strip," he said.
