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Where No Beagle Has Gone Before
It's March 8 already, in Japan's time zone, so This Day In Peanuts History repeats this 1969 classic: http://www.snoopy.co.jp/archives/history.html For those looking after Tokyo reaches the 9th of March, try: http://www.snoopy.co.jp/anohi/date/0308.gif http://www.snoopy.co.jp/anohi/comic/0308.gif -- http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus Current Entry: The Power Of Near Enough http://wp.me/p1RYhY-6X ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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Where No Beagle Has Gone Before
On Mar 7, 10:57*pm, (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
* * * * It's March 8 already, in Japan's time zone, so This Day In Peanuts History repeats this 1969 classic: http://www.snoopy.co.jp/archives/history.html For those looking after Tokyo reaches the 9th of March, try: http://www.snoopy.co.jp/anohi/date/0...comic/0308.gif ....And it still hurts to think that it's been over a decade since Sparky left us, the morning before his last Sunday farewell strip hit the papers. I actually cried like a fracking baby when I read that one, not just because all us "Peanuts" fans had lost a dear friend and inspiration, but that Charlie Brown, the Little Red Haired Girl (all three of them), Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Woodstock, Franklin, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Rerun, Sally, Schroeder, The Kite-Eating Tree, World War II the Cat Next Door, and even all the "retired" characters like Shermy, Pig-Pen, "Butterscotch" Patty, Violet, 5, his sisters 3 and 4, and even the long-forgotten Charlotte Braun, had all lost the creative soul behind their voices. ....Sure, we still have 50 years of strips and at least three dozen TV specials with gentle but valid messages of humor, hope, laughter and inspiration to keep future generations "edumatained", but "Peanuts" was such a unique and personal expression of Charles Shultz' own life that his family was at least 99.999% correct in ending the strip as opposed to letting someone else take over, no matter how familiar they were with the characters. You could get away with that on "Dick Tracy" because Tracy wasn't the alter ego or even a persona of Chester Gould, and Chic Young's son and family were so wrapped up since birth with "Blondie" that so long as there's a Young family member working on the strip, Dagwood will continue making impossibly colossal sandwiches and running over the mailman as he's late for work (again). ....But not with "Peanuts", Like Walt Kelly's "Pogo" and Al Capp's "Li'l Abner", the strip was too closely tied to the creator to take the risk of - dare I say this? - "damaging the franchise". Two guys tried to revive "Pogo" about 25 years ago, but lacking Walt's unique views on politics and life in general - much less how to apply it to a bunch of swamp critters - it didn't even last six months before the syndicate dropped it and now even refuses to admit it ever existed. And while Hillbilly/"Hee-Haw" humor will be timeless, as the existence of one Leonard McCoy, MD will provide proof thereof, there's currently nobody around willing to take on a "Li'l Abner" revival who's got the "evil eye perspektiv" of Al Capp on how things work in Dogpatch; granted, I've seen a couple of sample submissions, including a whole month's worth of strips done on spec, but all three writing teams apparently just dug out the old "Schmoo" stories - and in one case, the "Bald Iggle" as well - and just tried to rehash what even Capp himself had already rehashed to the point where nobody buys Schmoo bop- n-bags anymore because they're so passe. Gimme a Muhammed Ali one, tho, and I'll buy two. But I digress... ....No, unless you can find someone whose own life experiences matched Sparky's right down to a devout christian upbringing, owning a beagle who slept on a doghouse, never could kick a football worth a frack, couldn't win a baseball game to save his life, whose only successful real-life sport was hockey, and had a life-long unrequited love with a little red-haired girl, then you won't even come close to being able to even mimic the heads, hearts and souls that Sparky put into each and every member of the Charlie Brown gang. 50 years of strips is a lot of reading, and even a rerun is still worth turning to the comics page in the dwindling number of papers for a daily fix of "Peanuts". But as timeless as the strip is - and as especially demonstrated by "A Charlie Brown Christmas", which will outlive not only all of us but TV itself - even the rare strips where the joke sort of fell flat will still provide that heartfelt chuckle per day we all need at least once of. Keep resting in peace, Sparky. And from us Space Historians, thanks for the inspiration you gave our heroes for all those years, as the strip that started this thread was just one example of! OM |
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Where No Beagle Has Gone Before
When I first saw this discussion I thought it might be about the LM
Snoopy which may be in heliospheric orbit somewhere...... |
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Where No Beagle Has Gone Before
In bob haller writes:
When I first saw this discussion I thought it might be about the LM Snoopy which may be in heliospheric orbit somewhere...... No, no fronts there. But the other piece of Snoopy's flight to the Moon which makes the This Day In Peanuts History made it today: http://www.snoopy.co.jp/archives/history.html Or for more permanent access: http://www.snoopy.co.jp/anohi/date/0314.gif http://www.snoopy.co.jp/anohi/comic/0314.gif -- http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus Current Entry: Introducing a Very Small Number http://wp.me/p1RYhY-7m ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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Where No Beagle Has Gone Before
In B0b Mosley writes:
...No, unless you can find someone whose own life experiences matched Sparky's right down to a devout christian upbringing, owning a beagle who slept on a doghouse, never could kick a football worth a frack, couldn't win a baseball game to save his life, whose only successful real-life sport was hockey, and had a life-long unrequited love with a little red-haired girl, then you won't even come close to being able to even mimic the heads, hearts and souls that Sparky put into each and every member of the Charlie Brown gang. No, you're right. There's no strip which matches the blend of everything which _Peanuts_ had, and kept thriving, for nearly as long as Schulz had. And it's possible that no strip will be as central to American pop culture, although they keep saying comic strips never will be big again, and then new (and usually deserving) big ones come up anyway. There are several comic strips worthy of attention, though. I think the strongest for capturing the world-of-children spirit is Richard Thompson's _Cul de Sac_, although right now is a poor time to start reading the strip since --- who says the universe isn't at heart cruel and ironic? --- Thompson suffers from Parkinson's, and other cartoonists are filling in while he tries new treatments. But it has a fantastic voice. http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/ Brian Basset's _Red and Rover_ is deliberately set in a nostalgically-remembered circa-1970, so besides generally sweet stuff of a kid and his dog there's prime Golden Age of NASA stuff going on. http://www.gocomics.com/redandrover/ In between weeks of editorial cartooning Darrin Bell's _Candorville_ is also deeply interested in space, science fiction, and their interactions. (A recent comment about the likelihood of launching a spaceship to travel 600 light-years within the next millennium brought Bell around to rec.arts.comics.strips, too.) Last week's reruns included a nifty Apollo sequence, too, starting on March 6 and running through the 9th. http://www.gocomics.com/candorville/ And it's a clip art strip, but it's often a really bright clip art strip: _New Adventures of Queen Victoria_, by Pab Sungenis, and yeah, its punch lines sometimes depend on you being able to recognize Edward IV in a picture, but the comment threads usually clarify who's on screen. Beethoven is of course a supporting character. http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadvent...queenvictoria/ None of them fill the gap Schulz left, but, between all sorts of strips there's much to appreciate. -- http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus Current Entry: Introducing a Very Small Number http://wp.me/p1RYhY-7m ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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Where No Beagle Has Gone Before
"Joseph Nebus" wrote in message ... There are several comic strips worthy of attention, though. I think the strongest for capturing the world-of-children spirit is Richard Thompson's _Cul de Sac_, although right now is a poor time to start reading the strip since --- who says the universe isn't at heart cruel and ironic? --- Thompson suffers from Parkinson's, and other cartoonists are filling in while he tries new treatments. But it has a fantastic voice. http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/ I've got to say, I find this one hit or miss, more often miss. Brian Basset's _Red and Rover_ is deliberately set in a nostalgically-remembered circa-1970, so besides generally sweet stuff of a kid and his dog there's prime Golden Age of NASA stuff going on. http://www.gocomics.com/redandrover/ This is one thing I miss from not getting the Washington Post any more. It reminded me very much of Peanuts meets Calvin and Hobbes with a very poignant nostalgia mixed in. Very cool comic for space cans. In between weeks of editorial cartooning Darrin Bell's _Candorville_ is also deeply interested in space, science fiction, and their interactions. (A recent comment about the likelihood of launching a spaceship to travel 600 light-years within the next millennium brought Bell around to rec.arts.comics.strips, too.) Last week's reruns included a nifty Apollo sequence, too, starting on March 6 and running through the 9th. http://www.gocomics.com/candorville/ Again, I find this hit or miss, but generally a hit. Local newspaper doesn't carry it either though. And it's a clip art strip, but it's often a really bright clip art strip: _New Adventures of Queen Victoria_, by Pab Sungenis, and yeah, its punch lines sometimes depend on you being able to recognize Edward IV in a picture, but the comment threads usually clarify who's on screen. Beethoven is of course a supporting character. http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadvent...queenvictoria/ Haven't seen this one. None of them fill the gap Schulz left, but, between all sorts of strips there's much to appreciate. Probably one of my favorites these days is Pearls Before Swine. I think partly because I know people like Rat, Pig and Goat. -- Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/ CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net |
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