Lucy's a Real @#$%&!, Charlie Brown

Originally posted in 2014. I thought it was time to revisit some oldies but goodies.

For several years, I’ve followed Chris Sims and his Funkywatch blog which details the endless cycle of misery endured by the cast of Tom Batiuk’s “Funky Winkerbean” comic strip.  What began as a lighthearted strip featuring high school students in humorous and sometimes improbable fantasy situations devolved into a spectacle of death, misfortune and schadenfreude firmly grounded in hell on earth.  While many believe Batiuk invented this comic form, Charles Schulz mastered the art of morale-crushing criticism and shaming with Lucy Van Pelt.  Existing solely for the purpose of antagonism, Lucy’s constant berating and belittling left an indelible and incurable swath of emotional duress, angst and disempowerment.

Let’s take a look at the atmosphere of menace and hostility imposed by Lucy and its effects on the well-being of her family and “friends” through the pages of these coloring books from the 1970's I recently purchased. And I swear I didn't modify the captions on any of these.

Lucy begins her devious mission.  Who will she choose to pick on?

The Blue Baron

Now, I know some of you may argue that today's entry may not qualify as Halloween or horror related.  I would counter, first of all, that Snoopy is very Halloween related, given "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" in which he makes a memorable appearance as a World War I flying ace battling the Red Baron.  I would then add, that not only is today's entry Snoopy, it's a Hitler-mustachioed, Iron cross-bearing, masked, alternate universe Snoopy in which he was born in Germany under the Kaiser's watch and now fights for the other side. How's that for horror?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from Peanuts, 1969 and Garage Sale Finds.

On the Twelfth Day of Halloween

Warning: This is a long one today. You might want to spread it out over several days or even the remainder of the month.  Or binge watch like the kids do.

Peanuts has always been a staple of my Halloween memories. I can't remember not knowing about Linus and his fascination with Halloween and its patron saint. First introduced in October of 1959, "The Great Pumpkin" is revealed through Linus' imagination and his firm beliefs in spite of all naysayers.

In this strip two days later, we find Linus dreaming at the window when he conceives an idea to spread Halloween spirit.


This book of "Pumpkin Carols" was published by Ambassador in 1968 and features familiar tunes set to new words to reflect the season.

Uncanny Finds -- Peanuts Edition

No, not a can of peanuts, but a can that launched a thousand (well, 2) Peanuts strips.

When I saw this old can of Neatsfoot oil, my mind jumped back to reading a paperback collection of Peanuts comic strips when I was a kid.

Peanuts In-Depth

When I first saw stills from the newly-released Peanuts CGI movie, I was reminded of the Viewmaster slides I bought this past summer.

Regret

Yes, Lucy.  Yes you did.

I'm Nuts, You're Nuts, We're All Nuts for Peanuts

I mentioned in my last post I had gone to an estate sale last Saturday morning looking for several key items. One of them was a set of early Peanuts figures I had seen on estatesales.net. The figures were Charlie Brown, Sally, Lucy and Linus. I knew they were early because Sally was still a baby. The sale actually started on Friday, so I wasn't hopeful they would still be there. I showed up about 15 minutes before the doors opened and was 11th in line. When the doors opened, I was able to get in and immediately proceeded to canvas the house, not knowing exactly where they might be. After pausing for some character glasses (more on those in a later post), I found the figures. Unfortunately, someone had bought the Lucy. Just the Lucy. Who does that? You can't break up the Peanuts gang! I grabbed the 3 remaining figures which turned out to be made of plaster. They appeared to something you might buy at a pottery shop, paint and have fired, so not a commercially released item, but still nicely done.

Snoopy Comes Home -- With Me

I picked these up at a sale on Susan Road last Saturday.  They were marked $5, but I got them for $3.  They probably date from the early '70's.

 I've always had a soft spot for Peanuts and Snoopy licensed products actually aren't that common as Charles Schulz was pretty protective of his properties.  I thought these were unusual and they reminded me of that scene in Snoopy Come Home where he's surfing at the beach (about 2:30 into the clip).

I don't have a boat and nobody I know water skis, so these are destined for eBay.