365 T-Shirts: a sense of doubt blog: 02/27/14

T-shirt #343 - 50 Years of Peanuts Comics

DISCLAIMER

I am front loading the pictures today because I am very tempted to just let the pictures carry the content today. But no, I am a writer after all. So I write.

AN ASIDE ABOUT A FILM

I feel I should mention that I watched Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen last night with my wife. Typical Woody. A rehash of various themes he's explored before with some new elements. I liked it better than Purple Rose of Cairo. Woody has smartly transitioned to using actors, in this case Owen Wilson, who does a great Woody-esque performance, in roles he used to take himself.

Just had to get that bit out there. I liked Midnight in Paris. It's part of my WATCH ALL THE WOODY ALLEN MOVIES project. I refuse to let recent or even far past news events (smear campaigns) lessen my appreciation for Woody Allen's work as a filmmaker.

TODAY'S T-shirt

The Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz is for me, like is for many of you, a treasure, a companion, a dear love, a favorite, a familiar friend, and an amazing, daily installment in the lives of these beloved characters.

Surely, the art and the comics can speak for themselves. I wish I had time to scour the entire history of the Peanuts strip, thousands and thousands of strips, to select the very best to share here. Instead, I share a selection gleaned from the Internet and some pictures of me with my shirt and my dog-eared Peanuts books.

I can also say, quite proudly, that I now have a beagle as a member of my family, my own personal Snoopy as I discussed in the entry for

T-shirt #117: SNOOPY AND FRIEND AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATCHEL.

I love this picture of the Satchel boo as a puppy fitting on the dash of my wife's car.

I was already pre-disposed to love this beagle because of how much I love Snoopy and always have. My family knows about this affection and have given me many Snoopy themed cards over the years, Snoopy toys, books and comics, and surely, I had a Snoopy birthday cake. I also had (and I still have it, though it's not in use) a Snoopy bed spread.

I am amazed by the output of Peanuts comics over the years, exactly 50 years, as commemorated by this shirt. Schulz did not live much past his retirement, which he announced in late 1999 after learning of his fatal colon cancer. He died in February of 2000. His last strip (shown at top and the Sunday version farther below) was published the next day.

The legacy Schulz has left behind is staggering. In his lifetime, he produced 17, 897 strips total. Fantagraphics Books is publishing a set of COMPLETE PEANUTS, totaling 25 volumes, the last of which will be published in 2016.

I, too, miss Mr. Peppers. :-)