Peanuts

Hey Kids — Tea Party Comics!

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« Well, that was the silliest tea party I ever went to! I am never going back there again! » — Lewis Carroll

One more item unearthed while rummaging through my unsorted boxes: a couple of back issues of The Funny Times, one from 2010, the other 2013. The former held a fascinating exercice by Herblock prize winning cartoonist Ward Sutton, skewering and subverting the conservative ‘mindset’ from within. Not an easy trick to pull off convincingly, I would think; yet it’s one of Sutton’s specialties, having honed it to perfection — of a sort — as The Onion‘s longtime political cartoonist (since 2006), fictive curmudgeon “Stan Kelly”. Here’s a trove of Kelly pieces, which The New Yorker deemed “brilliantly terrible”.

Given the recent rash of controversies — in a long row of such skirmishes — regarding cartoonists’ freedom of expression, this piece sadly remains pertinent.

Remember the Tea Party?
Of course, B.P. barely feels like parody, given B.C. creator’s Johnny Hart mesolithic views. A couple of samples from a 1999 interview: « Jews and Muslims who don’t accept Jesus will burn in hell », « Homosexuality is the handiwork of Satan ». [ source ]
Ah, yes — that nonsense about Obama’s birth certificate, another MacGuffin in a seemingly endless parade of conservative bugaboos.
By most accounts, Herbert Hoover was a pretty lousy president, though everything’s relative.
Another fine myth, that of a liberally-biased media.
Teanuts goes right back to the first Peanuts strip (Oct. 2, 1950) for its inspiration (though not its aspect ratio, for some reason).
Here’s a pearl: « simply, homosexuality can be healed. That is, a homosexual can become a heterosexual; the homosexual orientation can be changed through prayer for inner healing and the power of the Holy Spirit. ». [ source ]
Again, Diligent-Bert hews so close to its model that it might easily pass for an actual Dilbert strip.

Incidentally, “Tea Party Comics”, commissioned by The Boston Globe, hardly passed unnoticed: it reaped a gold medal from the Society of Publication Designers.

The feature was accompanied by this deadpan caveat: « EDITOR’S NOTE: Ward Sutton, an elitist who lives in the elitist New York area, is a cartoonist, illustrator, animator and painter who has recently been lurking about the back of Tea Party gatherings, stuffing his pockets with American flag cookies, and brochures for camouflage underwear and mail-order ammo. Superpatriot and regular guy cartoonist Joe Smith disavows any knowledge of Mr. Sutton and his ilk. Need I say more? »

-RG

Hallowe’en Countdown VI, Day 1

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« There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people… Religion, Politics, and The Great Pumpkin. » — Charles M. Schulz

And… we’re back, as promised, in time for our sacrosanct (or should that be ‘impious’?) annual Hallowe’en Countdown.

I’ll keep it brief, as we’re still in the middle of an arduous longish-distance move. Oof!

To kick off this edition, I thought I’d reach for a true classic of the season. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to claim that few (if any!) have done more to disperse the pumpkin seeds of Hallowe’en than Mr. Schulz has — but in his ubiquity, he’s easy to take for granted.

Here’s a handful of choice strips from my favourite Peanuts period, the mid-to-late 1960s, just before Snoopy more-or-less pulled the lead rôle from under good ol’ Charlie Brown’s feet, to the strip’s detriment… though its decline was an elegant and leisurely one.

October 30, 1966, virtually a Snoopy solo.
October 25, 1967.
October 26, 1967.
October 25, 1967.
A year later: October 29, 1968.
October 31, 1967.
November 1st, 1967.
The October 29, 1967 strip.

-RG

Hallowe’en Countdown II, Day 17

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« You’ve disgraced yourself! You’ve offended the Great Pumpkin and the spirit of Halloween! » Linus Van Pelt to Peppermint Patty, Oct. 31, 1975

You all know how this one goes! An image from the third Peanuts animated special, « It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown » from 1966.

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« I got a rock. »

« Charlie Brown’s bad luck trick-or-treating earned him a lot of sympathy amongst young viewers, to the extent that some mailed candy for Charlie Brown to the TV channels that aired the special. In recent years, many fans have viewed the gag as disturbing, viewing it as a conspiracy among the adults to torture Charlie Brown by denying him candy. »

(quotation gleaned from the Peanuts wiki)

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Interestingly, the gag about Charlie Brown’s inadvertent rock collection was introduced here, not in the strip, though it was alluded to in the November 1st, 1975 strip, a whole nine years down the line. Found it in my copy of « Think Thinner, Snoopy » 

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As  a bonus, here’s a clever modern update on the classic sequence, from the long-defunct ifyouseesomething.net.

– RG