The album in my CD player today is Wynton Marsalis/Ellis Marsalis, “Joe Cool’s Blues”. Renditions of Vince Guaraldi’s pieces, and some original compositions by Wynton Marsalis. A great album.
Wynton Marsalis plays with his (ex-) septet, and Ellis Marsalis with a trio.
Oh, how I identified with Charlie Brown… And there was a girl who was like Lucy and I had a younger friend who was like Linus (though far more secure) and there were times when I felt like my parents weren’t there and that the teachers didn’t care and…
Peanuts was like my life. I identified with it so much that when my English teacher told us we could illustrate one of our book reports, I did with my own Charlie Brown cartoons. I drew one of Snoopy dozing on his doghouse. There is a “SQUEAK” coming from his left. In the second panel, Snoopy is sitting up and looking left, his ears sticking up in shock. In the third panel, I drew a perspiring Charlie Brown pulling a Radio Flyer-type red wagon with a stack of paper on it taller than the panel. In the fourth and final panel, Charlie says, “Book report.”
My teacher liked it. I wish I still had it.
Eve, you’re right. Charles Schulz lived his life doing EXACTLY what he wanted to do. If only we all could.
Good-bye, Sparky.
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
Yes, Charles Shultz loved his job, was very good at it, and found material success because of it. But more importantly, to me, he was by all accounts a good man. “Class” is the word I hear most associated with Shultz. The highest honor for any man has nothing to do with wealth or fame. It’s that the world will be a little worse off without him.
Goodbye, Charles Schultz, we’re all a little better for having known you.
I credit Mr Shultz for giving me focus as a kid on what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Due largly to him I became a cartoonist.
He will be sorely missed. I know of several people who have met him and had nothing but praise for the man.
For a link to many (touching) editorial cartoons on the passing of Sparky, go to: http://www.cagle.com/news/peanuts/
I spent yesterday/Sunday morning as usual, reading the Funny Pages first. Seeing the last Peanuts strip, I got misty…then, finding out Chuck was truly gone, started a full out bawl. That sweet space of continuity in a weird world has ended.
What a gift, though, to make everyone smile a wee bit day after day after day for decades…
Here’s to ya, Sparky, for changing the world with th’ink down in the dailies where it matters most!
I was suprised by how sad Sparky’s dying made me. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the gang were a real constant. Peanuts and Pogo were the first strips I remember that went for more subtle reactions than a quick chuckle.
My elderly, dignified bachelor uncle and I exchanged cut-out panels featuring Snoopy for years. When he became angry (very rare), he’d steam for a minute then waver, “Curse you, Red Baron!” and we’d all fall apart laughing.
A life well and generously lived. Rest in peace.
Veb
It was not the childhood we had or even the one that most kids get today, but rather it was the ideal childhood.
I was Charlie Brown, literally - the high point of my high school acting career was getting the lead in “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown”. How I wish I had kept those criss-cross stripped shirts.
Sparky began his comic strip over 50 years ago, long before I was around. It was like Linus’ blanket, warm and familiar and comforting. It is almost a shock to realize it is gone. I love Lucy, and Snoopy, and Chuck. They were old friends to me, friends I shall see no more.
Charles Schultz, you gave us all a gift, a great prize for which all modern cartoonists must live up too. A great prize that can never fully be repaid. Snoopy on his doghouse, Chuck on the pitcher’s mound . . . these images are as American as apple pie. Should I live to be 120, I shall never forget them, nor you. Thanks Charlie. Somewhere right now Snoopy is sheading tears, as am I. I was OK til I read this thread, now I wipe away tears.
There is no
Good
Grief
Goodbye, Uncle Chuck.
Goodbye, youth.
I hope I shall see you again one day, for Snoopy needs to defeat that Red Baron, and Lucy needs to get her Schroder, and Charlie Brown needs to kick that football to the next state. You sir, you kicked that football to the next universe. We are all in your debt.
“A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject.” - Seneca
Bump, for posterity.
Derf finally put the “Where are they now?” strip up on his site. I was going to post this link in a recent thread about the strip but can’t find it.
When, oh when, can we drive a stake through the heart of yet another comic strip that’s outlived not only its creator, but also any reason for continuing to exist?
For your sake, I hope you’re talking something other than Peanuts.
Today’s Peanuts strip was one of my favorites. Sally is writing her homework assignment.
"THEME: Our School.
“Going to our school is an education in itself, which is not to be confused with actually getting an education.”
Then she looks it over, crumples it up, and tosses it, saying, “I don’t need that kind of trouble!”.
Sally rules! I love that the strips being rerun are from the early '70s, because that’s when she really shone.
“Go, Silver Flakes!”