[quote=“Rilchiam, post:36, topic:553820”]
He’s a myth, a spook story that parents tell their kids at night. “Leave your football outside, and the Mad Punter will get it.”
And I always felt this was a shame. Lucy, of course, was the over-the-top “mean girl” and therefore became more iconic, But Patty and Violet were interesting characters, and more nuanced than Lucy ever was. Or Peppermint Patty, for that matter.
In fact, much as I’ve always loved Peanuts, I think a lot of the strip’s subtlety and thinly-veiled intellectualism eroded away as Schulz aged. He probably should have hung it up a decade or two sooner. But then again, his work was likely literally keeping him alive toward the end, so I hate to judge too harshly.