commasense:
But Shulz ran out of steam and ideas sometime in the 1970s. By the 80s, the strips were dreck, and his completely indiscriminate commercializing of the franchise to everything from pastries to insurance robbed the characters of any trace of integrity. But he continued drawing the strip literally till the day he died in 2000. I was quite dismayed to see how low it sunk in its final years.
I agree that, in its later years, Peanuts was a shadow of its former self, but I disagree that it was complete dreck. If you want me to defend this, see my post in this old thread:
Even the funny strips more often produce a smile from me than a laugh out loud. The only two strips I can remember for sure ever made me laugh out loud are Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, but there may well have been times when I LOL’ed at The Far Side, Bloom County, Foxtrot, Zits, maybe even Blondie a time or two.
I seem to recall laughing at the Calvin & Hobbes Draelin mentioned. But the one I for sure remember cracking up over—and like so many good strips, it depends a lot on the artwork—is o…