I do agree that “Peanuts” hasn’t been at its peak for a while, but I guess you haven’t heard that Sparky’s syndicate will be providing “Classic Peanuts” from 1974 to fill that slot on the comics page. I bet 99% of the subscribing papers will take the reruns (at least for six months or until Sparky – Allah forbid – dies, whichever comes first).
And I was so hoping that my paper would get “Liberty Meadows”…
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
According to the article I just read there is nothing special planned, no closure, just an end. The last strips will be published in the first week of January some nine months shy of what whould have been their 50th anniversary. Sigh
I’d have to agree with the person who observed that the kids (whom the strip is really for, let’s face it) don’t know the jokes have been recycled. It’s only us old farts who notice. (In this case, “old” means anyone over 20.)
When I was young, my cousin and I would sit up late and read the paperback collections out loud, trying to make a different voice for each character. Since then, he’s been married three times and divorced twice and has a little girl and a little boy.
I think the appeals of Peanuts are: They had problems, and they didn’t always do the right thing. They had fights, but no one ever really hated each other. Charlie Brown never EVER gave up. Snoopy is the coolest comic strip character ever. And they never got old.
What I’d like to see is for someone to do a “morph” of the characters from when they first appeared to the way they look now. Schulz said he never deliberately tried to draw the characters differently, it just happened.