Quote From That Thing I'm Doing With That Guy.
I still can't tell you what it is but I'll post a few snippets of dialogue. Here's one from one of our more eccentric characters:
"Of course I respect Schulz. He taught hundreds of millions of people that life is unrelenting misery, that they will never kick the football or talk to that red-haired girl or even fly a goddamn kite correctly. I hope I can piss on the dreams of one-tenth as many people! But he should never have stopped doing the strip. That work was the only thing holding him together. He died almost instantly after he quit. If he'd stayed with it, he could've had another year or two at least, maybe more, and if Charlie Brown's life was bleak before, can you imagine what Peanuts would be like if Schulz was a half-dead zombie, unnaturally kept alive by sheer work ethic? Now I hate everything Johnny Hart stands for, but I gotta say, I want to go out the way Johnny Hart went out. Heart attack right at the drawing desk. Hard. Core."
(Thanks to The Comics Curmudgeon for the Johnny Hart observation.)
"Of course I respect Schulz. He taught hundreds of millions of people that life is unrelenting misery, that they will never kick the football or talk to that red-haired girl or even fly a goddamn kite correctly. I hope I can piss on the dreams of one-tenth as many people! But he should never have stopped doing the strip. That work was the only thing holding him together. He died almost instantly after he quit. If he'd stayed with it, he could've had another year or two at least, maybe more, and if Charlie Brown's life was bleak before, can you imagine what Peanuts would be like if Schulz was a half-dead zombie, unnaturally kept alive by sheer work ethic? Now I hate everything Johnny Hart stands for, but I gotta say, I want to go out the way Johnny Hart went out. Heart attack right at the drawing desk. Hard. Core."
(Thanks to The Comics Curmudgeon for the Johnny Hart observation.)
Labels: Secret Stuff
Posted at
1:04 AM
2 Comments:
As a kid, I loved Peanuts.
When I grew slightly older, I lumped it in with cynical unending tripe, a close kin to Garfield.
In hindsight, I think its clear that Schulz possessed a true and peculiar genius for his art form-- but the unending, unchanging, unchallenging nature of Peanuts did as much as anything else to create the tepid blandness that defines newspaper comics today.
Watterson probably had the right idea with Calvin and Hobbes-- though it would be nice if he had moved on and done some other project. Better to make a good work of art, than to drone on endlessly just because you can.
...that's... that's a horribly pessimistic way to look at Peanuts.
Yes, Charlie Brown always failed. But he also NEVER GAVE UP. He kept trying despite the fact everyone seemed to hate him and nothing ever worked out right. Because he wanted to succeed and he wanted that proverbial brass ring bad enough to endure further chagrin and folly. And at the end of the day, he still had a litte sister who idolized him and a dog that, while aloof, would give him a lick on the cheek when life had him down.
Charlie Brown wasn't someone you lived vicariously through, he was someone you could relate to. Everyone feels like a total failure sometimes. But if a bald-headed kid that everyone treats like a garbage-bin can still get up every day, pick up his kite, and make a running start for it... why not the rest of us? THAT'S the lessont hat can be taken from Peanuts.
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