Here's something potentially more frightening than having to face Ms. Othmar, the Red Baron, the Little Red-Haired Girl and the Cat Who Lives Next Door all at once: a small comics publisher is threatening to publish new "Peanuts" stories featuring Charile Brown, Snoopy and pals that do not have Charles Schulz as their author.
It's enough to make you scream "AUUUUUUUUGH!!!"
According to a press release posted today on Comic Book Resources, small comics publisher BOOM! Studios is preparing to print a monthly "Peanuts" comic book, the first of which - numbered '0' and priced at only a dollar - will contain" a new original story and supplementary material that will provide a sneak peek at the series launching in January!"
New "Peanuts" content created without Charles Schulz' oversight? It sounds about as plausible as Charlie Brown kicking that football out of Lucy Van Pelt's hands.
Schulz and his family never wanted "Peanuts" to continue as a so-called "legacy" strip. "By the wishes of Mr. Schulz’s family, no new strips are – nor ever will be – drawn and published," reads a statement found on peanuts.com. " There are new animated specials in development, but the story lines are based entirely on themes and dialogue from the strip’s history. The strips still published in your daily newspaper and on our gocomics.com website are actually reprints from the 50 year/17,897 strip history of PEANUTS. The strips’ relevance, charm, and timeliness today are perhaps the most powerful proof of their quality." Tellingly, as Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog notes, BOOM does not mention the name of the artists or writers involved in the creation of the new "Peanuts" work.
What Mr. Schulz and his family likely hoped to avoid was the challenge of a situation in which some new cartoonist/creative mind takes over a successful comic, often with mixed results. Mort Walker is still involved with "Beetle Bailey," which maintains its tone, and one could suggest that the takeover of "B.C." by creator Johnny Hart's grandkids has actually injected new life into that caveman comic. But take one look at what's happened to poor "Shoe" since creator Jeff Macnelly passed on, and you'd be tempted to create a law that no comic should be allowed to continue after its creator decides to call it a day (All praise goes to cartoonists Cathy Guisewite and Lynn Johnston, who opted not to allow "Cathy" and "For Better or Worse" to continue under someone else, although such a move would likely have brought in tons of money for them).
So the prospect of a new "Peanuts" tale crafted without Schulz behind the board gives one pause. Will the story still have the same mix of childlike wonder and adult recrimination? Can anyone but the creator get the voice of each character exactly right? As we learn in the David Michaelis biography "Schulz and Peanuts," many of the storylines and plot devices from "Peanuts" were informed by very personal experiences from Schulz' childhood and young-adult period (explaining how the comic can feature kiddie characters expressing the hard-won wisdom of older people). Can another creator get these things exactly right?
The folks at BOOM! sound confident, but they're also putting the best face on a situation that is actually far from a certain success." It’s a daunting task to follow in the footsteps of a master,” BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon said in a prepared statement included in the press release. “But with the team we have assembled and the guidance of the folks at Peanuts Worldwide and Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, we’re confident that we’ll be delivering to fans the best PEANUTS monthly comic book series anyone could imagine.”
Some of this should not come as a surprise. The Schulz family purchased the copyrights to the Peanuts empire along with Iconix Brand Group Inc. a few years ago, setting in motion a joint venture aimed at ensuring "Peanuts" stayed alive in the minds of U.S. consumers (and as a byproduct, also making sure the intellectual property continued to generate revenue). In "Schulz and Peanuts" the artist himself never feared a good licensing or marketing opportunity - witness the characters' appearances over the years in ads from Ford and MetLife - and there's no reason to think that view might not continue today.
Whether a new "Peanuts" comic merely evokes the true spirit of the strip or comes out as a pale imitation of Mr. Schulz' greatness remains to be seen, but the people behind this project could probably stand to grab hold of Linus's security blanket right around now.
To reach the Comics Examiner, email me at bristei@aol,com or follow me on Twitter @bristei
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