Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The bleak world of Peanuts

Vox: Peanuts, in other words, is one of the single greatest works of art of the 20th century.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I have to say I enjoyed the earlier PEANUTS strips to his more self-conscious later work.

Unknown said...

So did I, but in looking over some of his later work, I've found a lot to like.

Todd Mason said...

And even the early ones were pretty fraught. Recall the very first. "How I hate him!"

Most of the more interesting comic-strip "worlds" were pretty mixed bags, for the characters within them, ranging from those of POGO through the B.C./WIZARD OF ID axis and LI'L ABNER and even onto ANDY CAPP and the similarly gag-oriented BEETLE BAILEY and such...and on back toward DOONESBURY and all the little Trudeaus since (I'd suggest CALVIN AND HOBBES has DNA from DOONESBURY, POGO and BARNABY...as well as the more thoroughly Trudeau-esque BLOOM COUNTY)...

Todd Mason said...

And, of course, the VOX writer makes the same observation as that last...

Don Coffin said...

Peanuts was amazing. But my single favorite individual strip ever is from Tumbleweeds. Claude Clay is standing in front of his funeral parlor, and our hero is with him. There's a sign over the door that reads:
"Ashes to ashes
And dust to dust, son.
Get where you're going
By eternal combustion."
And Claude says "Sale on cremations."