linesonscreens

[linesonscreens]

Stuff I Watched - The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball - Season 1 (No Spoilers)

What is it?

After 7 years of doing God knows how much behind the scenes wrangling, and despite Cartoon Network itself catching fire and imploding, Ben Bocquelet has somehow managed to get us another season of The Amazing World of Gumball. You know, that silly slice of life cartoon about the cat and fish siblings that spontaneously developed a plot in the final season and ended on a cliffhanger. Man am I excited to see what was up with The Void!

Things of note:

The show does not explain The Void. 

On the positive side, this means that new viewers don't need to watch the original show and will be exactly as baffled as the rest of us.

Finally, Americans have a show of their own that they can insist is really good but will then have to spend an uncomfortable amount of time trying to explain why that one episode had weird incest undertones. Eat my お兄ちゃん’s entire ass, Japan!

The show somehow manages to make even better use of the multimedia visuals than it's previous incarnation. There are so many fantastic ways that CG, live action, and alternative 2D animation styles are blended together and it all just works somehow.

In an odd turn, this season has multiple episodes that are VERY political. Has anybody else noticed how political messaging in cartoons has recently gone from "You should recycle!" to "The climate apocalypse is upon us and n one shall be spared!". It's, um, let's call it "a mood".

This show taught me what a mukbang is, and I am worse for it.

Speaking of Japan. I’m not joking when I say that this show has better sakuga and fight choreography than most anime. How did that even happen??

Special shout out to that one sequence in “The Entrance”. If you know, you know.

Final Verdict:

Despite a couple of weaker episodes and that one scene the writers should be in jail for (no, the other one) I’d say that this reboot is actually a step up from the original both in terms of writing and animation and was well worth the wait. I’m actually ~kind of~ mad at other animated sitcoms now for being so stale and bland by comparison.

It's legit baffling that Warner Brothers almost killed this show for no reason (along with literally the entire Cartoon Network lineup aside from Teen Titans Go and Total Dramarama for some reason). What the actual hell is wrong with David Zaslav? Why are executives like thi-OOOOH! Now I see why the first episode was about how we should literally eat the rich. I get it now.

Anyways this show is a treasure, go watch it.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – October 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

October 1, 1959

Pictured: Me writing this blog.

October 4, 1959

We’re not even past the 1950s and we’re already reaching critical levels of self-awareness about this gag.

October 5, 1959

The first mention of Linus’s weird crush on his teacher Miss Othmar. Though, she doesn’t actually get a name until the next strip. Our baby boy is growing up!

I mean, granted he’ll never actually reach adulthood and is cursed to walk the earth in the form of a child until the end of days, helplessly watching from the sidelines as the world shifts and the great eras of history rise and fall in a farcical parody of living that many would consider a worse punishment than death.

But still, kind of brings a tear to your eye doesn’t it? 

October 11, 1959

I once had this exact conversation in college while high.

October 15, 1959

Considering that Linus is an unstable genius with anger issues and psychic powers this is probably the best possible resolution to this situation. In another timeline they never find the body.

October 25, 1959

It begins. RIP, Linus.

October 26, 1959

First Great Pumpkin mention!

Personally, I think TGP should be more of a Krampus figure who punishes bad behavior while Santa rewards the good.

I'm just saying, if kids thoughts a big pumpkin monster might drag them off into night they might stop smashing the damn things all over the neighborhood every year.

October 29, 1959

That’s stupid! If your God isn’t real then how are you supposed to build up faith points to cast spells with??

Thoughts:

The Great Pumpkin is such a weird aspect of Peanuts when you stop and think about it. Schulz is a very devout Christian, yet here he decided to write a story where the moral is unambiguously about how faith might actually be incredibly foolish.

No, seriously. It’s basically canon that The Great Pumpkin doesn’t exist and that Linus just got Halloween confused with Christmas at some point. To the best of my (admittedly somewhat limited) knowledge you don’t even get the ~hint~ that it might actually be out there somewhere.  Linus is objectively, unambiguously ~wrong~ and his misplaced faith is making life worse for himself and annoying the crap out of anybody he manages to pull into his bullshit. Hell, in the above example you have him arguing with Charlie Brown about Santa Clause, another objectively non-existent entity.

What on earth could he even be thinking here?

I think a large part of the mystery is solved when you understand the ways Christianity has changed over the last century. When Schulz was a child pretty much everybody in America went to church in some form, and because there was no perceived threat to Christian hegemony it meant you could basically question the existence of God during the week but then still go to church on Sundays and call yourself a Christian and nobody would care (though specific groups varied, obviously).

So what changed? Well, to put it bluntly, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Before this point religion was considered a much more private affair that shouldn’t be mixed with politics. But afterwards right wing groups started using fears of racial reintegration in religious schools as a wedge to turn them into a significant reactionary political force. This, combined with anxiety over generally dwindling religious participation, changed being religious into a much more emotionally charged thing with strong political undertones. 

Samantha Bee did an episode on it ages ago that’s a pretty good recap:

The end result is that today it’s MUCH less likely that a devoutly religious person would ever write something like The Great Pumpkin, at least not without making a point to prove Linus right at some point. There's just too much of a sense among modern Christians that everything related to religion is a fight to the death that must be won at all costs.

Schulz, however, was from that older school of thought. It’s not that he was a secret atheist, but rather that he came of age at a time when it was much less threatening to play with ideas like “lmao, what if we’re all actually being complete dumbasses?”, which I think is the mindset The Great Pumpkin came from.

I think this is why the religiosity in Peanuts is much less insufferable (for the most part) than more contemporary works with religious undertones and a big part of why the strip as a whole has aged so well. 

Because it’s not the end of the world if Linus is wrong, and the actual existence of The Great Pumpkin might not be what’s important anyway.  

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – September 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

September 1, 1959

It’s so weird to see everybody look to Charlie Brown to save them like he’s some sort of shonen anime protagonist.

Have you guys actually… met this kid you’ve known for like a decade now?

September 3, 1959

We should bring back “Goat” as a pejorative. It's way better than G.O.A.T. as a compliment.

September 5, 1959

Welp.

First off, major credit for not copy/pasting anything. Those are all separate drawings.

Second, I absolutely adore the use of tiny changes between panels to show the emotions Charlie Brown is going through. Such mood.

Third, good job dude. This was definitely worth abandoning your baby sister in the front yard for God knows how long.

September 8, 1959

I like how every panel uses a unique composition and camera angle. It’s something a lot of other strips wouldn’t bother with.

September 11, 1959

And that’s the storyline! I’m glad to see him apologize to her, even if she’s just a baby.

I really liked this one. It's a good introduction for Sally and unlike a most Peanuts arcs it has a proper story structure, complete with a decent little character arc for Charlie Brown. I'd strongly recommend you all read the whole thing if you're able.

September 13, 1959

I'm pretty sure the weird symbols around the edges of this one are registration marks.

Most large-scale printing (particularly in newspapers) is done using a process called "offset printing" and it works by running blank page under a series of inked metal rollers. Each roller has the information of a single color etched into it and when the images are combined you get a fully realized picture:

Registration marks help the printers ensure that these colors are being layered properly. If one of the colors is misaligned you can easily tell at a glance because the marks will look off.

These marks also help ensure that the images are placed properly on the page in relation to other elements. This is important because newspapers often get separate rollers for separate strips/text/images from separate sources, requiring them to run the same page through the machine multiple times, swapping out the rollers each time (or more commonly, swapping out curved metal plates that are placed on top of the rollers for easy switching).

If any one of these rollers/plates is a bit off-center you may end up with Peanuts overlapping with Dick Tracey and you won't realize this until you've wasted several hundred newspapers worth of paper and ink. To prevent this you can do a small test run with these registration marks visible to see how things are lining up. If for example, this little black square is touching the panel edge, you know something is wrong.

The reason you are seeing registration marks on this particular strip is most likely because the clean original was lost somewhere along the way. For a long time only certain Peanuts strips were ever reprinted into curated "collections" books and saved long-term. If a strip was seen as less worthy of being reprinted it would often just sort of be lost along the way. As a result of this when the people at Fantagraphics decided to create the "complete" collections they often had to pull certain strips from very obscure sources. In this case it looks like the source in question was a test print of some kind.

Anyway, the moral is that companies are garbage at preserving their own properties and that you should pirate everything.

September 17, 1959

Solid set of kite jokes this month.

September 26, 1959

"Everybody dies. No exceptions."

-Charles Schulz

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – August 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

August 2, 1959

Wait, THAT’S what Violet looks like with her hair down!? I legit thought that it was just a weirdly drawn version of Patty.

August 9, 1959

This is probably the least insane letter Charlie Brown's pencil-pal has ever has gotten from him.

August 16, 1959

When on earth has Lucy felt that way even once?

August 21, 1959

The Mayor?? I can almost understand caring about the governor but I don’t think I could name my town’s mayor if you put a gun to my head.

August 23, 1959

Face reveal! 

The thing about this one that sticks out to me is that it’s a Sunday strip that directly connects to the strips that come after it. Have you ever noticed that this doesn’t normally happen? That’s because Sunday strips are usually in color and can run in newspapers that don’t have a daily comics section. Because of this, running these strips comes with a lot of logistical challenges and are basically treated like a separate series with separate deadlines (color strips take longer to print) and no guarantee that the syndicate will run them in any particular order. The upshot being that Sunday strips tend to be non-canonical and unrelated to anything else going on. 

Needless to say, having this strip connect to the rest of the storyline must have taken a lot of convincing and coordination to make happen. I can only imagine it was allowed because the strip in question was introducing a new character into one of the most popular comics on the planet.

August 25, 1959

Their first interaction! 

I joked about it earlier, but damn. Sally harassing Linus for 40 years really is some form of karma isn’t it?

August 30, 1959

I’m kind of bummed Sally didn’t keep Charlie Brown’s zigzag pattern in some capacity. I think it’s neat to see them visually linked like this.

August 31, 1959

I'm sure this will work out well for him.

Thoughts:

And after three solid months of talking ~about~ her, we finally have Sally Brown introduced as a proper character!

Full disclosure: Not her biggest fan

I mean, I don't hate her or anything, but more often or not she comes across as selfish and annoying with few positive traits to balance things out. Then again, there's literally thousands of strips I have yet to read between here and 1999 so who knows, there might be some stuff in the future that will make me really like her. At the very least I think she's a net positive through the added depth she gives to Charlie Brown in his role as a big brother. It's nice to see him be responsible and relied upon from time to time instead of just being in kicked around constantly.

Sally is most likely based on Schulz's youngest daughter Jill who was born the previous year. This makes her the third character we now have based on one of his kids (or at least talking about parenting them indirectly), and its interesting that each was handled in a pretty distinct way:

Lucy is his oldest daughter Meredith, and the fact that she was adopted when she was a toddler can be seen in how Lucy isn't introduced as an infant and in how Charlie Brown (Schulz's avatar) is her babysitter who's only barely able to keep things under control.

Linus is his oldest son Monte, and in addition to being a vector for observations about babies is usually talked about in relation to Lucy and how he interacts with her, which leads me to wonder if there was a a lot of drama between their IRL counterparts. The fact that he eventually becomes Charlie Brown's BFF is a curious decision as well.

Finally, Sally is his youngest daughter Jill, which is in some ways the most interesting of the three because despite being his fifth kid this is the first time we've ever seen Schulz discuss what it's like to be a new dad by way of Charlie Brown geeking out about becoming a big brother and chafing against the new burdens this places on his leisure time. It's also the only time you see Charlie Brown acting Dad-like to another character that I'm aware of.

How do his remaining two children Craig and Amy fit into all of this? Do they have analogues? No earthly idea. Schulz always insisted that none of his characters had real world analogues (Uh-huh. Sure, dude) so all we can go on is whatever vibes we get from the strip itself, and there isn't much to go by on that front.

Let's just say that they're... 5 and Molly Volley. Sure, why not?

[linesonscreens]

Stuff I watched in 2025 - Wylde Pak (The first 3 episodes)

What is it?

After nearly dying several times, a jungle kid with a passion for filmmaking is sent to stay with his half-sibling’s mixed-ethnicity family in ~squints~ America? Sure, let’s go with that.

Family bonding ensues.

Things of Note:

The rare kid’s show that I don’t feel embarrassed to admit I enjoy. And from Nickelodeon no less!

I wonder if people are going to feel duped by how much this series is distinctly NOT about wacky animal hijinks. Personally, I find what the show is actually about to be much more interesting. 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show that focuses on the somewhat awkward relationship between half-siblings. It brings a unique character dynamic to the table that I’m really enjoying.

The show looks amazing despite not having the best animation. Does that make sense? It’s like they cheaped out on the frames per second so they could put extra effort into the expressions and backgrounds.

I was genuinely surprised by how much of a role Korean culture plays. In fact I’d argue that it's far more important than anything animal related. 

Speaking of which, an aspect of the show I really like is that despite being white Jack actually has more real world experience with Koean culture than Lily (who is half-Korean by birth) due to actually having been to Korea and speaking the language. However this doesn’t immediately grant him white savior powers because visiting a culture is actually pretty far removed from living with it. It’s a subtle but important distinction and I hope the show explores it more.

정말 착한 소년이에요!

Final Verdict:

It’s still pretty early but I think we may have a winner on our hands. It’s still an animated sitcom for children at the end of the day, so don’t go expecting a religious experience, but there’s a pleasant style and sincerity to Wylde Pak that I think a lot of people will find compelling. Plus with the strength of the show's core premise I can see this one going strong for years to come without getting stale.

(Oh God, Nickelodeon’s going to cancel it in like a week, aren’t they?)

Anyway, the first episode is available for free so go check it out:

Stuff I’ve watched so far:

Wylde Pak

StuGo

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – July 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

July 1, 1959

Hey lookit' that! I think this might be the first time we hear that phrase.

July 4, 1959

I didn’t get this joke until I factored in inflation:

1959 wasn't even that long ago. Yeesh!

July 5, 1959

And now I think we just saw a rough draft of the “getting your clothes knocked off with a pitch” joke. 

Man, we are speed-running our way to the Golden Age Peanuts era aren't we?

July 10, 1959

Nobody tell them Sally is basically Charlie Brown with a wig on.

July 18, 1959

July 22, 1959

Relax, Charlie Brown. I’m from the future and I can assure you that everything turns out just fine. 

~loads shotgun~

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go acquire toilet paper for the resistance. 

July 26, 1959

The rare Peanuts action scene.

I kind of wish Schulz utilized action more often. It changes the texture of the strip in an interesting way.

July 30, 1959

I'm enjoying Linus's "Eat The Rich" arc.

Thoughts:

Hey look what I found!

This is the first time Peanuts was ever animated and in a way it feels very spiritually similar to the much later stuff, doesn’t it?

That’s probably because pretty much all Peanuts media was animated and directed by a guy named Bill Melendez, a former Disney animator who worked on movies like Pinocchio and Dumbo as a variety of shorter projects, including the surprisingly influential Gerald McBoing-Boing. He was basically the only person Schulz ever trusted to make animated Peanuts media and he continued to do so right up until his death in 2008. It's a genuinely impressive legacy, even if I sometimes ~kind of~ wish they'd let in some fresh blood towards the end.

I'm just saying, we probably could have done a bit better than Flashbeagle.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – June 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

June 2, 1959

Sally finally gets a name!

It’s only just now occurring to me that her name is probably intended to (sort of) rhyme with “Charlie” and be equally generic. 

June 3, 1959

Now I’m incredibly curious if it ever used to be standard practice for hospitals to give you gifts when you gave birth. I’d say we should bring that back but I imagine that kind of thing might hit a bit differently these days.

“Hey, I know you just took out a ten year loan for this otherwise very expensive and demanding ball of screaming flesh but here’s a complimentary Blu-ray boxed set of Breaking Bad for your trouble.

Congratulations, now get out.”

June 5, 1959

It’s hilarious that people were having these discussions in 1959.

Like, I don’t know you guys. How would I justify having kids as a generic white girl during the most prosperous time of the most prosperous country in the history of planet earth.

I mean, I ~guess~ there was the ever so slight risk of global nuclear war with the U.S.S.R, but that’s such an adorably quaint concern in hindsight how that we still have that but also the planet's actively dying in front of us while everything falls apart.

June 6, 1959

June 10, 1959

Linus was then (correctly) punished for asking this question for the next 40 years.

June 15, 1959

Shut up Lucy, you have the objectively better sibling here. Not to mention the fact that having siblings becomes exponentially more annoying when they're the same gender as you and exponentially more annoying than that when you're both girls.

In fact, I’m pretty sure you having Sally as a little sister would result in UN peacekeepers being deployed at some point. Many would perish.

June 20, 1959

It’s played for laughs but God damn, look at that first panel. Being told that he should never have been born just destroyed him.

June 29, 1959

OK first off, shut the hell up Schroeder. Let the man be hyped to be a big brother in peace.

Second, where is he even getting this? At no point have we seen evidence that Charlie Brown is cynically using Sally to fill his insecurities. If anything he's been way too obnoxiously sincere and enthusiastic about it. In fact, now that I think about it I don’t think I’ve ever read a single Peanuts strip where Charlie Brown is anything but kind and supportive towards her. He’s like an anti-Lucy in this respect. 

Let’s play a game. I’m going to randomly click around the archive to look for interactions between Charlie Brown and Sally. Let’s see what they say about who he is as a brother:

Yup. Seems pretty supportive to me. Let’s try again…

Not hiding the truth to spare her feelings but also not making fun of her for getting scammed. Pretty solid “good brother” response, imo.

OK, one more…

Sally is leaning on Charlie Brown way too much to help out with her homework and he knows it, but Charlie Brown keeps helping her out anyway. Something, I should add, that he does a LOT over the years. Seems like a solid "W" to me.

Granted, it’s a 50 year strip and I haven’t read it all (yet!) so there may be some particularly unkind interactions I’m missing, but beyond some deadpan snark or some relatively mild admonishments for selfish or annoying behavior you never really see Charlie Brown be mean or unkind to Sally. It's low-key one of my favorite things about both Charlie Brown as a character and the strip at large. Which is impressive because Sally can be… well we'll get into that when the time comes. 

Thoughts

Hey let's spin the wheel one more time and see how things are going over at the Van Pelt hou-

Oh.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – May 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

May 2, 1959

May 9, 1959

Terrible. Just terrible. At least throw some skulls in there or something. Good sadbrains art should make your teacher wonder if it’s safe to let you come to class.

May 10, 1959

This is actually a pretty good art(life?) lesson. Things are rarely exactly how you imagine them so it’s important to actually go out and check from time to time.

May 18, 1959

I THINK she’s talking about the world record for cramming people into a phone booth which made the newspapers in March of 1959. That said, if that’s the case Schulz fudged the numbers a bit because the record I found was for only 25 people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonebooth_stuffing

May 20, 1959

Did you know that Charlie Brown’s pencil-pal is actually a little girl in Scotland? No, really. That's actually canon (how dare you call me a liar!). There was going to be a TV special about it and everything that got scrapped after Schulz died but eventually got adapted into a graphic novel. 

And yes, of course I’ve read it.

It’s… kind of boring.

May 24, 1959

At this point Lucy actually can’t stop bullying Linus because the second she shows even tiniest hint of weakness he’ll eat her alive.

May 25, 1959

Wait, why is his mom in the hospital? What on earth i-OH SHIT! SERIOUSLY!?

I legit didn’t think that this happened in this decade.

May 26, 1959

I love how psyched he is about this. :3

Anyways, I hope you all weren’t expecting to actually ~see~ Sally anytime soon because it’s going to be a while. 

Thoughts:

I kind of hate how that baseball storyline ends. There’s a LOT of buildup to this super important game over the course of three whole weeks (which might make this the longest storyline so far) but then the game just sort of happens offscreen with zero fanfare and it all just kind of fizzles out. What exactly was learned here? What was the point of it all?

This kind of thing is actually a pretty common issue with longer-form Peanuts stories like the movies or specials. A storyline that only takes a week can function just fine as a simple series of riffs on a concept but the longer a story becomes the more you start needing things like character arcs or setups and payoffs to give the thing some structure, and those just aren’t things Schulz is great at. 

In this case we have a story where the kids are actually invested in winning for once, but are still pretty bad and know it. If this were a more traditional episode of television the payoff for this would have been either them discovering some hidden inner strength and winning in spite of the odds (blasphemy, I agree), still losing but taking away some sort of life lesson, or losing in a funny way due to some pre-established character flaw. For example, maybe Charlie Brown’s lack of faith in his team blows up in his face when he insists on making a catch for Lucy, but ends up fumbling it himself and losing the entire game. But none of these things occur. The most obvious outcome just sort of happens and then we move on. 

The thing I thought of the most when this storyline wrapped up was actually the end of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which had a similar structure (a doomed attempt to win a spelling bee championship instead of a baseball game) but actually sticks the landing.

Linus’s line “But did you notice something, Charlie Brown? The world didn’t end” tells the audience why we care about what just happened and what the film is trying to communicate. In this case that failure isn’t as scary as you may think and that there is actually something quite admirable about simply trying your best. I’m not saying that this particular story needed to be deep, but it did need ~something~ to tie it all together at the end, and that really bugs me.

Anyways, my point with all of this is that A Boy Named Charlie Brown is the best Peanuts movie and you should go watch it.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – April 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

April 1, 1959

The previous strip was funnier, but that was technically in March so I'm talking about this one instead. Either way, I love how hard she owns him in the free marketplace of ideas here and I think it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate it.

His poor brain just blue screened.

April 8, 1959

I kind of like the insight this one gives you into the internal dynamics of Charlie Brown's friend group.

And yeah, it IS kind of weird that Violet and Shermy aren’t friends considering how long they’ve known each other. What’s up with that?

April 14, 1959

I don’t know enough about 1950’s baseball to understand this joke and I don’t care enough about sports in general to bother looking it up.

April 20, 1959

Panel 2 explains why Charlie Brown is the pitcher despite being so bad at it. At least his throws reach the strike zone.

April 25, 1959

I like that it’s not only Charlie Brown that has midnight freakouts like this. 

April 26, 1959

Yeah she’s a jerk but you have to respect that skill. She wasn’t even looking at him.

April 28, 1959

You don’t HAVE to play baseball, you know. There are tons of other sports like footb-

Oh…

Nevermind.

April 30, 1959

Will our heroes win the big game? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE OF PEANUTS!

Next episode title displays: “Absolute defeat: It’s the manager’s fault!?”

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – March 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

March 3, 1959

I am artificially increasing the stakes of (and by extension my investment in) this arc by choosing to believe that Charlie Brown is being literal when he says they will kill you if you don’t return your library book on time. 

I'm on the edge of my seat right now!

March 10, 1959

Charlie Brown in a sewer pointing a gun at an FBI agent: “I didn’t steal that book!”

F.B.I. agent: “I don’t care.” (he actually doesn’t care)

March 12, 1959

Jesus Christ, kid. Do you live in Night Vale or something!?

...Actually, that would explain quite a lot.

March 13, 1959

~Somewhere in the distance a man in a balaclava mask lowers his sniper rifle.~

March 15, 1959

That was much more threatening than it had any right to be.

March 18, 1959

Linus fucking rules.

March 20, 1959

~typing sounds~

OK, I kind of get the joke now.

March 27, 1959

And just like that we suddenly have what might be the single most iconic element of this strip: Lucy’s psychiatry booth! 

Because this is Tumblr, I feel like some of you might be tempted to criticize this aspect of the strip as being somehow anti-psychiatry, and you know what? Yeah, it kind of is. But that being said it’s important to remember that this joke was written in 1959 and therapy at the time was… let’s call it “somewhat less helpful” than it is today. In fact in that context I’d argue this is actually some pretty solid social satire of a deeply imperfect social institution.  

Anyways I hope you enjoyed it because you won’t be seeing it again for several more years.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – February 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

February 1, 1959

There are very few situations where I’d murder a child but might be one of them.

February 6, 1959

~Somewhere off-screen a wine glass shatters.~

Have I mentioned yet how much I love that poker-faced stare Charlie Brown does when he sees something deeply concerning? It’s such a wonderfully understated expression.

February 9, 1957

Eh. That’s just what it’s like to be over thirty. You get used to it.

February 11, 1959

Honestly? I’m not a fan. Though I do think it’s kind of remarkable that Tennessee Ernie had a voice that sounded like it should have been fictional.

February 15, 1959

They’re only surprised because the snowman isn’t on fire.

February 19, 1959

Charlie Brown is like “Nope! I am not getting stabbed by a strung-out kindergartner over this.”

February 22, 1959

See, it’s moments like this that I think are missing from modern Peanuts media. Charlie Brown may be the universe’s punching bag but a tiny ember of defiance still burns within his heart.

February 25, 1959

I’d argue that when you do math at a high enough level the answers ARE a matter of opinion.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Fat-shaming Charlie Brown since 2023) – January 1959

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read along at the official GoComics page or by purchasing the Fantagraphics hardcover collections.

January 1, 1959

I thought this was a technique she developed specifically to exploit Charlie Brown’s insecurities but apparently she just does this to literally everyone in her life. In fact I think CB is the only one who doesn’t get a list this week.

January 6, 1959

I ~think~ the song in question (there were a several songs called "Stardust" made around now) is the Nat King Cole version:

Which was covered by Billy Ward and The Dominoes in 1957 and hit #12 in the Billboard Top 100.

I don't know, both versions seem pretty good to me. I certainly wouldn't consider the Billy Ward version a gross violation of the original.

January 9, 1959

SHE SAID THE THING!

(Still in my top 5 Peanuts strips almost 10 years in.)

January 12, 1959

This small act of kindness apparently moved Snoopy so much that he was like this for WEEKS. Charlie Brown really needs to stop being weirdly racist to his dog all the time.

January 15, 1959

Joking aside though, this is actually a pretty funny storyline and I dig it. 

January 18, 1959

Solid “lmao” tier strip. Though I don’t buy for a second that she’d fumble a throw like that. We've all seen her throw a punch and know what she's capable of.

January 22, 1959

I mean, It’s 1959. Do you blame her?

January 26, 1959

Ultra rare adult speech balloon spotted in the wild! 

Thoughts:

God damnit, GoComics finally locked the Peanuts archive behind a paywall. I’m going to cough up the dough since I think the strip is worth it and at the end of the day I’m getting my money’s worth BUT I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT! 

The bigger issue is that this also makes it much harder to have you all read along with me since doing so is no longer free. There are definitely still... ways to find the strips online if you’re resourceful enough, but you really shouldn't have to do that for a strip as old and ubiquitous as freakin' Peanuts. That said, if you are willing to spend some money I’d actually suggest the Fantagraphics hardcover collections, which I’ve been purchasing and reading from as we go. The quality is fantastic and I highly recommend them.

On a related note, I also ordered a couple of... other Peanuts related books we may go through at some point. Stay tuned.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (You WILL believe an unremarkable white boy can become president) – December 1958

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

December 1, 1958

It’s once again that special time of year where everybody desperately avoids making eye contact with Schroeder.

December 9, 1958

This one baffles me. Normally this kind of joke has a character doing something that cuts against one aspect of their character in order to emphasize another. For example, you might have Snoopy playing baseball with Charlie Brown saying something like “We have the only shortstop that gets drool all over the ball!”. The joke being that while Snoopy is very human in a lot of ways, he’s still a dog.

This strip isn’t rooted in any aspect of Snoopy’s character though. ~Why~ is Snoopy the only dog that can do this? He’s never been bat-like, and while he imitates other animals from time to time he’s never gained their powers in the process. You could have the “ARF” do literally anything and it would make exactly as much sense.

December 11, 1958

Replace “Westerns” with “Anime“ and “Rustlers Roundup” wi-

Actually, you know what? Screw it. We’re doing two edits in the same post. I mean, why not right? It's not like you can stop me. I am not unlike a god* in this respect.

*Specifically, one of those Shinto gods with an extremely niche and hyper-specific domain.

December 12, 1958

And we have our first appearance of Snoopy sleeping on the doghouse!

Why did this end up becoming a central pillar of the strip? No idea! Schulz probably just liked drawing it or something.

December 15, 1958

This joke has been brewing for over two weeks now. It had better be worth the buildup. 

December 16, 1958

It was not worth the buildup.

December 21, 1958

This feels very spiritually in-sync with the Christmas special. You can kind of see how the idea of overtly acknowledging the religious aspects of the holiday will evolve over the next few years. It's also very cute.

December 23, 1958

Oh, great and powerful Claus, conqueror of the skies and master of divine beasts,

Long have we anticipated your return to the realm of man, so that we may once again revel in your perfect judgement upon our wicked souls. Every day we think only of your supreme will. Every hour we enact your glorious purpose. 

Should you deem it a worthy endeavor, I beg of you to shine favor upon his wretched worm. I need not gold nor fame nor even a Nintendo Switch with the limited edition Tears of the Kingdom pro controller. I seek only that my name be immortalized in the sacred pages of the Book of the Nice, so that I would know my daily toil in your name was not in vain. Grace this humble home with your crimson visage, partake of our milk of the cow and sweetened bread (purchased by mine own hands during a long and arduous pilgrimage to the Safeway), and leave not the black stone of shame in your wake.

This I wish, and nothing more. May the generous be spared your righteous anger, and may the blood of the naughty flow so freely that it’s red current floods the world and rises to meet you on your journey across the night sky.

Your lowly servant,

-Linus

P.S.: A bike and some Roblox gift cards would also be nice. Thx in advance.

Thoughts:

OK! Time for the year end roundup! Let’s start with looking at how the style has evolved so far. This time we’ll take a look at…

Lucy!

(March) 1952

(December) 1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

Lucy is kind of interesting in that she changed quite a lot early on, but then doesn't visibly change all that much after 1955 or so. You can tell she's a bit older now and her overall look has shifted with the rest of the strip but on her own terms she's almost exactly the same as she's always been. It's not a mystery why, either. It's just a really solid design that doesn't need to be messed with.

Personality-wise though she's actually changed quite a bit due in no small part to her brother continuing to grow up and become his own person. It's changed a lot about how she interacts with him (talking with him, teaching him stuff, trying to look out for his interests in her own unique way), and this change has altered her relationships with everybody else. I mean, she's still a pain in the ass, but she's now terrorizing people in a more sophisticated and mature way. It's great, and I'm starting to actually like her as a character and not just as a funny antagonistic force (who I thought was kind of awful as a person).

On a larger scale the art hasn't really changed all that much this year but I do think it's been "refined" a bit. Around 1955 the art took that weird shift into a more blocky look (I lovingly call this the "fat kid" Peanuts era) and it always bothered me because I felt like some of the expressiveness and really solid draftsmanship of the early strips got lost in the transition. This year though I think the strip is finally making it work. The line work is a bit more loose and expressive and Schulz getting better at letting the character's unique personalities show through. We also got an uptick in the number of those detailed backgrounds we got in the early days, which was nice to see. Though I suspect that we'll still see fewer of them going forward.

You can also start to see the look of the "classic" peanuts era of the 60s-70s just beginning to emerge, which is pretty neat!

The biggest beneficiary of this year by far though is Snoopy, who's stretchy half-human cartoon look is finally starting to work for him. It's still ~a bit~ awkward and off-putting, but it's at a place now where it works more than it doesn't. I think it's the snout maybe? It was very long and wobbly before but recently it's been drawn in a much more short and round way that's a lot more cute. I don't know, you tell me (Engage the algorithm! Comment! Like! Subscribe!).

1957:

1958:

Overall I'd say that this year was another solid step up from the prior one (which was a step up from the one before that). Still not as good as 1953-1954 but we're getting close.

[linesonscreens]

Found this today and thought you all might appreciate it.

(Posting this by phone which I don’t usually do, so apologies if this comes out weird)

[linesonscreens]

Stuff I watched in 2025 - StuGo (The first 3 episodes)

What is it?

A group of kids get swindled into going to a mad scientist’s island stronghold thinking it’s a summer camp but then stay after they find out the truth because hanging out on a mad scientist’s secret lair is awesome. 

Things of Note:

I’m still not sure why this show is called StuGo but that may be the entire joke.

Not everything about this show perfect but OH MY GOD are some of the jokes funny. It’s that same kind of “anything goes” writing that made Adventure Time work back in the day.

So far there’s no hint at any sort of deeper lore or overarching narrative. And you know what? I’m OK with that. In an era when everything is serialized something purely episodic is a breath of fresh air.

The kids came across as a bit random and shallow at first but there’s actually some consistency and depth to them. I wasn’t expecting to like these little freaks as much as I do.

The animation is about what you’d expect from a mid-tier Disney cartoon (think something along the lines of Big City Greens) but some of the things they do with it are incredibly clever. 

Solid voice acting all around. There are some genuinely hilarious line reads in just about every episode. 

The Disney executives must never be allowed to know that this show exists and is actually good. We must guard StuGo’s secrets like we’re the Illuminati covering up who killed JFK (aliens).

Final Verdict:

I don’t want to over-hype this one because at the end of the day it’s still a Disney XD cartoon designed to teach children simple moral lessons about stealing or whatever, but I really do think there’s something special about this one that even adults can enjoy. If you’re the kind of person who’s able to enjoy something like MaoMao or Phineas and Ferb you’ll probably dig StuGo.

...Or you can just check the first episode of the show out for yourself on YouTube and make your own decision.

Stuff I’ve watched so far:

StuGo

Dragonball Daima

DanDanDan

Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home Franklin

Craig Before the Creek

Godspeed

Orion and the Dark.

Day Job

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (You WILL believe an unremarkable white boy can become president) – November 1958

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

November 5, 1958

If you’re like me you probably have no idea who that is but it turns out that he wrote a LOT of music you’ve probably heard of.

November 12, 1958

Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!

November 13, 1958

Peanuts doesn’t get enough credit for these little no-dialogue mood pieces. Such a great encapsulation of a silly little moment everybody has had.

November 16, 1958

I would bet serious money that these are drawings of actual photos Schulz took on an actual vacation. 

Not that I’m complaining, this strip looks amazing. In fact I kind of wish more Peanuts media would use this aesthetic. Schulz's characters really pop in photorealistic environments. 

November 17, 1958

Getting a lot of "silly face" strips lately. I’m kind of lukewarm on most of them because the face is usually the entire joke (and often isn't that clever or funny), but this one made me smile.

November 23, 1958

Good panel. 

November 24, 1958

"Comics with threatening auras."

November 29, 1958

YOU HAVE LIKE TWENTY FRIENDS! GO CALL ONE OF THEM!

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (You WILL believe an unremarkable white boy can become president) – October 1958

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

October 6, 1958

You know, I always found it interesting that children in the US hate school so much. Kids actually ~like~ learning things and spending time with other people in their age cohort, so it’s kind of weird that they treat school like a form of torture. 

Is this one of those “America is uniquely bad at providing any kind of public service” sort of things? Do seven year olds in other countries write cute little songs about murdering their teachers and burning the classroom down? Because I don’t see that shit happening in Anime.

October 7, 1958

“Then what?”

“Then you have to get a job or die of starvation!”

“OK… That’s at least better than going to school right?”

“...”

“Oh my God…”

October 9, 1958

Schulz just really wanted to draw some architecture that day. 

And you know what? I’m OK with that.

October 12, 1958

Linus has the strangest mix of things he can’t do at all and things he can do at an absurdly god-tier level (see: the previous comic). 

That’s not a complaint, btw. I genuinely like this aspect of his character.

October 14, 1958

That is such a fantastic way to depict that particular sound.

October 18, 1958

Put a pin in the fact that Snoopy can’t write for now. 

October 23, 1958

I don’t think you know what a “fanatic” is, Linus. Making weird faces and complaining a lot is just being a fussbuOH MY GOD IT’S GENETIC!

October 31, 1958

I love that the phrase “What if somebody knifes me?” exists in a Peanuts comic

Thoughts

Did you know that there's actually a Peanuts animated series that you probably never heard of? Did you also know that it's probably the best one?

It's called "Peanuts By Schulz" and it's actually a french cartoon that got dubbed into English some time around 2016. It's not doing anything particularly groundbreaking but the animation is expressive, the comedic timing is on-point, and the voice acting is some of the best the franchise has had to date.

You should check it out if you like the strip because it really needs more love.

Unfortunately, while I'd love to tell you all to go out and buy it the show is more or less lost media at this point ever since Amazon stopped hosting it. You can still find some official DVDs (spread out over like 6 separate collections for some stupid reason) but they are out of print and you'll probably need to scour eBay for them. There's just aren't any good options to watch the show legitimately at this point.

That said, I heard a rumor that you can find the whole thing for free on a certain popular video hosting site if you search for the title. But obviously I'd never recommend that kind of thing. Nor would I wish for some enterprising individuals to spread the show around in other digital spaces of questionable legality so that future generations can continue to enjoy this wonderful little cartoon. I actually love the way great shows are constantly allowed die in obscurity and vanish forever and would really hate for that to happen.