Blockheads, beagles, and sweet babboos : new perspectives on Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts

Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" sheds new light on the past importance, ongoing significance, and future relevance of a comics series that millions adore: Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts . More specifically, it examines a fundamental feature of the series: its core cast of characters. In chapters devoted to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Franklin, Pigpen, Woodstock, and Linus, author Michelle Ann Abate explores the figures who made Schulz’s strip so successful, so influential, and—above all—so beloved. In so doing, the book gives these iconic figures the in-depth critical attention that they deserve and for which they are long overdue. Abate considers the exceedingly familiar characters from Peanuts in markedly unfamiliar ways. Drawing on a wide array of interpretive lenses, Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos invites readers to revisit, reexamine, and rethink characters that have been household names for generations. Through this process, the chapters demonstrate not only how Schulz’s work remains a subject of acute critical interest more than twenty years after the final strip appeared, but also how it embodies a rich and fertile site of social, cultural, and political meaning. "Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" sheds new light on the past importance, ongoing significance, and future relevance of a comics series that millions adore: Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts. More specifically, it examines a fundamental feature of the series: its core cast of characters. In chapters devoted to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Franklin, Pigpen, Woodstock, and Linus, author Michelle Ann Abate explores the figures who made Schulz's strip so successful, so influential, and-above all-so beloved. In so doing, the book gives these iconic figures the in-depth critical attention that they deserve and are long overdue. Abate considers the exceedingly familiar characters from Peanuts in markedly unfamiliar ways. Drawing on a wide array of interpretive lenses, Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos invites readers to revisit, reexamine, and rethink characters that have been household names for generations. Through this process, the chapters not only demonstrate how Schulz's work remains a subject of acute critical interest more than twenty years after the final strip appeared, but also how it embodies a rich and fertile site of social, cultural, and political meaning"-- Provided by publisher Cover BLOCKHEADS, BEAGLES, AND SWEET BABBOOS Title Copyright CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION. CHARACTER STUDIES The Peanuts Gang, Reconsidered Chapter 1. “SOMETIMES MY HAND SHAKES SO MUCH I HAVE TO HOLD MY WRIST TO DRAW” Charles M. Schulz and Disability Chapter 2. WHAT’S THE FREQUENCY, CHARLIE BROWN? Sound Waves, Music, and the Zigzag Shirt Chapter 3. “WHY CAN’T I HAVE A NORMAL DOG LIKE EVERYONE ELSE?” Snoopy as Canine—and Feline Chapter 4. I LOVE LUCY The Fussbudget and the First Lady of Sitcoms Chapter 5. FRANKLIN AND PIG-PEN The Aesthetics of Blackness and Dirt Chapter 6. CHIRPING ’BOUT MY GENERATION Woodstock, Youth Culture, and Innocence Epilogue. PEANUTS TO WATCH OUT FOR Linus Van Pelt, Alison Bechdel, and the Legacy of Charles M. Schulz NOTES WORKS CITED INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR