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krpalmerAt the seventy-fifth anniversary of the appearance of the first Peanuts comic strip, I went back to my library’s ebook lending service and signed out the final Peanuts Every Sunday colour collection. I didn’t rush through it, aware that I was coming to the end of the strip, if in a selective way. There was, too, the enduring thought that I might not be able to say very much about it.
“Yes, sir.. I want to buy a red kite..”
One thing I did happen to think every so often was that these Sunday pages had shown up after Bill Watterson had “left them wanting more.” It was a double-edged thought against Charles M. Schulz’s work ethic, regardless of new things popping up. At times I was just inclined to notice how often Linus’s horizontally striped shirt wasn’t “pinstriped,” instead alternating wide white and coloured stripes. Sometimes that could seem one more effort at distinguishing him from Rerun’s greater presence. (So far as bigger changes go, I supposed I saw the “Little Pigtailed Girl” in Rerun’s kindergarten class twice, but her hair changed colour from blonde to brown.) I had, anyway, had the impression before two pages in “The Complete Peanuts” had omitted some elements altogether when reduced to the black-and-white linework; they were back now. Whether that balances out the possibility of the strip gaining something when it’s seen in black-and-white totality is a question, but I suppose there’s also the question of how to interpret the last “Charlie Brown and the football” page, which might even be a popular question.
“Yes, sir.. I want to buy a red kite..”
One thing I did happen to think every so often was that these Sunday pages had shown up after Bill Watterson had “left them wanting more.” It was a double-edged thought against Charles M. Schulz’s work ethic, regardless of new things popping up. At times I was just inclined to notice how often Linus’s horizontally striped shirt wasn’t “pinstriped,” instead alternating wide white and coloured stripes. Sometimes that could seem one more effort at distinguishing him from Rerun’s greater presence. (So far as bigger changes go, I supposed I saw the “Little Pigtailed Girl” in Rerun’s kindergarten class twice, but her hair changed colour from blonde to brown.) I had, anyway, had the impression before two pages in “The Complete Peanuts” had omitted some elements altogether when reduced to the black-and-white linework; they were back now. Whether that balances out the possibility of the strip gaining something when it’s seen in black-and-white totality is a question, but I suppose there’s also the question of how to interpret the last “Charlie Brown and the football” page, which might even be a popular question.