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Important announcement for all PCC members

Visit the "Members Only" secret page for full details. As always, instructions on how to reach that page can be found in your Club newsletter.

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Newsletter alert!

Our club newsletter, 2008:1 (volume 1, 2008) entered the mailing system on February 25th.
Be on the lookout!

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Club members wishing to receive their discount when purchasing items from Snoopy's Gift Shop & Gallery now need to know a code to be used when placing an order. Visit the Members Only section of this site to learn more. (And remember: Instructions on how to reach the Members Only section can be found in every issue of our newsletter.)

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Zero-G Znoopy!

Snoopy recently took a flight with astronauts-in-training in the infamous "Zero-G" plane, and the often hilarious results have been posted on YouTube. Check out what a giant weightless beagle looks like!

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We Invite You to Get Inside Peanuts: The Life and Art of Charles M. Schulz

On Display in the ToonSeum through April 27

Celebrate the creation of Peanuts, one of the most popular and influential comic strips of all time, and its creator Charles M. Schulz. Through his art and storytelling, Schulz brightened the world for 50 years by transforming images of everyday life into art that explored the emotional territory of friendship, disappointment, faith and tolerance.

The exhibition follows Schulz from his Minnesota roots to his life in California and tracks the development of iconic Peanuts characters, such as Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy. More than 40 Peanuts comic strips, Schulz quotes and photographs, and selected Peanuts collectibles illuminate the story of Peanuts and its inspired creator. Schulz once proclaimed, "It seems beyond the comprehension of people that someone can be born to draw comic strips, but I think I was."

Examples of comic strips by other prominent cartoonists, such as George Herriman (Krazy Kat), Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates) and Elzie C. Segar (Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye), show how these prominent cartoonists influenced Schulz as a young artist and contrast their elaborately illustrated style to Schulz' less ornate style.

As a complement to the exhibit, visitors can meet Snoopy on one weekend only, Saturday, April 12, at 1:30 and 2:30 pm and Sunday, April 13, at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 pm. Other fun Peanuts-inspired events include:

"Drawing on the Walls" - See how sparks of creativity can emerge out of potential mishaps through the live cartoon illustrations of Joe Wos, resident cartoonist of the Charles M. Schulz Museum, on Friday, March 21, 2:00 and 3:00 pm and Saturday, April 26, 3:00 pm

Peanuts Trivia Contest - How well do you know your Peanuts characters? Parent and child pairs can be contestants on our trivia game show to win prizes and fame! Sunday, March 30 at 1:00, 2:00and 3:00 pm

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, Sunday, noon - 5:00 pm. Admission is $8 for children 2-18 and seniors, $9 for adults. The Museum is located on Pittsburgh's historic North Side at 10 Children's Way, Allegheny Square, Pittsburgh. For more information, call (412) 322-5058 or visit www.pittsburghkids.org.

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The Schulz biography is available!

The long-awaited biography of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) was published on October 16th.

David Michaelis worked for approximately six years on "Schulz and Peanuts," which runs 600-plus pages. Michaelis conducted more than 200 interviews, and was given unrestricted access to the Schulz studio and personal archives by the cartoonist's widow and children.

In addition, United Media -- the company that still syndicates Peanuts reruns and handles Peanuts licensing -- allowed Michaelis to see papers that document the rise of Schulz's creation into a business HarperCollins says earns $1.2 billion a year.

Read review excerpts at the book's very own Web site, right here.

But wait, there's more: In this podcast of a BEA 2007 "Upfront and Unscripted" session, documentary producer Mary Murphy and Michaelis discuss the life and work of Schulz. Michaelis touches on the success of Peanuts as a comic for children, as well as the deeper lessons Schulz hid beneath the surface of his art. Give it a listen right here.

And there's even more! Michaelis spent hours with PCC Web-guru Derrick Bang, talking about how he came to write the book, and what he learned about Schulz along the way. Read this extensive interview here.

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Badoit Seltzer TV spots

Have you seen these European TV ads for Badoit Seltzer? If not, you've a treat in store ... they're to die for!

Here's the first one.

Here's the second one.

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Charles M. Schulz Museum events

Outside the Frame

Several well-known characters in Peanuts never actually appear in the strip, including the Little Red-Haired Girl and the Red Baron. Outside the Frame, which opens March 19 and continues through July 13, 2008, exhibits those strips in which Schulz believed that the appearance of certain characters was best left to his readers' imaginations.

Schulz deliberately kept adults out of the strip: Parents, principals, teachers, storekeepers, and even the Red Baron were never drawn. During his career he offered a couple of reasons for keeping the strip an adult-free zone. First and foremost, the appearance of adults would bring a certain gravitas to the proceedings: "As soon as an adult is in the strip," Schulz remarked, "bang, the whole thing collapses. Because adults bring everything back to reality. And it just spoils it." Another reason Schulz offered was more mundane: It was a matter of the size of the strip. "There's just no room for adults. . ."

Throughout the run of Peanuts, other things are also left to readers' imaginations: the Little Red-Haired Girl's appearance, the inside of Snoopy's doghouse (quite well appointed from all we read!), and even Snoopy's nemesis, that nefarious rascal the Cat Next Door. Outside the Frame exhibits strips that include (or rather, don't include) these unseen inhabitants of the Gang's neighborhood.

The Language of Lines

Dialogue in a cartoon strip gets much of the credit for conveying meaning, but a great deal of what readers interpret from cartoon art is non-verbal. The Charles M. Schulz Museum's newest exhibition, The Language of Lines: How Cartoonists Communicate examines the visual shorthand of comic art, including speed lines, sweat drops, footprints, dotted eyesight lines, sound effects, and thought balloons: specialized graphic devices that are used to represent human emotions and convey abstract ideas quickly.

The exhibition, which continues through August 11, 2008, will be shown in the Downstairs Changing Gallery.

This exhibition of 69 comic strips explores the use of visual shorthand in comic strips past and present, including Peanuts, Doonesbury, Calvin and Hobbes, Beetle Bailey, Zits, Hi & Lois, Mutts, Bizarro, Stone Soup, Pearls Before Swine and more.

Beyond Words

Cartoon artists most often combine dialogue and drawings to convey their meaning. Beyond Words, on the other hand, examines those Peanuts strips in which Charles Schulz dispensed with dialogue and used only "pictures" to tell the story ... as in the strip above, published February 12, 1956. The exhibit, displayed in the Main Strip Gallery, continues through May 12, 2008.

The 75 original Peanuts strips in Beyond Words are designed to complement the exhibition The Language of Lines: How Cartoonists Communicate, encouraging the reader to make sense of the strips based entirely on visual cues, iconography and their knowledge of the Peanuts characters' personalities and relationships.

In Love and Friendship Exhibition

Over the course of his life and career, Charles Schulz reached out to others in many ways, one of which was to present a friend or acquaintance with an original drawing, letter, birthday greeting, or get well wish. A display of 32 such gifts can be seen in the exhibition In Love and Friendship: Schulz Originals from the Community. The exhibition runs through Monday, March 17, 2008, in the Upstairs Changing Gallery.

The tennis-themed birthday card above was given to long-time friend Don Fraser, in April 1977.

These examples of Schulz's humor and compassion are made available to the Schulz Museum by the generosity of his many admirers.

Check the Museum Website at www.SchulzMuseum.org for additional details.

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The Web set site www.snoopystore.com has a whole new look ... and it's really cool! The site has been completely reconfigured, with plenty of old-style Peanuts artwork, and lots of new merchandise. Browse on over and take a look!
If you'd rather do it the old-fashioned way, call them at (877) 809-1659.

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PCC Web guru Derrick Bang has become something of a cottage industry, with respect to contributing to the Peanuts book legacy. Check the links below for further information about the four books with which he has been involved:

50 Years of Happiness: A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz

Peanuts Collectibles: Identification & Value Guide (assisting Andrea Podley)

Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings

It's Only a Game

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Volume 8 is here!

Fantagraphics, a company known well by those in the comic book and comic arts community (publisher of The Comics Journal, among many other books and magazines), continues with its plans to publish a truly complete series of Peanuts comic strips, starting from the very first and continuing through to the very last.

Volume 1 arrived in bookstores on Monday, May 3, 2004. Volume 2 shipped to subscribers and bookstores in October 2004. Volume 3 arrived in April 2005, Volume 4 in October 2005, Volume 5 in April 2006, and Volume 6 in October 2006. Volume 7 debuted in April 2007. Volume 8, the newest arrival, debuted in August 2008. Subsequent books will appear at the rate of two per year; the series is scheduled to conclude in April 2016. The books will be hardcover only: 7 inches tall, by 8.5 inches wide.

You'll find a more complete press release in our Current Events section, and you can keep up with the latest news at the Fantagraphics site here.

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Congratulations -- and thanks -- to Mike Thompson, of the Detroit Free Press, for this editorial cartoon that was published shortly after the Charles M. Schulz Museum opened. (And no, the grown-ups who work there don't sound like that!)

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Andrea Podley, our club founder and president, has decided that it's time for her to part with some of the many treasures that she has collected throughout the years. You can see some of what's available in her eBay listings, under snoopytreasures. Who knows? You may find a few somethings that you just can't live without!

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Actually, you're looking at our home page right now... but we didn't want to leave it out!

If you just want to know where to buy stuff, then go no further! The Peanuts Collectors Club specifically endorses these folks, who have PVCs, plush items, clothing, artwork, ceramics and lots of other stuff. Try them before asking us, "Where can I get so-and-so?"

Gatherings, chats, meetings and announcements about new products

Recently published articles on our favorite subject

How we got where we are, and how you can join us

Lists, data, facts and information compiled by avid fans...beginning with the all-essential Peanuts FAQ File

Folks who'd like to sell you stuff, and who provide great pictures to whet your appetites

If you're thinking of asking us to send you some Peanuts art, read this first.

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tells us you're dedicated Peanuts fan number

since we started keeping track, on June 13th, 1996!

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This page is maintained by Derrick Bang as a courtesy to, and with the permission of, Andrea Podley and the Peanuts Collector Club. Comments are welcome E-mail your thoughts or questions

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All PEANUTS characters pictured are copyrighted © by United Feature Syndicate, Inc. They are used here with permission. They may not be reproduced by any means in any form.