The Making of The Theology of Peanuts
People blog for all kinds of reasons. I blog because my brain needs something to do. Thinking is kind of my hobby. So, as you may have noticed, I set in front of myself little blogging projects. This is the source of all the thematic series that I do.
Right now, obviously, I'm in the middle of The Theology of Peanuts. This has been by far the most ambitious thing I've done to date. The biggest task was getting my head around the source material. As I've been linking to, Fantagraphics books is currently engaged in publishing the entire 50 year run of Peanuts. All weekly and Sunday comics. They release two volumes a year, with two years contained in each volume. The volumes are beautiful and award-winning. Each comes with an introductory essay written by the likes of Walter Cronkite or Garrison Keeler. So far, years 1950-1966 are available.
In The Theology of Peanuts I've been working with strips from 1955-1966. Over the Christmas break read through these eleven year's worth of comics and coded them by theme. I didn't code all the strips, just the ones that struck a theological note with me. For example, here's a copy of one of my notebook pages (I'm addicted to carrying a Moleskin notebook wherever I go):
After reading the source material I tried group all the themes into a overarching theological structure. Here is a copy of the outline that ultimately produced the Table of Contents I've been filling in. If you look close you'll see in the jottings many of the ideas that have been showing up in the posts:
All in all this has been a labor of love. I have had so much fun reading the early years of Peanuts. We know Peanuts so well from later years that, starting from the beginning, we almost don't recognize the characters. In 1950 Snoopy doesn't speak but by 1966 he sits atop his dog house and begins his life as a writer: "It was a dark and stormy night." Also in '66 we see Snoopy fight the Red Baron for the first time. From then on Snoopy becomes the Star of the Peanuts Universe.
Here is my favorite find from reading through the Peanuts strips. In 1964 Linus makes a bid for class President. Lucy and Charlie Brown work together as his campaign managers. Against all odds, Linus is on the verge of victory. All he needs to do is deliver an innocuous speech at a school assembly. As Linus begins his speech Lucy says to Charlie Brown, "We've got it cold, Charlie Brown...If he doesn't say anything stupid we can't lose!" Charlie Brown begins to fantasize about being Vice-President. But then, at a critical moment, Linus steps from behind the podium to address the crowd with these ill-fated words:
"I want to talk to you this morning about the 'Great Pumpkin.'"
I hope you've been enjoying The Theology of Peanuts. It's a long series, and a quirky one. But I've found the world of Peanuts so rich and rewarding I wanted to share all that I had found.
Best,
Richard
PS-If nothing else comes from this series I have this. The other night Aidan, my youngest, came into my room while I was selecting strips for a post. Peanuts books are all over the bed. Aidan climbs on the bed and begins to read. He's just starting to read so the short sentences of the strips fit his reading level very well. He starts laughing and talking about Snoopy and his adventures with all the birds that stop by his doghouse. I tell him I loved reading Snoopy books on long drives to Grandma's house. He's intrigued by this vision of me being a little boy. And he reads on.
We sit, for a long time, together, laughing and reading Peanuts books into the night.