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Peanuts Parade / Peanuts Classics #22
The Beagle Has Landed
Charlie Brown retaliates against the kite-eating tree, Snoopy plays in a tennis tournament with the fearsome Molly Volley, and Marcie and Patty caddy at the Ace Country Club
124 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,023 books1,636 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 19, 2015
The Beagle Has Landed introduces a few new characters tot he world of Peanuts. Molly Volley is a hot-headed tennis player that Snoopy plays doubles with. Austin, Ruby, Leland and Milo are very small kids that Charlie Brown coaches when he runs away from home after biting the Kite-eating tree.
I was very pleased with the comic strips in The Beagle Has Landed. There were more than a few that made me chuckle and a couple that made me laugh out loud. While going back through the book again looking for the storylines, I noticed that quite a few of them revolved around Peppermint Patty. Now, I have never been a huge fan of Peppermint Patty, but I find that lately she is growing on me. On the other hand, I do love the dry wit of Marcie. They make a good young, female version of Abbott and Costello.
As a kid, I always enjoyed reading the smaller books that I had. As an adult, the strips may not be quite as funny as they were way back then, but sitting down with one of these books is like reading about a good friend. Peanuts has been a part of my life for nearly 40 years, and I hope that this gang of kids will for many years to come.
The Beagle Has Landed is another fine collection of Peanuts comic strips that made me smile. Every peanuts book is great. So, if you are looking for this book, look on eBay or Amazon. You will probably find it somewhere.
I was very pleased with the comic strips in The Beagle Has Landed. There were more than a few that made me chuckle and a couple that made me laugh out loud. While going back through the book again looking for the storylines, I noticed that quite a few of them revolved around Peppermint Patty. Now, I have never been a huge fan of Peppermint Patty, but I find that lately she is growing on me. On the other hand, I do love the dry wit of Marcie. They make a good young, female version of Abbott and Costello.
As a kid, I always enjoyed reading the smaller books that I had. As an adult, the strips may not be quite as funny as they were way back then, but sitting down with one of these books is like reading about a good friend. Peanuts has been a part of my life for nearly 40 years, and I hope that this gang of kids will for many years to come.
The Beagle Has Landed is another fine collection of Peanuts comic strips that made me smile. Every peanuts book is great. So, if you are looking for this book, look on eBay or Amazon. You will probably find it somewhere.
November 16, 2020
Snoopy is the kind of dog I've always wanted
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews