Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz insisted good ol' Charlie Brown and his friends were neither "great art" nor "significant." Yet Schulz's acclaimed daily comic strip--syndicated in thousands of newspapers over five decades--brilliantly mirrored tensions in American society during the second half of the 20th century. Focusing on the strip's Cold War roots, this collection of new essays explores existentialism, the reshaping of the nuclear family, the Civil Rights Movement, 1960s counterculture, feminism, psychiatry and fear of the bomb. Chapters focus on the development of Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Schroeder, Franklin, Shermy, Snoopy and the other characters that became American icons.

(Book). Disclaimer: No U.S. Military Personnel were harmed during the making of these fictional reminiscences. No warrior is more forgotten than he who has been left behind by the war department. Most men who have never tasted combat beyond the occasional fistfight on poker night quickly learn to lay low and zip the lip when battlefield stories are unfurled by the Purple Hearters at the dinner table. Except, of course, for our man Jean Shepherd. Fearless in his uncombativeness, he manfully fought his dearth of frontline duty with the weapons he wielded unmatched by even the most decorated dogface: rapid-fire griping and explosive laughter. Jean Shepherd was, and remains, a pervasive part of American culture. His quirky individuality was portrayed for posterity by Jason Robards in the play and film, A Thousand Clowns , written by Shep's close pal, Herb Gardner. Jack Nicholson embodied a Shepherd-like late-night radio talker in The King of Marvin Gardens . While in Network , by Paddy Chayefsky (another of Shep's comic cohorts), the television newscaster beseeches his listeners to open their windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore," an unmistakable echo of Shepherd's radio habit of "hurling an invective" like a hand grenade out into the nation's air waves. Shepherd was a spiritual father to Garrison Keillor, Daniel Pinkwater, Bill Harley, Paul Krassner and Joe Frank. Tens of thousands of rabid fans stayed up past their bedtime with transistor radios stashed under their pillows to follow Shep's always unpredictable, usually extemporaneous, verbal forays into current events, social mores, idle thoughts, stories about his childhood in northern Indiana ("I was this kid, see..."), his army days, and his idiosyncratic take on his world-wide travels. Shepherd once bamboozled an innocent public, and gullible publishing world, by promoting a non-existent book ( I, Libertine ) and author (Frederick R. Ewing), then co-writing it with sci-fi author Theodore Sturgeon. It sold in best-seller numbers. Shepherd wrote nearly two dozen stories for Playboy and even interviewed the Beatles for the magazine. He published several best-selling books of his stories and articles; he appeared at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and in hundreds of jam-packed college auditoriums. Shep's Army is the first volume of new Shepherd tales to be published in a quarter century.

For a girl obsessed with the past… And a boy with no future… There’s no time like the present… No time at all! Heather Worth is about to take the biggest step of her life. She is moving across the country for an art scholarship at a prestigious university. For Heather, everything is about to change. But, Heather has a secret motivation for her move. She recognizes one of the students in the background of one of the photographs in the university brochure. She’s sure it’s him. It’s been over a decade since she’s seen him, but she would know him anywhere. After all, he was her first crush…and it’s impossible to forget someone who looks like they have lights under their skin. Heather has finally found Chase Russet. This time, nothing is going to keep them apart. Not even Chase’s neighbors, who are harboring a dangerous secret. Chase Russet takes the same steps every day. No matter how many times Chase’s family moves, they still live in the same house, with the same neighbors. For Chase, nothing ever changes. Until the accident… Buy Neighbors today! Every story out there is made up of fictional facts, but only this book contains factional fictions.

From the backyard to outer space, Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts has been charming the world for more than 70 years. In this celebration of Schulz and his beloved work, explore rarely seen sketches, influential comic strips, and collectors' artifacts. Pore over evolving artworks of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the gang. Chart the rich history of Peanuts as it grew to become the world's favorite comic, and travel from 1950 to the present day, from California to Japan. Every page of this visual guide is an exhibition to treasure. Discover the enduring and nostalgic charm of Peanuts in this stunning anniversary book. With a foreword by Stephen Colbert. © 2020 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

Remarkably well researched, the essays consider a wide range of texts - from the U.S., Britain and Canada - and take a variety fo theoretical approaches, including formalism and Marxism and those related to psychology, postcolonialism, reception, feminism, queer studies, and performance studies ... This collection pushes boundaries of genre, notions of childhood ... Choice. Back cover of book.

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.

All his life, Dr. Sherman Hinkley was governed by one primary aspiration: to work as an Agent for E.W. Harper's ClockWorks Time Travel Agency. A career with the Agency would ensure Sherman's status as a bona fide contemporary hero and legendary scholar. He sought not only the glamour that inevitably derived from fame, but also the pride of knowing that after a series of failed endeavors, he'd at last arrived. Yet, Sherman quickly learns that even with the world famous Agency, books should never be judged by their cover alone and that sometimes the darkness of truth is far more ominous than the brilliance of deceit. Now, Sherman must re-evaluate his life, his career, and his future, while trying desperately to repair the world's past. What does it mean to be a hero? Sherman Hinkley couldn't have been further from the truth.