August HA Auction 1 1

[zhamlau]

Let’s also Schultz’s sweet spot was twice as long as BW’s entire career. It’s been sorta mentioned but let’s make it clear. I got that the last 10 years was slow and sorta repeated, but Christ that it was still actually quality (which it was) after 40 years is a miracle unto itself).

Hell didn’t he even write/layout all the original peanuts movies including “A Charlie Brown Christmas?”.

[grapeape]

3 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

Oh for sure.  I give Watterson a lot of credit for ending his strip before it got stale and bankrupt of new ideas.  Schulz had longevity, and truth be told he should have pulled the plug before he did.  I was basically comparing the first 10-15 years of Peanuts to the full run of C&H.  I give the nod to C&H by a nose.

It's so close. Watterson harder to get. If I could only choose one...ah it's impossible for me. I love CH and I luv Peanuts. 

[grapeape]

14 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

C&H was fantastic from it's first strip to its last.  Peanuts, not so much.  I think early Peanuts is BRILLIANT.  But put a gun to my head as to which strip I'd want to own an original of, and it's C&H all day long.

Hey Scott if you were presented with the choice to ink a strip of either Peanuts or CH, just for kicks and you could only choose one??? Scott Williams over Watterson or Schulz?

[tth2]

14 hours ago, comix4fun said:

Well Watterson shut it down after 10 years.

Schulz lapped the decade mark 5 times. 

So I don't really judge Peanuts as a whole by its quality at the end given how long of a run it was. It had reached legendary status 30 years before the last original strip ran. 

One thing you find from collecting vintage comic strips is that many strips were brilliant in the beginning and then over time they became boring, repetitive, you name it.  And that's because it is damn hard to keep coming up with good material every day for X years.  

A perfect example is "Blondie".  People from my generation (and probably anyone who didn't grow in the 1930s) think of the strip as a total joke, with the same tedious gags repeated ad nauseum.  However, if you read the strips from the first few years, when Chic Young was actually writing and drawing the strip and it was fresh, it was excellent and very engaging.  

[tth2]

14 hours ago, batman_fan said:

I’m a Peanut-nut and I would take a Calvin and Hobbs over a Peanuts (mostly because they are way rarer and very cool).

Yeah, but the rarity aspect is artificially created.  Imagine if 99% of the Peanuts strips were in a museum and there were only 20-30 strips (preferably from the classic period) available to private owners.  I can't even imagine what prices would be like.

[tth2]

12 hours ago, batman_fan said:

13 hours ago, comix4fun said:

Quality for Quality, Sunday for Sunday....I'm taking this Peanuts Sunday over any other strip by any other artist from any other era. It's not even close.



You are 100% correct, content really matters and it would ultimately come down to which Calvin and Hobbs versus which Peanuts strip.  The one you posted I would say is in the top ten of Peanuts strips.

For a comic collector, this has got to be the top 1 of Peanuts strips.  It would certainly be mine.  I am so irritated that it sold on Heritage so early on.

The titles of the comics in the rack are hilarious--"HATE", "KILL", "STAB!", "CHOKE". 

[exitmusicblue]

Still in disbelief that batman_fan could somehow = C-Nutz.

 

[batman_fan]

3 hours ago, tth2 said:

Yeah, but the rarity aspect is artificially created.  Imagine if 99% of the Peanuts strips were in a museum and there were only 20-30 strips (preferably from the classic period) available to private owners.  I can't even imagine what prices would be like.

I can’t even begin to imagine. Even with over 9000 in the public space prices are crazy high

[stinkininkin]

14 hours ago, grapeape said:

Hey Scott if you were presented with the choice to ink a strip of either Peanuts or CH, just for kicks and you could only choose one??? Scott Williams over Watterson or Schulz?

Watterson for sure.  I think I might have a chance of not falling flat on my face the way I would with Schultz, but the learning curve would be steep.  I actually inked a Watterson homage panel or two in the first ink job I ever did over Jim Lee in Punisher War Journal (it was part of the story). As for inking Schultz, a simpler line is much harder to draw/ink with the confidence of a master, so I'd probably not bother trying.

[ESeffinga]

On 8/10/2019 at 2:07 AM, tth2 said:

For a comic collector, this has got to be the top 1 of Peanuts strips.  It would certainly be mine.  I am so irritated that it sold on Heritage so early on.

The titles of the comics in the rack are hilarious--"HATE", "KILL", "STAB!", "CHOKE". 

I’ve not read all the early Peanut strips. I probably should. 

What I have read, multiple times, are all the C&H strips. And maybe this speaks to the potential aging out of character fandom for some people.

But while I do appreciate that Peanuts strip, and also get that for some folks right now, it’d be top choice for many because of the comics reference/gag. Personally I can think of a few other Peanuts strips I like more. Personal thing. 

But more importantly, if everything was free, and I could only take 1 strip home, and everything was available from both runs, from strip 1 to the final strip, from both artists/titles, I can think of at least 3 dozen C&H strips I would want to have before being interested in any Peanuts strips. 

I get that for many collectors they weigh what would be the most valuable. Or what would be the most enviable. What are the “key” pieces.

I’d choose by which one gets me the most. Does my heart or head in. 

There are a few Peanuts strips that I’ve really enjoyed in that way over the years, but for me Watterson managed to kick me again and again with his work, and it’s not so heavy handed most of the time. It’s less gag, and less philosophy and more child-like universal truths that speak to me.

And some of that may be age, and time, and exposure. 

I’ve seen the Peanut specials, as a kid every year. It signaled the seasons at the end of the year almost. Didn’t feel like Halloween without Great Pumpkin, etc. And the volume of early strips I read was fun, but also quaint. And I don’t think quaint, was ever my reality. 

To me the best Peanuts strips are the ones that probed into the uncomfortable. Or things about society. Less the silly stuff. 

But by the time I was growing up in the late 70s, Peanuts was already being commoditized to sell everything. And by the post-Star Wars 80s, when licensing exploded, Peanuts was everywhere. Everywhere. Overexposure. It became a cliche of itself. And no matter how quaint and philosophical those early strips are, they are colored by that.

And then Watterson came along. He nailed it week after week. And he refused to license. He was emphatic that the strip was the art, and those characters belonged in that space. And I love him for it, to this day. He killed it while on top and recognized he’d said what he wanted to say...

So I guess I’m finally on the other side of the table on this one. 

Where I normally don’t “get” the guys that like certain new artists, because I’m with the older guys most of the time. But in this instance, I’m team Watterson all day long.

 

Edited August 11, 2019 by ESeffinga

[Bronty]

You could have stopped at the part where you said you haven’t read all the peanuts strips   I didn’t think much of the strip either until I actually, you know, read it, from beginning to end.    Look far back enough in the forums and you’ll see posts where I wonder how TF anyone could like peanuts.   

[ESeffinga]

If having to read an artist’s entire body of work is integral to liking an individual piece, IMO the artist didn’t really do their job.

Which sounds pointed. Especially as regards Peanuts. But it’s not aimed at Peanuts. It’s the incredibly dumb thought that you have to read it all to appreciate it enough. 

With Watterson, everything it needed to be great could be found in a handful of strips from any era. I didn’t read it all, or even most of it to become a huge fan. That came later.

With Schulz, I’ve read a LOT. Not 60-years a lot, but several books worth spread out over several eras.

If that’s not enough...

[Bronty]

You’re missing the point.    I read peanuts for 10 years despising it.   It was only when I went back and read the first 15-20 years (which is why I said beginning to end although really one can stop at somewhere between 1965 and 75).    

To appreciate THIS strip, you need to start at the beginning.

Noe maybe it still wouldn’t be for you, whatever.   But it became popular for a reason.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Bronty

[ESeffinga]

Doesn’t seem like I missed the point at all. 

[batman_fan]

1 hour ago, Bronty said:

You’re missing the point.    I read peanuts for 10 years despising it.   It was only when I went back and read the first 15-20 years (which is why I said beginning to end although really one can stop at somewhere between 1965 and 75).    

To appreciate THIS strip, you need to start at the beginning.

Noe maybe it still wouldn’t be for you, whatever.   But it became popular for a reason.

Posting a link to an on-line source for all the Peanuts strips.  Very easy to navigate.  Goes all the way back to the very beginning and cost you nothing.

Peanuts Strips

[Bronty]

1 hour ago, ESeffinga said:

Doesn’t seem like I missed the point at all. 

Fine then you misconstrued what I said

[ESeffinga]

Oh no, you are totally right.

I’ve been reading Peanuts all morning, and now the scales are gone and the veil has been lifted from my eyes. My points are all totally misguided.

I now not only see the true genius in those early strips, and have a greater appreciation for the comic gag in the Sunday posted earlier, but now I actually can’t help but desire all Peanuts artwork. 

Reading a number of the early volumes wasn’t enough. It truly was that last one that did it.

As a knock-on benefit, I now find myself in wonder at the compositional genius that is Boris.

I see the true mastery of Liefeld’s linework.  

And god help me, Sal has spiked to at least #3 on my all time top artists list, past Kirby and Rembrandt.

The pieces are all coming together! I find myself asking what have I been doing with my life? 

 

...

 

All snark and joking aside, I did order a used copy of the 3rd Fantagraphics set this morning out of curiosity. I’d read 1950-1958 previously when staying with someone on vacation a number of years back. And then all the other misc collections and individual strips, of course. Hey, maybe I’ll get something out of it. At the very least I imagine a smile now and again. Peanuts definitely has its charms. I never said otherwise.

 

 

[Bronty]

No strip is for everyone.   

 

[dichotomy]

Today comes the final step - connecting with the FedEx guy...

[Chris Cooper]

Haha, the delicious inane banter with the driver at your doorstep until you feverishly rip away the flat package you've been checking the movement of all week!