Reminder: It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown airs Sunday, March 31

Don't forget that It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown together with Charlie Brown's All-Stars will be broadcast from 7-8 PM (Eastern/Pacific) on Sunday, March 31, 2013 on ABC.

Peanuts Vol. 2 No. 7 out Wednesday, March 27

Volume 2, Number 7 of Boom! Studio's Peanuts comic book arrives Wednesday, March 27, 2013. In this issue you'll find the new stories "Bank Notes" and "Alley Oops," as well as a "Rainy Day Mini-Poster" and several classic Sunday Peanuts comic strips. There's a preview at Comic Book Resources as usual.

Look for this issue at your local comic book store (if you're having trouble finding it, consider setting up a subscription or standing order for the Peanuts comic), or order it from Boom! Studios' website.

Snoopy Coaster game released for iPad and iPhones

Snoopy Coaster, a new Peanuts-themed game for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, is now available at the Apple app store.

In the game, players guide the Peanuts gang on an endless roller coaster ride through various environments such as amusement parks, snowy mountains, and a forest of kite-eating trees as they try to jump and catch coins, pop balloons, and not fall off the tracks.  Snoopy Coaster was created by Developed by Chillingo, CGMagic, and Peanuts Worldwide.

You can see a trailer and more screenshots at the Chillingo website, or read the full press release.

While Snoopy Coaster is only 99 cents (in the United States), beware that it is rather aggressive about offering you "opportunities" and "encouragements" to spend more money for boosters and add-ons via in-app purchases - in some cases it's not clear that clicking on a button will lead to the program asking you to spend money (fortunately, the app store does ask you to confirm and you can cancel).  However, buying these add-ons doesn't appear necessary to play the game, at least not for the first few levels.  It's unfortunate that this otherwise cute game is so pushy.

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown and Charlie Brown's All-Stars to Air Sunday, March 31, 2013 on ABC

ABC will broadcast It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown together with Charlie Brown's All-Stars on Sunday, March 31, 2013 from 7 - 8 PM (Eastern/Pacific time). Yes, that means you can watch It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on Easter itself! This is a welcome return for It's the Easter Beagle, which last aired on TV in 2010.

Note that 7-8 PM is the correct broadcast time - while the original ABC press release and some other sources list the broadcast time as 8-9 PM, that is incorrect.

In 1974's It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, Linus tries to convince the gang that there's no need to decorate their own eggs, because the Easter Beagle will bring them - but given Linus' history with the Great Pumpkin, his friends are skeptical. Meanwhile, Peppermint Patty and Marcie (ignoring Linus' advice) go through a series of mishaps preparing eggs for coloring.

Charlie Brown's All-Stars was the second-ever Peanuts television special, airing in 1966 just six months after the successful broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas. In this special, Charlie Brown tries to keep his baseball team together with the lure of getting actual uniforms and playing in a real league, but he faces a tough decision when he learns that the sponsor will only provide them if he takes the girls and Snoopy off the team.

Limited edition It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown prints coming March 15 from Dark Hall Mansion

Celebrate the classic springtime Peanuts special It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown with Dark Hall Mansion's latest limited-edition prints, arriving Friday March 15.

Created by artist Tom Whalen - who's done several previous Peanuts prints, so these new ones will go well with your collection! - the Easter Beagle artwork put Snoopy front and center, illustrating the joyful scenes where Snoopy peers into a decorated egg and imagines himself dancing with bunnies, and of course the denouement where the Easter Beagle bring eggs to the neighborhood kids. There are the usual nice little touches when you examine the details, and two different color schemes to choose from - bright springtime colors in the standard edition, and pastel hues in the variant edition.

Standard edition

Variant edition

The officially licensed, numbered editions measure 18" x 24" and are screen printed.

The standard edition will be limited to 300 prints, and the variant edition will be limited to 50 prints, and there will be a special canvas edition of 10 each of both the standard and alternate artwork.

The prices will be as follows:

Standard: $65
Variant: $100
Canvas: $250

The It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown prints go on sale Friday, March 15, 2013 at 9:30 AM (Pacific time) at Dark Hall Mansion's webstore. Limited edition Peanuts prints from Dark Hall Mansion have been quick sellers, so if you're interested, don't wait too long to place an order once they go on sale.

Visit Dark Hall Mansion's blog and their Facebook page for more information, larger pictures of the artwork, and behind-the-scenes photos.

Peanuts Volume 2 trade paperback from Boom! Studios now available

Peanuts Volume 2, the trade paperback collecting issues Vol. 2 #1 through Vol. 2 #4 of the Peanuts comic book, was released on March 6, 2013 and is now available.  You can get it at your local comic book shop, directly from Boom! Studios, or Amazon.com.  The list price is $13.99.

This paperback contains all the stories and classic Sunday Peanuts comic strips that appeared in those four issues, and as a bonus features a new cover unique to this collection (shown here) together with reproductions of both the regular covers of the issues and the "first appearance" variant covers.