Happy New Year, Charlie Brown airs December 26, 2016

It's nearly the end of the year, which means it's time for the last Peanuts special broadcast of the year - ABC will be broadcasting Happy New Year, Charlie Brown together with She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown on Monday, December 26, from 8 - 9 PM (Eastern/Pacific).

A Charlie Brown Christmas airs again on Thursday, December 22, 2016

If you missed it the first time - or just felt it was too early in the season to watch - you can still catch A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV when ABC shows it a second time on Thursday, December 22, 2016 from 8 - 9 PM (Eastern/Pacific).

Meanwhile, the cable channel Boomerang will be airing six new Peanuts shorts, most with a Christmas or winter theme, on Saturday December 24 and Sunday December 25, 2016 from 11 AM - 12 noon Eastern (the same six shorts air each day).  After this broadcast, Boomerang will have aired all 104 of the shorts that were produced - although hopefully they will continue to cycle through them as repeats.

And if you don't get Boomerang, good news: Warner Home Video is releasing Peanuts by Schulz: Snoopy Tales, a two-DVD set containing 32 of the shorts, on January 17, 2017.

I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown airs December 17, 2016 on ABC

Just a quick reminder that the holiday special I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, starring Rerun, Snoopy, Spike, and the rest of the Peanuts gang will be broadcast on Saturday, December 17, 2016 from 8 - 9 PM (Eastern/Pacific) on ABC.

The Complete Peanuts is truly complete: Volumes 25 & 26 (the last two!) now available

The final box set containing the last two volumes (#25 & #26) of The Complete Peanuts went on sale a couple of weeks ago. (Both volumes are also available to purchase separately, but as has been the case in all previous years, if you buy the box set, you get them in an attractive slipcase and save money.)

At last, after 12 1/2 years, every single Peanuts comic drawn by Charles Schulz - all 17,897 of them - has been reprinted in this monumental collection of 26 volumes from Fantagraphics.

Volume 25, released earlier this year, reprints the comics from 1999 and the strip's final days in 2000 - and it features a brief introduction from no less than President Barack Obama.

Since there wasn't a full year's worth of comics in 2000 (as Schulz passed away early in the year), Fantagraphics has filled out the rest of the volume with a complete set of reprints of "Li'l Folks," the weekly comic panel that Schulz drew from 1947 - 1950, prior to creating Peanuts. (When you read them, you'll see that Peanuts was an evolution of Li'l Folks.)

While this is nice thought for readers who haven't seen those panels before, unfortunately the presentation is very awkward. The Li'l Folks panels are printed sideways on the pages, in order to maximum the reproduction size. But that means to read them, you also have to turn the book sideways, and because The Complete Peanuts volumes are much wider than they are tall in their normal orientation, it's quite difficult to hold the book sideways because now it's really tall and thin and the pages try to flop down.

For a superior presentation of the "Li'l Folks" panels, fans should consider getting the book Li'l Folks: Li'l Beginnings, published by and available to be ordered online from the Charles M. Schulz Museum. This book, published in 2003, also reprints all the Li'l Folks panels and was designed with them in mind, so it can be held like a normal book. Plus, the panels are reproduced in a larger size, and is full of annotations and editorial commentary on the panels from Peanuts historian Derrick Bang. (Disclaimer: Derrick is a co-host of FiveCentsPlease.org. But I'd be suggesting the Li'l Beginnings book regardless, due to its more sensible layout.)

This is not to say you should avoid Volume 25 of The Complete Peanuts - far from it, since you'll want it for the final Peanuts comic strips - but the fact that it includes the Li'l Folks panels should be regarded only as a modest bonus.  Nevertheless, kudos to Fantagraphics to trying to make it a truly complete collection and bringing a complete collection of all 50 years of the Peanuts strips to us.

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Since Volume 25 reprints the final Peanuts comic strips, what is in The Complete Peanuts Volume 26, you ask? Over the years, Charles Schulz drew a variety of Peanuts material outside of the comic strip itself. This volume collects much of that work, a lot of it out of print for decades, and some of it never previously collected in a book at all. The contents include:

• Peanuts storybooks, such as Snoopy and the Red Baron, Snoopy and "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night," Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking, and more;
• Peanuts comic books, drawn by Schulz himself (while most Peanuts comic books were not drawn by Schulz, he did draw a few with his own hand);
• Two series of Peanuts panels on the subject of "Things I Learned After It Was Too Late;"
• Themed books on golf and tennis, including Snoopy's Grand Slam and Snoopy's Tournament Tips;
• Strips and panels drawn specifically for advertisements, such as for the Kodak Brownie camera, the Ford Falcon car, and Butternut Bread;
• All 17 of the single-panel cartoons Schulz contributed to the Saturday Evening Post;
• A nice, long afterword from Jean Schulz reflecting on the life, times, and work of her husband.

All in all, it's a worthy addition to a Peanuts fan's collection, although as with the "Li'l Folks" panels in the previous volume, sometimes the material in Volume 26 is ill served by puzzling and suboptimal layout choices (for example, why were the storybooks printed three panels to a page, resulting in very small panels and wasted space on the page that could have been used to make the panels larger, if there were only two to a page? Why did they decide to alternate between white and yellow backgrounds in some of the other storybooks, when the content did not call for alternating colors?)

Nevertheless, if you've been buying all the volumes of The Complete Peanuts, you'll definitely want to get this final volume too - most of the material is just as charming, entertaining, and clever as the Peanuts comic strip itself.

And if you haven't been buying The Complete Peanuts, now's the time to start - or make a fellow fan or relative very happy by putting 26 volumes underneath their Christmas tree!

(Disclaimer, again: FiveCentsPlease.org co-host Derrick Bang was among the researchers who helped find and suggest material to be reprinted in The Complete Peanuts Volume 26.)

By the way... if for some reason you don't want a nice set of hardback The Complete Peanuts, Fantagraphics has also started releasing the volumes in paperback. However, they're only up to Volume 6 in paperback (just released last month), so you'll have to wait a long while before you can complete your collection!

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Also recently published by Fantagraphics is the fourth volume of Peanuts Every Sunday, covering the years 1966-1970. This series of books - published once a year - reproduces the Sunday Peanuts comic strips in their glorious original color at a coffee table book size of 13 1/4" x 9 1/2".  (Unlike The Complete Peanuts volumes, where Sunday strips are reprinted in black & white and much smaller.)  Seeing the comics as they originally appeared in the Sunday funny pages is another great joy for Peanuts fans.  (The Peanuts Every Sunday volumes are also available in slipcased box sets of two.)

More A Charlie Brown Christmas prints from Dark Hall Mansion

Dark Hall Mansion wants to make sure that no one's Christmas stocking is without a Charlie Brown Christmas limited edition print this year. A few days ago, they announced another batch of prints with three different takes from three different artists, plus variant versions - this on top of the four prints they announced the previous week (which are still available at the time of writing). There's definitely a print for every taste and occasion - they're spoiling fans with choices!

The second 2016 batch includes prints created by Dan May and Eduardo Sanabria, available both high-quality paper and canvas, and prints from Mike Dubois available as standard prints or groovy foil editions. See below for details, and Dark Hall Manson's webstore to place an order!

Click any of the images below for a larger version.

Dan May edition:

Mike Dubois editions:

Standard

Variant

Lava Foil Standard (also available in variant color)

Sparkle Foil Standard (also available in variant color)

Eduardo Sanabria editions:

Standard

Variant

Prices, sizes, and number of prints are as follows:

Dan May Editions:

Standard 18" x 24" edition of 225 - $65
Standard 11" x 14" edition of 100 -  $35
Select 18" x 24" Canvas edition of 25 -  $125
Select 11" x 14" Canvas edition of 25 - $75

Mike Dubois Editions:
Standard 12" x 12" edition of 195 - $45
Variant (Charlie in lavender) 12" x 12" edition of 175 -  $60
Lava-Standard (Charlie in blue) Printed on Lava Foil edition of 45 - $75
Sparkle-Standard (Charlie in blue) Printed on Sparkle Foil edition of 45 - $75
Lava-Variant (Charlie in lavender) Printed on Lava Foil edition of 45 - $75
Sparkle-Variant (Charlie in lavender) Printed on Sparkle Foil edition of 45 - $75

Eduardo Sanabria Editions:
Standard (blue) 18" x 24" edition of 225 - $65
Variant (red and green) 18" x 24" edition of 50 - $95
Select 18" x 24" Canvas (blue) edition of 25 - $125
Select 18" x 24" Canvas (red and green) edition of 25 - $125

The Dan May and Eduardo Sanabria editions are hand numbered and giclee printed.

The Mike DuBois editions are screen printed and hand signed by the artist.

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

Dark Hall Mansion's A Charlie Brown Christmas limited edition prints for 2016

Our friends at Dark Hall Mansion have been doing releases of limited edition A Charlie Brown Christmas prints for long enough that it's starting to feel like it isn't the holiday season without their annual announcement. Fortunately, we won't have to do without this year - not by a long shot, since this December you can choose from five different (but equally wonderful) prints celebrating the 1966 Peanuts special by artists Steve Thomas and Eric Robison. Or, if you can't choose, get them all!

The prints are available in several formats - 18" x 24" high quality paper, 18" x 24" canvas prints, or sets of 11" x 14" on high quality paper. The prints are already on sale (they were first offered on December 2), so don't delay visiting Dark Hall Manson's webstore if you want any of them.  Click any of the images below for a larger version.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" Standard Edition by Steve Thomas:

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" Variant ("Dance Break") Edition by Steve Thomas:

"A Peanuts Christmas" by Steve Thomas:

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" Standard Edition by Eric Robison:

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" Variant Edition ("Hope & Retrospection") by Eric Robison:

Prices and number of prints are as follows:

Steve Thomas Editions:

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Standard 18" X 24" Ornament Edition of 225 - $65

Select 18" X 24" Canvas Edition of 25 - $125

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Variant 18" X 24" Ornament 'Dance Break' Edition of 75 - $95

Select 18" X 24" Canvas Edition of 25 - $125

"A Peanuts Christmas"

18" X 24" 'Snoopy And Santa' Edition of 150 - $65

Select 18" X 24" Canvas Edition of 25 - $125

Special 3-Print 11" X 14" Set containing all 3 Steve Thomas editions: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" standard, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" variant, & "A Peanuts Christmas" prints:

Edition of 150 - $55

Eric Robison Editions:

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Standard 18" X 24" Edition of 225 - $65

Select 18" X 24" Canvas Edition of 25 - $125

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Variant 18" X 24" "Hope & Retrospection" Edition of 75 - $75

Select 18" X 24" Canvas Edition of 25 - $125

Special 2-Print 11" X 14" Set containing both standard & variant Eric Robison prints: 

Edition of 150 - $55

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