Kaboom.jpg
What a difference two letters make; just by adding a syllable, BOOM! has made its kid’s line even more kid friendly, as the graphic above suggests.

Although the Pixar license has gone back to Disney/Marvel, BOOM! is still publishing classic Disney material, including Barks and Rosa, and the successful Disney Afternoon line, which just added DuckTales, and now, according to this image, is adding Peanuts to its lineup.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Maybe BOOM! will reprint the actual Peanuts comic books of original material that were published in the early-60s. That would be seriously awesome. :)

  2. It should not have any direct impact onthe Fantagraphics volumes; plenty of other publishers have been doing Peanuts publications during the years that Fantagraphics has been putting out that vital series.

  3. Aaron, as Nat said, Peanuts is an incredibly ubiquitous property with multiple publishing licenses all over the place. A comics series is very different from a hardcover reprint.

    That said, I’m wondering if this is the old comics or the strip…

  4. …or maybe NEW Peanuts comics?

    There aren’t that many original Peanuts comic books… Dell only published 13 issues of stories approved, but not drawn by, Charles Schulz.

    Peanuts is a slam dunk for any publisher. It is highly regarded among the general public, and lacks the stigma other corporate comics have. Schulz is well-regarded among both comics fans and independent cartoonists, even if many decry the stranglehold the strip has on today’s comics pages.

    The name also separates the line from the more mature titles published by Boom! Studios.

    (My only criticism… that red logo reminds me of Nintendo’s badge. And its horizontal nature will make cover design a bit tricky.)

  5. “Dell only published 13 issues of stories approved, but not drawn by, Charles Schulz.”

    Charles Schulz did draw some small amount of the Peanuts comic book material. Also, in addition to the stories that appeared in the Peanuts title, there were dozens of stories that appeared as backup stripes in other titles.

  6. or maybe NEW Peanuts comics?

    I dunno, Torsten, there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to see anyone other than Schulz tackle Peanuts. There was something strangely poetic in the ending of Peanuts and Schulz’s death, falling with twenty-four hours of each other, as if the universe itself were saying, “It is done.”

    On the other hand, though, this year we’re getting a completely original Peanuts animated special. And I see something like Alexis Fajardo’s artwork and I think that someone else really could do Peanuts justice.

    I would genuinely prefer reprints of the old Dell comics. That’s my hope and my preference, but I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise if BOOM! decides to do original Peanuts material.

  7. The Peanuts special is based on a storyline from the strip. Just like the Saturday morning cartoons.

    Kaboom could pull a Superman… take a storyline from the strips, edit the panels to fit a comics page, and use stock images from the archives for any fill-in panels. (If you want to see how this works, Gladstone’s early Mickey Mouse comics had Gottfredson strips reconfigured into comics pages.

  8. Huh, apparently it’s been long enough since Liefeld and Loeb’s Kaboom book…

    Anyway, I’m intrigued to see what they bring with the Peanuts license. It will be interesting to see how they play out long form Charlie Brown stories.

  9. Any new “Peanuts” strips would presumably have to be approved by the Schulz family, and that’s not going to happen.

    In the final strip, Schulz wrote: “My family does not wish “Peanuts” to be continued by anyone else, therefore I am announcing my retirement.”

  10. They have said repeatedly there will never be new Peanuts. In all honesty, how could there be???

    And even if there were, it would fail miserably. Look at The Spirit. They get the best guy in the universe to do it, but the market won’t support it. When artists work that long, that hard on their own creation, no one else can touch it. It’s impossible.
    And also, probably, the true mark of genius in a medium that has always been serial.

    That being said, reprinting them in comic books is such an awesome idea — what better license to get kids hooked on comics? Great move.

  11. @Gary: Although the wishes of Sparky’s family are quite clear, and will probably be honored, I don’t believe they are legally binding on the syndicate that actually owns “Peanuts”. It’s a testament to his esteem with the public that they did as he asked.

    There *will* be non-Schulz “Peanuts” someday, just as there is non-Conan-Doyle “Sherlock Holmes” today. I’m in no big hurry.

  12. I just got a bunch of vintage Peanuts comic books, and I was thinking about how great it would be to see new ones being made.

    It looks like my wish is coming true!

  13. Jason: the Schulzes, who long had contractual approval over what was done with Peanuts (and thus, their wishes were legally binding), last year were involved in a buyout of the property. They are now co-owners of the property (well, co-owners of Peanuts Worldwide, the company that now owns the property.)

    Peanuts Worldwide also owns other former United Media properties, including Dilbert, among other.

  14. Torsten Adair wrote: “Kaboom could pull a Superman… take a storyline from the strips, edit the panels to fit a comics page, and use stock images from the archives for any fill-in panels. (If you want to see how this works, Gladstone’s early Mickey Mouse comics had Gottfredson strips reconfigured into comics pages.”

    Gladstone never used stock images. Perhaps you’re thinking of Mondadori’s “Uncle Scrooge” and “Donald Duck and His Nephews” books which used stock images in the way you describe. They were published in the US by Abbeville Press.