Linus vs. the Red Baron?

REVISITING the same Peanuts comic book mentioned in a previous posting, here's another page from that issue. See anything familiar here?

(Click on image for better look.)

Since the comic is missing four pages, this is clearly the second page to a story where Linus, after having seen a magazine with a picture of a man on a flying carpet right out of One Thousand and One Nights (a.k.a. Arabian Nights), tries to ride his security blanket like one.

Figure it out yet?

Yes, Linus Van Pelt is wearing an aviator's helmet with goggles, and it looks a lot like the one Snoopy wore commencing with the first "Red Baron" episode of the Peanuts comic strip dated Sunday, October 10, 1965. The comic book was published about seven years prior! (Remember, that's back in 1958.)


Looking again at the biography Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis, it relates the origin of Charles Schulz's inspiration for the "RB" strips as coming from his son, Monty. Sometime during the summer of '65, the 13 year-old boy came into his father's drawing studio with a model of a Fokker triplane; as they talked about it, Schulz thought back to old WWI war movies (like Hell's Angels), and he decided to parody them. For years, Monte claimed it was his suggestion Snoopy would be the pilot of the "Sopwith Camel" (a.k.a. the doghouse); Schulz would consistently dismiss this notion until near the end of his life when he finally acknowledged his son's contribution.

Snoopy's debut as the World War I Flying Ace.

Schulz's assistant during '58, Jim Sasseville, worked on the comic books, and there's a chance he drew Linus with this headgear. If Sasseville spent enough time with Schulz on any given week, they were bound to have talked about many things; could some of their topics have included WWI movies and/or the Red Baron?

Or was Sasseville (or whoever) thinking of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh? It was only a year prior the movie biography The Spirit of St. Louis came out, starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Billy Wilder. This makes more sense.

Scene from The Spirit of St. Louis (1957).


When I first got this comic back in the late '80s, I thought the possibility of a connection between this story to the later "RB" material highly bizarre to be believed; this was before I actually could find more to read about the history of the Peanuts comic book, my only reference for it at the time being the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Luckily, when I randomly got a biography of Jimmy Stewart at the library years later, and I read what year TSoSL was released, I remembered my comic. With another look at it, I then realized where the reference point in the comic book likely came from.

Charles Schulz did not swipe an idea from his former employee in 1965; it's merely the most oddest of coincidences.

Speaking of odd, on the next page of the story, Linus notices the man in the picture is wearing a turban; maybe one of these will help him to fly, so....

Please don't show this image to a
Republican up for re-election!

Of course, he unwittingly uses his blanket, so when he wonders where his "magic carpet" escaped to, Lucy points at the top of his head! Another attempt at lift-off with a fan running at full speed doesn't work, either. Happily, the problem gets solved, thanks to the "American ingenuity" of Charlie Brown:

Keeping it trivial....

Fang Shih-yu, Shaolin Temple.

Happiness is a glass jaw....



Snoopy punches Lucy. 

RECENTLY re-discovered in the humor archive of the Trivia Wing was this precious, precious image I think everyone who enjoys reading the Peanuts comic strip or watching the cartoons (or maybe only eating Zingers) will be ecstatic to see.

This one's a beauty! No digital manipulating was used to create this picture, and what you're looking at is an un-enhanced photo of said image.

Can you guess where it came from? (HINT: it's not from Mad magazine, a "Tijuana Bible" or The Onion.) Think about it....

Give up?

It's from the Peanuts comic book.

No, I didn't just "blow your mind"! Let me elaborate....

As the popularity of Peanuts gained momentum in the mid-1950's, Dell Publishing Company, makers of kid-friendly, "Comics Code"-approved comic books came calling to creator Charles Schulz and United Features Syndicate, his employer.

The majority of Dell's comics were licensed from properties as varied as Donald Duck, Little Lulu or The Lone Ranger; they also did an array of adaptations of movies and TV shows like Lassie, Leave It to Beaver or No Time for Sergeants (the movie with Andy Griffith). Now they wanted to take a try at Peanuts; an agreement was reached sometime after initial contact.

The first comic (dated 1953-54) was a "one-shot" containing reprints of the strip. A few other Dell comics series would also include reprints until Four Color Comics #878 (Feb '58 cover date), when what author David Michaelis (in his Schulz biography, Schulz and Peanuts) called "extended play" stories [with new stories and art] began. With Schulz's workload already burdened with doing two comic strips at the same time (the other being the short-lived It's Only a Game, a strip about sports that debuted in '57), the primary work would be handled by others, while he contributed new artwork for covers only.

The main person who wrote and drew stories for Dell was Jim Sasseville (born in 1927), a friend and colleague of Schulz's from the days when they both worked at Art Instruction, Inc. in Minneapolis. Sasseville had since become Schulz's assistant, and his main duty up until the Dell books came along was inking finished artwork and lettering for IOaG. Now, he'd be "ghosting" the comic books for $100 a week. After three Four Colors, the new material graduated to its own comic, the numbering starting at number 4 (Feb-March '60).

According to Michaelis, Sasseville was a very good artist in his
own right, and his greatest asset was a unique one; after Schulz, he was one of a select few who could draw Charlie Brown's round head. (It's not easy, as this amateur artist can testify!) Though the comic book which this picture came from is the first issue (May 1963) of the Gold Key run (Dell under a new name, actually), the material inside is copyright 1958, so it's reprints of a Dell book from '58. Based on the quality of some (not all) of the art (including some renderings of Charlie Brown's head), evidence suggests Sasseville's handiwork is in here.

He might have done "The Hero", which is where this picture came from. The actual story (like all the stories in the book) is too long and lacks Schulz's humorous touches and comedic timing; the priceless illustration is the absolute highlight of the entire mess, it's so masterfully executed. Considering the "violent" content of the drawing (arguably, a touch stronger than what sometimes happened in the strip), I thought Dell would've objected to it and have the panel changed. Then again, it's a beagle belting a "fussbudget", so there's no harm or foul!

Check out the full story below! I decided on taking photos of the pages so their warped nature will simulate reading an actual well-worn comic! (NOTE: pages have been enhanced for an attempt at clarity; click on them for a better look.)

The last Dell was lucky number 13 (May-July '62). The last Gold Key was number 4 ( Feb '64), all of them reprints.

As for Jim Sasseville, Schulz eventually decided to devote all his energy to Peanuts, so he let Sasseville assume full control of IOaG; the strip ended a 63-week run in 1959. In 1960, he'd leave cartooning to be a graphic artist. He died on November 30, 2005, at the age of 78.

I think it's cool he got to work with Schulz in the capacity he did. (All written accounts I've read strongly maintain Charles Schulz never had help with the drawing and writing of the Peanuts comic strip, period!) Most of all, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the guy who drew what I consider the pen-and-ink equivalent of The Mona Lisa.

It's the best Peanuts drawing Schulz never did!

Keeping it trivial....

Fang Shih-yu, Shaolin Temple.