Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in almost every U.S. newspaper. Peanuts achieved considerable success with its television specials; the holiday specials remain popular and are currently broadcast on ABC in the U.S. during the corresponding seasons. In 2013, TV Guide ranked the Peanuts television specials the fourth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time. (More from Wikipedia)
The Royal Guardsmen had a million seller in 1966 with “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”; I guess I have been reminded of it since the local paper has been running some of the “Classic” Peanuts comic strips featuring Snoopy riding his Sopwith Camel into combat, always with the battle cry: “Curse You, Red Baron!”
The genesis of the Bomp! mailorder service came about from the way that Greg Shaw and many of the early collectors found records in those days: Old albums and 45’s were so available and so cheap that many times, Shaw would simply buy several boxfuls and then come home and see what was there. Before long, they were offering the duplicates to friends, then acquaintances, then through ads in his various ’zines. The prices were often about what he paid, 10¢ or so; but times change, just as they have on the recent MetLife ads featuring the Peanuts gang: “Everything can’t be 5¢ (or 10¢)!”
(May 2013)
