Al Plastino and Peanuts

[davnkira]

I just got my copy of Alter Ego #59 where they reproduce three Peanuts
strips by Al Plastino that the syndicate had him draw in case Schulz
retired
or passed away (before it was decided that Peanuts would never be drawn
by
anyone else). Supposedly there were weeks' worth of these; Plastino
says he
drew Peanuts for a year and a half.

See http://aaugh.com/wordpress/?p=248 for details.

I have to say the characters are the best I've seen... all other
parodies
and Peanuts-ish artwork has been very obviously wrong, but these are
quite
believeable. The gags have a different feel for sure though.

Have any other artists managed to get fairly accurate imitations of
Schulz?

And supposedly the book "Legion Companion" has two Plastino Peanuts
strips
as well, a Sunday and a daily. Is the daily different than the three
in
Alter Ego?

Cheers,
Dave

reply to david @ manicfan . com

[Jim Ellwanger]

Post by davnkira
Have any other artists managed to get fairly accurate imitations of
Schulz?

Names that come to mind...

Tom Everhart.

Dale Hale (in the "Peanuts" comic books of the 1950s).

The animators of the TV shows.

[t***@lsa.umich.edu]

Post by davnkira
I just got my copy of Alter Ego #59 where they reproduce three Peanuts
strips by Al Plastino that the syndicate had him draw in case Schulz
retired or passed away (before it was decided that Peanuts would never
be drawn by anyone else). Supposedly there were weeks' worth of these;
Plastino says he drew Peanuts for a year and a half.

[...]

Post by davnkira
I have to say the characters are the best I've seen... all other parodies
and Peanuts-ish artwork has been very obviously wrong, but these are
quite believeable. The gags have a different feel for sure though.

I just got my copy. The Charlie Browns and a couple of the Lucys are
definitely quite good, but the Snoopys and the rest of the Lucys are less
convincing. And of course the humor is very different.

What I found most jarring, though, was the language. Three grammatical
errors in one strip! ("to serious" instead of "too seriously"; "you're"
instead of "your") Schulz made only a handful of such errors over the
entire lifetime of Peanuts. The rhythm of the language was also off.

It's interesting how many subtle features of the strip become strikingly
evident only when highlighted by the failure of an imitation to capture
them.

[davnkira]

Post by t***@lsa.umich.edu
What I found most jarring, though, was the language. Three grammatical
errors in one strip! ("to serious" instead of "too seriously"; "you're"
instead of "your") Schulz made only a handful of such errors over the
entire lifetime of Peanuts. The rhythm of the language was also off.
It's interesting how many subtle features of the strip become strikingly
evident only when highlighted by the failure of an imitation to capture
them.
--

I agree, it's a very different feel. Note though that these are roughs
and probably (evidently!) didn't get edited yet. I wonder how many of
Schulz's originals had the odd typo in them... we of course only saw
what fell through the cracks of the editing process.

These pieces would make a very interesting Schulz Museum exhibit, if
they didn't offend Schulz's wishes so fundamentally. (Then again, they
did showcase MAD parodies, didn't they?)

Dave
---------
Reply to david at manicfan dot com