Wednesday, April 09, 2008

In regards to last nights post...

The world doesn't let you know what you can do on your resolution until you actually check it out. I was going to order the next book and found out to my shock and horror that the next one is the last. Yes the last one is the only one that the library system has in order and in fact the one after that is up for grabs for pre-sale at amazon.ca. I am very bummed out. If I was living in England I would have the next two but I don't so meh.

So as for resolutions go I'm off to find another one.

Resolutions!

It is funny that one should remake themselves on new years day. I never seem to be able to make a new years resolution on that day. I think I made a post stating something similar before. However, if someone came up to me and asked me what is my resolutions for the year say, in April it would be far easier for me to say what my minor goals for the year would be.
I came up with something really silly this year and in being silly it may be easy to achieve: I shall read the whole series of Peanuts. Yes, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the gang from the beginning to wherever the complete Peanuts series ends. Realize that this is not an easy task, for the following reasons; I still have the vision problems that are limiting my time reading, and that is why I am reading Peanuts and not taking the challenges of greater writers and series that gather dust upon my selves and I look at with great longing. Other reasons include that this comic is a very long running series, one that had been running far longer than I had initially realized, and with this collection, they had gathered all the dailies and Sundays. I must tip my hat off to Charles "Sparky" Schulz in drawing and lettering each one by hand with no help with an assistant. *claps a hundred times a minute* Also I have read the introductions in the beginning of each book which have been proving fascinating, telling stories and giving insight of how a troubled and shy man had touched these peoples lives as well as the rest of America. The last reason is that there is a slow down is the library system in ordering the books so I'm now fearing that with the hiccups that during the summer especially, that I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace to meet the December deadline.

But in the whole getting these books from the library has been a sort of a time capsule. There were things published in the strip that was important in that time that was never thought to be important now. In one of the 50's strips there was Charlie Brown rifling through War, Gor and Horror comics, Lucy and Linus and Sally all had to go through baby-hood, Happiness is a dime to get a chocolate bar and a comic, The kids were almost always listening to records, simple toys like ball, roller skates, bubbles. Then in the 60's it went to satellite launches, more television influence, first reference of the zip code, 75 cent kites, and even skate boards. One may not even realize that they seen all the references of the changes of the times but my sister had picked it up when she saw the prices and gained some insight of the time that has past. I wonder if it will be the same if my grandkids pick up the same book or the ones done by Lynn Johnson (I'm using her because she cartoons using modern day setting and does creates controversy with some of her FBOFW) and ask if the things in the comic true to what they were, or not. As I pass them a twenty dollar bill for their chocolate bar I can say "Yes in 1950 you could buy a chocolate bar and a comic for ten cents."