It's an accompaniment for a 2014 Ohio museum exhibit, but you can bet that plenty of us who just miss the little guy and his tiger buddy will be picking it up even if we've never set foot in the Buckeye State. And the title is extra-awesome because not only does it suggest exploring the whole world of that wonderful strip, but because it's a nod to the final line in the final strip, published in 1995.
I had no idea that Bil Keane's son, Glen, who inspired Billy in the strip, went on to become a famed animator, and until health issues intervened, was the director of "Tangled," one of Kelly's favorite movies. He also designed and animated Ariel in "The Little Mermaid," another of her favorites.
Sadly, Keane's mom, Thelma, who inspired the mom in the strip, died of Alzheimer's in 2008. She was an Australian who met her husband when they did war work there during WW II, and was so recognizable as Thel that people would stop her in the supermarket and ask her if she was the mom in the strip.
All of these comments, and their related comic links, are great, but here is my favorite, for obvious reasons:
“The rain is just a red herring. Dennis is holding a newspaper over his head, asking if he can stay with Mr. Wilson until the inevitable demise of print media. Luckily, that will happen well before the thunderstorm is over.” –Patrick
Much like Mystery Science Theater, Comics Curmudgeon never fails to crack me up.
What really made me laugh was his response to the mystifying Snuffy Smith (is this strip STILL APPEARING? Why, why, why?) "It’s also possible that I’m misreading this, and that “does he have an occupation” is hillbilly dialect for “is he constipated?"
May I also just say that I love the word "hillbilly?" If using it is wrong, I don't wanna be right.
And I always think of the Simpsons episodewhere they say "Siamese twins want to be called 'conjoined twins,'" and Dr. Hibbert's response is, "yeah, well hillbillies want to be called 'sons of the soil,' but it ain't gonna happen."
Per Wikipedia: "the term first appeared in print in a 1900 New York Journal article, with the definition: "a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him."
Update: In the comments, Mike mentions the short-lived Hanna Barbera cartoon, "The Hillbilly Bears,"so I had to add it in. This deserves to be on DVD, or at least late-night Boomerang reruns. (Looks like, based on the watermarked YouTube videos, Cartoon Network has shown it recently.)
The Comics Curmudgeon puts it best: "Bonnie and Ernie seem happy enough in panel one, contemplating the “nice spread,” the hilarity of the constituent shapes and colors of which I cannot emphasize enough. Who wouldn’t be all smiles when confronted with a big bowl of whipped potatoes, a tray of whipped sweet potatoes, a bowl of steaming whole unpeeled potatoes, another square tray of unpeeled potatoes, a tiny square tray of something white (eggs?), and a bowl of some mushed up vegetable of some sort? Mmm mmm good!
But in panel two everyone’s facial expression has suddenly taken a turn for the grave, as if “getting to know [other humans] better” is something Bonnie and Ernie simply don’t do. Why? What terrible secret do they hide? This is why Mary Worth is so exciting! Because someday, in the next six to ten weeks, we’ll find out, and it will be blander than we can possibly imagine!"
I haven't run a "For Better or For Worse" post in a long time, since I just don't read that strip now since it went to a...what was it again? A hybrid strip? A mix of old strips and new panels introducing those strips? Something like that.
But scroll down in this Comic Curmudgeon post for the completely weird one-panel shot of Elly. I don't even wanna know.
(Update: Ha! It's not Elly, it's Connie, but it looked like a youngish Elly to me!)
You can buy the Santa Rosa, California house where Charles Schulz, "Peanuts" cartoonist, lived in the 1970s. Four bedrooms, five and a half bathroooms, three-car garage, pool and guest house. If only I had $2.9 million. Who wants to go in on it with me? We may need a few folks.
I once toured his last Minneapolis home for an article. There were early paintings of Snoopy on the wall, and the owners told me they found a valentine from the real Linus stuck in the window seat.
Charles Schulz's grave in Sonoma County, California, itself is very simple, noting only his birth and death dates, name, and war service.
But nearby is a bench with his famous "Peanuts" characters carved into it, and a quote from his last-ever strip: "Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy...how can I ever forget them?"
I'm an entertainment editor at MSNBC.com, and have maintained Pop Culture Junk Mail since August, 1999. The New York Times called the site "one of the best places to explore pop culture online," and Entertainment Weekly included it on their Top 100 Web Sites list. If you like weird food, strange products, and 1970s and 1980s nostalgia, PCJM is your home away from home.
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