Debbie's Thoughtful Spot Today marks the 60th anniversary of one of my personal favorite comic strips, Peanuts. Admittedly, the past 10 years haven't necessarily been too eventful in the comic itself, as it has been in repeats since February of 2000, when the last new Sunday page appeared. The focus of the past decade has been nostalgia, whether for the strip, Schulz himself, or the animated TV specials (sadly, my personal favorite of the animated Peanuts library, 1969's "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", the first feature film featuring everyone's favorite blockhead seems to have been mostly forgotten, except for a bare-bones DVD release). But just how many more years does Peanuts have left in it? As much as I love them, Charlie Brown and Snoopy and friends seem dated in 2010, like a time capsule view of the 1950's and 60's. But to update them would also seem wrong, seeing Snoopy typing out his newest novel on a laptop, to see Lucy calling Schroeder on a cell phone, or Charlie Brown checking his Facebook page to see if anyone added him as a friend (and replying "Rats!" when no one has) just wouldn't ring true to Schulz's creations. It is a bittersweet anniversay for Peanuts, knowing that the glory days of the strip (and newspaper comics in general, not to mention newspapers themselves) have passed.
Or as Charlie Brown would have said, "Rats!"
