1968 Peanuts gets Franklin, 1970 Dennis gets Jackson
D. D. Degg
anniversary of the introduction of Franklin to the strip.
http://www.snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/meet_the_gang/meet_franklin.html
Two years later (1970) Hank Ketcham introduced into his
Dennis the Menace panel a young black friend for Dennis.
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/he_really_is_a_menace
Not a particularly sensitive portrayal.
D.D.Degg
Joseph Nebus
Yeow! ... Well, that depiction makes the objection people
had to Jackson understandable. I'd only seen the description and
the caption (I think that was in the Complete Dennis set), and if
you didn't see the picture it'd be hard to see what the fuss was
about.
--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JGM
> A couple months ago Peanuts celebrated the 40th
>
> Two years later (1970) Hank Ketcham introduced into his
>
> Not a particularly sensitive portrayal.
Wow. I almost commented here earlier this week on Monday's Dennis:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20080922&name=Dennis_The_Menace
to the effect that this cartoon is jarring because "little Shawn" is
drawn in a completely different style (ie. much more realistically)
than other characters in the strip. Perhaps this bit of history had
something to do with that.
JGM
hf...@schools.nyc.gov
>> to the effect that this cartoon is jarring because "little Shawn" is
> drawn in a completely different style (ie. much more realistically)
> than other characters in the strip. Perhaps this bit of history had
> something to do with that.
Kind of like the way Dean Young draws BLONDIE one-shot guest
characters with much more realistic facial features than the regulars.
This often fuels speculation that these one-shots are inside-joke
caricatures of real people known only to the artist.
I recall very well the 1970 DENNIS "Jackson" strip from Walker's
anthology, if not from the Signet paperback collections which I
purchased up until 1974 or so. It ccould be that Ketcham, United
Syndicate or Signet deemed the strip unacceptable for purchase. In any
event, Jackson's overexaggerated Negroid features- especially the
lips- make him strongly resemble a character from a 1940s-era
theatrical MGM cartoon who has just been blown up or splashed with
mud.
Jackson may not have been the first African-American incidental
character in the strip, however. In one panel from probably the late
fifties or early sixties, Dennis is having his shoes shined in a park
by what appears to be a young black boy while Henry, sitting on a
nearby bench, looks over with an irritated/perplexed expression. (The
caption is "Hey, Dad- wanna be next?" The boy kneeling on one knee
(with Dennis' foot propped up on one of those angular footrests and
box of shoe-shining equipment on the ground) faced away from the
'camera' in an over-the-shoulder view so that his facial features are
only partially visible. His skin tone is not at all darkened the way
Jackson's is, but his head is very oval-shaped and forehead noticeably
elongated with a very small amount of hair on top of his head. I don't
recall if lips were visible- but if so, they weren't terribly large.
At the time, I assumed the point of the joke was that Dennis was
getting his shoes (sneakers?) shined without his Dad's permission and
expecting Dad to foot (ouch!) the bill. Could it also be that Henry
was annoyed that Dennis was associating with a Negro?
Franklin never exhibited any stereotypical behavior or speech patterns
associated with his race. The only time he really exhibits any emotion
is early on, i.e. his shaken reaction to the eccentricities of the
regular cast members (Snoopy in flying ace mode, Lucy's psychiatry
booth, etc.) when he first visits the neighborhood. The final strip to
that arc has him reiterating to Charlie Brown the bizarreness he's
witnessed, with the tag line his "Like, wow!" to one last example:
Linus prosthelyzing about the Great Pumpkin. "Like, wow!" doesn't seem
like a typical Peanuts character reaction ("Good grief!" is the norm),
so I always wondered it that was Schulz's way of giving Franklin
dialogue befitting of his race- or maybe that "Like, wow!" was a
common 'hip' catchphrase in the swingin' late sixties.
Interestingly, Franklin was introduced as from being "across town",
where Peppermint Patty and Roy hail from. Scholars of the strip may
recall that the short-lived Roy was first encountered as a campmate of
Charlie Brown's, and that Roy would later introduce to Charlie via
telephone his friend Peppermint Patty. That strip was iconical in that
it simultaneously introduced the character and her propensity for
calling C.B. "Chuck". ("CHUCK?!")
Any geographical references of that nature seemed to be discarded in
the seventies as P.P. became a full regular and Franklin a semi-
regular, with both appearing to live in the same neighborhood.
Franklin's subsequent appearances seem to be almost entirely strips in
which he tells Charlie Brown a funny story about his grandfather. He
never seems to interact with any of the other characters.
Now, does anybody know why Jose Petersen never talked during his
weeklong story arc?
HOWARD FEIN
George W Harris
And then, in 2008, Medium Large gets Charlie and Toni Bowen.
http://www.mediumlarge.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/medlarge717.jpg
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/44n2dr
--
Doesn't the fact that there are *exactly* 50 states seem a little suspicious?
George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'
Mike Marshall
http://joshreads.com/images/0601/i060109curtis.jpg
-Mike
JGM
> On Sep 24, 8:01 am, JGM <jgmcle...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Franklin never exhibited any stereotypical behavior or speech patterns
> associated with his race. The only time he really exhibits any emotion
> is early on, i.e. his shaken reaction to the eccentricities of the
> regular cast members (Snoopy in flying ace mode, Lucy's psychiatry
> booth, etc.) when he first visits the neighborhood. The final strip to
> that arc has him reiterating to Charlie Brown the bizarreness he's
> witnessed, with the tag line his "Like, wow!" ( . . .)
> Interestingly, Franklin was introduced as from being "across town",
> where Peppermint Patty and Roy hail from. (. . . )
> Any geographical references of that nature seemed to be discarded in
> the seventies as P.P. became a full regular and Franklin a semi-
> regular, with both appearing to live in the same neighborhood.
Perhaps non-canonical, but in at least one of the TV specials
Franklin gives Charlie Brown a "soul" handshake.
Similarly, the fact that Peppermint Patty lives across town is
central to the plot of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".
JGM
Blinky the Wonder Wombat
>
> Any geographical references of that nature seemed to be discarded in
> the seventies as P.P. became a full regular and Franklin a semi-
> regular, with both appearing to live in the same neighborhood.
> Franklin's subsequent appearances seem to be almost entirely strips in
> which he tells Charlie Brown a funny story about his grandfather. He
> never seems to interact with any of the other characters.
>
Wasn't it established that Peppermint Patty, maarcie, and Franklin
attended a different school from Charlie Brown and the rest of the
gang?
Rob Wynne
> Franklin never exhibited any stereotypical behavior or speech patterns
> associated with his race. The only time he really exhibits any emotion
> is early on, i.e. his shaken reaction to the eccentricities of the
> regular cast members (Snoopy in flying ace mode, Lucy's psychiatry
> booth, etc.) when he first visits the neighborhood. The final strip to
> that arc has him reiterating to Charlie Brown the bizarreness he's
> witnessed, with the tag line his "Like, wow!" to one last example:
> Linus prosthelyzing about the Great Pumpkin. "Like, wow!" doesn't seem
> like a typical Peanuts character reaction ("Good grief!" is the norm),
> so I always wondered it that was Schulz's way of giving Franklin
> dialogue befitting of his race- or maybe that "Like, wow!" was a
> common 'hip' catchphrase in the swingin' late sixties.
>
The Franklin moment that jumps to my mind is when Pepperment Patty wants to
be a champion figure skater, and goes out to the pond to practice, and is
annoyed that Franklin is practicing hockey there.
--
Rob Wynne / The Autographed Cat / d...@america.net
http://www.autographedcat.com/ / http://autographedcat.livejournal.com/
Gafilk 2009: Jan 9-11, 2009 - Atlanta, GA - http://www.gafilk.org/
Aphelion - Original SF&F since 1997 - http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/
axlq
To me, it looked like someone invented the caption, like many folks
do with Family Circus.
In fact, the comments on the Dennis page lead you to this wonderful
site that randomly pairs Nietzsche quotes with Family Circus
cartoons:
http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/
-A
Default User
> Wow. I almost commented here earlier this week on Monday's Dennis:
>
>
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20080922&name=Denni
s_The_Menace
Clearly that implies that young Shawn is a wannabe tagger and soon to
be in a gang! They've learned nothing.
> to the effect that this cartoon is jarring because "little Shawn" is
> drawn in a completely different style (ie. much more realistically)
> than other characters in the strip. Perhaps this bit of history had
> something to do with that.
Also common (and jarring) in Gasoline Alley.
Brian
--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)
Blinky the Wonder Wombat
Not qquite. The "Lil Sambo" character style is much more of a
carcicature/sterotype: non-human or childlike apperance; exagerated
white/pink lips; pitch-black skin tone; overly large, wide-open eyes.
http://www.traveltripz.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/nz-16-sep-2007-008-a.JPG
http://www.cynicsunlimited.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/1930-golliwog.jpg
http://ryanbarrett.typepad.com/cheapthrills/images/2007/12/03/allthis_2.jpg
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/princechawmin.jpg
But then we knew that, didn't we?
Antonio E. Gonzalez
wrote:
Coincidence that it's from "across town" that Charlie Brown finds
his only black and lesbian friends?
--
- ReFlex 76
- "Let's beat the terrorists with our most powerful weapon . . . hot
girl-on-girl action!"
- "The difference between young and old is the difference between
looking forward to your next birthday, and dreading it!"
- Jesus Christ - The original hippie!
<http://reflex76.blogspot.com/>
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/07245047157197572936>
Katana > Chain Saw > Baseball Bat > Hammer
Antonio E. Gonzalez
>"D. D. Degg" <ddd...@comcast.net> writes:
>
>>A couple months ago Peanuts celebrated the 40th
>>anniversary of the introduction of Franklin to the strip.
>>http://www.snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/meet_the_gang/meet_franklin.html
>
>>Two years later (1970) Hank Ketcham introduced into his
>>Dennis the Menace panel a young black friend for Dennis.
>>http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/09/he_really_is_a_menace
>
>>Not a particularly sensitive portrayal.
>
> Yeow! ... Well, that depiction makes the objection people
>had to Jackson understandable. I'd only seen the description and
>the caption (I think that was in the Complete Dennis set), and if
>you didn't see the picture it'd be hard to see what the fuss was
>about.
Let's see:
- "Jackson"
- "He runs FASTER than I do."
- That the former was an attempt at a "race" pun.
Amazing how much things have changed . . .
nickelshrink
> On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:08:55 -0700 (PDT), JGM <jgmc...@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Sep 24, 10:14 am, hf...@schools.nyc.gov wrote:
>>> On Sep 24, 8:01 am, JGM <jgmcle...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Franklin never exhibited any stereotypical behavior or speech patterns
>>> associated with his race. The only time he really exhibits any emotion
>>> is early on, i.e. his shaken reaction to the eccentricities of the
>>> regular cast members (Snoopy in flying ace mode, Lucy's psychiatry
>>> booth, etc.) when he first visits the neighborhood. The final strip to
>>> that arc has him reiterating to Charlie Brown the bizarreness he's
>>> witnessed, with the tag line his "Like, wow!" ( . . .)
>>> Interestingly, Franklin was introduced as from being "across town",
>>> where Peppermint Patty and Roy hail from. (. . . )
>>> Any geographical references of that nature seemed to be discarded in
>>> the seventies as P.P. became a full regular and Franklin a semi-
>>> regular, with both appearing to live in the same neighborhood.
>> Perhaps non-canonical, but in at least one of the TV specials
>> Franklin gives Charlie Brown a "soul" handshake.
>>
>> Similarly, the fact that Peppermint Patty lives across town is
>> central to the plot of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".
>>
>
> Coincidence that it's from "across town" that Charlie Brown finds
> his only black and lesbian friends?
>
Franklin sure was anxious to get back there
after visiting CB's much stranger neighborhood:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OZ80SreyTpA/SNqmLpNc9oI/AAAAAAAAAsw/Ocq7ilQaxmo/s1600-h/pnutsfranklin.JPG
(source: _My Anxieties Have Anxieties_, Owl Books 1991.
Strip may be from '68 or '69).
--
pax,
ruth
Save trees AND money! Buy used books!
http://stores.ebay.com/Noir-and-More-Books-and-Trains
Mike B
>> Similarly, the fact that Peppermint Patty lives across town
>> is central to the plot of "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".
> Coincidence that it's from "across town" that Charlie
> Brown finds his only black and lesbian friends?
From the wrong side of the tracks?