Egads! I think my older brother folded this original illustration of episode 16 and put it in his pocket or something. I bet Charles Schulz never abused his own drawings like this.
Yes, my older brother knows that the Olympics don’t take place every year. He knew that back in 1979 when this comic strip was published in our local weekly newspaper. It’s Calloway that thinks the Olympics are every year. It was done on purpose to establish that Calloway is losing his memories of what Earth was like. At least, that’s what my older brother says.
I don’t understand why he still gets so angry whenever I mention the annual Olympics.
*****
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 17 .
Here, you can see my older brother experimenting more with his 1979 comic strip “Calloway the Castaway,” changing the drawing style a little and adding more background details. I’m not sure how much the casual reader noticed when he/she read “Calloway the Castaway” in our local weekly newspaper, though.
Because I sometimes watched my brother draw the comic strips, I could usually see the original in its larger form where the smaller details would be easier to notice. On a computer screen today, you can enlarge the picture if you want to, but you couldn’t do that with a newspaper. If the details or letters were too small or smudged or faint, then you had to squint. Sometimes you just had to guess what was on the newspaper page, especially if it had been raining outside when you picked up your newspaper.
Haha. Newspapers. I wonder if they’re still around. I think I saw one in some guy’s driveway a few days ago.
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 16.
WARNING!! Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts, and five-minute birthday parties are unrelated topics that I’m putting into the same blog post.
*****
Charles Schulz and I share the same birthday, November 26, and for years I’ve been meaning to share my favorite Peanuts comic strip on Dysfunctional Literacy, but I keep forgetting. Today, I remembered and posted it below in four parts. The Peanuts Treasury (cover posted above) has a bunch of classic Peanuts strips from the 1960s (I think) and 1970s.
Later on today, I’ll have my five-minute birthday party with dozens of people, loud music, and maybe a few dancers. And then after a few minutes, I’ll get tired of everybody and tell them to leave. And then I’ll read a book and watch a movie. Maybe I’ll even read a Peanuts book. It’ll be great!
If people stay late during a five-minute birthday party, that’s okay, but when I tried the one-hour birthday party a few years ago, the lingerers got on my nerves, so I said never again. When it comes to crowds and music and dancers, five-minutes is about all I can take before I need my quiet again.
Another benefit of the five-minute birthday party is that it’s not long enough for any drama to take place. When I was younger, I thought a party wasn’t any good unless there was a fight, a girl started crying, or someone threw up. Now that I’m older, I don’t want any of those things happening at my five-minute birthday party, especially if it’s at my place. I don’t mind if the drama happens at somebody else’s party, though.
At any rate, if you’re borderline antisocial but still have friends/acquaintances that you don’t want to ignore, you might want to consider the five-minute party.
Haha! I related to this strip a lot when I was a kid. Anyway, Charles Schulz was an introvert (I think). He might have approved of the five-minute birthday party.
*****
A grammar-obsessed English teacher falls in ‘luuuvvv’ but discovers how chaotic and dangerous ‘luuuvvv’ can be.
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
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Not sure? Read a sample chapter of The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy.
Aaaarrrrgh! Here’s another comic strip where my older brother lost the original drawing. Even the scrapbook version he saved is kind of messed up. This is one of my favorites as well, but the setup line is smudged over from the adhesive on the other side. Why is it THIS one that has to be messed up?
And just in case you don’t know, smoking was a thing in 1979.
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 14.
My older brother lost the original drawings for several episodes of his 1979 comic strip “Calloway the Castaway.” Thankfully, he cut out a copy of each strip from our local weekly newspaper and pasted them into a scrapbook that he’s somehow hung onto for over 40 years. The newsprint has yellowed, but the comic strip is still readable.
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 14.
Out of all of his episodes of “Calloway the Castaway,” this one might make my older brother cringe the most. As it is, he gets uncomfortable looking at his old comic strips from 1979 because all he sees are the flaws, but he really doesn’t care for this one. Yeah, the punch line probably wouldn’t be taken well today, but for 1979 this was pretty light.
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 13 !
Having a continuous storyline in a weekly comic strip had to be kind of kind of tough for my older brother when he was a cartoonist for our local weekly newspaper in 1979. Each episode had to be self-contained enough that new readers understood what was goin on without reading past episodes, and each episode had to be compelling enough for familiar readers to come back.
I think this comic strip works on both levels.
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 12.
The potential problem with drawing a weekly comic strip is that readers might not be able to keep track when the comic strip has an extended storyline. This was one of my older brother’s concerns in 1979 when he was drawing “Calloway the Castaway” for our local weekly newspaper. It’s one thing to have a continuing story for a daily comic strip that everybody reads. But a weekly in an obscure newspaper?
And now it’s a weekly on an obscure blog.
For more context, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 11!
My older brother doesn’t like looking at his early comic strips because when he does, all he sees are flaws. One of his concerns when he gave me permission to put his newly-found “Calloway the Castaway” comic strips on my blog was that a few of the episodes had humor that might be considered sexist today. Even though I might not be thought of as the best person to judge, I think the sexism (if it’s actually there) is somewhat mild, especially compared to 1970s standards.
The sexism (if it’s actually there) is probably mild compared to today’s standards too, but I’m not sure what today’s standards are. Anyway, when this comic strip was published back in 1979, the weekly local newspaper received no backlash, at least none that we know about.
For more, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 10.
Back in 1979, the most popular video games in the arcades were Space Invaders, Asteroids, and some regular pinball machines that all looked alike to me. These games seem ancient when compared to what’s available today, but they’re still fun (and frustrating) whenever I find them in backroom arcades with the old, good stuff.
If the arcade game in the comic strip below looks archaic, that’s because video games looked like that in 1979 when my older brother’s comic strip came out in our local weekly newspaper. Those of you who were around back then, you probably remember some of those games.
For more, go to The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway” Episode 1!
And come back next week for The Lost Adventures of “Calloway the Castaway”: Episode 9.
Dysfunctional Literacy 