Sunday Afternoon Roundup
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Jeanne Young O’Neil obituary; USPS postage stamps for 2025; Famous Cartoonists School course art; Garry Trudeau versus Mort Drucker and Jerry Dumas; Peanuts collectibles; 2024 children and young adult bestsellers.
Jeanne Young O’Neil – RIP
Jeanne Young O’Neil, the daughter of Blondie creator Chic Young, the sister to current Blondie producer Dean Young, and the inspiration for the Blondie character Cookie Bumstead has passed away.
Jeanne Athel Young O’Neil 85, of Tampa, FL, passed away peacefully at home on January 19, 2025, surrounded by her loving children. Born August 21, 1939, in Flushing, NY, she was the daughter of Chic and Athel Young, and wife of the late Lawrence “Larry” O’Neil.
Jeanne was raised in a family full of creativity. Her mother was an accomplished concert harpist, and her father, Chic Young, was a cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip “Blondie.” Jeanne herself appeared as Cookie, the daughter of Blondie and Dagwood, in the strip.
Jeanne gave The Library of Congress 150 early original Blondie comic strips.
From R. C. Harvey: “As a measure of [the comic strip’s] popularity: when Blondie and Dagwood produced a daughter in 1941 and Young ran a contest to name the new arrival, 431,275 people submitted suggestions. “Cookie” was the result.”
USPS Stamps for 2025
While it unfortunately failed to issue stamps to honor Edward Gorey this year (the ten panels making up the cover of the first Amphigorey book would have resulted in collectibles for Gorey fans and multiple sales to cat fanciers) the United States Postal Service will be offering some comic related issues.
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. Each episode chronicles the adventures of the perpetually optimistic and generous main character SpongeBob SquarePants and his aquatic friends in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Only a month after its TV premiere in 1999, the show became the highest-rated and most viewed animated Saturday morning program that year, beating Pokemon. Its popularity made it a multimedia franchise and the highest rated Nickelodeon series. SpongeBob SquarePants has won a variety of awards including six Annie Awards, eight Golden Reel Awards, four Emmy Awards, two BAFTA Children’s Awards, and a record-breaking twenty-one Kids’ Choice Awards.
Goodnight Moon
Goodnight Moon is an American children’s book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. First published in 1947, “Goodnight Moon” remains a favorite bedtime story for families everywhere. By celebrating everyday rituals rather than fantasy, this iconic picture book revolutionized children’s publishing. In 1945, the idea for Goodnight Moon appeared to Margaret Wise Brown in a dream. The characters in Goodnight Moon are depicted as rabbits because illustrator Clement Hurd was better at drawing rabbits than humans. Goodnight Moon had poor initial sales, from about 1,500 copies in 1953 to about 800,000 copies annually in 2007. By 2017 it had cumulatively sold an estimated 48 million copies and has been translated into at least fifteen other languages.
The released dates are still to be determined. More at Stamp News Now.
Art of the Famous Cartoonists Course
Stockbridge — The Norman Rockwell Museum will debut its new exhibition “All for Laughs: The Artists of the Famous Cartoonist Course,” on Saturday, March 1 [running through June 15, 2025].
The course was correspondence based and part of the Famous Artists School, founded in 1948 in Westport, Conn. “The school was started by artist Albert Dorn, who at the time was the president of the Society of Illustrators,” museum Chief Curator Stephanie Plunkett told The Berkshire Edge. “He was able to recruit 11 famous illustrators, including Rockwell, to create the curriculum for this correspondence course.”
The school closed in 2016; however, back in 2014, the school donated its archives of artwork to the Norman Rockwell Museum. The archives include lessons created by prominent artists including Rube Goldberg, Al Capp, Milton Caniff, and Dick Cavalli. “Looking through the archives, it’s interesting to see that each artist had a niche in terms of what they were doing,” Plunkett said. “Each one of these artists had a very unique way of working. For example, Virgil Partch was considered to be a surrealist cartoonist, while Al Capp became known for the comic strip ‘Li’l Abner,’ and each one had a particular approach to their artistry.”
Shaw Israel Izikson reports for The Berkshire Edge. The exhibit’s page at the Norman Rockwell Museum.
A Tale of Two Comic Strips
In the 1980s, there were two comic strips about the White House. One was well written, the other was well drawn.
Doonesbury was brilliant, witty satire. Its caustic humor revolutionized the comics page (and in fact, some newspapers moved it from the comics page to the editorial page). It developed a huge following. However, the drawing in Doonesbury was always mediocre at best. Artist Garry Trudeau could not draw a decent caricature to save his life, so he would always draw the President off screen…
The comic strip Benchley by Mort Drucker and Jerry Dumas had the opposite problem. The drawings by Drucker were impeccable– every day there were fresh caricatures of Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Tip O’Neil and many others.
Unfortunately, the text from Jerry Dumas tended to be corny, old fashioned pablum…
David Apatoff at Illustration Art (as do the commenters there) contrast and compare Benchley v. Doonesbury.
Peanuts Collectibles from Original Art to Dolls
For fans of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of their pals, happiness is Charles Schulz’s beloved comic strip and the books, specials and products it inspired.
To celebrate the gang’s 75th anniversary, we rounded up some of our favorite items from key dates in Peanuts history.
By 1958, Peanuts was appearing in 355 U.S. and 40 foreign newspapers. That was also the year Hungerford Plastics Company released the first line of Peanuts dolls. Three years later, the company introduced a second edition of the plastic dolls, including Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, baby Sally, Pigpen, Schroeder and Schroeder’s piano. This full set of 1961 dolls, each measuring 3 inches to 9 inches tall, realized $1,134 in a November 2020 Heritage auction.
Rhonda Reinhart for Intelligent Collector looks at selected Peanuts collectibles.
2024 Children’s Bestsellers
Our 2024 Facts and Figures compilation of children’s and YA bestsellers includes a wide variety of titles, dominated by middle grade graphic novel series, YA thrillers and romance, and evergreen picture book favorites. Our lists are based on print unit sales at outlets that report to NPD BookScan, which tracks approximately 85% of the print market. Here we compile the books that sold more than 100,000 copies in four categories: Hardcover Frontlist, Paperback Frontlist, Hardcover Backlist, and Paperback Backlist.
Publishers Weekly list of 2024 bestselling books for children and young adults.
Hardcover Frontlist: 500,000+
1. The Scarlet Shedder (Dog Man #12). Dav Pilkey. Scholastic/Graphix (1,273,926)
2. Hot Mess (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #19). Jeff Kinney. Abrams/Amulet (765,287)
3. Big Jim Begins (Dog Man #13). Dav Pilkey. Scholastic/Graphix (664,819)
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