Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

I Watched Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

In Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown, the entire Peanuts gang (including Snoopy and Woodstock) go to camp for the summer and run afoul three bullies and a really mean cat.  Along with all the other camp activities, there’s also a rafting race.  With no adult supervision, the boys (led by Charlie Brown) end up one raft, the girls (led by Peppermint Patty) end up on another raft, Snoopy and Woodstock build their own raft, and the bullies try to sabotage the three other teams.  While Charlie Brown tries to find his voice as a leader and Peppermint Patty runs her raft by having every decision determined by secret ballot, Snoopy and Woodstock explore the wilderness.

Though Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown was released theatrically in 1977, it was made by the same team responsible for the Charlie Brown TV specials and it feels more like an extended TV show than an actual movie.  It’s still a cute production, though, especially if you’re already a fan of Peanuts.  The animation is primitive by today’s standards but it has a retro appeal and Charlie Brown is as likable as he is wishy-washy.  Not surprisingly, Snoopy and Woodstock are the film’s MVPs.  From the minute that they drive up on their motorcycle, Snoopy and his friend steal the movie.  Because it lacks both the spiritual and the philosophical themes that we usually associate with Peanuts, the movie’s not as memorable or poignant as the holiday specials and some of my favorite characters, like Linus and Lucy, don’t have much to do.  I was especially disappointed that Lucy stayed in the background and let Peppermint Patty run the girl’s team.  Whatever happened to the Lucy who could always convince Charlie Brown to kick the football?

In the end, the important thing is that the movie has a good message.  Bullies are losers, nothing’s more important than friendship, and the best team wins.

The Covers of The Spider

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

by Rafael DeSoto

Who was the Spider?

In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Spider was toughest and most ruthless pulp action hero around.  His real name was Richard Wentworth and he was a millionaire who, having served in World War I, was determined to wage war on crime back home.  What distinguished the Spider from the other pulp heroes of the day was his brand of justice.  He was just as willing to kill as his opponents and a typical issue of The Spider featured thousands of casualties.  Though each story may have been different, all ended with Wentworth killing the villain and stamping the body with his “spider mark.”

Published on a monthly basis by Popular Press, The Spider ran for 10 years, from 1933 to 1943.  If not for World War II and the resulting paper shortage, his adventures probably could have run for another decade.

The majority of The Spider‘s covers were done by either John Newton Howitt or Rafael DeSoto and they were often as violent as the stories found within.  This first group of covers were done by John Newton Howitt:

This next batch of covers were all done by Rafael DeSoto, who brought his own unique style to the Shadow’s violent adventures:

The covers below have never officially been credited to either Howitt or DeSoto.  They look like they were done by DeSoto to me but I don’t know for sure:

In the 1970s, Pocket Books reprinted four of The Spider’s adventures.  The covers of those paperbacks were done by Robert Maguire and, as you can tell by looking below, they attempted to bring The Spider into the “modern” age.  Steve Holland served as the model for Maguire’s version of The Spider:

New Spider novels are still being written to do this day and publishers continue to still occasionally reprint The Spider’s adventures.  Meanwhile, original issues are widely-sought after by collectors.  The Spider lives on!