Jim Davis, who created the cat decades ago, said he embraced the opportunity to put readers in his strips, noting that his cat has long had a habit of breaking through the fourth wall and addressing readers directly.

“It’s really a nod to where the industry is going,” Davis said in an interview from his studio in rural Indiana. “I’m talking about entertainment in general — TV, movies, newspapers, journalism, cartooning. Everything is going online.”

He said that “this interaction with the public, with the fans, can be a very healthy thing and can be great fun. It really brings intellectual properties like ‘Garfield’ to the public in a very personal way.”

The feature will soon be available for Apple’s iPad and iPhone.

“The PEANUTS holiday TV specials are iconic and represent a family tradition of watching Charlie Brown and the gang kick off the holiday season,” stated Neil Cole, CEO, Iconix Brand Group. Cole added, “This new deal with ABC demonstrates the continued relevance of the PEANUTS brand as it celebrates its 60th anniversary.”
This fall, the famed PEANUTS comic strip will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The first and most well known of the beloved animated holiday specials, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on television in 1965, marking this year as its 45th anniversary.

Earlier this year, Craig Schulz found himself in the national news again, when the Schulz family made a $175 million deal with Iconix Brand Group of New York. The new agreement gives the family a 20-percent share in the Peanuts franchise, and greater creative control.

“Our biggest fear has always been somebody buying up the rights and us not having any control,” Schulz said. “We’d rather have this property make $10 million a year for 50 years, than make $100 million in one year and walk away from it.”

The “Peanuts” brand is licensed in more than 40 countries and drives annual retail sales topping $2 billion, with more than 24,000 new products approved every year.

“It’s a long-term growing stock that has to be managed properly,” Schulz said.

The artwork is cool anyway. Props to Priggee.

According the a Reuters story, Iconix projects a $75 million annual royalty revenue. The Schulz family also has an existing revenue sharing deal for the Peanuts brand that is separate from its partnership.

The Government of the British Virgin Islands is delighted to announce a new coin release celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Peanuts, the famous cartoon strip featuring Charlie Brown and his dog, Snoopy.

British Virgin Islands Commemorative 60th Anniversary of Peanuts Silver Proof Coin Featuring Snoopy. Also Minted are Proof Gold and Uncirculated Cupro Nickel Versions.

Approved by Buckingham Palace, the obverse of the coin bears a fine effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS. The Proof Fine 999.9 Gold coin is available plain or coloured whilst the Unc. Cupro Nickel and Proof Sterling Silver coins are presented as coloured versions to make Snoopy and Woodstock come to life.

From the press release:

“PSI is all about educating our members and our members are all about pampering their clients’ pets,” said Terry Chance, PSI marketing director. “Garfield is definitely an intellectual cat who wants the best treatment possible. We are delighted about the opportunity to work with the Garfield characters. They are fun, loveable and extremely well known among pet owners.”

PSI will immediately begin using Garfield, Odie and friends in its member programs, products, campaigns and events to help members market their services. The characters are expected to play a prominent role in telling pet owners about the many pet-care services offered by PSI’s professional pet sitters.

Chad talked about the first dozen years were he started the strip and pitched it to the Anchorage Daily News and started building a local following that allowed him to begin selling his first book collection. He used a print broker to get the book published and distributed, but quickly learned to make the most off of each book, he had to sell it himself so he started attending fairs, and markets with lots of traffic and sold the books directly to the public along with other merchandise. He still does about 100 “shows” a year where he sits in his booth talking and selling his calendars, books and t-shirts. Within his first year of doing the strip for the Anchorage paper, his first book collection and starting to shows he was able to turn his work into a livable wage.

Bill came along in 2005. He was selling and distributing tourist merchandise and felt that Tundra could grow much bigger and he approached Chad and pitched a road trip to the west coast and see if he couldn’t sell the strip outside of Alaska. The trip yielded one paper. Bill spoke about the need to tailor the pitch to each editor, and that he found that trying to get appointments with editors didn’t work so well, that drop-ins were more successful. He also found that the number of papers the feature is in can be more impressive than the actual name of the paper. He tries to sell as much to smaller papers (or weeklies) as bigger papers and uses those numbers to help promote the strip to future editors. Bill also talked about using newsletters with fans to help spread Tundra’s fame and then urge fans to contact their papers and tell the editors about Tundra.