An excerpt from "Jim Sasseville: The Ghost in the (Peanuts) Machine" - www.fivecentsplease.org
Under Dell’s stewardship, Charlie Brown and the gang also became a regular supporting feature in Nancy, beginning with #146 (Sept. 1957). The biggest change, however, concerned the content. When Dell took over, the covers promised "All brand-new stories" ... and they meant it.
"Peanuts" fans spotted the change in Nancy #146, which boasted a four-page story with a baseball theme, clearly produced by Schulz himself (although unsigned); Jim confirms Sparky’s linework. But Schulz quickly realized that producing four full pages of original art for Nancy on a monthly basis, not to mention similar duties for the quarterly Tip Top and Fritzi Ritz, would be more than he was willing to handle. Then, too, he was only months away from debuting his own second newspaper strip, "It’s Only a Game".Schulz allowed Dell’s house art department to handle his characters in Nancy #147, but was unhappy with the results. (No surprise; the art is quite weak.) Schulz stepped in again for issue #148, but the workload problem hadn’t changed. Wanting greater fidelity to his own style, Schulz turned to Jim, who took over the reins with issue #149 and continued through #168 (July 1959). Jim essentially became Schulz’s employee and was paid $100 per week for this work; since he was making only $80 per week at Art Instruction, this -- along with the even higher paycheck he’d soon receive, for helping Schulz with "It’s Only a Game" -- was a substantial raise.
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An excerpt from "Jim Sasseville: The Ghost in the (Peanuts) Machine" - www.fivecentsplease.org
Under Dell’s stewardship, Charlie Brown and the gang also became a regular supporting feature in Nancy, beginning with #146 (Sept. 1957). The biggest change, however, concerned the content. When Dell took over, the covers promised "All brand-new stories" ... and they meant it.
"Peanuts" fans spotted the change in Nancy #146, which boasted a four-page story with a baseball theme, clearly produced by Schulz himself (although unsigned); Jim confirms Sparky’s linework. But Schulz quickly realized that producing four full pages of original art for Nancy on a monthly basis, not to mention similar duties for the quarterly Tip Top and Fritzi Ritz, would be more than he was willing to handle. Then, too, he was only months away from debuting his own second newspaper strip, "It’s Only a Game".Schulz allowed Dell’s house art department to handle his characters in Nancy #147, but was unhappy with the results. (No surprise; the art is quite weak.) Schulz stepped in again for issue #148, but the workload problem hadn’t changed. Wanting greater fidelity to his own style, Schulz turned to Jim, who took over the reins with issue #149 and continued through #168 (July 1959). Jim essentially became Schulz’s employee and was paid $100 per week for this work; since he was making only $80 per week at Art Instruction, this -- along with the even higher paycheck he’d soon receive, for helping Schulz with "It’s Only a Game" -- was a substantial raise.
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