If you know Charles Schulzs cartoon kids solely from greeting cards, holiday specials, and advertisements shilling Dolly Madison (the cakes, not the historical figure), then you might be forgiven for dismissing Snoopy and his friends as saccharine pabulum.
If thats the case, then you definitely dont know peanuts about Peanuts, pal, as the long-running comic strip was equal parts existential, subversive, deeply human, and hilarious. Consider taking a second look at an old favorite by paying a visit to Arizona Museum for Youths Peanuts at Bat: The Life & Art of Charles Schulz.
The exhibition consists of 200 Peanuts comic strips from the past 40 years, including a section focusing on the gangs iconic baseball outings, plus plenty of fun for kids and kids at heart who can play Schroeders symphonies at a pint-sized piano, sit at Lucys Psychiatric Help booth (still offering advice for only five cents), or hang out in a glow-in-the-dark Great Pumpkin Patch.
The Schulz-centric exhibition runs through Sunday, September 11, at 35 North Robson Street in Mesa.
Sundays, 12-4 p.m.; Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., 2011