Pokemon’s attempt to replace Snoopy finally uncovered

Gaming Historians Did You Know Gaming have unearthed a fascinating part of Pokemon’s past, sharing a video diving into the company’s attempts to launch a comic strip to replace Peanuts.

The Pokemon franchise is everywhere. Whether it’s on our screens with new titles like Pokemon Concierge, on Switch with Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, or mobile devices with Pokemon Go, the franchise is ubiquitous, omnipresent, and reaches just about every corner of the globe.

This is all by design, of course, and after the lightning-in-a-bottle success of Pokemon in the late 1990s, both The Pokemon Company and Nintendo set about spreading the word of Pikachu across the globe, and within every medium possible.

One forgotten part of this story, until very recently, is Pokemon’s attempts to launch a comic strip. Specifically, one to take over from the iconic Peanuts line in the early 2000s, after the passing of author Charles M. Schulz.

Thankfully for history nerds and Pokemon fans everywhere, the talented folks over at Did You Know Gaming have put together a video charting the planning, pitch, and ultimate demise of this comic strip, and every step along the way in this fascinating misfire for the iconic franchise.

Pokemon’s plans to launch a comic strip detailed in new video

Youtube Channel Did You Know Gaming has shared a new video titled “We Preserved Pokemon’s Biggest Failure”, and the fascinating watch details the plans for Pokemon to succeed the original Peanuts comic strip in the US, though clearly, that did not eventually come to pass.

Without spoiling the contents of the video, The Pokemon Company rushed to create a comic strip after learning of Charles M. Schulz illness and the imminent retirement of the famous Peanuts comic.

In an attempt to get a Pokemon comic into newspapers all across the United States, Pokemon threw together a quick comic, but the result may have been too quirky, and a little too niche, to ever truly work with the casual audience.

A lot of Pokemon and Nintendo fans are having fun in the comments beneath the post, and even sharing their take on the failed comic.

One comment suggests, “I feel like Mario would make a better Newspaper strip than Pokémon.” While another adds, “I mean… it’s no more unfunny than the average newspaper comic to be fair.”

A sensible suggestion in the comments notes, “Based on what you guys said, it looks like the writer didn’t know if they were making a kids comic or an adults comic, making it boring for everyone.”

Meanwhile, some fans remember the comics from the small rollout eventually launched by The Pokemon Company, as one fan adds, “oh my god I remember this comic in the Detroit Free Press. nobody ever talked about it so I assumed it was a weird local artist that had a tenuous relationship with copyright law?”

It’s fairly clear why these comics didn’t take off the way Peanuts ever did, but it’s still fascinating to think what might have been. Still, there is lots of good Pokemon media now, with plenty asking for Pokemon Concierge Season 2.