 "They Finally Got It Right" | 2008-06-18 |
| - Reviewed By weirdwarrior |
A good addition to this series. The only let-down is that we're seeing more and more strips that have already been collected in other Peanuts books. It was bound to happen though, so I'm not knocking off a star for this.
There are two real gems to this book.
One is the story where Linus (my absolute favorite Peanuts character) runs for class president. I'm betting Schultz had a lot of fun with this. He lampoons the entire election process. This includes the speeches and promises, the press coverage, the polling, and everything else.
The other gem is even more important to me. This is where the title of my review comes into play. They had the great Bill Melendez write the foreward for this book.
Mister Melendez was an animator who wound up directing every single Peanuts movie and special ever made. In addition to this, he also did the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock on most of them (the exceptions being those few specials where Snoopy actually talked). Considering his close association with Schultz and his creation, he really should have been the one to write the foreward back in book 1 when this series started. Instead, throughout this series, we'd get nothing but celebrity endorsement after celebrity endorsement.
I was actually afraid that they'd do this entire series without so much as mentioning the man. Thankfully, these fears came to naught with the release of this book. Like I said, "they finally got it right".
The foreward itself is only 3 pages, but the quality makes up for it. Melendez talks about the events that led up to him meeting Schultz, his first impressions of the man, and how they went from a car commecial to a Peabody Award-winning special ("A Charlie Brown Christmas"), and then to a long and enjoyable career making other animated Peanuts titles (some great; some not so great). This is a story that certainly merits more than 3 pages, but Melendez takes the space he's given and manages both to inform and to satisfy.
If you're a Peanuts fan (especially if you're a Linus fan), click on that buy button. Trust me, you won't regret it. |
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| "Let's cuddle up with in security blanket." | 2008-01-31 |
| - Reviewed By clayface9 |
| This edition of The Complete Peanuts covers the years 1963 and 1964. Probably the most significant event during this time period was the introduction of "5", along with his sisters "3" and "4". 5 may not be well remembered, but he is still a pretty interesting character. These are classic comic strips from one of the masters of the medium. Great stuff, highly recommended. |
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| "Nice collection" | 2008-01-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3JYKF2EW3KQV |
| This book, along with the rest of the collection, is simply marvelous. The complete work of Schulz is nicely presented. It reads itself so fast that we can't keep up buying the next one! |
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 "More of the same, however excellent that same was" | 2007-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By hunza1 |
Much of this was more of the same, the continued development of the characters. There is a set of new characters (Five, with Four and Three coming later) but they turn out to be little more than props, good for a week or two and afterwards for when Schulz needed a generic male for Charlie Brown (Shermy now only shows up for group strips). Three and Four look like little Peppermint Patties, and since Peppermint Patty ends up coming from a single-parent family (father only) one wonders if this is sort of backstory for that.
Foreshadowing some of the changes coming up on the next volume are a couple of developments. The baseball mound has become a scene itself, where the characters come up to chat on various things. As for this volume (1963-64), it's just a couple of characters coming up with things to talk about.
As for the red-headed girl, she has changed from a merely distant figure (distant implying "out of Charlie Brown's League) to a seemingly active source of shame and humiliation. Not that Charlie Brown needs her to humiliate him (as some of the baseball groups show, he could do that all by himself), but it definitely adds an accent point to what's going on around him with those he talks to.
One of the most interesting comics has Charlie Brown actually coming on top, although it's more his father than him. Violet spends a few panels bragging about her Father, which Charlie Brown doesn't so much parry but amplifies by explanation. However, CB stops Violet short and explains that his father makes an honorable living and always has a minute for him no matter what he's doing. The last panel has Violet walking with a slight downward tilt of her head and a seeming sadness in her eyes, as if she had finally been devastatingly bested.
In the end, this is worth getting, although I'd get the 1959-1960 and 1961-1962 before this one. |
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| "the complete peanuts 1961/62" | 2007-08-22 |
| - Reviewed By rpmg |
| I came to peanuts cartoons late in my life, but for the past five years I have bought every book available. Luckily for me as I have been a customer of amazon both in america and england and bringing out yearly books has been marvelous. Whenever I feel down I just read a few pages and I'm fine. The trouble is Im' going to be around 80 years old before this complete series is printed!!!! Is there anyway we can move this along? Doreen uk |
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| "How can he lose when he's so sincere?" | 2007-06-29 |
| - Reviewed By rolleriffic |
A 2007 summer reading list mini review.
Peanuts has been a lifelong obsession with me. Their first t.v. special came out when I was a toddler. One of the first record albums, I recall listening to was "Your'e a good man Charlie Brown" which contains acted out scenes of many of the strips in this volume. I also grew up across the street from a public library and spent countless hours reading every book of Peanuts reprints I could get my hand on.
I especially like the 1963 to 1964 strips because they initiate two of my favorite Peanuts storylines: the one please line, and Joe Shlabotnik. By the one please line, I refer to the strips where the peanuts gang are lined up to buy movie tickets. Sequences like these afforded Schulz the opportunity to put most of his characters in one strip. Joe Shlabotnik is the name of Charlie Brown's favorite ball player who gets sent down to the low minors in this tome. When Patty asks in the 5-9-64 strip if he had feet of clay, Charlie browns reply is "No, he had a low batting average."
One of the best indicators of the staying power of Peanuts is that I am seldom able to read mine as my seven year old daughter is constantly borrowing them. Apparently, she is beginning the same lifelong obsession with peanuts that I have. Good grief!
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| "Excellent quality but strip size a tad small" | 2007-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By aprietos2001 |
| This is the first of "The Complete Peanuts" series I purchase. Having been a Peanuts aficionado as a child and teenager, I am happy that Fantagraphic gives me the chance to revisit the gang in these beautifully designed books. I chose this volume for the sentimental reason I was born in 1963 and wanted to see the strips that were running as I came into the world. Although I was more than happy with the paper quality and design, I want to mention my disappointment at the reduced size of the strip panels, compared to the Holt, Rinehart and Winston editions of the 1960s-70s I was accustomed to. The Peanuts Parade books published in the 80s are even larger in size. One can only speculate as to why Fantagraphic choose to print smaller-sized panels (perhaps to save in costs?), and it's the only reason I'm giving 4 instead of 5 stars to this otherwise extraordinary volume. |
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| "Good work, Charles Schulz" | 2007-05-31 |
| - Reviewed By jdangermond |
I would definitely give this latest volume 5 stars just for the opportunity of reading the strips. But I'm really happy that the printing quality is much better than the last volume. The Sunday strips particularly are as clean and crisp as the 1960s paperback books from Holt.
Highlights for me were the Sunday strips that weren't printed before, along with the greater explanation of newest character 5 and sisters 3 and 4. Although the school election had been printed in Peanuts Classics (out of print large volume from the 1970s), the run of cartoons wasn't released in its entirety. I noticed that a week's worth of cartoons which took place after Charlie Brown's Little Leaguer Elbow incident wasn't originally included in the 1960s books, which made me wonder if Mr. Schulz had decided it was less than his usual steller (something I never could understand because I love them all).
Any Peanut fan will tell you that this volume, along with the others, is well worth buying. I cannot recommend it enough. |
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| "A Masterpiece Reaching Full Flower" | 2007-05-29 |
| - Reviewed By jdcofield |
In this volume of Peanuts we see Charles M. Schulz reaching his most productive years. The Peanuts neighborhood is fairly well set now, with Snnopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and Schroeder as the main characters and Shermy, Patty, and Violet, who were original co-stars, now making fewer and fewer appearances. Frieda with the naturally curly hair is as vain and silly as ever, but at least she's gotten rid of her cat Faron. Pigpen makes only two brief appearances, but I'm pretty sure he'll turn up again. Among the most entertaining newcomers are 5 and his sisters 3 and 4, Schulz's wry comment on the increasing numberization of modern life in the 1960s.
Among the most interesting of the strips here are those which focussed on events which were really current in 1963 and 1964, like Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the Presidential election of 1964, which Linus seems to parody with his ultimately unsuccessful run for class president. We also see some tantalizing hints of future sequences, like Linus' fear of the dreaded queen snake and Charlie Brown's continually unsuccessful kite flying. There are no kite eating trees around yet, but you know they're lurking out there, ready to appear!
Each volume of Peanuts leaves me laughing and eager to see the next one. Six month intervals are almost too tantalizing to endure! |
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| "wordless" | 2007-05-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A36VVTZKII1IPR |
What is there to say but that again an absolutely befitting jewel has been added to the monumental genius of Schulz's legacy?
Stephan |
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