 "Here comes Good Ol' Charlie Brown, yes, sir!"" | 2008-07-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2SDM2D1X3HE7Z |
| This collection features the original Peanuts comics in its first 2 and 1/2 years. Not even the 1st Peanuts book includes all of the cartoons (I have the book and I don't remember it including the 1st cartoon where Shermy introduces Charlie Brown, sarcastically calling him "Good ol' Charlie Brown"). There are also cartoon from Holt's 2nd book More Peanuts. The 1st 5 characters included Charlie Brown (who started out naive and friendly), Patty (not Peppermint, she was just a cute girl with bobbed hair and a plaid dress and matching hairbow), Shermy (Charlie Brown's original buddy), Violet (known for her pigtails and mudpies) and Snoopy (who walked on all fours whose gags were more cute, not yet ingenious). The next year (1951) would mark the debut of Schroeder, who started out as a baby and later became a pint-sized musical genius with a passion for Beethoven (you can see the cartoon where Charlie Brown plants the seeds inside the future musical maestro's head). Violet and Patty would start out as friends to both Charlie Brown and Shermy. Also, Charlie Brown 1st models his trademarked shirt with the jagged stripe at the end of the 1st year. 1952 marks the beginning of the Sunday strip (I believe it's the one they're all playing tag; the trademarked block letters had yet to be introduced). And of course, we see the debut of the Van Pelt family. First introduced is Lucy, a cute little girl (seriously) with saucerlike eyes (she'd later sport a fussbudget attitude)and later, her baby brother, Linus (at 1st, he'd fall down a lot in the strip and had yet to be known for his blanket and his philosophy on life). Classic cartoons include the debut (of course), Charlie Brown getting offended by a rumour of a crush on Patty, Violet reprimanding Snoopy for sitting in the birdbath, the gang playing tag, Lucy mistaking Charlie Brown's record collection for licorice candy and the 1st instance of Charlie Brown getting the football yanked away (1st from Violet, but Lucy would later take on the role ever since). If you're a collector of Peanuts, you'll want this collection! |
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| "The seeds of greatness" | 2008-03-30 |
| - Reviewed By cobraic |
| These are the strips you seldom see reprinted and yet they say so much. The first two years of "Peanuts" introduces you not only to many of the key characters (who look somewhat different than they would in later years) but also to the usually gentle, yet occasionally sharp, humor of Charles M. Schulz, which was splendid from the start but would get even better as the years passed. As a bonus, you get to see Schroder and Linus as babies, and Lucy as a toddler. (In Schulz's comic-strip world, they would age, but only a little.) You see Charlie Brown before he wore his familiar shirt with the zig-zag design, and meet Snoopy when he seemed more dog than human. What's more, there is an excellent introduction by Garrison Keillor, a summary of Schulz's life by David Michaelis, who would go on to write the definitive Schulz biography, and a lengthy interview with the great cartoonist himself. Even the index is helpful in locating such all-important items as when the immortal phrase "Good grief!" was first uttered. A valuable collection indeed. |
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| "From one completely new to "Peanuts"" | 2008-02-26 |
| - Reviewed By orange5645654 |
Prior to reading this book, I had only circumstantial knowledge of "Peanuts". I thought this could be a good way to get started on it, and I was right!
That sublime book is hardcover, has a dustjacket, 2 full years of strip-ness, an introduction before the strips, and an essay after them, and also an interview with Schulz.
The whole thing is top-notch. The essay provided enormous insight on what "Peanuts" represented in its context, its public importance, and on Schulz as a person. That essay even made me cry. I swear to God, you'll cry too. Behind Schulz's funny and cute world are some terrible pains and lifelong scars. Schulz was a full of self-doubts and low self-esteem, despite his tremendous success, and all the experience he gained from that shows through his work, and works cathartically by making those moments look fun and funny and outside of ourselves.
I was surprised by "Peanuts" because I did not expect it to be this profound, nor this funny. To be honest, I expected something much more naive and lame, but it was not!
This book is my absolute recommendation for anyone intending to get started on "Peanuts": it is classy, it has perfect paper quality, good intro, amazingly deep and touching essay on Schulz and "Peanuts" - which relates the tragedy of his mother and of his going to war, and his last days - and an interview of the man himself; the whole thing gives you the impression that there was something saintly about Charles M. Schulz, and indeed, I want him canonised.
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| "always a pleasure" | 2007-05-07 |
| - Reviewed By manuelaportugal |
| I used to red peanuts when I was a kid and finally we have the complete colection in a nice edition...it is always good to see my childhood pals..charlie brown, snoopy. A good edition for collectors and fans of comic books |
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| "PENAUTS THE BEST" | 2007-03-11 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Penauts is very good with lots of jokes from the times of your gramma's expressing themselves of there feelings and find the old gang of ol Charlie Brown I consider those who like to buy there penauts collection at Amazon.com. Good luck! |
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| "Peanuts, a huge Pleasure" | 2007-03-10 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I really enjoyed reading the first volume. It was really funny, and had great jokes. The presentation was wicked and very nice. At the beggining of the book they give you a great introduction and at the end there is a very long interview which is quite interesting to read. I really do recommend this volume of Peanuts even if you aren't a great fan and don't really know anything about it, because it gives you many laughs. I bought the volume on amazon because I never found any other store or bookshop that sold the volume cheaper. |
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| "Peanuts, from the Start... Lucky Us!!!" | 2007-01-14 |
| - Reviewed By tchap0722 |
The Peanuts has always been, to me, the best comic strip. The evolution of each character of the years has made each of them a part of our culture. I grew up reading the Peanuts, often searching for the latest softback books whenever my mom would haul me off to Gemco or similar stores. The fact that I, and the rest of the world, can enjoy this wonderful series in chronological order from the very start, is incredible. These sturdy hard cover books come with an introduction and an index. In the first volume, the introduction is by Garrison Keillor. The index is a nice touch, as you can look through and enjoy the first appearance of characters and other pivotal moments. These strips hold up very well. I ahve no doubt that were they to be released today, having never been seen before, they would be just as popular and we would soon be calling our friends Blockhead, while they sigh, "Good grief."
Highly recommended. Five Stars! |
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| "Charles Schultz's great work" | 2006-12-30 |
| - Reviewed By ortegacy1 |
"Peanuts" is a strip easily taken for granted partly because its impact doesn't come right away. Often it comes after years of reading the strip. Fortunately, the good people at Fantagraphics are amassing the strips into volumes spanning every two years since 1950.
In this excellent first volume, Charlie Brown is not the singled-out doormat that we know and love but he is part of a group of kids that take turns trying to outwit life and each other in four panels. Shremy, Violet, Patty (not Peppermint) and a very mute Snoopy (who seems to be "owned" by all of them) are not bit players but have equal face time. As the volume progresses, we see Charlie Brown develop into a more "main" character especially with the emergence of baby Schroeder and toddler Lucy, both of whom grow up rather quickly.
You can single out any one strip and Schultz' voice rings clear. How he accomplished combining pathos and defeat with sympathy and wit without resorting to cliches is astounding. Peanuts always cheers me up not only because of the technical beauty of the simple line drawings but because it presents childhood and adulthood as a single space teeming with contradictions and disappointments. That he was able to craft lovable characters out of such a space is testimony to his genius. |
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| ""The head of the household?...Speaking!"" | 2005-08-17 |
| - Reviewed By gfhuntsman |
| Finally, FINALLY a Peanuts collection reprinting strips in chronological order and nothing left out. I grew up reading Peanuts book after Peanuts book. Read them from cover to back over and over and over again. And one thing I noticed was that sometimes the strips weren't in order. For example, one series of strips would depict the Peanuts gang starting off the baseball season, the next page would have a Christmas storyline. It took me ages to acquire Peanuts and More Peanuts, the two first Peanuts collection books, and only now am I finding out that I may have only read a third of the entire collection. The Complete Peanuts Collection begins at the VERY beginning leaving nothing out. Printing for the first time strips that even Sparky didn't want to print. Just to let him know from the Great Beyond, I love all the strips I never have read before. To think that there are a great number of strips that I am yet to become familiar with. An absolute MUST for any Peanuts fanatic. |
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| "Li'l Folks" | 2005-07-29 |
| - Reviewed By sknayfan |
| Before Charlie Brown developed into the lovable loser, and before Snoopy and Woodstock took over the strip, this collection of the first two years is an excellent compilation of PEANUTS. It is hard to imagine, but in these early strips, Charlie Brown is more of a DENNIS THE MENACE and girls are actually fighting over his affection (i.e. Violet, Patty, and Lucy). Snoopy is actually a "pet dog" and inventive in the early years and, as support player, is more likeable and refreshing than his modern day persona which pervades the main focus of the strip in the later years. Sifting through the multitude of these daily panels, we do see the early glimpses of what is to come (i.e. Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the infamous football),Charlie Brown's famous shirt, Shroeder becoming a "concert pianist" with references to Beethoven, etc. This is a must have for all PEANUTS lovers with strips that haven't been reprinted or seen since their debut fifty years ago. Charles M. Schulz' simple but effective line drawing shows off a little more dimension in the early art work with some compicated "sets" and "backgrounds" with added perspective in some of the panels. Finally, the most important thing is Schulz' writing. The dialogue and situations he puts upon his characters is what makes PEANUTS a cut above the rest especially in the early years of Charlie Brown and cast. |
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