The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 [Hardcover]

Charles M. Schulz (Author), Garrison Keillor (Author), Seth (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Peanuts | Publication Date: May 3, 2004

The first volume in the bestselling archival series collecting the most beloved comic strip ever. Many of these formative strips have never been collected or reprinted anywhere else. Introduction by Garrison Keillor.

This first volume, covering the first two and a quarter years of the strip, will be of particular fascination to Peanuts aficionados worldwide: Although there have been literally hundreds of Peanuts books published, many of the strips from the series' first two or three years have never been collected before—in large part because they showed a young Schulz working out the kinks in his new strip and include some characterizations and designs that are quite different from the cast we're all familiar with. (Among other things, three major cast members—Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus—initially show up as infants and only "grow" into their final "mature" selves as the months go by. Even Snoopy debuts as a puppy!) Thus The Complete Peanuts offers a unique chance to see a master of the art form refine his skills and solidify his universe, day by day, week by week, month by month.

This volume is rounded out with Garrison Keillor's introduction, a biographical essay by David Michaelis (Schulz and Peanuts) and an in-depth interview with Schulz conducted in 1987 by Gary Groth and Rick Marschall, all wrapped in a gorgeous design by award-winning cartoonist Seth. Black-and-white comic strips throughout

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Good grief! The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 launches the most ambitious and most important project in the comics and cartooning genre: over a period of 12 years, Fantagraphics Books will release every daily and Sunday strip of Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts," the best-known and best-loved series in the world. Most everyone with an interest in its history has seen the very first strip ("Good ol' Charlie Brown... How I hate him!"), but this first volume follows it up with 287 pages (three daily strips or one Sunday per page) of vintage material in chronological order. "Peanuts" was unique at the time for portraying kids who seemed like real kids, but they also had a wisdom beyond their years, embodied especially by the lovable loser, Charlie Brown, who even in these early years has lost 4000 checker games in a row. We see him don his familiar jagged-stripe shirt for the first time (December 1950) and, at the age of 4, at his peak as a babe magnet. Shermy is the other significant boy, and the girls in their lives are Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) and Violet. Schroeder is an infant who has learned to sit up in order to play Beethoven on his toy piano. Snoopy is an anthropomorphic dog who plays baseball (April 1952) and has his own thoughts (October 1952). In March 1952 we meet a bug-eyed Lucy, who by November has been designated "Miss Fuss-Budget of 1952" and is pulling the football away from Charlie Brown (Violet had done it a year earlier). Her baby brother Linus arrives in July 1952. The book itself is beautifully packaged, the strips printed large and clear on high-quality paper and accompanied by an in-depth essay by David Michaelis, a 1987 interview with Schulz, an introduction by Garrison Keillor, and even an index of characters and subjects. It's so well-done that any reader will be impatient for the rest of the series, but in the meantime this is a book to savor. --David Horiuchi

From Publishers Weekly

With its ambitious plan to reprint all of "Peanuts" in chronological order over the next 12 years, Fantagraphics is making this comics masterpiece available for everyone. The real surprise of this first volume is watching the beloved comic strip develop from its embryonic stage. From the start, Schulz had some of the ground rules in place: the ensemble cast whose faces appeared only in profile or three-quarter views, the sophisticated language from the mouths of babes and the absence of visible adults from their world. But, although "good ol' Charlie Brown" appears in the very first strip, the early protagonist is the rather colorless Shermy. Lucy is a googly-eyed baby in a playpen; Linus and Schroeder are pre-verbal infants; and Snoopy is just a small, affectionate dog without a fantasy life. Even more odd, the strip's unique hilarity hasn't quite developed yet; most of the humor here is very mild and generally stems from the characters being little kids playing with each other and fooling around with grown-up roles. They're archetypes of children, not yet archetypes of humanity. Still, flashes of Schulz's later greatness are evident. All the characters show hints of the personalities they'll grow into, and Schulz's clean, magisterially expressive line falls into position by the end of the strip's second year. Regardless, the chance to see the early "Peanuts"—much of it never before reprinted—is a treat.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; 1St Edition edition (May 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156097589X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560975892
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 8.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > Fantagraphics

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first step in a long journey, June 11, 2004

By 

SPM "scott_maykrantz" (Eugene, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 (Hardcover)

If all of the Complete Peanuts volumes are this good, then Fantagraphics will stay in business forever. This first book is beautifully packaged (by semi-famous Canadian cartoonist Seth), with three daily strips per page. Sunday strips fill an entire page. The introduction is short and to-the-point. The essay after the final strip is very good; it explains why Peanuts became the most successful newspaper strip of all time. The books ends with a lengthy interview with Charles Schulz that goes a long way toward explaining what kind of person could create such a wonderfully sweet and sad comic every day for 50 years. Schulz was both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time, and his work reflects that contradiction.

But the heart of the book is in the panels, of course. As you read, you get to see the Peanuts world grow. Schroeder and Linus are introduced as toddlers. Snoopy doesn't talk or think until the second year. (He doesn't do much except eat Charlie Brown's candy, either.) Violet pulls the football away from Charlie Brown before Lucy does. And so on. This book captures a comic strip world in its earliest stages, still forming. Even Schulz's drawing style grows from page to page, in very subtle ways.

It's going to be hard to top this first volume. The early strips have a lot of historical value, and the extras are great. Five stars.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Legend and A Must Own!, April 30, 2004

By 

Barbara Rose (BornToInspire.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 (Hardcover)

The incredible work that went into this amazing collection will take you back 50 years to the incomparable work of the beginning of Charles Schultz' creation of The Peanuts, a classic of cartoons that have become a loving and living legend in the hearts and minds of millions.
The original comic strips have been preserved, and we are so fortunate to be able to enjoy this innocent and wonderful part of our culture in this and forthcoming volumes depicting each cartoon illustrated by Charles Schultz.

This is definitely a collection that you will treasure, depicted in chronological order, and hard bound, it is a wonderful collection that can be enjoyed for generations. Highly Recommended for its value and for preserving the great characters that have touched so many lives. 10 Stars!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A childhood dream comes true at last, February 25, 2005

By 

D. Frankham (Adelaide, SA Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 (Hardcover)

When I was a child and knew few greater pleasures than reading a new Peanuts collection, I would look wistfully at the note on the cover -- such as "Selected cartoons from Ha Ha Herman, Charlie Brown Vol. 1" -- and wonder just where this mysterious book and all the rest of them were to be found. Not in any bookshop I ever visited, that's for sure. Then one day I borrowed a vast hardcover Peanuts collection from my local library and imagined that this was one of those rare "originals". It conjured up an image of a whole shelf of equally fine first editions going back to 1951.

Years later I would occasionally re-read one of those old collections and think, "When I have lots of money I'll collect all of those original Peanuts books, and then at last I'll have every strip, in order, in an attractive sturdy hardcover."

Then I found the Peanuts FAQ, which revealed that there were there thousands of strips that had never been printed in any book, and also that that library book was an anomaly: those mysterious "original" Peanuts books were only paperbacks, just as incomplete and (by now) yellow and tatty as the ones I used to buy. "Sigh", I said.

But here it is, the fine first editions devoted Peanuts readers have always dreamed of but never expected to see: the first of a complete set containing every strip, beautifully presented, with original newspaper publication dates and even a fannish index pointing to such epochal moments as Lucy's first appearance and Snoopy's first thought.

What's most surprising is how soon Peanuts began to become the Peanuts we remember. The early strips reprinted previously tended to foreground the "observational" humour, kids behaving like real kids. But now we can also see the early development of Schroeder as a child with adultlike interests and abilities, the seed from which the whole cast would eventually grow into thoughtful, eloquent child-adults.

Another thing that is quickly apparent here is the quality of Schulz's writing right from the start. The art here isn't yet at its peak, and the strip doesn't have the sense of depth that it would later acquire, but Schulz always had perfect comic timing, the ability to say everything that needed to be said in a handful of words, or a single sigh.