Customer Reviews

Complete Peanuts 1950 -1952 (v. 1)

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I imagine most fans of Charles Shultz will not need a review to tell them that they need this book; unless Fantagraphics horribly dropped the ball, how could this not be a must-have. But in case you were wondering, I can assure you that The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 is a marvelous start to what promises to be an amazing series of books.
As has been mentioned before, the early strips of Peanuts are noticably different from the strip we've come to know and love. Luce and Schroder, for instance, are infants. But what I found remarkable was how much the humor and pathos of the later strip can be found even here. Charlie Brown, more mischevious then we're used to, still struggles with a world that just won't give him a break sometimes; in one strip that is vintage Shultz, Charlie Brown watches despondently as Patty, fighting with Shermy, calls him a Charlie Brown, at which point Shermy says she has gone too far.
Snoopy is noticably different, a mere puppy, on all fours, but still obviously thinks of himself as more than a dog. Several strips involve him being offended when one of the children refers to his canine nature. We even get a brief glimpse of his imaginative abilities, as he fantasizes about making Charlie Brown do tricks for him.
But what it all comes down to, though, is the question: are the early strips funny? My laughter reading through this volume would indicate yes. The humor is different, with reoccuring jokes about mud pies, for instance, seeming a bit dated and overly childish. But there is a lot of great material here. If this is Shultz just hitting his stride, the future volumes (as we all well know) are going to be brilliant.
As for the presentation, the strips are rendered vividly, from high-quality proofs, and the book itself is a work of art. An introduction by Garrison Keillor isn't particulary illuminating, but an essay on the strip and its influence is a nice addition. But it is the lengthy interview with Charles Schultz, from the 1980s, which is the most exciting of the texts included. Schultz talks freely about his influences, the origins of Peanuts, and the state of comics today, among many topics covered. An index is included, which is both useful and amusing (including such categories as "Snoopy, wearing clothes, to disturbing effect").
Thank you, Fantagraphics, for putting out this collection. I'm anxiously awaiting the next 24 volumes.

First, the bad - the Sunday strips aren't in colour (although Schluz was never a fan of the colouring anyway) and the text pieces have some obvious typos.

Now, the good - everything else.

The book is beautifully designed by cartoonist Seth. There are a few text pieces, including a 1980s interview with Charles Schulz - where he's very frank on some topics.

And then, there's Schluz's cartoon strips. No, there's no security blanket for Linus, Lucy has yet to develop into her crabby self (she starts as a googly-eyed baby), Snoopy doesn't fight the Red Baron and characters like Peppermint Patty are decades off.

Instead, we're treated to the early Schulz. Schroeder, Lucy and Linus premier as mere infants. Initially, it's Charlie Brown who has the Beethoven fixation. And Schluz's artistic style is still evolving. But there's a rough charm to these strips - flashes of greatness. And it's great fun to see where Charlie Brown and the gang got their start.

Strongly recommended!

Fantagraphics deserves acclaim for this project: the archiving of one of the greatest comic strips of all time. Fans who have lamented the messiness and scattershot dating of prior Peanuts collections are well rewarded with this volume, the first in a long series. The production staff has shown thorough loving care in their design and their selections for paper and binding materials; the bright paper and spare design allow Schulz's early inking mastery to shine through. The editors are chose brilliant contextual materials as well; the long interview at the end of this book shows Schulz as sometimes cantankerous, protective of his art form, and justly proud and possessive of his creations, but of course equally warm and thoughtful. This book is an absolute must-have, and those of us who love Schulz's work are grateful for its arrival.

This book a beautiful -- I mean physically, this a quality book. Heavy pages, teriffic binding, and the print is amazing. These comics are 52 years old, and they look pristine! It is amazing to watch the evolution of this comic. I am so excited for the rest of the books to come out.

My grandmother is (still) a great collector of all things Snoopy. Back in the 70's, when I used to visit my grandmother's house, I remember spending a lot of time reading some of those early collections of Peanuts cartoon strips. They are one of the many great memories of my youth. Now, we have a collection of the very first Peanuts strips. Magnificent!

How many of us still remember the beginning? So many things would grow and change. Violet and Patty (not Peppermint Patty) were Charlie Brown's "girlfriends" whom he could torment as much as he was tormented by them. Violet was actually the first to pull the football away from Charlie Brown. Snoopy was still a dog with no words. Schroeder is very prominent as a child prodigy with his love of piano and growing love of Beethoven. Charlie Brown is the catcher for the baseball team. Lucy & Linus make there first appearances. And so much more. Still, we can see this wonderful world taking shape and we can see how it will become to be this most beloved of comics.

This volume also contains a nice introduction by Garrison Keillor and concludes with an interesting interview of Charles Schultz, enlightening us to some of his own feelings about his strip and what has become of the world of comics.

As the first of a projected twenty-five volumes collecting all the Peanuts strips to be released every six months for the next twelve years, all I can say is I can't wait for volume 2.

This is a fine presentation of a classic and seminal work.
Although the strip is still finding its feet at this stage, and for a few years to come, it's fascinating to watch the development of the characters. I used to collect every Peanuts paperback that came out, but at least 90% of these strips were unfamiliar, so it's unlikely that you've seen most of this before.
I have to disagree with other reviewers over presentation... although, as he says in the long and fascinating interview in the back of the book, Schulz would have liked more room to play with in his strip, he designed it to be reproduced at the size he was restricted to, and the reproduction size here is no more than marginally smaller, if not the same - and the print quality infinitely better. Having said that it would be nice to see a few select strips enlarged to give us a clearer look at Schulz's penmanship. (The beautiful but scrapbooklike 'Peanuts: the Art of Charles M Schulz' gives us just a few nice glimpses.)
The only other negatives I can find are really nitpicking: Yes, the cover design is curious - it's very smart but seems to owe more to Chris Ware than to Schulz and as such might look a little dated before the series is complete - and a few typos have slipped through in the text - but overall, a nice job - by far the best Peanuts compliation ever; I'll certainly be collecting the whole series - though it would be nice if they'd speed up the release schedule just a little!

I have loved the Peanuts comic strip from the time I was a child on into adulthood. I have at least 20 Peanuts collections on my shelves, but I have never until now had the opportunity to read the very earliest strips in the series. So I was thrilled with the release of this first edition of the "Complete Peanuts."

The introduction, afterword, and graphics are all nice, but the real story here is the comic strips themselves. For a life-long Peanuts fan, it was neat to see how the characters and cast slowly evolved over the first couple of years of the strip. In the beginning, the cast starts with Shermy, Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty), Charlie Brown, and Snoopy. We soon see the introduction of Violet, and then later see the introduction of Schroeder (as a baby), and Lucy (also as a baby). By the end of the book, there is still no Sally, Peppermint Patty, Marcy, Franklin, Pig-Pen, Woodstock, or even Linus (though he appears as a baby in the next book in the series). Charlie Brown also changes slowly over the course of the book, as he slowly begins to take on the "lovable loser" persona that later became his trademark. And the bottom line is that the strips in this book are very funny, and in my opinion are just as good, or at least almost as good, as any of the later Peanuts strips.

Physically, the book itself seems to be very high quality. It has hard covers and very thick pages. Each page shows the month and the year of publication of the strips on that page. The one and only significant deficiency I see in the book design is that the Sunday strips are not in color. But this is a minor quibble -- the main thing is that the strips are all there.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for Peanuts fans.

One final tip: If you are planning to buy this book from Amazon, and you also want to buy the next book in the series (The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954) at the same time, please be wary of the "Better Together" option which is listed above. At the time of this writing, it is cheaper to buy "The Complete Peanuts 1950-1954 Boxed Set" (ISBN 1560976322), which includes both books, and which is also available on Amazon.