Customer Reviews

The Complete Peanuts 1965-1966

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is another transitional 2 years in Peanuts (with cartoons that appeared in You Need Help, Charlie Brown, The Unsinkable Charlie Brown and You'll Flip, Charlie Brown). Sally has lazy eye and has to wear an eye patch (which Snoopy often steals to play pirates, until he gets "scuttled" by Captain Sally). A bird who has trouble flying (he still has yet to make his formal debut, but he still looks like Woodstock) flies on Snoopy's nose ("Good grief, the return of the native!"). Snoopy debuts 2 of his alter ego's- a novel writer ("It was a dark and stormy night...") and the World War I Flying Ace ("Curse you, Red Baron and this stupid war!"). Charlie Brown watches in bemusement and thinks "Some people have dogs who chase cars, some people have dogs who bite the mailman... I think MY dog has finally flipped!" Lucy is the arm-wrestling champion on her block (later used in It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown), but can she withstand the paw of the Masked Marvel? Charlie Brown tries his hand (or foot) again with the football with a new twist up his own sleeve. Also, he has to endure dandelions on his pitcher's mound is covered with dandelions, which Frieda and Lucy beg him not to cut because he looks so cute up there with them (even Schroeder agrees). Snoopy falls in love with a dog on the beach and tries to impress her with his surfing skills. The next winter, he's still not over her and tries to forget through... eating, what else? Also Snoopy's doghouse gets burned down (Schulz got a lot of sympathy cards in real life on behalf of the beagle!). Also, Linus and Lucy move away (later used in Is This Goodbye, CB?) and Schroeder reluctantly admits he misses her (he sees her face by the piano long after her demise and thinks "Don't tell me I've grown accustomed to THAT face!"). Charlie Brown deals with the loss of his buddy Linus by taking up blanket-toting and of course, gets clobbered by Snoopy, who thinks he's still playing games with Linus! Needless to say, the Van Pelts move back (Sparky got a lot of letters requesting their reinstatement, which he had planned all along!). Charlie Brown finds something he's good at- spelling, though he gets maze confused with Willy Mays' last name (later used in the bigscreen debut of A Boy Named Charlie Brown). In the fall of 1966, Charlie Brown is promoted to traffic director and takes his new job a little too seriously. 2 new characters make their debut- a kid named Roy (who looks a little like Shermy with wavy hair) whom we see in the camp episodes of 1965 and 1966 and Peppermint Patty, a tomboy who has a lot of athletic ability but not much on brains. Roy is introduced as a shy, lonely kid and Charlie Brown feels honored to have finally made a friend (after his cabin mates ridicule him and criticize his lack of baseball skills; doesn't he get enough of that at home?). Linus meets Roy the next year, whom he asks "Say, aren't you that weird kid who totes a blanket with him everywhere he goes?". Linus also gets a box of jelly-bread sandwhiches from his otherwise crabby sister. Beyond that, Roy is also responsible for bringing Peppermint Patty to the neighborhood, who clobbers Charlie, or in her case, Chuck Brown at baseball (Charlie Brown gets a new nickname as does "Lucille" VanPelt). Linus fills Peppermint Patty's ears with stories of the Great Pumpkin. Later, at the end of 1966, the Sunday cartoons have the following caption: "Peanuts Featuring Good Ol' Charlie Brown." As if that's not enough, the Peanuts gang makes its television debut in 1965.

With this volume of The Complete Peanuts we see Charles M. Schulz's world in full flower. The main characters are in their prime, particularly Snoopy, who at long last climbs into his Sopwith Camel and takes off after the Red Baron. We also see the introduction of Peppermint Patty, an inspired addition to the neighborhood. She's wise and clueless at the same time, rendering her a fit companion for "Chuck", "Lucille" and "the Funny Looking Kid with the Big Nose." In this volume we also see the first appearances of some favorite neuroses, especially queen snakes and kite eating trees. As always, some of the best strips include references to current events in the news and entertainment during 1965 and 1966, such as Schroeder's groaning "don't tell me "I've grown accustomed to THAT face!" after realizing he misses Lucy during her family's brief move away from town. (Funny to think that Schroeder took time to see "My Fair Lady" in between practicing Beethoven on his toy piano.) But its also nice that we see little or no hint of the truly disturbing assassinations, wars, riots, and other traumas which raged during those two years: Schulz realized his readers needed a little escapism every now and then.

This volume is a particular favorite of mine since it includes the strips that I first remember reading on my own at the age of 8 and 9 in the daily paper. Having the date of each strip clearly established helps me recreate my own early years and also leads to some intriguing discoveries, including that Sally Brown and I had amblyopia at precisely the same time! (She got away with wearing an eye patch, but I had to have surgery!)

This volume also includes all of the original Snoopy vs Red Baron strips that eventually were dramatized in "Its The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!", first shown in October 1966. Schulz must have drawn them at about the same time the dramatization was being created, meaning that the collaboration which makes both the strips and the TV specials immortal was even closer than I realized. I hope to see the 1967-1968 volume soon!

One can get into a lively debate as to whether the mid-60s represented the peak of PEANUTS in an aesthetic sense. It would be hard to argue the point, however, that the period during which this latest clutch of strips appeared saw Charles Schulz "in tune" with pop culture to a degree that he had never been before and would never be again. Snoopy's debut as the "famous World War I flying ace" is only the tip of the salient (to borrow a term from WWI's far less glamorous trench warfare). Schulz's creation of Peppermint Patty caught the mood of the times as well. PP was a character unlike any Schulz had ever devised: smart-alecky, self-confident (at least on the surface), and cocky. Schulz was wise to use her as a "special guest star" for as long as he did; it gave him time to fashion the foibles and flaws that would ultimately give PP her hard-won status as a full-fledged member of the PEANUTS universe. As an occasional walk-on, PP is nothing less than dynamite.

Though PEANUTS DID become more "commercial" during this time (I blame one of those "big Eastern syndicates" Lucy always talked about), the bittersweet tone of the late 50s and early 60s continued to form the background music of the strip. Snoopy's ill-fated romance with a girl beagle (who wore a bikini on the beach???) is a very heartfelt sequence. In a strip that I don't believe had ever been reprinted until now, Snoopy actually faces the audience and asks them to "wish [him] luck" as he prepares to pop the question. Charlie's crash-and-burn in the school spelling bee (which later inspired the plot of the feature film A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN), Snoopy's doghouse's destruction by fire, and the Van Pelt's aborted move out of the neighborhood are also featured here; each continuity has its share of painful moments. Most touching of all, perhaps, is the Halloween sequence in which Charlie Brown alienates Linus by refusing to buy the "Great Pumpkin" story. "Why did I deliberately go out of my way" to insult Linus, Charlie asks Snoopy in a strip that had been omitted from previous reprintings of this continuity. "Linus is really a wonderful little guy... You know that I need all the friends I can get." Linus WAS the closest thing Charlie Brown had ever had to a friend up to this point in the strip's history, and this strip openly acknowledged that fact. Perhaps this was the reason why the strip was never reprinted; it suggested that Charlie, the "eternal loser," may have shared some of the blame for his plight. Now there's a reason to "seek psychiatric help," whether it costs five cents or not.

I gave this collection 5 stars because the strip was still at its peak; but, ominously, this is where Peanuts starts to go down hill. The introduction of the Peppermint Patty character is the turning point, where the peak of Peanuts ends and the long decline from greatness begins.

Not that there was anything wrong with the Peppermint Patty character to begin with. The character was amusing as an occasional intruder into the Peanuts World; but, eventually, Peppermint Patty and the other characters introduced over the coming years came to take over the strip. This new concept of the strip was not as good as the original, and it got worse as years went by. This corruption of the "pure" original concept of Peanuts, combined with the shocking deterioration of Schulz's drawing ability in later years, clearly marks the end of Peanuts as the greatest of comic strips. Greatness is not the permanent condition of anybody or anything, and no peak lasts forever. Schulz had as long a peak period as any other comic strip artist (George Herriman being a possible exception), and I highly reccomend this volume because it was in that peak period, though towards the end of it.

Peanuts was a great strip from the beginning, and it was on a continuous upward arc from there. By the early 60s, the cast of characters was as complete as it had to be, the addition of Charlie Brown's nasty little sister Sally being the last necessary addition. Schulz possibly started running out of ideas for this cast and felt, to keep fresh, he had to bring in new faces. Unfortunately, the new faces weren't as good, or funny, as the originals. Peppermint Patty was the first of these newer characters. Peanuts was still pretty darned good for ten or so years after this, up to the mid-to-late 70s, but here is where Schulz started abandoning the original Peanuts characters and the newer cast was distinctly less inspired than was the original.

The newer characters reflected a creeping mellowness in his outlook, which is common for an artist growing older. (Some, like Mark Twain, get nastier and bitterer as they grow older, but, as in the case of Twain, this doesn't necessarily make them better either.) The newer characters were too "nice". Peanuts, for all the (mistaken) talk of its "heartwarming" humor, was not sweetness and light on the comics page. It was a tale of rotten little kids being rotten to each other. This was the source of its greatness. That was the originality and innovation behind the strip. Once it became "mellow" and "nice", it lost its originality and cutting edge.

However, though this volume represents the downward turn, it is still great stuff. Rereading it all these years later, I found it better than I remembered. When I was younger, I didn't really care for the Red Baron & Snoopy strips, thinking them too far away from the true gist of the strip. Now I found them very funny. Schulz started to play heavily on the "Bleah" vs. "Nyahh" arguments between Lucy, Violet and Snoopy, which were peaks in silly (but accurate and on-the-mark) humor. The "grit your teeth" baseball sequence, and Sally and her troubles with the "New Math" were other very inspired highlights.

Though there were bad signs of the decline to come towards the end of this volume, that decline hadn't set in yet. Peanuts had at least 2 more peak years to come, then 5 or 6 more very good years. Buy this, because it is one of the best volumes in the set, but mourn also, because here is where it starts to go down, down, down.

Even my great love for the Peanuts comic strips cannot hide the fact that there are gaps in my experience. In this volume, I came across some of those gaps and I expect to come across more in the next few volumes. We are reaching the years before my birth that are not covered by my grandmother's Peanuts collections I read when I was growing up. In this volume there were exciting revelations for me.

First, there was the fact that Snoopy was once on the verge of marriage but was rejected! Second, there was Snoopy's first adventures against the Red Baron! Third, there was the devastating fire in Snoopy's doghouse that destroyed his Van Gogh! Fourth, there was the first appearance of Peppermint Patty! All events that I had never come across before which added a special joy to reading this volume.

I have been reading this wonderful series as each new volume comes out. Each one has been excellent. The six-month wait for the next two years of strips seems intolerable sometimes but I look forward to the day when all 25 volumes will be on my shelf.

Excellent book and my son has read it many times already. Hardcover will last a long time.

I grew up reading Peanuts in paperback book compilations, so many of the strips are familiar, but reading them in order adds so much more to the experience. Charles Schultz was a genius. This particular volume has some great Snoopy strips, particularly the World War I flying ace vs. the Red Baron.

Not that he wasn't in the first place, but Charles M. Schulz' mastery of wit and art develops with each new year. I've grown to really admire his seemingly simplistic artistry, which is not simplistic at all (hence "seemingly).
Just trying to draw Linus' hair and blanket is proof enough.

Charlie Brown and gang are more developed than ever, and Snoopy is perhaps the most developed character of the lot, with each new year revealing something new about the bipedal beagle.

I have actually sat with my younger brother, to whom this book was purchased for, as he read this book to me and i have LOVED this book, as much as he has...I love that this comic strip "flows" unlike others i have read...I'm interested in buying more because Ezekiel has asked me for them in the very near future!

This book contains all the Peanuts comic strips from 1965 and 1966. The most significant events from this time period were Snoopy's first imaginary battles with The Red Baron and the first appearance of Peppermint Patty. Charles Schulz was so good for so long, it's hard to choose a "peak" period of the strip, but the strips here are definitely great. Highly recommended.