Customer Reviews

The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968

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Of course all the praise that the other reviewers are giving the strips themselves is entirely deserved. HOWEVER, in at least some copies of this book, there is an error on page 53: the May 1st strip appears twice and the May 3rd strip is left out. This is a small error, of course, but one that should be noted before purchase! I have spoken to the publisher's customer service department (so far I've been the only one to point out the error) and will update when I hear back from them regarding how widespread this error is and what steps will be made to rectify it.

UPDATE: Customer service has acknowledged the error and stated that the comic strip from May 3rd 1967 will appear as a supplement at the end of the next volume. Presumably (but not certainly), future printings of 1967-1968 will include the correct strip.

1967 and 1968 were both great years in Peanuts. This was sort of the beginning of the Peanuts gang of the "later" days. Many of the cartoons found their way in You'll Flip, Charlie Brown, You're Something Else, Charlie Brown, You're You, Charlie Brown and You've Had It, Charlie Brown. Peppermint Patty premiered in 1966 and while a talented athlete, she wasn't the greatest scholar. She introduced one-shot wonder Jose Peterson of Mexican-Swedish descent. She also pressured "Chuck" into trading Snoopy (aka the kid with the big nose). Franklin would make his debut in 1968 as the 1st African American in the Peanuts gang. Featured on the cover is Violet, who though not as crabby as Lucy, could sometimes be even meaner (she'll even "nyah" her mentor!). Snoopy temporarily takes over as baseball manager and won't tolerate any blunders or backtalk (just about everyone on the team gets a kick in the pants, especially if they lose!). Of course, Charlie Brown gently but firmly advises his dog Snoopy not use one of the bases for a pillow, lest "He's gonna stomp right on your stomach! That's what's known as meaningful dialouge!" Snoopy continues his facades of the World War I Flying Ace (the opener for 1967), World Champion Skater who, though Lucy, Violet and Patty have refused to skate with him finds a partner with Peppermint Patty (and Snoopy hopes of getting to Petaluma for the 1968 Olympics), Head Beagle candidate (he was written in across the country in 1968 during the real-life elections!) and introduces a new alter-ego in 1968- the Easter Beagle. Linus, of course, is the only believer in him and has no trouble collecting all the Easter eggs! He has a new hobby, patting birds on the head, which infuriates Lucy. Lucy keeps trying to get Schroeder's affections and all she gets is a few sarcastic remarks and a furious teeth-gnashing from the maestro when she tries to tickle him with her feather duster! He almost resigns as catcher when she gives him the nickname "Dear Heart" (one of the few times Lucy has the final laugh on her unrequited beloved) and won't invite her to his own private Beethoven's birthday party (don't feel so bad, Lucy, not even Charlie Brown or Linus were invited!). Lucy hosts the 1st ever "crab-in" (a pun on "love-in") attended by Violet and Patty. She has Linus bring logs in for the fire "You can pretend you're Abe Lincoln while doing that..." Linus gets a visit from his blanket-hating Grandma and foolishly promises he'll sacrifice his blanket if she gives up smoking (and she does just that!). Peppermint Patty is a camp counselor and in her cabin is a girl who looks just like Marcie (alas, she's got another name, so who knows? It could be a twin cousin!). Charlie Brown also goes to camp (much of this story would be used in It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown). Sally tries to get her "boyfriend" Linus to stand up to a bully who's been teasing her, but at no avail. Snoopy gets a letter from his original owner, Lila, much to the shock and heartbreak of Charlie Brown (later used in the movie Snoopy Come Home). He later finds out he wasn't the original owner of Snoopy and that he "got a used dog!" Charlie Brown asks Schroeder for advice when the team is losing and he quotes Job, which starts a religious discussion turning the team into, to quote Charlie Brown, "a theological seminary!" Every time he tries to fly a kite, it gets eaten up by the kite-eating tree (this also features one of the few 8 page daily cartoons). Lucy raises the price on Psychiatric Help to $.07 and rebukes anyone who asks why the rate change with a snappy "Mind your own business" and then wonders why nobody wishes her a happy New Year! Linus gets Snoopy to join him at the Pumpkin Patch and all that appears is a bird hippie! So get this collection, because as Charlie Brown says "Reading the wrong chapter is like cutting your fingernails too short!"

In this volume of the collected Peanuts strips Charles M. Schulz's world has reached its peak and, just possibly, started to descend. We still enjoy Charlie Brown's neuroses, Lucy's arrogance, Linus' philosophies, and the other inimitable idiosyncracies of the main characters. We laugh at Snoopy's Red Baron, vulture, and other fantasies, but here and there we start to notice a few things that are missing. Shermy, Patty, Violet, and Pigpen rarely show up anymore and when they do, its just as a walk on part to say a few words here and there. Snoopy's imagination is as fascinating as ever, but its beginning to dominate more and more of the strips, to the detriment of some of the other characters. Its a sad foretaste of the later 1970s, when Snoopy and Woodstock (who makes his first appearances, unnamed, in this volume) basically took over the strip!

I don't mean to denigrate this volume, which is full of classic Peanuts humor featuring the characters at their best, like Charlie Brown's encounters with kite-eating trees, Linus' love for the Great Pumpkin, and Lucy's psychiatry booth therapy sessions. I enjoyed the many topical references to life in the 1960s, some of which may puzzle younger readers. How many people know who Twiggy is nowadays? This volume and the two or three preceding it, will probably be regarded as the Peanuts at its best.

Yes, the wait between volumes of The Complete Peanuts just seems to get longer and longer. Maybe I should slow down and not read them so quickly.

1967 and 1968 were banner years for Snoopy. Snoopy as the Masked Marvel, an arm wrestling enthusiast, ice skater, and of course, the World War I pilot are just some of his adventures. You may remember that it was almost impossible to go into a story without seeing Snoopy's likeness everywhere. Of course, Franklin made his appearance and yes, it was controversial...some readers on various editorial pages in some major papers objected.

As I read through most of this volume (I haven't finished just yet) I remembered back to 1967 and 1968. How Charles Schulz managed to ignore the heavy topics of the day I will never know. 1968, with the loss of Bobby and MLK were especially painful times. For those of us that were around, reading these volumes can trigger a trip down memory lane. Schulz, in previous volumes did make reference from time to time to some event of the day, usually a sports reference, but he did avoid the heavy stuff.

I'm sure that more than one of you will recall reading these comics in American newspapers in Vietnam.

All in all, for most of us, reading The Complete Peanuts, 1967-1968 will be time well spent.

It's getting harder and harder to come up with new things to say that will convey how much I enjoy reading these old Peanuts strips. This comes from a period where I am less familiar with the strips themselves, so there are some surprises for me.

In this volume we find the strips that will be the inspiration for the animated special, Snoopy Come Home, in which we find out Snoopy has an owner before Charlie Brown who is ill and in the hospital. This is the era where Franklin makes his first appearance, giving Charlie Brown one of his rare emotional boosts. There is also plenty of Snoopy as the WWI flying ace and numerous baseball games.

All in all, as always, this volume is a great collection of wonderful Peanuts comic strips. Charles Schulz rarely disappoints.

(Prospective buyers of this volume should be aware that the first edition has an error: the May 1, 1967 strip is printed twice, leaving the May 3, 1967 strip missing. Later editions of this volume are supposed to correct the error and the missing strip will also be printed in the 1969-1970 volume.)

Fantagraphics Books has plans to reprint the complete run of Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. This volume reprints the strips from 1967 and 1968. The most significant event during these years was the introduction of Franklin, who was the first African-American character in the strip. Peanuts is one of the greatest comic strips of all time, so go ahead and buy the book.

I have no idea why they would put Violet on the cover because at this point she didn't appear much. These are some good years. Sally appears more but is not a main character yet. Violet and Patty and Frieda are in the recurring role. Pigpen appears 3 more times in 1967 and does not appear again until 1976. A new character is shown for the first time, Franklin. He was never really a main character though and lots and lots of Snoopy and boy is he cute. We see Peppermint in 37 comics but just wait until the 1970s when she appears much more. Great book and I hope everyone gets it.

Tongues are stilled to silence. Commentary fails. By 1968, the neurotic and often surreal Peanuts comic strip ruled newspapers' daily fibers. Another decade would roll by before any real competition emerged. Though Ruminations on the 1960s rarely include "Charlie Brown and Snoopy," their utter ubiquitousness in papers, magazines, toy stores, television and, after 1969, film makes that lacuna seem almost irresponsible. The stunted ageless self-conscious Freudian windbags were simply everywhere. Only very recently, following Charles Schulz's passing, the closing of the Mall of America's "Camp Snoopy" and the glacial disappearance of Peanuts reruns, does its grip on popular culture seem at an ebb. Nonetheless, historians of popular culture will doubtless continue to acclaim Peanuts as the pinnacle of the comic medium. Especially as the classic comic strip format fades into history, with the inevitable dissolution of newspapers into web bits, Peanuts represents something that will not likely occur again. Thankfully, Fantagraphic's magnum opus, "The Complete Peanuts," lets readers revisit the strip's colossal 50 year run. Fanatics unite!

This ninth volume includes every strip, including Sundays (though not in color), from 1967 to 1968. By this point the development of the strip's main characters plateaued. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Sally, Peppermint Patty, and the "birds" that would become Woodstock (next volume - try to hold it!) appear in familiar form (though some characters began to appear with less frequency, such as Violet, Frieda, and "Pig-Pen" - Violet's appearance on the cover remains a little enigmatic since she appears only 15 times in minor roles; "Pig-Pen" only appears 3 times). Snoopy's "WWI Flying Ace" transformation (in the previous volume) arguably represents the strip's peak. This level of quality was maintained until the 1980s. Schulz became a multimillionaire in charge of a global empire. Peanuts gradually seeped into every possible crack, including junk food and insurance. Snoopy became as recognizable as Mickey Mouse. This cultural domination did not ruin the comic's self-consciousness or self-deprecating undertone. As profits and honors soared, it kept reflecting on the lives of losers, misfits, and the depressed.

As with all volumes, this one contains many highlights, including: Lucy sort of meets her arm wrestling match in "The Masked Marvel" ("Succumb you dark-haired fiend!" 2/14/67); Snoopy attempts to compete in the Grenoble Olympics, only to be deterred by an ocean (12/21 - 12/22/67); Snoopy trips over a blighter (5/11/67); Linus pats birds on the head, which many find socially unacceptable; the birds rebel (5/22 - 6/3/67); "Bird Hippies" appear (7/12/67, 7/13/67, and 11/1/67); the baseball team loses again ("Winning isn't everything, Charlie Brown..." "That's true, but losing isn't anything") and Charlie Brown trades Snoopy to Peppermint Patty's team. Guilt ensues (11/8 - 11/20/67); a rare and bizarre front view of Snoopy (1/13/68); "Even stupid questions have answers!" (2/21/68); The "Easter Bunny" (later "Easter Beagle") appears (4/14/68); Snoopy tries to find Petaluma with a globe (4/30 - 5/1/68); a proverbial "sad" strip: "But who cheers up the World War I flying ace?" (5/16/68); Bird chomps on worm, Snoopy gets sick (5/20/68); Lucy serves "Goop" (5/27, 5/28 and 6/1/68); a proto-Marcie, named either "Clara," "Sophie," or "Shirley," appears at Peppermint Patty's camp (6/18/68); Birds carry election signs (7/1 - 7/6/68); Franklin appears, for the first time, on the beach (7/31/68); Charlie Brown finds out the truth about Lila, and Lila appears - a rather bizarre sequence (8/20 - 8/31/68). Here's yet another great collection in a series planned to continue until 2016. That's exhausting even to think about. But please keep them coming!

As my title suggests, Snoopy's character develops rapidly in the years encompassed by this volume, and Schulz delivers more of Snoopy, the famous World War I flying ace, attempting to bring down the Red Baron. Of course, there's so much more with other classic Peanuts characters, but how can anyone stand out greater than Snoopy?
We also see Woodstock beginning to take form (he doesn't have a name, and his typical body scheme isn't finalized).

Imagination mixes with humor, and more of the fantastical arises within Li'l Folks.

While it's Violet who's given the front cover for this book (more about the strip this image came from later...), it's Snoopy and Peppermint Patty who come into their own in this book.

Snoopy's stint as the WWI Flying Ace is not nearly as strong as before, but it begins to to interact with the other characters (other than Charlie Brown, who HAS to interact with Snoopy on a regular basis) and affect their actions, as does some other of Snoopy's alternate characters. Snoopy is also given a back story involving a former owner who was unable to keep him (a plot which was expanded into its own movie).

Peppermint Patty, having developed from a blank slate looking for something to believe in to a character strong enough to solo in late 1966, is now further expanding into what would become her role as Charlie Brown's female, power-filled alter-ego. With Jose Peterson (.850 in North Dakota?), Roy and Franklin (a Summer of '68 introduction) in tow and a possible peak at Marcie, Peppermint Patty is now the leader of her own gang - a Female Charlie Brown, only a competent leader of a group chosen for their strengths and winning ways (as compared to Charlie Brown, whose team is pretty much a collections of locals who don't really like him too much and are chosen more-or-less because of habit and closeness). Peppermint Patty's weaknesses would round out her character in the future, but here it's her strengths that are propelling her.

Given the growth in Snoopy and Peppermint Patty, the other characters work more in support. Charlie Brown already has become more a handmaiden to Peppermint Patty's attempts to improve her team (at first CB's team, then her own) and Snoopy's escapades more and more involve and affect the people around them. The Red-Haired girl again affects CB in bad ways, this time even going so far as to force CB to live in the dark of his bedroom for a whole week. And Freida still appears, still doggedly trying to turn Snoopy into the hunting dog she's always dreamed of owning.

And finally, the image on the front cover of this book comes from the "missing strip" in the book: Violet solo, shooting forth a cutdown only for us to learn of its weakness (May 3, 1967). Maybe the compiler thought it a bit odd that Violet, once able (with or without the original Patty) to rip into CB with a force powerful enough to destroy living men (never mind struggling boys with no self-esteem) weakened to a mere "nyaah." Anyway, it was replaced with the strip from two days before in the book. You can find a copy online and consider the irony of an image used in the front of a book that it's been banished from (unintentionally, but banished nevertheless).

Buy this book. Buy the books before this one as well, if you haven't done that yet.