The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1971-1974 (Box Set) (Vol. 11-12) (The Complete Peanuts) [Hardcover]

Charles M. Schulz (Author), Kristin Chenoweth (Introduction), Billie Jean King (Introduction), Seth (Cover Design)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2009 | Series: The Complete Peanuts

A gift set of the eleventh and twelfth Complete Peanuts volumes, in a handsome and durable slipcase.

Just in time for the holidays, designed by the Award-winning graphic novelist, Seth! This collection of books—identical to the individual volumes—ships shrinkwrapped, with two hardcovers containing complete strips from the years 1971-1972 and 1973-1974, packed in a sturdy custom box designed especially for this set. The perfect gift item.

The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972: Sally Brown elbows her way to center stage, at least among the humans, and is thus the logical choice for cover girl... and in her honor, the introduction is provided by none other than Broadway, television and film star Kristin (Wicked) Chenoweth, who first rose to Tony-winning fame with her scene-stealing performance as Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Two long Summer-camp sequences involve Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty, who has decided that Charlie Brown is madly in love with her, much to his clueless confusion. Snoopy shows up at camp as well, as does Peppermint Patty’s new permanent sidekick, the one and only Marcie. The eternally mutable Snoopy mostly shakes off his World War I Flying Ace identity and turns into Joe Cool, college hipster extraordinaire. And in three long sequences he writes a fan letter to his favorite author, Miss Helen Sweetstory, then goes on a journey to meet her, and finally enlists Charlie Brown’s help when her latest opus, “The Six Bunny-Wunnies Freak Out,” falls afoul of censors. Also, Woodstock attends worm school, falls in love with a worm (perhaps the most doomed unrequited Peanuts love story ever!), and is nearly eaten by the neighbors’ cat... Peppermint Patty is put on trial for another dress code violation and makes a very ill-advised choice in terms of lawyers... Snoopy turns Linus’s blanket into not one but two sportcoats... Lucy hits a home run... and the birth of one Rerun Van Pelt!

The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974: This volume features a number of tennis strips and several extended sequences involving Peppermint Patty’s friend Marcie (including a riotous, rarely seen sequence in which Marcie’s costume-making and hairstyling skills utterly spoil a skating competition for PP), so it seems only right that this volume’s introduction should be served up by Schulz’s longtime friend, tennis champion Billie Jean King. This volume also picks up on a few loose threads from the previous year, as the mysterious “Poochie” shows up in the flesh; Linus and Lucy’s new kid brother “Rerun” makes his first appearance, is almost immediately drafted onto the baseball team (where, thanks to his tiny strike zone, he wins a game), and embarks on his first terrifying journey on the back of his mom’s bike; and, in one of Peanuts’ oddest recurring storylines, the schoolhouse Sally used to talk to starts talking, or at least thinking, back at her! The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974 also includes one of the all-time classic Peanuts sequences, in which Charlie Brown’s baseball-oriented hallucinations finally manifest themselves in a baseball-shaped rash on his head. Forced to conceal the embarrassing discoloration with a bag worn over his head, Charlie Brown goes to camp as “Mister Sack” and discovers that, shorn of his identity, he’s suddenly well liked and successful. 1461 black-and-white comic strips

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Like all geniuses, Schulz blended influences in a fashion never before seen.” (The Guardian )

“Schulz’s ground breaking strip is certainly worth celebrating…” (Quick Entertainment )

“It’s impossible to think of another popular art form that reaches across generations the way the daily comic strip does…at the pinnacle of that long tradition, there was Charles Schulz.” (Seattle Times )

“It’s no exaggeration to call Peanuts the most successful comic strip in human history.” (Michaelangelo Matos - Seattle Weekly )

“A “must have” for collectors of Charles Schulz’s work, highly recommended.” (James A. Cox - Midwest Book Review )

“Schulz is the pioneer of the sadness of little children. It turns out to be not so different from the sadness of adults.” (Lev Grossman - Time Magazine )

“Reading [The Complete Peanuts 1971-72 and 1973-74] in one fell swoop, I've kind of come to the conclusion that this period is really the apex of Schulz's career. ...he was never as consistently hilarious or as poignant as he was in the early to mid-70s. If you're only buying two volumes of this series, it should be these two.” (Chris Mautner - Robot 6 )

“This collection of the 11th and 12th volumes of a planned 25-book set, designed by Canadian cartoonist and designer Seth, shows Schulz's staggering talent in the prime of his career and even introduces Linus and Lucy's little brother, Rerun.” (Jonathan Kuehlein - Toronto Star )

“These hardcover editions are produced with such love and reverence that it's fun to just pick them up and page through them, at least for a bibliophile like myself. Not to be missed.” (Greg Hatcher - Comic Book Resources )

“Really strong stuff here, including the "Charlie Brown wears a sack on his head to summer camp" sequence, surely the "Poison River" of Peanuts.” (Patrick Markfort - Articulate Nerd )

About the Author

Charles M. Schulz was born November 25, 1922 in Minneapolis. His destiny was foreshadowed when an uncle gave him, at the age of two days, the nickname Sparky (after the racehorse Spark Plug in the newspaper strip Barney Google).

In his senior year in high school, his mother noticed an ad in a local newspaper for a correspondence school, Federal Schools (later called Art Instruction Schools). Schulz passed the talent test, completed the course and began trying, unsuccessfully, to sell gag cartoons to magazines. (His first published drawing was of his dog, Spike, and appeared in a 1937 Ripley's Believe It Or Not! installment.) Between 1948 and 1950, he succeeded in selling 17 cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post—as well as, to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press, a weekly comic feature called Li'l Folks. It was run in the women's section and paid $10 a week. After writing and drawing the feature for two years, Schulz asked for a better location in the paper or for daily exposure, as well as a raise. When he was turned down on all three counts, he quit.

He started submitting strips to the newspaper syndicates. In the spring of 1950, he received a letter from the United Feature Syndicate, announcing their interest in his submission, Li'l Folks. Schulz boarded a train in June for New York City; more interested in doing a strip than a panel, he also brought along the first installments of what would become Peanuts—and that was what sold. (The title, which Schulz loathed to his dying day, was imposed by the syndicate). The first Peanuts daily appeared October 2, 1950; the first Sunday, January 6, 1952.

Diagnosed with cancer, Schulz retired from Peanuts at the end of 1999. He died on February 13, 2000, the day before Valentine's Day—and the day before his last strip was published—having completed 17,897 daily and Sunday strips, each and every one fully written, drawn, and lettered entirely by his own hand—an unmatched achievement in comics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; Box Set edition (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606992872
• ISBN-13: 978-1606992876
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 8.6 x 2.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Comic Strips

More About the Author

Charles M. Schulz was born November 25, 1922 in Minneapolis. His destiny was foreshadowed when an uncle gave him, at the age of two days, the nickname Sparky (after the racehorse Spark Plug in the newspaper strip Barney Google).

In his senior year in high school, his mother noticed an ad in a local newspaper for a correspondence school, Federal Schools (later called Art Instruction Schools). Schulz passed the talent test, completed the course and began trying, unsuccessfully, to sell gag cartoons to magazines. (His first published drawing was of his dog, Spike, and appeared in a 1937 Ripley's Believe It Or Not! installment.) Between 1948 and 1950, he succeeded in selling 17 cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post--as well as, to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press, a weekly comic feature called Li'l Folks. It was run in the women's section and paid $10 a week. After writing and drawing the feature for two years, Schulz asked for a better location in the paper or for daily exposure, as well as a raise. When he was turned down on all three counts, he quit.

He started submitting strips to the newspaper syndicates. In the spring of 1950, he received a letter from the United Feature Syndicate, announcing their interest in his submission, Li'l Folks. Schulz boarded a train in June for New York City; more interested in doing a strip than a panel, he also brought along the first installments of what would become Peanuts--and that was what sold. (The title, which Schulz loathed to his dying day, was imposed by the syndicate). The first Peanuts daily appeared October 2, 1950; the first Sunday, January 6, 1952.

Diagnosed with cancer, Schulz retired from Peanuts at the end of 1999. He died on February 13, 2000, the day before Valentine's Day--and the day before his last strip was published--having completed 17,897 daily and Sunday strips, each and every one fully written, drawn, and lettered entirely by his own hand--an unmatched achievement in comics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is THE WAY to collect PEANUTS!, September 12, 2009

By 

J. Price "Johnboy" (Russellville, AR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1971-1974 (Box Set) (Vol. 11-12) (The Complete Peanuts) (Hardcover)

This is the collection that every Peanuts lover should have. There is only one way to improve this collection which will eventually publish every Peanuts strip from the beginning to the end, and that would be to color the Sunday comics, which would prohibitively raise the price. This collection has some wonderful strips in it when Charles Schulz was riding the tide of creativity. Highly recommended!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of his very Best work ., October 7, 2009

By 

Grover Smith (Prairieville, La United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1971-1974 (Box Set) (Vol. 11-12) (The Complete Peanuts) (Hardcover)

If you are not a Peanuts fan , its only because you were to young to have read them in the late sixties and early seventy's , his very best years . Snoopy's Red Baron was especially point-ant and still amusing set in the World War 1 years but published during the Vietnam years . Schultz all ways saw the side on the soldiers in the field . I have been a fan of Peanuts since the late fifties . I still have the pocket books I purchased in the sixties and seventies . My kids love them when they were young and still love them . My nineteen year old son loves these comics . A Great gift set of books . A true treasure .

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great product!, November 2, 2010

By 

Raychwl - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1971-1974 (Box Set) (Vol. 11-12) (The Complete Peanuts) (Hardcover)

I ordered it on Friday. It shipped on a Saturday and I received it on a Tuesday! Great product. The whole thing is beautifully made. I will definitely be buying some of the other sets.