Customer Reviews

Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am an ardent collector of books related to the Peanuts comic strips created by Charles Schulz. But one thing you learn when you have this hobby is that not as much exists from the early days of Peanuts (particularly the first five years or so). My understanding is that as time went on, Schulz wasn't as fond of the earlier days of Peanuts and did not want these strips reprinted if he could help it. These were the days when Charlie Brown's shirt didn't have the famous zig-zag and Snoopy walked on all four legs and didn't have his famous "thought balloons".

This book "Peanuts: The Art of Charles Schulz" is focused primarily on those early days of Peanuts, with most of the material from the first ten years of the strip (the 1950's). The strips are photographed from Schulz's archives and there are many strips I have never seen before (and I've seen just about every one that was published). You even get to see the long forgotten Charlotte Braun, who was in the strip for a short period around 1954 and had the fussbudget personality later assumed by Lucy. Fascinating. You see Lucy, Linus and Schroeder as babies. You see Charlie Brown with a huge head (much bigger in proportion to his body than you are used to seeing). And you see Snoopy as basically just a dog before he assumed his own thoughts and imagination.

There is also a lot of sketches and strips from the pre-Peanuts days (Lil Folks) that can really give you insight into how Peanuts eventually came to be. This has never been done to any great extent is any Peanuts book that I have seen.

The strips are terrific and the style of the presentation is very pleasant to look at as well. This book is laid out more as an art book than as a collection of comic strips. And it is very well done at that. It's better than just about all the books that were issued every five years to celebrate landmark years for Peanuts (25th anniversary, 30th, etc.)

This book is a must for any hardcore Peanuts fan who wants to see how this tremendous icon of American culture for the last half of the 20th century got its start.

I have loved Peanuts since childhood, and have an almost complete collection of Peanuts books. Charles Schultz has always been an inspiration to me in my work as an occasional professional cartoonist. Not only is Schultz unsurpassed as an artist, he is also one of the great philosophers of twentieth century life in America.
This book is, first and foremost, a celebration of the comic strip. It is a work of art in its own right. All the cartoons in the book are photographed from either their original drawings, or directly from the newspapers. The reader can see the artistic details that Schultz has used in creating each frame in photos of the originals. And the use of the original strips, with their rough paper and newsprint lines, brings back the joy of reading the comics for the first time in the funnies. The Sunday comics are complete with the little color dots that created the color images. There are literally hundreds of comic strips, both daily and Sunday, in this book, and they give a good overview of Schultz's long career.
There are many photos of Schultz's doodles and rough sketches, of his desk and his artist's tools, early cartoons 'Sparky' sold to the Saturday Evening Post, early drawings of certain characters, some of which pre-date 'Peanuts' itself. One can actually see the characters develop, artistically and as human beings. Interspersed with the cartoons are textual explanations and stories about Schultz and his characters, including many insightful comments by Charles Schultz himself about the evolution and personalities of his characters. Also included are photos of early Peanuts toys and dolls, and even these are photographed lovingly and with attention to detail and shadow.
This is a magical book, and any Peanuts fan would love it and treasure it. It is a book one can return to over and over to enjoy. Leave it lying around the living room where everybody can enjoy it and relive the joy Charles Schultz and the Peanuts gang gave us for over fifty years. Better yet, introduce a new generation of kids to the strip. The Peanuts gang is a microcosm of us, and reading it reveals much about ourselves and helps us to look on life with tenderness and humor.
Buy this book, read it, and share it. It would make a wonderful present as well. It is the best Peanuts book to date.

If you're a fan of Peanuts strips, you want this book.

It is gorgeous. This is visually the most amazing Peanuts book every produced.

Yes, it's that good.

Most of the book is made of Peanuts strips, but not just printed from old stats as most strip books are. Instead, the strips are photographed, either directly from the original art (which gives very sharp reproduction while showing you the little physicalities that go into the making of the strip) or from printed newspapers. The latter may *sound* a bit tacky, but really it gives the book a very textural sensibility. Eisner Award-winning designer Chip Kidd knows what he is doing. Also in it are plenty of Schulz sketches, pictures of Peanuts products and packaging, Schulz notes and correspondence, and more.

This is a good coffee-table book, but it isn't large like your typical coffee-table tome. It's about the size of a standard hardcover book, turned sideways. It's thick, over an inch thick, which helps it include over 500 strips, including many never before reprinted in a U.S. Peaunts book.

Text is scattered throughout the book, including Schulz quotes and descriptions of pictured items. However, it's a book that encourages one to flip through it; it does not need to be read linearly.

it appears that the text was scanned in and published. the cartoons cannot be seen in their full glory and much of the text is unreadable

This book is quintessential to all Peanuts fans and collectors. If you liked Peanuts: A Golden Celebration, you're guaranteed to enjoy Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz.

Chip Kidd has done an excellent job with the design of this book (with original clippings of comic strips) and there's a nice introduction by Schulz's widow, Jean Schulz who calls her late husband the genius that he was!

Like many others who pointed this out, I was impressed by the amount of early Peanuts cartoons featuring Charlie Brown (sometimes without his famous jagged striped shirt), Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus as babies (Lucy's eyes were larger and she was a much sweeter girl than what she became). Snoopy walked on all fours, except when he was dancing (he had yet to introduce his many other alter egos, like the World War I Flying Ace and Joe Cool). And does anybody remember Shermy (Charlie Brown's original buddy), Violet, and Patty (no, not Peppermint Patty who would debut in 1966)? At first Violet and Patty were friends to Charlie Brown, but they later became Lucy's Greek Chorus for insults.

Interesting moments include Charlie Brown getting Schroeder interested in playing the piano (hence, a musical genius is born), a minor character named Charlotte Braun (who looked a little like Frieda and acted a lot like Lucy later would), and a rare cartoon featuring adults in the background. The book also includes one mistake of Charlie Brown being left with one eye in one cartoon and lists the original 8 newspapers that carried Peanuts (not everybody got to enjoy Peanuts at 1st). You also get a few Little Folks cartoons (which Schulz, then known as Sparky, worked on before Peanuts) and an excerpt from a comic book not even drawn by Schulz. There's a drawing of what the little red haired girl (Charlie Brown's wouldbe girlfriend) may have looked like in Peanuts! She didn't look at all like the little red haired girl in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown (a 1977 TV special). Rare toys, figurines, and board games of the Peanuts gang are displayed. And finally, this book features excerpts and original sketches from I Need All the Friends I Can Get.

Special thanks to Chip Kidd for doing a great job compiling this gem and to my sister for getting me this for Christmas!

If you are or were a fan of good old Charlie Brown, I highly recommend this beautiful and moving compilation of Schulz's work. More than 500 strips are reproduced, from his last penstrokes to his pre-Peanuts work. There are also modest quotes from Schulz throughout, as well as some interesting photos of his working space. As I re-read some of the earlier strips, I could vividly recall reading them as a kid. Something indelible in the seemingly simple lines of Schulz's drawing.

Its interesting and somehow affecting to trace the development of the characters, to see Lucy as an innocent baby, and then follow her into domineering fussbudgetness. And Charlie Brown grew as well, losing some of his original pumkinheadedness over the years, but also losing some of his spunk and mischievious sense of humor. You can get the sense of the strip maturing, as in the earlier strips the characters were innocent, even in their anxieties, where later they became more knowing and resigned to their lot in life. Even though the strip changed over time, it had a timeless quality. There is evidence of a world outside of Schulz's palette, as in his few strips dealing with Viet Nam. But as with his drafting p.o.v., social issues are drawn from a child's perspective, a son's anxiety over his dad's absence, the fear of being sent off to somewhere strange in the future. There is no grand moralizing or strident argument, only a small, worried child.

50 years at the board, a worthy and dignified labor of love.

Quite simply, this is an essential piece in any dedicated Peanuts or Charles Schulz fan's collection as it details the origins of one of the world's most endeared cartoons and the cartoonist behind it.

Charles Schulz. In one word...genius. It may be safe to say that I learned much about life from Peanuts. At the very least, I was able to see the humor in it. It's definitely safe to say that Charles Schulz is my all-time hero for one reason: an ordinary man through a simple medium was able to affect so many people by making them aware of what it means to live and what it means to be human. This is the obvious reason why Schulz's work transcends what we perceive to be unbreakable boundaries -- race, class, and language. Reaching 355 million readers worldwide is a breathtaking, if not, unbelievable accomplishment.

This book (the expanded edition in paperback) is well worth the buy. I bought the original hardcover copy, but the expanded edition includes a few more gems from the Schulz family vaults and the asking price is, of course, more incentive to lay your money down. While this is not a collection of comic strips proper, that is, strictly page after page of strips for the collector, it provides a most fascinating glimpse to the early days of the strip and the development of characters with whom we identify and whom we adore. Granted, there was a lot to put in this book. so many of the early strips are reduced in size and "horded" onto a single page, but it's worth the sacrifice to "squint" and take a peek at them. Many of these have not been reproduced and have not been seen in years.

The book is a unique glimpse into the work of a man who simply wanted to be remembered for creating great cartoons and pleasing people. It's nice to know that whenever life "get rough", we can retreat to Peanuts and laugh at ourselves. If you love Peanuts or want to pass on Schulz's legacy to others who are interested, buy this book, even though it's not a comprehensive collection or laid out the way a normal collection of strips would be. Consider this book a enjoyable "warm-up" for a major event -- the release of the ENTIRE Peanuts collection, complete and in chronological order starting April, 2004, from Fantagraphics Books. Pay them a visit on the web or search Amazon for The Complete Peanuts for more information. This is Peanuts lover's dream come true.

...featuring luscious graphics and design layouts, "The Art of Charles Schultz" is definately aimed at those who are already big fans of his work. This is not a standard collection of comic strips. Instead, there is commentary about the development of the strip and Schultz's devlopment as an artist. The first 50 or so pages contain samplings of his pre-Peanuts work, which is fascinating for how it shows the development of his ideas. Next the book provides a real service by providing a generous helping of the early Peanuts strips (circa 1950-54), many of which have never appeared in book form. The characters look radically different and their personalities were just starting to settle in. Charlie Brown was a bit of a dandy instead of always being a loser, Lucy was sort of an airhead and Snoopy didn't "talk" yet.

The book has a genrous helping of photographs of Schultz, his staff and of various Peanuts memorabilia. The Sunday strips are rendered in glorious full color and there also rough drafts of strips that give an idea of how the creative process works. The book's only drawback is that it is oddly laid out, with some strips cut in half at page breaks and other pages featuring minaturized strips, apparently to save page space. Nevertheless, this book is of high enough quality that it will look good on any Peanut fan's coffee table.

Sadly, much early Peanuts work from the 1950s has never been collected, and possibly never will be. (Bloom County has the same problem.) This book goes some way to correcting that oversight, as many dozens of early strips are reprinted, camera-shot from newspaper copies preserved for decades. The lively evolution of the strip from its earliest days to its heyday in the 1960s are captured for the reader's fascination, along with some of Charles Schultz' pre-Peanuts work.

The book is not truly a collection of strips, though; it's a consideration of Schultz' body of work, with historical notes and stylistic analysis, as well as sidebars regarding the animated shows and various rare paraphernalia produced in conjunction with the strip (photos of statues of the characters are particularly striking). Insightful quotes by Schultz regarding his work and his characters are also presented. It's an educational reference, in that way, much as Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes 10th Anniversary Special or Dan Piraro's Bizarro collection, Life is Strange and So Are You, are.

The book could have been even better, though. It has a fancy sense of graphic design which seems starkly at odds with Schultz's straightforward linework. This includes reproductions of some strips in either very small or very large formats, both of which work against the strips' charm. The failure of the book to pick a format and stick with it is lamentable, and tends to hide the commentary making it difficult at timesto follow the narrative.

Schultz's material transcends the format's limitations, though, and any Peanuts fan should delight at the surprises waiting for them in the strip's earliest years, such as the evolution of some of the characters, and the peculiar (to our eye today) foibles that they exhibited in the beginning. The reproduction quality is by-and-large very high (even the small versions of the strips are readable), and the choice of material includes some of my favorite strips. The latter days of the strip (1980-2000) are given only a brief look, which is good since it was clearly on its downside by that point (besides the declining choice of subject matter - I never warmed to either Peppermint Patty or Spike as major characters - Schultz's draftsmanship suffered somewhat as a result of his stroke).

Despite its flaws, this book is an essential and unique piece of Americana. With any luck, it will sell well enough that a comprehensive reprint of Peanuts from its inception will commence in the near future. Hey, we can dream, can't we?