The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1975-1978 (Vol. 13-14) (Complete Peanuts) [Hardcover]

Charles M. Schulz (Author), Robert Smigel (Introduction), Alec Baldwin (Introduction), Seth (Cover Design)

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Product Description

A gift set of the thirteenth and fourteenth Complete Peanuts volumes, in a handsome and durable slipcase. The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976: Good grief, Charlie Brown, we're halfway there! That’s right! With this volume, The Complete Peanuts reaches the halfway point of Charles M. Schulz’s astounding half-century run on the greatest comic strip of all time. These years are especially fecund in terms of new canine characters, as Snoopy is joined by his wandering brother Spike (from Needles), his beloved sister Belle (from Kansas City), and... did you know he had a nephew? In other beagle news, Snoopy breaks his foot and spends six weeks in a cast, deals with his friend Woodstock’s case of the “the vapors,” and gets involved in a heated love triangle with Linus over the girl “Truffles.” The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 features several other long stories, including a rare “double track” sequence with two parallel narratives: Peppermint Patty and Snoopy travel to participate in the Powderpuff Derby, while Charlie Brown finally gets to meet his idol Joe Shlabotnik. And Peppermint Patty switches to a private school, but commits the mistake of allowing Snoopy to pick it for her; only after graduation does she realize something’s not quite right! Plus: A burglary at Peppermint Patty’s house is exacerbated by waterbed problems... Marcie acquires an unwanted suitor... Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty become desk partners... The talking school building collapses... Lots of tennis jokes... and gags starring Schroeder, Lucy, Franklin, Rerun, Sally, and that vicious cat next door. It’s another two years of Peanuts at its finest! Featuring an introduction by comedian Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Saturday Night Live).

The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978: As the 1970s wind down, the last two recurring Peanuts characters have fallen into place: Snoopy’s brother Spike and the youngest Van Pelt sibling, Rerun. But that doesn’t mean Schulz’s creativity has diminished; in fact, this volume features an amazing profusion of hilariously distinctive new one- (or two-) shot characters! For instance, in an epic five-week sequence, when Charlie Brown, found guilty by the EPA of biting the Kite-Eating tree, he goes on the lam and ends up coaching the “Goose Eggs,” a group of diminutive baseball players, Austin, Ruby, Leland, and —did you know there was a second Black Peanuts character, aside from Franklin?—Milo. Also: a tennis-playing Snoopy ends up reluctantly teamed with the extreme Type “A” athlete Molly Volley... who then reappears later in the book, now facing off against her nemesis, “Crybaby” Boobie. (Honest!) Add in Sally’s new camp friend Eudora, the thuggish “caddymaster” who shoots down Peppermint Patty and Marcie’s new vocation, an entire hockey team, and a surprise repeat appearance by Linus’s sweetheart “Truffles” (creating a love triangle with Sally), all in addition to the usual cast of beloved characters (including the talking schoolhouse and the doghouse-jigsawing cat, who gets ahold of Linus’s blanket in this one), and you’ve got a veritable crowd of characters. Introduction by 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin.

It’s another four years of the greatest comic strip of all time, full of laughs and surprises. 1461 black-and-white comic strips

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 (September 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606993763
• ISBN-13: 978-1606993767
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.2 x 2.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Yes (regretfully) this is where I'll get off the bus. BUT..., September 2, 2010

By	M. Derby "drone45" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1975-1978 (Vol. 13-14) (Complete Peanuts) (Hardcover)

...in the context of the work of a genius (who permanently revolutionized his field, in ways many of us are still only beginning to understand) the three-star comics of Charles Schulz are--on many days--far superior to the five-star works of lesser talents.

We all have our own opinions of which periods are essential. I'll be satisfied with my boxed sets covering the years 1959 through 1978.

Fantagraphics Books deserve mention for this gloriously sumptuous publishing venture. Finally, Schulz' oeuvre appears in a format suitably "serious" for groundbreaking art of its caliber. Not like when I was a kid and had fifty-odd paperbacks--in various states of disrepair--bursting from the confines of my bookcase and littering the floor.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars IT'S ALL DOWN THE (daisy) HILL FROM HERE ON..., September 1, 2010

By	Francisco J. Calderon "Paco Calderón" (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1975-1978 (Vol. 13-14) (Complete Peanuts) (Hardcover)

Sure, PEANUTS was the greatest comic strip of all time, but that doesn't mean it didn't declined over the years. Instead of relaunching old characters that faded away in time (Paty, Violet, Frieda and her cat, Shermy, Pig Pen, the Birds who got patted in the head) Schultz invented new ones that not only were redundant, they derailed the original formula to a wreck it never recovered.

"Rerun", a Linus clone and a vehicle for baby gags once meant for Sally, was a minor hindrance, but Snoopy's brother Spike was a costly mistake. The characters that followed didn't -and couldn't- add much after that. It's not that they were bad, they merely weren't great. And PEANUTS was expected to be great.

It wasn't the end of the world, of course, it just was the beginning of the end for the strip. Other great strips have gone the same way -Dick Tracy, Lil' Abner, Astérix, Bringing Up Father- ...why should PEANUTS end different? Better to die along with its creator, than to remain a putrid zombie in ComixHell, drawn by a Press Syndicate slave for meagre profits.

Anyway, as a big fan of the strip, read it from the year Schroeder grew up, to when Peppermint Patty and Marcie (the last great characters) reigned supreme. After that, I wouldn't. It's like watching people you love on their way to the grave. It hurts.