J's Pages

by Charles Schulz

My wife, the family Peanuts maven, has declared that this is the first volume of The Complete Peanuts that she will not be purchasing. In her opinion, Schulz's comic genius had lost its edge by this time in the life of the strip. It's also past the era when she would eagerly search the daily paper for her Peanuts fix, so unlike, say, the previous volume of the collection, this book has little nostalgic appeal. Such is her opinion. For myself, I've never been a major Peanuts fan. The strip is worth reading, certainly. I'm just not going to go out of my way to find it. So, I didn't check this book out of the library. But I certainly read it when my wife did so. It's funny--full of the antics of Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty, Snoopy and Woodstock. For me, it also evoked a bit of nostalgia when Schulz would make the occasional reference to then latest fads. (Streaking and the the metric system! Woo-hoo!) All in all, it's definitely worth checking out. I'll just have to find something else to give my wife for Christmas.

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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CheckItOut, Peanuts

by Charles M. Schulz

This is a very funny collection of strips.... er, make that a collection of very funny strips. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say a collection of strips, some of which are very funny. (others being just plain funny and others being meh) The highlights of this collection are running gags about The Six Bunny-Wunnies series, Joe Cool, the introduction of Marcie, Charlie Brown getting expelled from camp, Sally's neurotic relationship with school and various sagas of unrequited love. Those strips showcasing Lucy and Schroeder are pretty pathetic, while those between Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown are quite amusing. All in all, I'm glad my wife wants to put this one on our shelf.

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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CompletePeanuts, OnMyShelf

by Charles M. Schulz

My wife borrowed this from the library to see if this was a book she wanted to buy. In her opinion, Peanuts jumped the shark in the late sixties and while she's been faithfully buying each volume of the series, the time is coming when she will stop. The verdict, by the way, is yes, she will be buying this volume. (Well, actually the second printing of it, since there's a error on page 53 in which the May 1st strip is printed twice and the May 3rd strip has been left out.)(Hmmm, I had that problem with my 11th grade yearbook.)(Fanatgraphics says they're going to fix the typo and reprint the missing strip in the next volume.)(The next volume of The Complete Peanuts, that is, not my high school yearbook.) Anyway, I have to question my wife's opinions here. I think this volume is great. I found a lot more laughs amongst the reprinted strips than I did in the previous volume. Snoopy and Lucy hog the spotlight a lot, but like John Waters (who wrote the forward), I think that's a good thing.

Check it out.
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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CheckItOut, CompletePeanuts

by Charles Schulz

This volume of Peanuts reprints contains lots of baseball gags, lots of Snoopy as the World War I flying ace strips, the account of Charlie Brown's time at summer camp, Sally's treatment for "lazy eye" (and attendant eye-patch jokes) and the first appearance of Peppermint Patty. It's amusing stuff--nothing spectacular, but worth checking out if you need a chuckle.

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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CheckItOut, CompletePeanuts

by Michael Uslan and Peter Snejbjerg

This one's an impulse borrow from the Library. It's an imaginary tale of Batman--I think they're still calling them "Elseworlds" tales. It combines the ideas of a secret society of detectives and a post-Civil War plot of revenge with a Bruce Wayne who has chosen a different road than to become the Batman. Like most "Elseworlds" stories of the Batman, it pays homage to the character's 68-year-old mythology, but this is the first one I've read that evokes a bit of the 1960s television show and laces the tale with puns and in-jokes. (Not as bad as the TV show, mind you, but enough that you can't take the story too seriously.)

Holy Conspiracy! Check it out!
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Labels: CharlesSchulz, DCComics

by Charles Schulz

My wife is a long time fan of Peanuts and has been faithfully collecting The Complete Peanuts reprints as finances allow. But there is a limit to her loyalty. She thinks that Mr. Schulz jumped the shark around 1970 or so and will stop collecting as soon as they get to those strips. Me, I'm ready to stop now. Don't get me wrong--this book still is quite entertaining, worth checking out and all. It's just nothing spectacular that I need to read again. The years 1963 and 1964 saw a lot of typical Peanuts gags--from Snoopy's amazing dog house to Charlie Brown's baseball woes. There were some story lines that extended over a few strips, but none really grabbed my attention.
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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CheckItOut, CompletePeanuts

by Charles M. Schulz

Another two years in the history of Peanuts. 'Tis amusing stuff, of course. The only thing that struck me about this particular collection was that these years saw many of the gags that were swiped for A Charlie Brown Christmas. I wonder if I would have enjoyed the special as much if I had been ten years older and familiar with the originals. Anyway, it's classic stuff, well worth checking out.
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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CheckItOut, CompletePeanuts, Peanuts

by Charles M. Schulz

How does one review a bunch of comics? I mean, sure, an individual comic strip can strike home with a serious, profound thought, or even get one's mind speculating on deep issues. But it's rare for a comic strip to delve into any prolonged analysis of an issue. Each day's strip needs to deliver its standalone message in the limited number of panels it's given. So my review of the content of The Complete Peanuts--a complete collection of Charles Schulz's iconic strip--is simple: it's funny. However, there's more to this book than just the strips. For one thing, this series is created for the hard core fan of Peanuts. The book has an index, for crying out loud! Only a true comics geek needs one of those. Also, the Peanuts of 1950-1952 is a far cry from the icons we know today. Snoopy behaves like a dog, Charlie Brown is a wise-cracking trickster and Linus' blanket is nowhere to be seen. There are a few beloved concepts that show up in this collection, but for the most part it's completely different from what's running in the newspapers today. But hey, like I said, it's funny. I'm looking forward to reading future volumes to see the strip evolve and enjoy a slice of Americana from before my time. I probably wouldn't have bought the book for myself, but my wife is a fan, so it's going on my shelf. 

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Labels: CharlesSchulz, CompletePeanuts, OnMyShelf