Finally, I can get rid of all those battered paperbacks:
50 years of art. 25 books. Two books per year for 12 1/2 years. Fantagraphics Books is proud to announce the most eagerly-awaited and ambitious publishing project in the history of the American comic strip: the complete reprinting of CHARLES M. SCHULZ’s classic, PEANUTS. Considered to be one of the most popular comic strips in the history of the world, PEANUTS will be, for the first time, collected in its entirety and published, beginning in April, 2004. Fantagraphics will launch THE COMPLETE PEANUTS in a series designed by the cartoonist SETH (Palookaville, It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken) and produced in full cooperation with United Media, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, and Mr. Schulz’s widow, Jean Schulz.
25 books? Good grief.
Peanuts is my favorite comic strip of all time, but I'm not sure how I'll be able to afford these. Maybe I can spin the purchase as an "investment in my child." Kids like cartoons, right? Of course, I'll probably have to scan the damn things into my computer because the children of the future won't have the time to bother with something as archaic as print.
Each volume in the series will run approximately 320 pages in a 8” x 6 1/2” hardcover format, presenting two years of strips along with supplementary material. The series will present the entire run in chronological order, dailies and Sundays. Since the strip began in late 1950, the first volume will include all the strips from 1950, 1951, and 1952, but subsequent volumes will each comprise exactly two years. Dailies will run three to a page, while Sunday strips will each take up a full page and be printed in black-and-white, an aesthetic choice agreed upon by the editors, the designer, and Mrs. Schulz.
Sounds like Fantagraphics is really giving Charlie Brown the "special edition DVD" treatment here. As Mark Evanier says, "Clear a bookshelf now."
Next up, they need to update the Super Book of Questions and Answers.
Thanks to Greg for the heads-up.
I've leafed through the "Parables" book, but I don't buy most of what that guy's peddling. Any X-ian message in the exploits of the World War One Flying Ace and "The Mad Punter" were lost on me and, obviously, didn't work too well in any case.
Schulz wasn't a dogmatist, like Johnny Hart has become. Sure, Linus quoted the Bible and they had Christmas plays and what not, but I disagree that the majority of the strips contain the kinds of hidden prosletyzing Short claims is there. "Parables" seems like one of those grad school projects where the author looks for every possible example to support his thesis. Schulz may indeed have been preaching in his comics, but I wasn't ever really aware of it until the Short book was brought to my attention in college. It didn't change how much I liked the strip, frankly.
Gotta say that's a fine feather to put in the cap of Fantagraphics, as well. They've put out a lot of great stuff, and hopefully it will get a bit more mainstream exposure with the Peanuts collections.
I found Short when I was 8 or 9 and Peanuts never really worked for me again. The horrific "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" that was staged in Jr. High didn't help.
Schultz is to Hart what Country Club Republicans are to Christian Conservative Republicans. Same town, different neighborhood.
Short had enough quotes from Schultz to make me uneasy about his motives.
But all this could be rationalizing. I mean I knew going in that it wasn't doing it for me, so I might have been predisposed to agreeing with Short's thesis but disagreeing with his judgement of it.
I've been looking and looking for the comic strip about Snoopy becoming Head Beagle and the ending. I am at my wit's end trying to find it. I missed getting it when it was shown through the comics a few weeks ago and can't find it again. Is there anyway possible that you might have this or know someone who might?
Thank you, Stacey
I was ruined for life on Peanuts by "The Parables of Peanuts", a book which explores in depth the religious and explicitly Christian message of Peanuts. Starting from the Schulz quote "I preach in these cartoons," and continuing through the rest of "this modern-day guide to the Christian faith, fully illustrated with Peanuts" I eventually got to the epiphany--"Aha! That's why I see the strip that is so beloved of millions as frequently lame, old-fashioned, and only occasionally better than Luann." Ah, well, I can save the money over the next 12.5 years...