Product Description

A boxed set of the first two volumes, just in time for the holidays, designed by the Award-winning graphic novelist, Seth! Ships shrinkwrapped.

The first volume, The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952, covers the first two and a quarter years of the strip (October 1950 through December 1952), and will be of particular fascination to Peanuts aficionados worldwide: Although there have been literally hundreds of Peanuts books published, many of the strips from the series' first two or three years have never been collected before—in large part because they showed a young Schulz working out the kinks in his new strip and include some characterizations and designs that are quite different from the cast we're all familiar with (Among other things, three major cast members—Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus—initially show up as infants and only "grow" into their final "mature" selves as the months go by. Even Snoopy debuts as a puppy!).

The second volume, The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954, begins with Peanuts' third full year and a cast of eight: Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty, Violet, Schroeder, Lucy, the recently born Linus, and Snoopy. By the end of 1954, this will have expanded to nine. Linus still doesn't speak (except, on a few occasions, to himself, à la Snoopy), but Schulz begins laying the foundation for his emergence as the most complex and arguably most endearing character in the strip: garrulous and inquisitive, yet gentle and tolerant. And he evens acquires his "security blanket" in this volume! Meanwhile, Lucy, an infant just a year ago, has forcefully elbowed herself to the front of the cast, proudly wearing her banner as a troublemaker or, in Schulz's memorable phrase, "fuss-budget." The strong, specific relationships she sets up with each character further contributes to making her central to the strip. (She has earned her cover status on this volume.) This period's significant new character is Pig-Pen, who would remain one of the main cast members throughout the decade. And then there's Snoopy. To readers unfamiliar with the early days of the strip, Snoopy's appearances here will no doubt come as the biggest surprise. Although Snoopy has started talking/thinking to himself, he does no imitations (except for one brief shark impression), he doesn't sleep atop his doghouse (much less type or fly a Sopwith Camel), and has no fantasy life—in fact, he doesn't even walk upright! But as we know, he is merely biding his time, and his evolution continues its fascinating course within these pages.

Peanuts is the most successful comic strip in the history of the medium as well as one of the most acclaimed strips ever published. (In 1999, a jury of comics scholars and critics voted it the 2nd greatest comic strip of the 20th century—second only to George Herriman's Krazy Kat, a verdict Schulz himself cheerfully endorsed.) Charles Schulz's characters—Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, and so many more—have become American icons. A United Media poll in 2002 found Peanuts to be one of the most recognizable cartoon properties in the world, recognized by 94 percent of the total U.S. consumer market and a close second only to Mickey Mouse (96 percent), and higher than other familiar cartoon properties like Spider-Man (75 percent) or the Simpsons (87 percent). In TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All-Time" list, Charlie Brown and Snoopy ranked #8.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7473 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10
• Format: Box set
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Hardcover
• 720 pages

Amazon.com Review
Good grief! The Complete Peanuts is the most ambitious and most important project in the comics and cartooning genre: over a period of 12 years, Fantagraphics Books will release every daily and Sunday strip of Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts," the best-known and best-loved series in the world.

1950-52
Most everyone with an interest in its history has seen the very first strip ("Good ol' Charlie Brown... How I hate him!"), but this first volume follows it up with 287 pages (three daily strips or one Sunday per page) of vintage material in chronological order. "Peanuts" was unique at the time for portraying kids who seemed like real kids, but they also had a wisdom beyond their years, embodied especially by the lovable loser, Charlie Brown, who even in these early years has lost 4000 checker games in a row. We see him don his familiar jagged-stripe shirt for the first time (December 1950) and, at the age of 4, at his peak as a babe magnet. Shermy is the other significant boy, and the girls in their lives are Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) and Violet. Schroeder is an infant who has learned to sit up in order to play Beethoven on his toy piano. Snoopy is an anthropomorphic dog who plays baseball (April 1952) and has his own thoughts (October 1952). In March 1952 we meet a bug-eyed Lucy, who by November has been designated "Miss Fuss-Budget of 1952" and is pulling the football away from Charlie Brown (Violet had done it a year earlier). Her baby brother Linus arrives in July 1952. The book itself is beautifully packaged, the strips printed large and clear on high-quality paper and accompanied by an in-depth essay by David Michaelis, a 1987 interview with Schulz, an introduction by Garrison Keillor, and even an index of characters and subjects.

1953-54
The second volume covers 1953-54, and the visual style and character development is closer to the kids we know and love, as they try to exist in a grown-up world. Charlie Brown is no longer the object of Patty and Violet's affection--derision, more like--and his pattern of losing continues. His misery at checkers hits 5000 (June 1953), 6000 (August), 7000 (November), 8000 (still November), and 10,000 (December) consecutive games, he gets shut out on Valentine's Day (February '53), he wears his first bad Halloween costume (October '54), and he gets a form rejection slip from Santa (December '54). On the baseball diamond, though, he actually has the lead in a game (April '53, but we don't see the final score) and briefly plays catcher. By now Lucy has become the main girl in the strip, and in addition to beating Charlie Brown at checkers, she begins her romantic pursuit of Schroeder (January '53), joins the baseball team (August '54), and wins her third consecutive Miss Fussbudget of the Year title (November '54). Her younger brother, Linus, starts what will become a longstanding feud with Snoopy in the first Sunday strip of '53, shows he's a prodigy in jump rope, blocks, houses of cards, and balloon blowing, and cuddles his security blanket (May '54). Schroeder continues his obsession with Beethoven and reveals the secret to playing great literature on a plastic piano with painted-on black keys (practice and "getting the breaks"). We meet two new characters, the perpetually dirty Pig-Pen (July '54) and the loudmouthed Charlotte Braun, whose funny name wasn't enough to keep her around for long. Charles M. Schulz, whose own insecurity manifested itself in Charlie Brown (who not coincidentally draws his own cartoons), came up with his first multiple-strip storyline (starting with a four-Sunday series of Lucy joining a golf tournament coached by Charlie Brown, May '54) in this period, and provides us with a glimpse of the 1950s--deco furniture ("What in the world is a 'rocking chair'? asks CB), 3-D movies, H-bomb testing, and even what in hindsight looks like a prediction of the troubles in Vietnam (May '54). The second volume maintains the high quality of the first volume; even if it doesn't have the same extent of extra materials, it has an introduction by Walter Cronkite, a note on one strip that had to be partially reconstructed, and that handy index of characters and topics. --David Horiuchi

About the Author
Charles M. Schulz passed away in January, 2000, on the eve of his farewell comic strip.

Customer Reviews

Full-size books, jackets on each volume
Both books included in this boxed set are exactly the same full size as the separately-published volumes, and both books contain full book jackets. In short, this are the same books as the separate volumes, with an added attractive slipcase.

Fantastic Collection of Where it all Started
I loved Charles Schultz's 'Peanuts' strip when I was young. My parents owned perhaps a half-dozen paperback collections of strips that I read over and over again in addition to his daily strip. As I reached adolescence, however, Peanuts seemed to become less relevant and amusing and I drifted away from it, losing track of a childhood friend. Occasionally I would see a strip in the paper and get a chuckle out of it, but it was no longer a daily fix. Not until Schultz shocked the world by ending the strip as his health problems grew worse in early 2000 did I take the time to go back and look at just what I'd been missing over the years, at which time I was disturbed to see that even fifty years after starting the strip, Schultz's work was funny, topical, and even occasionally poignant.

With that in mind I decided to go back to where it all began with this beautiful collection of the first five years of Peanuts strips, and I'm quite glad I did. Peanuts tends to fool the reader with its use of children as primary characters; we assume that it is a strip written not just about, but for children. Nothing could be further from the truth. Schultz uses children, yes, but the themes he explored with those characters went far beyond typical childhood troubles. Schultz's everyman, Charlie Brown, speaks to everyone who has ever doubted themselves for a moment, which is to say, he speaks for us all.

Going back to the beginning not only demonstrates why Peanuts quickly took off, it presents a marvelous look into the evolution of the strip. Who knew that some of the characters we know so well today were absent from the early years? We get to see the arrival of Lucy, the queen fussbudget, her brilliant younger brother Linus, and the prodigy and Beethoven fanatic Schroeder, as well as the developing relationships between Charlie Brown and the neighborhood gang. The two books are a treasure trove for all, but will be of particular interest for readers unaware of how Charlie Brown and the rest got their start. The strips are augmented with numerous essays and interviews about Peanuts bookending each volume and serving as a kind of cultural barometer for the wide-ranging influence of Charles Schultz.

The books themselves are well-made and packaged inside a handsome slipcase, making them an attractive addition to your bookcase when you're not poring over them. Both volumes are hardcover with sleeves and should last a lifetime of reading.

Truly does Peanuts justice
Let's get one thing straight, Fantagraphics pulled out all the stops on these books. The reproductions are magnificent and all the strips are bookended by great interviews.

As a long time fan of Peanuts I have only started to truly appreciate Sparky's amazing talent. I read Snoopy books religiously as a child but put them aside in my late teens and twenties as I thought them too childish. I have recently come back to read the strips again with a fresh mind and am amazed by Schulz's talent to say so much about us as people in only 4 panels and a few well-place pen strokes (perhaps only matched by Bill Waterson of Calvin & Hobbes fame).

The true joy of these books (and I haven't finished reading them yet, but I digress) is seeing the progression of characters from day one. Snoopy is just a puppy with an upturned nose who doesn't talk. Heck, for quite a while it is not even clear who he belongs to! Slowly characters are introduced into the neighbourhood. It was amazing to see a baby Schroeder introduced and immediately play Bheethoven on his toy piano.

All in all, an amazing purchase. I look forward to the rest of the series.