Snoopy Treasury
by Charles M. Schulz (Book Club Associates, 1981)
A large-format book combining much of “Peanuts Treasury” (1960s dailies and Sundays, black and white) with the colour Sundays from “Sandlot Peanuts” (1960s-1970s baseball themed). The result is nearly 200 pages of wit and wisdom, somewhat lopsided in favour of Charlie Brown.
You’re a Good Scout Snoopy
by Charles M. Schulz (Hodder & Stoughton, 1979)
A collection of Sunday strips, only four of which feature Snoopy as scout leader (the remaining thirty-nine have a more generic Snoopy focus). This is unfortunate, as the scouting expeditions’ visual nature and last-panel sight gags benefit from the large-format colour presentation.
The Snoopy Festival
by Charles M. Schulz (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974)
A big collection of Snoopy-focussed strips—five weeklies or one colour Sunday per page across just shy of 200 pages. The colour strips are beautifully reproduced and the selection of dailies is good, albeit that a few ongoing storylines are left incomplete.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Me
by Charles M. Schulz (W.H. Allen 1981)
A short, simply written autobiography that extends to Schulz’s inspirations, working process and general thoughts on cartooning, illustrated piecemeal (in black-and-white) with Peanuts strips and unremarkable family photographs. Schulz is justifiably proud of his achievements but comes across rather blandly alongside them.
The Complete Peanuts: 1985-1986
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics, 2012)
Snoopy’s brother Spike remains a weak link and Tapioca Pudding is beyond doubt a character experiment gone badly wrong. Desert strips and pointless riffs notwithstanding, Schulz crosses the mid-80s with vigour, sharing his attention amongst old favourites and tapping rich new veins.
The Complete Peanuts: 1991 to 1992
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics Books, 2014)
Despite Schulz’s at times self-indulgent format experimentations, Peanuts in the 90s starts to feel a little tired. (Snoopy’s cookie fixation, for instance, disappoints as a recurring punchline.) Nevertheless, there is much here to like. Only by his own benchmark is Schulz diminished.
The Snoopy Treasures
by Nat Gertler (Titan, 2015)
Presented like a deluxe collection of comics — an odd format for its purpose — the Snoopy Treasury is more a potted history of the Snoopy (not Peanuts) phenomenon, exploring Snoopy’s development within Schulz’s strips and his many, many manifestations in the outside world.
Celebrating Peanuts: 60 Years
by Charles M. Schulz (Andrews McMeel, 2009)
Beautifully presented, with the Sundays reproduced in full colour, this hefty hardcover exemplifies the droll brilliance of Schulz, devoting 100+ large, glossy pages each to the five decades in which Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang ruled the world of comic strips.
Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
dir. Steve Martino (2015)
As a comic strip, Peanuts ran for fifty years and was never bettered. The film’s 3D animation cannot compete with the vibrancy of Schulz’s stills, yet does succeed as a nostalgia piece capturing the greatly beloved world of perennial also-ran Charlie Brown.