Peanuts Revisited: Favorites Old and New
by Charles M. Schulz (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1959)
A compact collection of Peanuts comics from 1955-1959. Schulz’s drawing style isn’t yet fully developed, nor his humour, nor indeed the characters, yet several long-running Peanuts themes are on display here in their early form, and the choice of strips is astute.
The Complete Peanuts: 1989-1990
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics, 2013)
With the change of decades, Schulz took an increasingly wistful eye to drawing Peanuts—particularly through Charlie Brown, who hankers back to days past and the simple pleasure of spending time with his dog. (Granted, he is also allowed a successful romance!)
The Bumper Book of Peanuts
by Charles M. Schulz; ed. Jenny Lord & Andy Miller (Canongate, 2015)
A 400-page hardcover collection. Schulz remains sublime but the editors’ selections are bewildering. Strips are grouped by category and, within this, seemingly at random or by arbitrary word-search. Dailies are plucked out of context from ongoing storylines. Some strips even appear twice.
The Complete Peanuts: 1975 to 1976
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics, 2010)
An ever-so-slightly flat couple of years. Schulz remains head-and-shoulders above the competition but takes a few missteps in his search for new storylines and characters. Though not entirely efficacious, the attempted reinvigoration demonstrates an intent to pursue rather than rest upon laurels.
Peanuts Every Sunday, 1952-1955
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics, 2013)
Everyone comes from somewhere and this is Peanuts before the characters grew up, both physically and emotionally (even artistically). There are nascent hints of what the future holds but even in large-format colour it’s difficult to digest Schulz’s work being this unsophisticated.
Pow! A Peanuts Collection
by Charles M. Schulz (Andrews McMeel, 2014)
Not much thought has gone into the formatting, nor indeed the wisdom of putting together an exclusively baseball-themed collection of Peanuts strips. (The humour of repetition really needs space to breathe.) On a plus side, the entire undertaking is in glorious colour.
The Peanuts Papers
ed. Andrew Blauner (Library of America, 2019)
A collection of quasi-academic studies, character analyses, and personal reminiscences centred around Peanuts — most commonly its life-changing influence on the contributors (writers and cartoonists) when in their formative years. The arguments are mostly accessible, offering a level of insight beyond casual appreciation.
The Complete Peanuts: 1977 to 1978
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics, 2010)
Two consistently sublime years of history’s greatest comic strip. There are few wasted days and, even putting philosophical wit aside, Schulz demonstrates unparalleled mastery purely as a cartoonist, his minimalist panels capturing moment after perfect moment of character, emotion and physical humour.
After the Goat Man
by Betsy Byars (The Bodley Head, 1974)
A remarkable middle grade novel. By delving deep into the protagonists’ wistful ruminations—especially poor overweight Harold’s—Byars not only guides her characters to a precocious philosophical maturity (cf. Peanuts) but also holds the reader’s attention despite there being almost no plot.
The Complete Peanuts: 1993 to 1994
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics Books, 2014)
Spurred perhaps by Rerun’s belated coming of age, Schulz bestows upon the Peanuts gang some nice little touches of character growth (Charlie Brown’s more active pursuit of the Little Red-Haired Girl, for instance). Unfortunately, his once-consummate penmanship is starting to look shaky.