The Complete Peanuts: 1973 to 1974
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics, 2008)
Two more excellent years. Schulz favours Snoopy (a little too much), Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty, but Sally also comes into her own. The physical humour is masterfully drawn, the existential comedy as reliable as ever. Plus, Schulz dabbles with dad jokes!
The Complete Peanuts: 1969 to 1970
by Charles M. Schulz (Canongate, 2008)
Schulz by second decade’s turn has mastered his craft, both from a technical viewpoint (those facial expressions!) and as an observer of life. The strips here contain a little too much Snoopy and Woodstock, but it’s a good period for Charlie Brown.
Lucy Rules OK?
by Charles M. Schulz (Hodder and Stoughton, 1978)
At time of printing there were fewer than 1,000 Peanuts Sunday strips to choose from. Still this is a very patchy collection. Of the forty-three selected (colour, A4), few do Lucy justice. In most she is an incidental character (or absent altogether!).
Classroom Peanuts
by Charles M. Schulz (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1982)
A 200-page large-format compendium, five black-and-white dailies or one colour Sunday per page. Peppermint Patty and Sally feature most often, and school is where Sally is at her funniest. Given how wearisome themed collections can be, this one holds up remarkably well.
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.