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Snoopy, Come Home
After visiting his former owner, a little girl, Snoopy returns to Charlie Brown when the girl's apartment building doesn't allow dogs.
24 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
55 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,026 books1,654 followersCharles Monroe Schulz was an American cartoonist, whose comic strip Peanuts proved one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, and is still widely reprinted on a daily basis.
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
Schulz's first regular cartoons, Li'l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post; the first of 17 single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. In 1948, Schulz tried to have Li'l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li'l Folks was dropped from the Pioneer Press in January, 1950.
Later that year, Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best strips from Li'l Folks, and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. The strip became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. He also had a short-lived sports-oriented comic strip called It's Only a Game (1957–1959), but he abandoned it due to the demands of the successful Peanuts. From 1956 to 1965 he contributed a single-panel strip ("Young Pillars") featuring teenagers to Youth, a publication associated with the Church of God.
Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years, almost without interruption; during the life of the strip, Schulz took only one vacation, a five-week break in late 1997. At its peak, Peanuts appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. Schulz stated that his routine every morning consisted of eating a jelly donut and sitting down to write the day's strip. After coming up with an idea (which he said could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours), he began drawing it, which took about an hour for dailies and three hours for Sunday strips. He stubbornly refused to hire an inker or letterer, saying that "it would be equivalent to a golfer hiring a man to make his putts for him." In November 1999 Schulz suffered a stroke, and later it was discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized. Because of the chemotherapy and the fact he could not read or see clearly, he announced his retirement on December 14, 1999.
Schulz often touched on religious themes in his work, including the classic television cartoon, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), which features the character Linus van Pelt quoting the King James Version of the Bible Luke 2:8-14 to explain "what Christmas is all about." In personal interviews Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side. Schulz, reared in the Lutheran faith, had been active in the Church of God as a young adult and then later taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church. In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts, the first of several books he wrote on religion and Peanuts, and other popular culture items. From the late 1980s, however, Schulz described himself in interviews as a "secular humanist": “I do not go to church anymore... I guess you might say I've come around to secular humanism, an obligation I believe all humans have to others and the world we live in.”
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 6, 2022
So entertaining, as always!
July 3, 2007
I read this collection, published by Holt, Rhinehart and Winston in 1969. I was nine. My grandmother gave me several collections of Charles M. Schulz's incredible strip. My parents got THE NEW YORK TIMES, which had no funny papers, so PEANUTS was new to me. (My timeline may be fuzzy. I distinctly remember seeing A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS when it first aired and that I knew the characters. That was 1966 or so. I also remember CHARLIE BROWN ALL-STARS, which you never see anymore.)
Holt, Rhinehart and Winston published really durable editions of Schulz's work. These were paperbacks with sewn signatures. That is, like the hardcovers of that era, string held the binding together. Marvelous technology. SNOOPY, COME HOME features cartoons focused on Snoopy. Schulz's stories in the mid-sixties were told over several days. I think there was about a month of panels dealing with an arm-wrestling contest he was going to have with Lucy Van Pelt. This is easily the most sustained comic episode in the history of comics. I remember a coloring book came out around this time, largely devoted to the episode. I colored in Lucy's face purple as she struggled against Snoopy. I made his face red. Schulz's lines, magnified for the coloring book format, were shown in their perfection; the little trembling of Lucy's wrist as Snoopy locks his paw with her hand; the grimacing of both characters. Schulz practically drew their willpower. He was a master cortoonist at the top of his game. Several of the episodes in SNOOPY, COME HOME deal with Snoopy's fantasy of being a World War One flying ace. Snoopy was suave, sarcastic and smooth.
A few years after SNOOPY, COME HOME was published, Snoopy began to lose height. Schulz, I suspect, had become rather depressed. His comic edge had all but vanished. Snoopy began to talk to his feet.
But between 1963 and 1971 or so, PEANUTS was a storytelling strip, building comic suspense Monday through Saturday. Sunday's strips were like little stage plays.
Charles M. Schulz was an artist of true humility, grateful to his many readers. For a long time he had them in the palm of his hand, reflecting, in his great strip, the Post-World War Two domestic life of the country for which he fought. How did he do this without showing one adult character? He didn't. Snoopy was the grown-up.
Holt, Rhinehart and Winston published really durable editions of Schulz's work. These were paperbacks with sewn signatures. That is, like the hardcovers of that era, string held the binding together. Marvelous technology. SNOOPY, COME HOME features cartoons focused on Snoopy. Schulz's stories in the mid-sixties were told over several days. I think there was about a month of panels dealing with an arm-wrestling contest he was going to have with Lucy Van Pelt. This is easily the most sustained comic episode in the history of comics. I remember a coloring book came out around this time, largely devoted to the episode. I colored in Lucy's face purple as she struggled against Snoopy. I made his face red. Schulz's lines, magnified for the coloring book format, were shown in their perfection; the little trembling of Lucy's wrist as Snoopy locks his paw with her hand; the grimacing of both characters. Schulz practically drew their willpower. He was a master cortoonist at the top of his game. Several of the episodes in SNOOPY, COME HOME deal with Snoopy's fantasy of being a World War One flying ace. Snoopy was suave, sarcastic and smooth.
A few years after SNOOPY, COME HOME was published, Snoopy began to lose height. Schulz, I suspect, had become rather depressed. His comic edge had all but vanished. Snoopy began to talk to his feet.
But between 1963 and 1971 or so, PEANUTS was a storytelling strip, building comic suspense Monday through Saturday. Sunday's strips were like little stage plays.
Charles M. Schulz was an artist of true humility, grateful to his many readers. For a long time he had them in the palm of his hand, reflecting, in his great strip, the Post-World War Two domestic life of the country for which he fought. How did he do this without showing one adult character? He didn't. Snoopy was the grown-up.
January 23, 2012
I have the 1965 edition of this book with a very different cover. This book is very cute. I'm gestimating its approximately 75 pages long. The cover of the book has Snoopy on top of a brown dog house. Snoopy is sitting next to a nest of two birds chirping. On the back of this book there is a message that I must share. Will Snoopy's doghouse be torn down to make room for a Highway? Will Snoopy get a special supper during National Dog Week? You'll find out when you join Snoopy and his freinds-Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Sally, and "Pig-Pen"- in this Collection of funny cartoons. This is a Weekly Readers Books edition. I wish i had the whole set. maybe I will find them someday.I paid $2.00 for this book. Inside it was signed by a person name Sara. You can definitely see the evolution of Snoopy over the years. My favorite cartoon in the book: When the low clowd hovers over Snoopy's dog house and he tries to push back up to the sky and the clooud. Snoopy Comments "he'd never seen a cloud scared of heights". The end of the cartoon Snoopy says, " I guess its rather scary up there" The cloud ends up around Snoopy cuddling you might say with him on the dog house.
December 2, 2012
I read this book in Spanish; a discovery of comics as a fantastic means to learn a language. It was a slower and more contemplative read than it would have been in English, and I came away with a greater admiration for Charles Schultz' work. I really enjoy the group of characters that are the Peanuts.
November 25, 2009
oh soooo lovely!! SNOOPY is my passion/obsession! my kids too!! yesterday, today, and tomorrow! i am so happy to have passed on this passion to the kids too!! snoopy will never die!
we have read so many snoopy and peanuts books, i cant even find them all!
we have read so many snoopy and peanuts books, i cant even find them all!
September 29, 2008
snooooooooopy snooooooooopy y o y did u go? come home come home!!!!!! lol.........
August 18, 2022
Very funny
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews