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The Complete Peanuts #23

The Complete Peanuts, 1995-1996

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This is the twenty-third (out of twenty-five) volume of the New York Times best-selling series that collects every single one of the 18,000-plus Peanuts comic strips; it will coincide with a new feature film.

In The Complete Peanuts, 1995-1996 (Vol. 23), Charlie Brown starts taking dancing classes ... and is asked to the sweetheart ball! The World Famous Attorney handles some tough cases ... Rerun wants Snoopy to come out and play ... and Linus hears coyotes howling at night. Even the most devoted Peanuts fan will be surprised when they revisit Schulz's last decade of work on the most beloved comic strip of all time. Schulz's cartooning has never been more expressive, and his sense of humor never more unencumbered by formula or tradition.

348 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2015

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About the author

Charles M. Schulz

3,040 books1,635 followers
Charles 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.”

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5 stars
257 (57%)
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143 (31%)
3 stars
43 (9%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Profile Image for Dan.
3,208 reviews10.8k followers
August 31, 2023
This collects the Peanuts strips from 1995-1996. The strip is coasting toward the finish line at this point. These aren't bad by any means but they aren't as good as the earlier strips.

There's not as much Snoopy as some volumes, which is good. There's altogether too much Rerun Van Pelt, though. I don't hate him but he's not really that different from Linus. Not a ton of Charlie Brown, either. I wonder if Sparky thought that well had run dry and he focused more on Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Rerun.

One thing I find interesting about the twilight years of the strip is that Sparky was experimenting with different numbers of panels and panel widths instead of his usual four panel strips. Maybe it was just to keep himself interested or perhaps to give the strip a little different rhythm? Anyway, I dug it.
Profile Image for Jim Kuenzli.
495 reviews41 followers
June 14, 2025
Charlie Brown finally had a girl ask him to a dance! Of course he got kicked out because Snoopy was there and no dogs were allowed! Also we got to see quite a bit of development with Rerun as he started Kindergarten. People say Schultz was slipping at this point, and while it’s not classic 60’s and 70’s it’s still really good.
Profile Image for Greg.
561 reviews142 followers
December 23, 2024
Although I will argue with any follower of the idea of American exceptionalism, there is no denying that Charles Schulz was quintessentially of his time and place. Daily strip cartoonists, as far as I know and I may be wrong, are an American institution, born when newspapers flourished and dying with the proliferation of the internet. His timeless characters are both simple and profound, never aging but almost always with greater wisdom. His patriotism could seem corny to some, but it had a depth and sincerity—as his annual commemorative reverence of D-Day, Veterans Day, Bill Maudlin and Ernie Pyle demonstrated—that is sadly missing today. And somehow, from the late 40s until he died in early 2000, Schulz always seemed to conjure up an unexpected belly laugh, never seeming old or contrived.
Profile Image for Gabriel Franklin.
504 reviews30 followers
September 29, 2021
Linus: "I've often wondered... is there a dog Heaven?"
Charlie Brown: "Of course!"
Lucy: "What do you suppose it's like in dog heaven?"
Snoopy: "Everybody has a box of crayons and their own coloring book..."
Profile Image for Ray Smillie.
743 reviews
November 17, 2021
Not quite as excellent as the 93/94 volume this still has it moments including Rerun wanting to adopt Snoopy but declining Spike. Rerun staring kindergarten. Charlie Brown being an expert at playing marbles. And all the rest of the regulars being as eccentric as ever.
Profile Image for Leaflet.
447 reviews
June 30, 2015
Favorites include Charlie Brown playing marbles for keeps with Joe Agate in order to win Rerun's marbles back, and Snoopy winning the coloring book contest.
Profile Image for Brandt.
693 reviews17 followers
October 2, 2019
So usually when I review The Complete Peanuts I just give it a five star rating, post my favorite strip from the collection and go from there. After all, you don't need me telling you how great, on the whole Peanuts was. However, like with a great band or musician, while the sum total of the work may indicate greatness (I'm thinking the Beatles here), when we break the sum into individual parts, we may see where the cracks in the foundation are starting to appear. By the time the strips in this volume saw print, Schulz was already 46 years into producing the strip, and I feel like Schulz's priorities may be different than when he first started producing the strip. To be honest, the Peanuts of the 1990s is a darker strip than it had been in previous decades. I think Schulz was more aware of his mortality when producing the strip (leading to a number of strips where Charlie Brown sits up awake in bed at night sweating out different existential crises) and also was probably planning on an exit strategy (although I doubt that Schulz felt that the end of the strip would coincide with the end of his life as well) for the strip. In addition, there are moments where Schulz is producing strips where only he gets the joke. I think this can be forgiven after 46 years of superlative work, but readers may not be as patient as what Schulz was likely passing off as some sort of whimsy. And finally, the deterioration of his work, first evident in the previous volume, is more noticeable here.

Of course, while Charlie Brown's insomnia may have been a channel for Schulz's own fears, I don't think that Schulz had a completely dark view of life in his older days. Peanuts was so ubiquitous by 1996 that Schulz's legacy was cemented for generations to come (my son was born seven years after Schulz's death and the end of Peanuts and he loves Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang.) Because of that legacy, Schulz was given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted in the strip, including sharing bits of life wisdom that he felt were worth sharing. And that's where this review's strip comes in.

A bit of a setup--in a previous strip Charlie Brown indicates that he feels lonely. Unfortunately, he does this within earshot of Snoopy, who takes offense. In this strip, Charlie Brown feels he needs to explain to Snoopy what he meant, and to which Snoopy acts incredulously:



I remember when I was a kid, I had a dog named Mokie. And Mokie was the one creature in this world that when I was sad or upset or whatever, she would let you hug her and not judge you for the way you felt. I have a dog named Rigby now that does the same thing. He loves me unconditionally, no matter how I am feeling or behaving. There really isn't a better moment than when Rigby wags his tail when he sees you and nuzzles you when you need him to. No, he doesn't solve all of my problems, but for that moment I can feel that love, he does. And so maybe Snoopy is right to be incredulous. I am going to assume that Schulz owned a dog of his own (I mean how could he not?) and maybe in his later years even if he felt the uncertainty of his own mortality, that moment he scratched his dog on the head was going to be that moment his problems were solved. Yes, it was ephemeral, but it still was--and I think that's what mattered.
Profile Image for Stuart Smith.
280 reviews1 follower
July 20, 2025
Having given Rerun his own voice and stories in the last volume. He now consolidates his place in the Peanuts family with a fully fledged personality of his own. Linus suffers in comparison although the Great Pumpkin panels from 1996 are a delight after its omission from 95.
Profile Image for Pedro Fernández.
Author 18 books820 followers
March 7, 2020
Es agradable ver cómo Rerun se transforma en el protagonista de la tira, y cómo Charles Schulz madura a sus personajes y sus situaciones de cara al final de su proyecto.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Mark Schlatter.
1,253 reviews15 followers
July 6, 2015
The most interesting facet of this volume was the huge emphasis on Rerun. After years of just riding on the back of his mother's bike, Schulz uses the character intensively. There's a great running gag about Rerun wanting to play with Snoopy and a nice week's worth of strips of Sally preparing Rerun for school. It's as if Schulz realized he needed a character younger than everyone else. I also appreciated Charlie Brown's marbles duel (a rare victory for him!) and the appearance of Spike in Snoopy's WWI dramas.

The introduction is by the Rifftrax folk, who riff on a few strips. Overall, I didn't like the gags, but there is one stellar one that refers to the TV specials.
Profile Image for Lou.
75 reviews
July 6, 2015
These volumes bring back great memories. Recommend for any Peanuts fan.
Profile Image for Travis.
874 reviews14 followers
January 26, 2025
The strips in this volume are not as inspired as previous volumes. The strip was in its final 5 years out of 50 years at this point, and Schulz is coasting while at the same time trying new things.

There is a lot of focus on Rerun van Pelt, one of my least favorite characters. And his shtick this entire volume is to knock on Charlie Brown's door and ask if Snoopy can come out to play. At least he's no longer stuck on the back of his mom's bike, but this series of strips got real tiresome real fast. And any strip containing Rerun and Linus looks like it has two of the same character, except Linus has a blanket. On the other hand, Rerun starting kindergarten offers a couple good strips.

Peppermint Patty and Marcie also get a lot of strips devoted to them. A lot of the old baseball strips get replaced by Patty playing football in the rain. It's nice to see the change of pace, and maybe an acknowledge of football overtaking baseball in American popular culture, but the strips themselves just aren't that funny or interesting. The rest are mostly the same old jokes about Patty messing up at school, although she seems to have her heart more into trying this time around.

Sally gets a series of strips where she attempts to run away from home. Otherwise Sally is mostly around to answer the door when Rerun knocks looking for Snoopy.

Gone are the strips that were once so insightful about life. There are a handful of strips with Charlie Brown in bed at night asking questions, but these don't offer the same quality of answers as years past. For a strip that used to be so cutting and witty and inspiring, it's disappointing to see so much of that disappear.

The most exciting part of this volume is how much Schulz plays with the panels. There are a lot of single panel strips, which are striking when placed next to the standard four panel strips and must have really leapt off the page in the newspaper. There are also strips with panels of various widths, providing a different cadence to the storytelling and again breaking up the normal visual flow. Much like Bill Watterson, Schulz was using his long-standing credibility and power to flex the boundaries of the daily comic strip. He doesn't go anywhere near as far as latter day Calivin and Hobbes, but very few strips even attempt that, and the changes are still striking for the traditional Peanuts comic strip.

Not at all a "bad" collection, but coming from the strip's higher peaks earlier in its history, it can't help but feel like the strip was a bit on auto-pilot at this point.
Profile Image for Jack Silbert.
Author 16 books16 followers
August 20, 2020
I was reading these Fantagraphics collections in real time as they were released, thinking, "Wow, it'll take 12.5 years to get and read them all." Somewhere toward the end, I fell behind pace, and then, as documented elsewhere, I fell ill. Long story a little shorter, I recently found this partially read volume from at least four years ago, subscription card bookmark still waiting for me to return.

And here's the interesting thing, at least to me. Regularly reading these books from the 1950s through the decades, I felt the magic slowly drain from the strip. It became less dark. It fell into patterns. There were storylines that didn't really go anywhere. And in the 90s, the lines got just a bit shaky.

Wait, that's not the interesting part, *this* is: Upon returning to the strip with fresh eyes, it's still great. I'm happy to see repeated concepts that I haven't seen in a long while. The darkness is still there, you just have to look a little harder. (Often, it's Charlie Brown having an existential crisis awake in bed in the middle of the night.) And there are many funny jokes and concepts.

The rare nod to modern times really stands out: email. The internet. The Macarena.

I know the remaining volumes are around here somewhere. Newly looking forward to cracking them open.
Profile Image for Sadie-Jane Huff.
1,899 reviews13 followers
October 22, 2024
Book 194 of 300 ~ 2024

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I hope to find as many of the volumes as I can. My love for the Peanuts kiddos hasn't changed in years. They are oldies but goodies. RiP Sparky.. and thanks for leaving these for us to read and pass to future generations..

#book194of300 #amreading #peanuts #tbrpile #instareads #readstagram #reading #bookreview #bookreviewer #booklover #booksAreLife #booksForTheWin #thisbookfairyisreading #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramfeature #bookshelf #booksofinstagram #bookish #bookworm #goodreads #booklovers #theSGbookfairyReads #theSGtrekkiereads #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookchallenge2024 #reviews #lovebooks #booknerds
Profile Image for Lee Anne.
916 reviews93 followers
December 11, 2019
There's a comic toward the end of this volume in which Spike, Snoopy's desert-dwelling brother, has hung a Christmas stocking on a cactus. On December 26th, he throws the empty (never filled) stocking off a cliff. This melancholy mirrors the way I'll feel when I've finally finished reading all the volumes of Schulz' work.
Profile Image for Andrea.
1,098 reviews37 followers
March 10, 2020
This book was so much more than I had hoped for. Loved the introduction and the way the book.was laid out in months and years. It was wonderful to find new stripes (a few made me laugh out loud!) and laugh again at some older ones.
Profile Image for Natilin Alpaca Saurio.
1,274 reviews3 followers
March 26, 2023
Lo mejor es la introducción y la biografía, que con la primera aún me estoy riendo y con la segunda aprendes cosas. Pero la mayoría de las tiras ... estaban ... bien, no se, no es mi humor. Aunque si había uno bueno era Buenisimo!
128 reviews
September 18, 2023
No words can describe the sheer pleasure of yet another collection - this one spanning 1995-1996. This one has a lot more on Rerun - including his first days in school. Spike shows up as well.
Charlie Brown gets invited to Sweetheart Ball, but Snoopy plays spoilsport.
Profile Image for Nick.
383 reviews
June 6, 2025
Another '90s collection that shows the master in good late-career form. Rerun comes into his own following the winning Schulz formula of a newly introduced naive little kid character who develops a personality. IIRC Schroeder, Lucy, Linus, and Sally all came along this way.
Profile Image for Kelly.
8,846 reviews18 followers
February 24, 2018
The humor from the earlier strips is beginning to wane. However, many cute moments. There is a whole lot more of Rerun in this volume.
31 reviews
April 15, 2018
Minden

Main end Siemens Kaman Kenner didn't. Xoxox. Mom d ducks. CNN d com. Do n. C did n. xxm,I , xoxoxoxo. if s Emma. C mms com. M d m. xoxoxoxo disk x. Chicken named .
Profile Image for Todd Glaeser.
787 reviews
July 25, 2019
While still the strip I love, the punchlines become non sequiturs, just odd, not funny. Not all the time but more and more.
Profile Image for Wherefore Art Thou.
250 reviews13 followers
February 11, 2024
“You see the cracks in the foundation start to appear” “the strip was on the decline” BLAH BLAH BLAH no, Schulz can do no wrong and these are great, I’ll fight you
Profile Image for Stef.
1,174 reviews6 followers
November 2, 2024
I miss Snoopy being more imaginative. He’s gone back to being very dog-like and not goofy enough
51 reviews
December 25, 2025
Los noventa están fenomenal. Spike tiene tiras geniales y ya aparece Rerum, el hermano de Linus.
Profile Image for F.
116 reviews
December 31, 2025
Snoopy's coloring books, Rerun wanting a dog and dodging school were a delight to watch.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews

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