What do you think?
Rate this book
Peanuts Coronet #21
You Are Too Much, Charlie Brown
Fictional Novel, Juvenile Literature, Graphic Novel
124 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
82 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,019 books1,641 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.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 25, 2020
I enjoyed reading this collection, absolutely vintage Schulz. Wonderful. The third last page got me thinking though.
On it Snoopy is howling at the moon, “OWOOOO”. Then he stops to think: “Dogs have been howling at the moon now for over five thousand years. The moon hasn’t moved, and dogs are still dogs. That proves something, but I don’t know what!”
Well, the thing is I’ve had dogs for over thirty five years now, and none of them has ever howled at the moon. The moon hasn’t moved, and dogs are still dogs. That proves something, but I don’t know what!
On it Snoopy is howling at the moon, “OWOOOO”. Then he stops to think: “Dogs have been howling at the moon now for over five thousand years. The moon hasn’t moved, and dogs are still dogs. That proves something, but I don’t know what!”
Well, the thing is I’ve had dogs for over thirty five years now, and none of them has ever howled at the moon. The moon hasn’t moved, and dogs are still dogs. That proves something, but I don’t know what!
March 22, 2025
Oh Charlie Brown… we really like you
May 13, 2010
Poignant. One cartoon in four frames. Frame 1: Charlie Brown says "Sometimes I get so lonesome that I could cry," to which Lucy responds: "What you need Charlie Brown are some friends." Charlie Brown's response is in bold caps: "Of course I need friends! If I had some friends, I wouldn't be lonesome." A frame where Charlie Brown looks miserable. Final frame. . . . Lucy says: "No wonder you don't have any friends. . . . You're too crabby!"
Originally published in 1957, this is filled with classic Peanuts comic strips. Nice work!
Originally published in 1957, this is filled with classic Peanuts comic strips. Nice work!
March 19, 2019
Hilarity, poignancy and profundity can all be found in this collection of "Peanuts" comic strips from the brilliant mind and hand of Charles Schulz.
March 5, 2024
i finally got around to reading these charlie brown books barely less than a year after buying them. they're exactly what i love about peanuts and schulz's work: sardonic, goofy, and heartwarming at the end of the day. i remember reading some of these panels in my grandfather's giant collections of all of the peanuts comics.
June 17, 2018
Pure gold.
August 19, 2020
Snoopy🤍🐶>Charlie Brown
August 7, 2024
Hey, it's Peanuts. Of course it's 5 stars. (Cleaning out some shelf space)
August 18, 2024
If you love good ol' Charlie Brown then you're going to love this anthology.
Read
December 26, 2025I mean, it’s on the app, so I might as log it…
January 9, 2026
Can never get too much Charlie Brown.
May 7, 2010
These strips have been reprinted in a better hard cover version, but this sample of early fairly Schulz still gives delight. Get the better version if you can, but this will do very well in the meantime.
October 5, 2015
I really never realized how sad this comic strip was as a child. As an adult, rereading this, many of the situations Charlie Brown encounters make me want to hold him and tell him that all will be well.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews