In Vol. 20 of the Complete Peanuts series, which collects the 1989-1990 newspaper strips, Charlie Brown gets a girlfriend, Snoopy gets jury duty and much more.
Our latest volume is particularly dense with romantic intrigue, as Marcie and Charlie Brown end up at camp together, sending Peppermint Patty into mad jealousy (especially since Marcie can't resist teasing her)… and an old friend of Charlie Brown's attempts to look him up again but confuses him with Snoopy and goes on a date with him instead. But the most crucial event in romance is Charlie Brown's romance with Peggy Jean — even though he's so flustered in his first conversation with her that he ends up stuck with the name "Brownie Charles" for the duration of her relationship ("I kind of like it…"). This volume also introduces yet another Snoopy sibling, Olaf, who is humiliatingly invited to enter an ugly-dog contest (and, even more humiliatingly, wins). Plus lots of Zen-like Spike-and-cactus strips, Sally Brown non-sequiturs, D-minuses for Peppermint Patty, and wise thoughts from Franklin's grandpa… Snoopy treks through the wilderness as the Beagle Scoutmaster and through the desert as the World Famous Sergeant of the Foreign Legion, Woodstock takes a whack at being the King of the Jungle, Lucy enjoys Michael Jackson on her boom box, Marcie's perfectionism leads to a crack-up, Pigpen runs for class president, Snoopy gets called to jury duty… and for a change, Lucy pulls the football out from under Charlie Brown.
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.”
My favorite parts of this were easily the low key rivalry between Peppermint Patty and Marcie for Chuck's affections and Charlie Brown finally getting a girlfriend after 38 years. There's a lot of Snoopy in this but how much Charlie Brown Sad Sackery do you need?
So as I do with all my Peanuts reviews, I am going to share my favorite strip from the collection, because I don't need to tell you how great Peanuts was and is. However, first a quick aside about the introduction to this volume, which was written by Lemony Snicket.
(I've revealed in the spoiler something you might not know about Lemony Snicket and his identity--tread carefully.) Those who have read A Series of Unfortunate Events will be familiar with Snicket's reading of Peanuts--he focuses on the bits that he finds both disturbing and delightful. In the previous volume, which featured an intro from Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau, I also mentioned that I found Robert Smigel's introduction to the 1975-1976 edition to be the gold standard of these introductions. This may be the new champ, however.
Now on to the main event, which needs some setup. So for the previous forty years of the strip, Charles Schulz has perpetuated Charlie Brown's sad sack affections for the "red-haired girl" who he can never seem to find the guts to talk to. Originally I was going to include the Sunday strip from July 9, 1989 where Linus steps up as Charlie Brown's wing man only to have the red-haired girl have no idea who Linus is talking about. Some time in the next year, Schulz softened his stance, perhaps thinking that forty years of torturing Charlie Brown about his crushes was enough, and introduces a character named Peggy Jean, who meets Charlie Brown at summer camp and reciprocates Charlie's affections. However, the relationship hits the rocks when Peggy Jean holds the football for Charlie Brown to kick and due to decades of Lucy pulling the ball away, he can't trust that the ball won't be pulled away (is this a metaphor for life or what?) Peggy Jean the breaks off the relationship, only to return because she can't stay mad at him. Throughout the entire story arc (what would you call it?) Charlie is constantly on the phone with Linus trying to get relationship advice. When his dream of his affection being returned by Peggy Jean comes true, he calls Linus to give him an update, but that's not Linus on the other end of the line:
And that's all there is to say, really.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
Comforting, much like Linus' blanket. Snoopy seems way more obsessed with cookies in this volume than I remember from previous volumes. Also, there is quite a bit of existential angst mixed into wry humor.
Lucy: "You blockhead! You struck out, and we lost the last game of the season! You were standing there thinking about your new girlfriend, weren't you?" Charlie Brown: "I thought being in love was supposed to make you happy..." Linus: "Where'd you get that idea?"
Brownie Charles falls in love and that love is reciprocated. Really heartwarming run of cartoons which just for once doesn't end in disaster for our hero. As last volume, the high level is not quite sustained throughout but there are still laugh out loud funnies and the overall quality is there.
This was a great run of Peanuts strips! Snoopy was sure into cookies throughout these years.
One of the things I really enjoy about reading these in order is how the date of publication matches the time inside the strip. So, every passing year feels like a real year spent with the Peanuts gang.
The twentieth volume of The Complete Peanuts includes the 39th and 40th years of Charles Schulz’s seminal comic strip. He was more than rich enough to retire. He had all the clout he needed to dictate a new reduced work schedule or to demand assistants to execute his ideas or even to create them for his approval. But he did none of those things. He just continued to create from start to finish the daily and Sunday Peanuts strips to run every day in the funny pages of the world’s newspapers. And he would do this for another decade, retiring so soon before his death in 2000, months shy of his 78th birthday, that the last Peanuts strip was published in the papers the day after his death. You get the sense that Schulz would have appreciated the irony that his cartoon strip literally outlived him and continues to do so, just not any new ones.
The franchise was not handed on because who could write Peanuts other than Charles Schulz?
Most of these strips are new to me because I had stopped following Peanuts in the newspapers some years before the ones in this collection were published. There are some new characters and plots. Charlie Brown finds a new love to threaten that of the unapproachable Little Red-haired Girl. Her name is Peggy Jean and she calls him Brownie Charles because that is how the tongue-tied Charlie introduced himself. Snoopy’s brother Olaf appears—I think for the first time—to compete in an Ugly Dog contest.
And there are familiar and still entertaining character and plot lines. Sally Brown continues to take on the world and ask the meaningful literary questions: “Why would anyone want to say ‘Good night’ to the moon?” Marcie and Peppermint Patty continue their odd couple friendship despite their shared crush on Charlie Brown. Lucy remains indomitable, her over the shoulder threats inspiring feats of super human speed from her brother Linus, who manages to catch a thrown snowball before it hits her. The Great Pumpkin doesn’t come. Charlie Brown’s baseball team doesn’t win. Peppermint Patty doesn’t escape summer school or the inevitable straight D-minus report cards. Schroeder doesn’t love Lucy. Lucy won’t be deterred by Schroeder’s rejection and she won’t fail to pull the football away from the charging Charlie Brown. Some of life’s surprises are the lack of surprises. It is all too inevitable and yet still funny and wordly-wise in Schulz’s expert hands.
The Lemony Snicket intro is a not-miss (as opposed to a hot mess). Particularly dark was Snoopy's brother Olaf's attempted suicide on page 12. Seriously:
Olaf and Snoopy are sitting on Snoopy's doghouse. Olaf says, "Remember when we were puppies at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm? I can't believe I've grown up to win an 'ugly dog' contest." In the second panel, Olaf is jumping HEADFIRST off of the doghouse and says, "I think I'll hurt myself!" as Snoopy screams "Olaf!" In the third panel Olaf is on the ground, on his head, as he says, "Not to worry. I've done this before."
The comic from 8/10/90 was a masterpiece (Lucy always manages to make me laugh out loud). Interestingly, one pf my all time favorite students was born THAT DAY. That's one of the things I love about this series. I can open a page and remember what I did that day (yes, my memory is that good). 24-25 years later, these comics are still as fresh and funny as ever.
I found this at a library sale and now I am compelled to by the entire series. Super fun to relive my childhood by looking back on the gang. How can you not love Charlie Brown and his gang?
Yet another installment of the Fantagraphics Complete Peanuts. Charles Schulz's great accomplishment began as the Baby Boom generation started to read and ended as the first Gen Z kids were born. It was typical of hipsters to disdain later-period Peanuts for being too commercialized, too "stale", and too not-Calvin and Hobbes (Watterson's review of Schulz's biography offers great perspective, if you're into this.) But if we're being honest the strip was part of the ocean many of us swam in as kids, and as this collection indicates Schulz was still a creative force as early Gen X (my cohort) started coming into its own on the pop-cult stage. Even allowing for the inevitable tropes and recurring gags of a daily strip Peppermint Patty and Marcie are a late-career triumph - the former is an anarchic second wave feminist and the latter is a sly, sweet forerunner of today's grind culture. It's interesting to observe the vocabulary Schulz used to draw Patty's emotional reactions. It's not quite as brilliant as say, Linus and his hair, but it "draws" your attention. Other bits involve Snoopy - his brother Olaf, his obsession with cookies, his adventures with his bird friends - and the refreshingly non-depressing "Brownie Charles" romance plotline.
Really starting to drag when Peppermint Patty is around, which is surprising considering how good she was in the beginning. It felt like Charlie Brown actually showed up more here than other recent books, but while it's good for him to meet Peggy Jean and have something nice happen for a change, it takes away some of his charm.
Brownie Charles gets a girlfriend Peggy Jean but, as expected with Charlie Brown, it doesn't always go smoothly. Meanwhile Marcie still holds a torch for Charlie Brown as does Peppermint "D Minus" Patty. We are briefly introduced to Olaf, another brother of Snoopy and we get a fleeting glimpse of their dad. Even Pigpen returns to the gang. Quality as ever.
(3.5 stars) It can be fun to revisit some aspects of your childhood, so it is with escaping back to some Peanuts cartoons. Remember some of these strips in reading the papers in grade school (mainly for the funnies). Perhaps these are not as quality as some of the mid/late-1960s, but the humor is still there.
I hated the Lemony Snicket introduction. I lowered my rating of this volume in regard to the others mostly because of the large numbers of single panel strips contained in these anthologies. It just seemed like Schulz was unsuccessfully experimenting.
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!)
Charles Schulz returns to the experimental jokes, Peanuts turns 40, and Charlie Brown gets a girlfriend. What more can you ask for? This is an excellent addition to the “Complete Peanuts” project.
Highlights: Snoopy's brother Olaf winning the ugly dog contest. Charlie Brown devoting his life to making his dog happy and inspiring several adults to do the same for their pets. Peggy Jean and Brownie Charles.
The strangest introduction yet in this volume, Lemony Snicket? Not only strange choice it was strange overall intro. I've read the books,but this is weird even for them. You have to check it out yourself. I really think the intros are as much fun as going back over the complete strips. This volume starts out with Olaf,one of Snoopy's brothers, winning the ugly dog contest. Charlie Brown becomes the victim of a beanball that was supposed to be a knuckleball. Peppermint Patty has to go to summer school while everyone else is at camp. An "old friend"from camp,a girl, comes to visit Charlie Brown and when they meet she thinks Snoopy is Charlie Brown. The Flying Ace finds Marcie in a beret to be the object of his affection. Snoopy is also a corner Santa and gets called for jury duty. In 1990 its summer school again for Peppermint Patty. Charlie Brown and Snoopy go to summer camp where CB meets a pretty girl Peggy Jean, who likes him. She leaves camp, leaving CB,but returns in time to tell Charlie she loves him! Pig Pen runs for class president,but finds it hard to clean up his act. Marcie,under parental pressure to be perfect, runs away from home. The year, and volume, ends with Charlie Brown and Peggy Jean playing out a twisted version of The Gift of the Magi. The long form story is becoming less and less the norm in Peanuts during this time, and I kind of missed it. There's still a lot of the familiar stuff in short bursts and its really great fun going over it all again Highly recommended it for any fan of Peanuts, and its a lot of fun for anyone who's ever enjoyed the strip. The series is going to be finished in 2016 so there is only about four volumes left. There is one more out now and I'll get to that right away.
There's a good mix of everything in this collection of Peanuts strips. All the major characters get equal time in the spotlight. There's not really any duds this time, either, even if most of the collection isn't "laugh out loud" funny. The introduction by Lemony Snicket is the best one yet, pulling tons of quotes and one-liners from the strips and taking them out of context to create a bleak and dismal world view. In fact, the intro is possibly the best part of the collection, but that isn't meant to degrade the actual strips themselves.
Many of the gags and stories are included in the animated short features. It's always surprising to read a joke you saw on TV or vice versa. It speaks to the pervasive nature of the Peanuts strip in its heyday.
The most memorable storyline in this collection is Charlie Brown's romance with a girl from camp named Peggy Jean. First, it's a surprising turn of events given Charlie Brown's long time constant infatuation with the little red haired girl. Second, it's shocking to see Charlie Brown actually interacting with the object of his desire. And the jokes from the strips are perhaps the best of the two years collected here. Lucy's end line in the 8/10/1990 strip probably made me laugh the loudest of any Peanuts strip.