Peanuts Every Sunday, 1961-1965

Peanuts Every Sunday #3

by Charles M. Schulz

Since their original publication, Peanuts Sundays have almost always been collected and reprinted in black and white. But many who read Peanuts in their original Sunday papers remain fond of the striking coloring, which makes for a surprisingly different reading experience. The early- to mid-1960s strips in our latest volume houses the first golden age of Peanuts Sundays in one gorgeous, full-color book. Linus, Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen, Shermy, Violet, Sally, Patty, and Schroeder are all present, but the rising star is undoubtedly Snoopy. Peanuts Every Sunday: 1961-1965 has been scrupulously re-colored to match the original syndicate coloring ― allowing readers to plunge into Charles Schulz's marvelous world.

Genres: Comics, Comic Strips, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Humor

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 23, 2015

About the author

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.”

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sweet spot! Schulz was at his apex during these years.

[Ietrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quite amusing volume. Reading it I had a short "they never do things like they used to" moment. Than I closed the book and seen the cover once more. 1961-1965. From all the junk they used to publish this is one of the few. In 2016 is easy to dismiss the current production as junk simply because it is too much.

[Agung Wicaksono · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the volume where everything just clicks. Schulz’s humor, insight, and gentle melancholy blend together beautifully, bringing to life some of the most memorable themes in Peanuts history. Charlie Brown keeps facing his never-ending battles: dealing with those pesky kite-eating trees, dreaming of that elusive baseball victory, and, of course, trying (and failing) once again to kick Lucy’s football. Meanwhile, Snoopy shines as the imaginative show-stealer we all adore, morphing into flying aces, deep thinkers, and all sorts of whimsical characters, with his doghouse serving as the epicenter of comic genius.

The supporting cast is just as memorable: the sibling bond between Linus and Lucy is filled with both laughter and genuine emotion, beautifully captured in one of the most iconic exchanges that draws from Schulz’s own experiences. Characters like Schroeder, Sally, Frieda, and the rest each add their unique quirks and neuroses, creating a delightful mix of comedy and authenticity.

If you’ve never had the chance to dive into Peanuts, this is the perfect place to start. And for those who are already fans, this collection is an absolute must-have. A true masterpiece of mid-century comic art, lovingly preserved and presented with joy.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third collection of Schulz's Sunday strips is just as great as the first two. With fantastic restoration of the line work and perfectly recolored to match the original Sunday paper tear sheets, these hardcovers are a masterclass in comic strip restoration work. The strips revolve around the adventures of Charlie Brown, Lucy and more, but here Snoopy begins to really take off as a central figure in the ongoing story. This entry is definitely Schulz at his absolute peak.

[Krystie Herndon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of my all-time favorite strips appear in this volume, particularly June 21, 1963, in which Charlie Brown honors his dad: glitchy golfer, mediocre bowler, but also a busy barber who never fails to give his son a smile when that son shows up in his shop. Why? Because he LIKES his son. Sixty years later, still hitting the mark in what matters in relationships.

[Jsrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's not much to say about this, other than it's exactly what the title says- every Sunday Peanuts comic from 1961-1965. One of the all-time classics in what is arguably its greatest era.

[Nick Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Laugh out loud funny. Lots of panels and lines here that ended up in Charlie Brown Christmas too.