Peanuts Dell Archive

by Charles M. Schulz

In 1955, Charles M. Schulz began a partnership with Dell Publishing, and for the first time, all-new Peanuts stories were created outside of Schulz’s daily comic strip. BOOM! Studios and the Charles M. Schulz Museum come together to collect these classic tales!

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

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 31, 2018

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

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Charles Schulz licensed the Peanuts characters to Dell Comics, and in addition to a short-lived Peanuts series, dozens of back-up strips were tucked into comic books headlined by Nancy and Sluggo and Nancy's aunt Fritzi Ritz as well as an anthology book called Tip Top. Schulz only did a couple of those strips himself, but he hand-picked several talented men -- Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, and Tony Pocrnick -- to sub in for him before letting the editors turn it over to their anonymous staff members or free-lancers.

While they don't have the magic touch Schulz brought to his comic strip, these decent and amusing short strips are worth a look if only for the chance to visit with old friends.


FOR REFERENCE

Collects Peanuts strips from Nancy #146 (Sept. 1957) - Nancy and Sluggo #192 (Oct. 1963), Tip Top #211 (Nov.-Jan. 1958) - Tip Top #225 (May-July 1961), and Fritzi Ritz #57 (Mar.-May 1958) - Fritzi Ritz #59 (Sept.-Nov. 1958) by Charles M. Shulz, Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, et al., as well as Charles M. Schulz Peanuts covers from Peanuts #4-13 and Four Color #878 [a/k/a Peanuts #1], #969 [a/k/a Peanuts #2], and #1015 [a/k/a Peanuts #3].

Contents: (First lines are included in brackets for untitled stories)
Peanuts in Comic Books [essay] / Derrick Bang
Nancy #146 (Sept. 1957)
• [“Strike three! You’re out!”] / Charles M. Schulz
Nancy #147 (Oct. 1957)
• Clubhouse Blues
Tip Top #211 (Nov.-Jan. 1958)
• [“What’s the matter, Lucy?”] / Jim Sasseville
• The Mani-CURE / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #148 (Nov. 1957)
• [“!”] / Charles M. Schulz
Nancy #149 (Dec. 1957)
• [“Oh, Boy! Just as I had hoped!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #150 (Jan. 1958)
• [“Yawn! Boy, am I ever sleepy this morning!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #151 (Feb. 1958)
• [“ . . . Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty nine . . . ”] / Jim Sasseville
Tip Top #212 (Feb.-Apr. 1958)
• [“What on earth do you expect to do with that lawn mower, Charlie Brown?”] / Jim Sasseville
• [“‘Pig-Pen’ . . . ”] / Jim Sasseville
• [“Hello, Violet!”] / Jim Sasseville
Fritzi Ritz #57 (Mar.-May 1958)
• [“Charlie Brown . . . I’ve been doing a little research on what you told me yesterday . . . ”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #152 (Mar. 1958)
• [“Hello, Lucy . . . I’ve come to wish Linus a happy birthday!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #153 (Apr. 1958)
• [“Look at that crazy dog!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #154 (May 1958)
• [“I’ve got an idea, Linus . . . ”] / Jim Sasseville
Tip Top #213 (May-July 1958)
• [“All right, Snoopy . . . Go get it!”] / Jim Sasseville
• [“Hmmm! Somehow that doesn’t look quite right!”] / Jim Sasseville
Fritzi Ritz #58 (June-Aug. 1958)
• [“Hey! Come back here with my blanket!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #155 (June 1958)
• [“I haven’t used these roller skates since last summer”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #156 (July 1958)
• [“? What’s the matter with you, Schroeder?”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #157 (Aug. 1958)
• [“This looks like a good place to practice!”] / Jim Sasseville
Tip Top #214 (Aug.-Oct. 1958)
• [“There certainly are a lot of stars up there . . . ”] / Jim Sasseville
• [“I’ve got it!”] / Jim Sasseville
Fritzi Ritz #59 (Sept.-Nov. 1958)
• [“Charlie Brown! Hey! Charlie Brown!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #158 (Sept. 1958)
• [“Here, take this apple, Charlie Brown!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #159 (Oct. 1958)
• [“Hey! What’s the big idea? Gimme my blanket!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #160 (Nov. 1958)
• [“Hooray! Charlie Brown, ‘All-American,’ has the ball . . . !”] / Jim Sasseville
Tip Top #215 (Nov.-Jan. 1959)
• [“It’s time to feed Snoopy!”] / Jim Sasseville
• [“Hm-m-m-m . . . Charlie Brown, did you know that you have an interesting face?”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #161 (Dec. 1958)
• [“Look, Violet! Look!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #162 (Jan. 1959)
• [“Tickle, tickle, tickle . . . ”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #163 (Feb. 1959)
• [“? Where are you going, Charlie Brown?”] / Jim Sasseville
Tip Top #216 (Feb.-Apr. 1959)
• [“Here, Linus, let me show you something!”] / Dale Hale
• [“*Ahem* Hello, Shermy . . . Hello, Schroeder . . . ”] / Dale Hale
Nancy #164 (Mar. 1959)
• [“Linus! What are you doing in my room?!!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #165 (Apr. 1959)
• [“Catch the ball, Snoopy!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #166 (May 1959)
• [“Will you help me put on my roller skates, Lucy?”] / Jim Sasseville
Tip Top #217 (May-Jul. 1959)
• [“Psst, pssttst, psst . . . ”] / Dale Hale
Nancy #167 (June 1959)
• [“*Whew* It certainly is hot today!”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #168 (July 1959)
• [“?? What’s going on, Charlie Brown?”] / Jim Sasseville
Nancy #169 (Aug. 1959)
• The Rainy Day / Charles M. Schulz
Tip Top #218 (Aug.-Oct. 1959)
• [“There! How’s that?”] / Dale Hale
• The Beauty Contest / Dale Hale
Nancy #170 (Sept. 1959)
• [“Go get ‘em, Snoopy!”] / Dale Hale
Nancy #171 (Oct. 1959)
• Cleaning Day / Dale Hale
Nancy #172 (Nov. 1959)
• The Auto Builders / Dale Hale
Tip Top #219 (Nov.-Jan. 1960)
• The Wet Blanket / Dale Hale
• No Rest for the Weary / Dale Hale
Nancy #173 (Dec. 1959)
• Selfishness / Dale Hale
Nancy and Sluggo #174 (Jan.-Feb. 1960)
• That Delicate Touch / Dale Hale
Tip Top #220 (Feb.-Apr. 1960)
• Trip to the Moon
Nancy and Sluggo #175 (Mar.-Apr. 1960)
• The Vicious Circle / Dale Hale
Nancy and Sluggo #176 (May-June 1960)
• Chicken Feed
Tip Top #221 (May-Jul. 1960)
• Mechanical Maniac
Nancy and Sluggo #177 (July-Aug. 1960)
• The Audition
Tip Top #222 (Aug.-Oct. 1960)
• House Haunting
Nancy and Sluggo #178 (Sept.-Oct. 1960)
• Inferior Decorating
Nancy and Sluggo #179 (Nov.-Dec. 1960)
• The Chow Hound
Tip Top #223 (Nov.-Jan. 1961)
• The Blow-Up
Nancy and Sluggo #180 (Jan.-Feb. 1961)
• The Music Goes ‘Round
Tip Top #224 (Feb.-Apr. 1961)
• Car Troubles
• The House Movers
Nancy and Sluggo #181 (Mar.-Apr. 1961)
• Disappearing Act
Nancy and Sluggo #182 (May-June 1961)
• Parade in Town
Tip Top #225 (May-July 1961)
• Togetherness
Nancy and Sluggo #183 (July-Aug. 1961)
• Home Improvement
Nancy and Sluggo #184 (Sept.-Oct. 1961)
• Polite Manners
Nancy and Sluggo #185 (Nov.-Dec. 1961)
• Business Venture
Nancy and Sluggo #186 (Jan.-Feb. 1962)
• Hot Dog
Nancy and Sluggo #187 (Mar.-Apr. 1962)
• Lost Cat
Nancy and Sluggo #188 (Oct. 1962 - Gold Key)
• Goofy Glass
Nancy and Sluggo #189 (Jan. 1963 - Gold Key)
• The Private Club
Nancy and Sluggo #190 (Apr. 1963 - Gold Key)
• The Dozing Desperado
Nancy and Sluggo #191 (July 1963 - Gold Key)
• Boom Town
Nancy and Sluggo #192 (Oct. 1963 - Gold Key)
• Astronomical Error
Peanuts #4 (Feb.-Apr. 1960)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #5 (May-July 1960)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #6 (Aug.-Oct. 1960)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #7 (Nov.-Jan. 1961)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #8 (Feb.-Apr. 1961)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #9 (May-July 1961)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #10 (Aug.-Oct. 1961)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #11 (Nov.-Jan. 1962)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #12 (Feb.-Apr. 1962)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Peanuts #13 (May-July 1962)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Four Color #878 (Feb. 1958)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Four Color #969 (Feb. 1959)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz
Four Color #1015 (Aug.-Oct. 1959)
• cover only / Charles M. Schulz

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The comic book publisher St. John commissioned Charles M. Schulz to create new PEANUTS stories as back-up features in some of its comics. Schulz only wrote and drew two of these, but he wrote many others that were illustrated by his friends Jim Sasseville and Dale Hale. St. John's titles were acquired by Dell Comics where new PEANUTS stories continued to appear as back-ups and eventually in their own title. In time, Dell produced more stories without the input of Mr. Schulz. I have greatly oversimplified this narrative.

Only two of the stories in this collection of reprints were both written and drawn by Mr. Schulz, but these and many of the others written by Schulz are satisfying. Sasseville and Hale are reasonable ghost artists. The woefully inadequate introduction to this book has no use for the later stores produced without the Schulz supervision, and some of these just feel wrong. Sometimes the characterizations are wrong, and putting a robot in a PEANUTS story, even when it turns out to be a dream, has the wrong feel. Other of these latter stories, however, are in line with Schulz-type stories and get this characters right. Some of these are laugh aloud funny, or, at least I laughed aloud at some of them.

None of these stories represent Schulz's best work, that was to come in the years ahead, but they are a sometimes delightful expansion of the early PEANUTS. Maybe the content only rates 3 stars, but having these stories available again rates a booster star. Note that all of the stories collected here are the back up stories; none are from the PEANUTS comic books. I hope another volume collecting those stories will be forthcoming.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time, I went to a lecture by Professor Ben Saunders on Peanuts and Philosophy. Prof. Saunders posited that Charles Schulz was a deep moral philosopher, grappling with the issues of our age. How do we live as moral people in a world imbued with racism, poverty, sexism, homophobia, and a national willingness to use force to get what we want? How do we claim to live moral lives when our lives are propped up by such injustice?

I sat next to a big sweaty guy who wasn't happy to have me sitting there. He wanted to talk about BDSM themes in Peanuts. Which the good professor allowed was a common reading in some communities.

This book does not explore these themes. Instead it's an interesting story of collective story telling. Our Peanuts gang as they drift through different authors and different story lines. One involving a destructive robot. It shows a variety of authors tackling the material. Maybe I'm primed to like my man and not people I do not know, but I resented the ones that weren't written by Schulz.

Enjoyed it. Charles Schulz might be why I had my first dog; he primed my family to think a beagle mix made sense to adopt, even thought we weren't prepared for that sort of emotional intimacy.

Worth the time.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on a review originally published on Flickering Myth: https://www.flickeringmyth.com/comic-...

Growing up, I would often rewatch episodes of Blue's Clues on the VHS tapes my father owned. To those unaware, because cassettes didn’t have a quick access menu, you had no choice but to either sit through the previews or fast forward, the latter holding the risk of damaging the tape.

Regardless, when it came to Blue's Clues, I never once considered it due to said previews often containing adverts for the various Peanuts specials that had become popular over the years: classics like “It’s the Great Pumpkin” & “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Though I’d never seen any at the time, there was just something anemoic about seeing passionate parents & kids profess their love for the series whilst Vince Guaraldi’s score played in the background, aspects that worked in-tandem with the pleasant animation to strike a chord in me that rings true to this day.

Like most newspaper strips, Peanuts has often been described as cross-generational, and if I had to theorize as to why, it’d have to be because it doesn’t try to be anything more than slice-of-life. We’ve all lived through the mundane, and it’s left these memories in our brains inherently tied to sentimental feelings like nostalgia & wistfulness. Kids have so much on their minds growing up, and Charles Schulz’s iconic characters somehow captured that fervor like water in a jar.

To dive into the spinoff world of Peanuts, as they appeared in the comics, was a dream come true. See, it turns out that, outside of the main line, Schulz struck-up a deal with the underrated publishing house Dell to craft unique stories exclusive for that company’s magazine. The twist, however, was that Schulz himself would not be able to write or draw the majority of them due to preoccupation with his own strip, resulting in several writers & artists (some known, some unknown) taking over as ghosts whilst contributing their own narratives to the lore.

Despite being released under numerous in-house titles, a large team of editors have collaborated to build an anthology that brings together most of these tales. As the introduction astutely puts it:

“This Peanuts Dell Archive gathers all the original interior Peanuts content from Dell’s Fritzi Ritz, Nancy/Nancy and Sluggo and Tip Top: a wealth of material never before anthologized, and unseen since originally published. The stories have been assembled chronologically, so you’ll see how the artwork and story content changed over time: starting with the rare offerings by Schulz, and continuing through Sasseville, Hale, Pocrnick and unidentified Dell house artists and writers.”

The question that remains then is, is this hardcover collection worth checking out for avid/non-avid fans of the Peanuts, or does it fail to live up to the looming legacy of Schulz’s masterpiece? I can safely say that the answer is it’s definitely worth a read, though I do have a few reservations that may impact the opinion of some buyers.

First and foremost, let’s address the elephant in the room regarding Schulz’s limited role: though most of the comics in the Dell Archive were not scribed by him, the lion’s share were done by three individuals personally handpicked by the man. As such, these fellows, Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, and Tony Pocrnick, deserve nothing but praise courtesy of their artwork being uncannily similar to Schulz’s -- not only did they nail that iconic geometry that stapled the original art into the American Consciousness, but they also got Schulz’s inking & coloring right: the light primary hues mixed against a hazy background, typically blue or yellow.

Steven Spielberg once talked fondly about how he was enthralled by the pencilling of Hergé whilst reading The Adventures of Tintin, and that’s the same feeling I get whenever I see a piece of art by Schulz. There’s just something about the roundheads, black eyes, pudgy arms, and simple tints that puts me back in front of that TV watching Blues Clues previews, and the trio that took on the monumental task of mimicking those drawings for Dell Publishing more than succeeded as far as I’m concerned.

Now, as the description above says, once Pocrnick left, Dell handed all future assignments to a sundry of anonymous writers & artists, and it is my opinion that these unsung folks did a good job as well. Yes, the scrawling isn’t as similar, and the pigments darker; however, it still feels like it belongs in the same vein as the previous cartoons (compared to something like, say, The Dark Knight Strikes Again not even belonging in the same ballpark as The Dark Knight Returns).

I did mention I had some reservations, though, and those derive from the writing aspect of these Peanuts strips. As readers may be aware, Schulz gained fame for pioneering the four-panel comic (or yonkoma), and while he adopted multiple formats over the course of his run, the four panels were what he ended-up sticking with primarily (and which are consequently what Peanuts is most-closely associated with).

In setting the standards for the Dell version of the strip, Sasseville chose to expand things to make it more comfortable for himself, meaning most of the stories here run 4-8 pages under a 4-8 layout. Now, I had no problem with this because Sasseville and his successors made the most of it, but if you’re someone who prefers the shorter stories typical of the gang, then keep this in mind should you be interested.

The second reservation, however, is more subjective, and that is that I felt these particular Peanuts comics were more mean-spirited than the ones from Schulz. Charlie Brown is, of course, well-known for his bad luck, insecurities, and constant confrontation with life’s obstacles, but there was always something non-severe about his predicaments: as though Schulz knew exactly where to draw the line between natural misfortune & Duck Amuck-level torment.

That isn’t quite the case here with Dell’s line, wherein I felt that almost every single mini-story involved someone being put down (that person usually being Charlie Brown). Is it funny at times? Of course, these are children we’re talking about, and the old adage of “if a kid says you’re ugly, it’s the truth” holds well here. But does it get bothersome reading an endless supply of tales based off this one joke? The answer is yes, it sadly does.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s depressing; however, it certainly isn’t consistently entertaining. True, I can’t quite deny that I wouldn’t have had this same problem had I not been told beforehand that Schulz wasn’t the author, BUT, considering I was objective about the art, I like to think my opinion here is pretty unbiased.

The storylines themselves are thankfully original enough whilst containing what you’d expect from a Peanuts comic. As I said before, it’s all slice-of-life, and though you do get some repetition ala Charlie Brown trying to fly his kite or Lucy yelling at someone, the majority of them were creative enough that even long-time readers should find value in this collection. And, contrary to what Peanuts biographer Derrick Bang says in the introduction, I never felt that anything deviated strongly from the core Peanuts motifs, including the final comics done by anonymous writers/artists, though, ultimately, that’s for every fan to decide.

Overall, the Peanuts Dell Archive HC is a monumental achievement. Michelle Ankley, Jillian Crab, Samantha Knapp, Marie Krupina, Kara Leopard, Grace Park, Chelsea Roberts, Whitney Leopard, Chris Rosa, and Scott Newman all deserve applause for putting so much thought and effort into the production, restoration, and editing of the many Peanuts strips of Dell Publishing. The comics themselves are very identical aesthetically to Schulz’s style, and while I personally found the writing to lack that fine-tuned balance Schulz often maintained with regards to the problems & conflicts his characters endured, there’s enough charm here to be worth the purchase.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love all things Peanuts, so it was a joy to soak up this collection of longer comic-book stories featuring these classic characters. Only a vanishing few are by Schulz himself, and their superiority is clear, but the ones by ghosts (especially Jim Sasseville) do a more than passable impersonation. There are some sequences that you'd never see in Schulz's work (like a dream sequence with a robot and the kids collaborating on weird assemble-it-yourself car of some sort), but that's part of the fun. There's no way this can compete with the original strips, but it's a great addendum for die-hard fans.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently, this is not a complete collection of Peanuts cartoons which appeared as filler for other comics like Nancy and Tip Top comics. Most of these are from the late 1950s to early 60s. This is a beautifully bound book and the material is well presented. Most of the comics are four to eight page shorts.

This is a rare work where the material was not written or drawn by Schultz. But unless you were told, it is incredibly difficult to see what was or wasn't by the creator. Though others claim the quality suffers later on, it isn't due to the art, but the themes and shenanigans of the characters seem off. The robot running amok bit being the standout. Otherwise this is a great collection for any serious Peanuts fan or casual reader. It's a great read of classic stories in little known stories.

[Terry Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While any rarely seen Peanuts is welcome, this collection doesn't have enough Charles Schulz for me. Most of the stories are by other artists, who aren't always a perfect match for Schultz's style and storytelling.

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of lamentable (though Schulz-endorsed) Peanuts knock-offs that appeared in comic books during the late 1950s and early 1960s. These are of curiosity value but the artwork, format, stories and characterisations serve only to highlight the superlativeness of the genuine article.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection.

[Jay Abdullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

a must have book, very interesting

[Chris Passingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had no idea that Schulz had allowed others to create Peanuts cartoons. They are no where near the standard of his work and the few he did in this book stand out like beacons.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't give it a 5 cuz Sparky didn't write most of the strips, and they did seem a little "off". But I still enjoyed it so much!

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

*DEFINITIVE* -- And much of this material isn't all that easy to come up with, too. A worthy project!

[Myron M · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the art was at times "off", especially in the later stories, the writing stayed mostly true to the characters. Hoping for a second volume to complete the series.