Peanuts Every Sunday, 1976-1980

Peanuts Every Sunday #6

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, pastel-heavy coloring, which makes for a surprisingly different reading experience. These late 1970s strips showcase Schulz at his philosophical and illustrative peak in one gorgeous, oversized, full-color coffee table book — Schulz’s work has never looked better. Linus, Charlie Brown, Pig-Pen, Shermy, Violet, Sally, Patty, and Schroeder are all present, as is the burgeoning international superstar, Snoopy. Peanuts Every Sunday: 1976-1980 has been scrupulously re-colored to optimize the original newspaper coloring, but with far better printing and paper than ever used on any newspaper — allowing readers once again to immerse themselves in Charles Schulz’s timeless masterpiece.

Genres: Comics, Fiction

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 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

[Christin Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although these were published before I was born, they hold a special place in my heart. I grew up reading the Sunday comics every week while my dad did the crossword & so reading this just reminded me of simpler times. I love doing things that make me feel childlike again & the Peanuts will always do that for me 🥹

[Alexia Athanassiadou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Όταν ξυπνάς μέσα στην νύχτα γιατί πονάει το κεφάλι σου και νιωθειςτο στομάχι σου ανακατεμένο, σήκω εσαι και φοράς την ρόμπα σου, μετά πινεις ενα ποτήρι νερό, καταπίνει μερικά χάπια, κάθεσαι λίγο στο σκοτάδι μόνος σου, μέχρι να νιώσεις καλύτερα και να γυρίσεις στο κρεβάτι σου και δεν είναι τα χάπια που σε κάνουν να νιώσεις καλυτερα είναι η ρόμπα! Είμαι βέβαιος!

Σνουπυ

[Sadie-Jane Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will start noticing a trend... 5 stars for peanuts.
Come on, how can you not love these kiddos..
Pigpen is so funny...
LINUS STILL HAS MY HEART.
Lucy is evil incarnate.
Oh and i love that it is in colour ♡
I do miss the old style of drawings though..

[Dave E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading the Peanuts strip, if you know me, that's nothing new. These Fantagraphics Sunday editions are very well done.

[Ryan]

(3.5)

[Alexia Athanassiadou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Από τα αγαπημένα μου.

"Νομίζω πως έμαθα το μυστικό της ζωής. Πήγα χθες στον γιατρό γιατί με πονούσε ο λαιμός μου και η νοσοκόμα με έβαλε να περιμένω σε ένα μικρό δωμάτιο. από το δίπλα δωμάτιο ακούγονταν ένα παιδί που ούρλιαζε. Όταν ο γιατρός μπήκε για να με δει του είπα πως χαιρόμουν που δεν ήμουν στο άλλο δωμάτιο." Ναι", είπε "αυτού του παιδιού θα πρέπει να του βγάλω τις αμυγδαλές. Εσύ είσαι τυχερός...το μόνο που έχεις είναι μια ήπια λοίμωξη."
Το.μυστικο της ζωής είναι να είσαι στο σωστό δωμάτιο."

Λάινους