What Cartooning Really Is: The Major Interviews with Charles M. Schulz

by Gary Groth (Introduction), Leonard Maltin (Interviewer), Charles M. Schulz (Interviewee)

Peanuts is beloved by countless readers worldwide for its iconic characters — such as Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Lucy van Pelt — gentle humor, and emotional resonance. The artist behind Peanuts shares the same name recognition, but among critics and historians, he is far more than a celebrity — he wrote and drew every strip in the newspaper comic's 50 years himself, and it reflects the moral, aesthetic, and intellectual foundations of Schulz's worldview and art. Fantagraphics is proud to present four extensive conversations with Schulz, conducted by film critic Leonard Maltin, novelist Laurie Colwin, Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth, and comics historian Rick Marschall.

Genres: Nonfiction, Comics

218 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2020

Reviews

[Cail Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to finally read “At 3 O’Clock In the Morning” — enjoyed this in snatches over the last month and a half. I’ll come back to the other interviews down the road, but the first was the most important to read.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book by an author I recently discovered, Laurie Colwin. She had befriended Charles Schultz and hers was one of four interviews. While I enjoyed the comic strip, I didn't follow it on a regular basis, so it was interesting to learn how it began and evolved over the years.

[Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

picked this up bc of the colwin interview and frankly should’ve only bothered with that; the other three felt like they were treading & retreading the same ground whilst colwin was asking her own things!!! still very interesting to learn about charles schultz; this also made me super introspective

[Ken Proudfoot]

Fascinating read about the inside mind of a great iconic cartoonist.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful read into the mind of the very interesting and sometimes very complicated Charles Schulz!!!

I thought it was weird how Sparky didn't believe that writer's block existed (nor does his son Monte) and that people "can't learn to draw." As far as Sparky was concerned, either a person had the ability to draw or they didn't and that was that. Same went for writer's block...that only amateurs get it. I disagree because if it really is impossible to learn to draw, then why do classes to learn how to do so exist? Oh, and if there really is no such thing as writer's block, then why is the term part of the English language? We were all amateurs at subjects once upon a time!

Here's a question Sparky answered that I found very interesting on page 126...

Do you feel that you’re consciously trying to do a moralistic comic strip? Is that something you’re very aware of?

His answer: “It’s very decent humor. I think everything that we’ve done has been pretty decent. Maybe you could say it’s prudish, but I don’t see anything wrong with being prudish and I don’t see anything wrong with being nice…”

My thought about it is that I don't see anything prudish about Sparky's ideas in Peanuts, bearing in mind the fact that the major characters are children, a dog, and a bird. (The meaning to the word prudish is someone acting overly shocked about nudity or sex) And of course, I see nothing wrong with acts of kindness such as when the children get kissed or when Snoopy and his BFF Woodstock cuddle.

It was obvious how much of a deep thinker Sparky really was. He had a lot to say about religion, how much he loved his family, and when he'd want to know everything about any person he was checking out at the ice arena.

[Ramsey Ess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The middle two interviews were a little redundant, but the first and last conducted by Gary Groth and Laurie Colwin respectively, were worth the price of admission.