What do you think?
Rate this book
The Complete Peanuts #1-2
The Complete Peanuts Boxset, 1950-1954,
A boxed set of the first two volumes, just in time for the holidays, designed by the Award-winning graphic novelist, Seth! Ships shrinkwrapped.
The first volume, The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952, covers the first two and a quarter years of the strip (October 1950 through December 1952), and will be of particular fascination to Peanuts aficionados worldwide: Although there have been literally hundreds of Peanuts books published, many of the strips from the series' first two or three years have never been collected before—in large part because they showed a young Schulz working out the kinks in his new strip and include some characterizations and designs that are quite different from the cast we're all familiar with (Among other things, three major cast members—Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus—initially show up as infants and only "grow" into their final "mature" selves as the months go by. Even Snoopy debuts as a puppy!).
The second volume, The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954, begins with Peanuts' third full year and a cast of eight: Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty, Violet, Schroeder, Lucy, the recently born Linus, and Snoopy. By the end of 1954, this will have expanded to nine. Linus still doesn't speak (except, on a few occasions, to himself, à la Snoopy), but Schulz begins laying the foundation for his emergence as the most complex and arguably most endearing character in the strip: garrulous and inquisitive, yet gentle and tolerant. And he evens acquires his "security blanket" in this volume! Meanwhile, Lucy, an infant just a year ago, has forcefully elbowed herself to the front of the cast, proudly wearing her banner as a troublemaker or, in Schulz's memorable phrase, "fuss-budget." The strong, specific relationships she sets up with each character further contributes to making her central to the strip. (She has earned her cover status on this volume.) This period's significant new character is Pig-Pen, who would remain one of the main cast members throughout the decade. And then there's Snoopy. To readers unfamiliar with the early days of the strip, Snoopy's appearances here will no doubt come as the biggest surprise. Although Snoopy has started talking/thinking to himself, he does no imitations (except for one brief shark impression), he doesn't sleep atop his doghouse (much less type or fly a Sopwith Camel), and has no fantasy life—in fact, he doesn't even walk upright! But as we know, he is merely biding his time, and his evolution continues its fascinating course within these pages.
Peanuts is the most successful comic strip in the history of the medium as well as one of the most acclaimed strips ever published. (In 1999, a jury of comics scholars and critics voted it the 2nd greatest comic strip of the 20th century—second only to George Herriman's Krazy Kat, a verdict Schulz himself cheerfully endorsed.) Charles Schulz's characters—Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, and so many more—have become American icons. A United Media poll in 2002 found Peanuts to be one of the most recognizable cartoon properties in the world, recognized by 94 percent of the total U.S. consumer market and a close second only to Mickey Mouse (96 percent), and higher than other familiar cartoon properties like Spider-Man (75 percent) or the Simpsons (87 percent). In TV Guide's "Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All-Time" list, Charlie Brown and Snoopy ranked #8.
720 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2004
8 people are currently reading
242 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,037 books1,630 followersCharles 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.”
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.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 5, 2014
[This review is for the full series]
When I was in grade school, I won a reading contest by reading thirty mini Peanuts books and The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Even I thought I was cheating.
So I can't count finishing one of these volumes as finishing a new book. But I wanted to comment that these collected versions are as close to perfect as anyone could want (well, I want Sunday color). [They're even indexed, which was my Library School cataloging project]. Also, though my favorites will always be those thirty amazing late-sixties books I read in grade school, the strips in the eighties and nineties that I missed are as worth reading, so far, as the early and middle period were. I like Lydia (if that's her name) by the way, even more than I like 5 and Frieda.
I like them all, actually, and my happy place before bed--or when sick or tired or spiritually bereft--is that two-dimensional world of doghouses, pitcher's mounds, kite-eating trees and busts of Beethoven. Read the indexes if you don't think there's a world in there.
When I was in grade school, I won a reading contest by reading thirty mini Peanuts books and The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Even I thought I was cheating.
So I can't count finishing one of these volumes as finishing a new book. But I wanted to comment that these collected versions are as close to perfect as anyone could want (well, I want Sunday color). [They're even indexed, which was my Library School cataloging project]. Also, though my favorites will always be those thirty amazing late-sixties books I read in grade school, the strips in the eighties and nineties that I missed are as worth reading, so far, as the early and middle period were. I like Lydia (if that's her name) by the way, even more than I like 5 and Frieda.
I like them all, actually, and my happy place before bed--or when sick or tired or spiritually bereft--is that two-dimensional world of doghouses, pitcher's mounds, kite-eating trees and busts of Beethoven. Read the indexes if you don't think there's a world in there.
November 3, 2019
Che dire, sull’arguzia di Schultz e dei Peanuts c’è poco da aggiungere. Posso solo commentare su questa splendida edizione, che raccoglie tutte le strisce giornaliere e domenicali. Il tutto in un cofanetto che raccoglie sempre due volumi.
Per chi è appassionato, un must.
Per chi è appassionato, un must.
April 25, 2018
It's Peanuts. It's amazing!
October 22, 2018
What a wonderful experience to read the beginning of my favorite comic strip.
July 27, 2007
The greatest comic strip of all times is being collected in these beautiful editions. Published at a rate of 2 volumes a year, each fall both of the volumes are collected in a beautiful slip-case edition. These are a standing Christmas present from my wife, who didn't quite realize what she was getting into. It's amazing to watch the comic evolve over time, the shapes of the characters, the characters who get dropped, the new (and classic!) characters who get introduced. To my college friends who remember my ambition to reproduce "Hamlet" with the characters from Peanuts, I say my life's work is now possible (in a few years, anyway.)
July 14, 2007
And then I read lots and lots and lots of Peanuts comics. I don't need to explain why I love the Peanuts so much, do I?
But I still wanted to mention this, in case some of you had missed that all Peanuts comics are being released in the order they were created in. All of them. More than 50 years of daily comics, published over a period of twelve years. in case you are looking for a christmas gifts for people for the next twelve years.
LOVE the peanuts.
But I still wanted to mention this, in case some of you had missed that all Peanuts comics are being released in the order they were created in. All of them. More than 50 years of daily comics, published over a period of twelve years. in case you are looking for a christmas gifts for people for the next twelve years.
LOVE the peanuts.
April 4, 2007
I've been slowly reading this ever since I recieved it for Christmas last year. Its not riviting, but its fun, casual, and subtly brilliant. If you only think of Peanuts as that anemic strip you skim over merely out of habit when you have a copy of the funny-pages, you should give this classic a chance.
June 11, 2007
melancholy, touching, beautifully drawn, revitalizing. comfort food in book form. a cup of tea on a rainy night.
January 28, 2009
This book is really funny and if u like comics u should read this.Its about a group of friends that call the group peanuts.
September 4, 2009
Please see my comprehensive review of Vols. 1-10, entered for The Complete Peanuts 1969-1970 (Volume 10)
October 7, 2010
This is "the greatest comic strip of all time?" Does it get better? I was pretty bored.
Currently reading
May 6, 2011this book is so funny. its like a comic book but also a story. people should read this for information. even for a good laugh. i recommend this book for everyone.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews