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This "boxed set" contains Volumes 5 and 6 of the Fantagraphics Peanuts reprint series (1959-60 and 1961-62) in one handsome slipcase. Daily strips run three to a page with complete black-and-white Sunday strips on one full page. Seth and Fantagraphics have produced an attractive design with paper and binding of a high quality. Introductions have been provided by Whoopi Goldberg and Diana Krall, and the covers feature Patty and Schroeder, respectively.
These strips contain years nine to twelve Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Pigpen, Violet, Patty and the rest of the gang (and introduce Frieda) and most are still enjoyable 50 years later. In the 1/1/59 Sunday strip that opens Volume 5, the passing boys deride Lucy who is diligently at work forming snowballs: "girls sure do some stupid things! She makes a snowball so big she can't even throw it!" Like a bowler, Lucy then knocks three boys down with one snowball, and uses a second on an incredulous Charlie Brown: "I never thought she'd pick up the spare!"
Schultz received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1962. In 1961, the Ford Motor Company licensed the Peanuts characters for a series of black-and-white television commercial s for the Ford Falcon. This Bill Melendez-animated project was the forerunner of the classic TV specials that were soon to follow.
These volumes are exactly the same as the individual ones: the boxed set offers the additional slipcase and, based on Amazon's current prices, a $3 discount per book. Fantagraphics plans to release a subsequent two-book set each fall.
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For nearly 50 years, Charles Schulz provided a thoughtful, amusing, and endearing look at human foibles through the unlikely venue of the comic pages. And, as author David Michaelis (who wrote the Schulz biography "Schulz and Peanuts") has suggested, he also provided -- perhaps unintentionally (at least at first) a look into his own life and experience, with each of the characters providing different perspectives on some aspect of his own personality or -- as in the case of Lucy -- those whom he knew as well.
Of course, there is no better way to experience and understand Schulz' contributions than through the comics themselves, and this set, covering the beginning of his second decade at the drawing easel, was the start of his best and most memorable period (although to be fair, even the earlier two volumes, covering 1955-1958, could be included, too). By now the major characters -- Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, and of course Charlie Brown -- had taken the physical and temperamental form that they would carry for the rest of the strip. Most of the other characters (Schroeder, Shermy, Patty, and Violet) were also in place, and Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally, was "born" in the strip in 1959, one of the years covered here (although she didn't appear physically at first, and then only in a stroller). Happily, this set also predates some of the less interesting or desirable characters, such as Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who unfortunately came to dominate the strip beginning in the 1970s.
Here, you'll find Schulz at the height of his powers, writing insightful yet always entertaining sketches (literally and figuratively) on the human condition. These strips were also the source for many of the story lines used in later animated productions -- anyone who has seen "A Charlie Brown Christmas," for example (and who among us hasn't?) will find among the Christmas and other wintertime stories in this set the genesis for that story. If you love "Peanuts" -- or know someone who does -- this set provides the totality of the artist himself at the beginning of his personal "Golden Age."
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These heirloom quality, hardbound books are well received by my middle school aged son. Peanuts has a timeless feel, and the complete run in these books are a great tribute to this comic. I am buying all of the books in sequence for my son, and I think they will be enjoyed forever.
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These are beautiful reproductions, bringing the joys of my youth back with full vigor and force. To be able to share them with my 6-year old daughter, listening to her playing out the parts as we read them together is all the more rewarding. Spectacular acheivement. I hope someday to amass the entire collection. The prices on Amazon are without parallel.
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My wife is getting each one of these, couldn't wish for a better result from a gift.
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