This is going to take up a chunk of my house. Fantagraphics Books has just released the first of what’s anticipated to be 25 volumes, collecting all fifty years of Charles Schulz’ Peanuts cartoons. They’re releasing them one volume every six months, and although they’re a little pricey, after reading the first volume, I’m going to have to get the remaining 24. Don’t tell my wife. It’ll sneak up on her like a beagle in the night.

The first volume, hardbound and with beautiful design work and “extras,” has completely won me over. It collects the comic strips from October 1950 – December 1952. In that first 26 months of strips, we see Schulz find his voice both as a writer and artist. He establishes a family of characters, and we accompany them through their own “firsts.”

The very first strip calls Charlie Brown by name, as Shermy and Patty sit on the stoop as Charlie Brown trots by…and Shermy says “Good ol’ Charlie Brown…Yes, Sir! …How I hate him!” We have no idea what the history of these characters is, but Charlie Brown goes trotting, smiling, on his way…and this very first comic strip establishes something important in the world of “Peanuts” : children are cruel. This is a world where Charlie Brown will NEVER kick the football. Where Lucy will NEVER win Schroeder’s heart. Where Peppermint Patty will NEVER be told she’s beautiful. This world…is a cruel one, on the very first day. And I love it.

But few of the characters we’ve come to know and love are in these early strips…starting out, it’s just Charlie Brown, Shermy, Patty (not Peppermint Patty, who didn’t come along for more than two decades…) and Snoopy…it’s never clear in these early strips who owns Snoopy, and he doesn’t even get his name until February of 1951.

As I was reading, I kept track of the “firsts” I found significant…not realizing there’s a comprehensive index of them in the back of the book. This is what I jotted down:

Dec. 1950 First “Zig-Zag” on Charlie Brown’s shirt
Feb. 1951 First named “Snoopy”
Feb. 1951 First appearance of Violet
Mar. 1951 First Baseball Game
Aug. 1951 First “Blockhead!”
May 1951 First appearance of Schroeder
Oct. 1951 First mention of Beethoven
Nov. 1951 First football pull-away (and it’s Violet who pulls it away)
Jan. 1952 First Sunday strip
Mar. 1952 First appearance of Lucy
Mar. 1952 First kite-flying
Jun. 1952 First Snoopy “thought” balloon
Jul. 1952 First “Good Grief!”
Jul. 1952 First mention of Linus
Sep. 1952 First appearance of Linus

It’s a very interesting group of strips—over seven hundred of them—and we can see some experimentation with characters and concepts that don’t survive long. Things like parents’ voices being heard from the other room…we still don’t see the adults, but they are heard. Patty is the Alpha Female, and the other characters seem to be younger than her…but age is something flexible in the Peanuts universe. For example, we meet Schroeder as a baby, but he rapidly ages until he’s just younger than Charlie Brown. Within a few years, Schroeder will be the same age as Charlie Brown, and even Lucy (even younger than Schroeder) will be their age cohort. We also see that Schulz tried to give each character a distinguishing trait…and it was hit and miss. Violet starts out being full-on obsessed with mud-pies, for example…and it’s a trait that’s gone by the late 1950’s…but there’s not a lot to replace it, so by the time the 1970’s roll around, Peppermint Patty and Marcie crowd out Violet and (original) Patty.

It’s a great way to see the evolution of a comic strip in progress, and even though there are probably fewer fans of this period of “Peanuts” than later periods, I genuinely enjoy them. Schulz doesn’t pull punches here, and Charlie Brown dishes out the insults and pranks as often as he’s the victim of them. Even though he’s definitely channeling his later wishy-washy self, often in the final panel, he’s the one laughing. It’s an interesting change, and we see that Chuck can be as cruel as the best of them.

Besides the strips themselves, there’s an introduction by Garrison Keillor, apologizing for the people of St. Paul who drove Charles Schulz away…but reveling that there’s more of the midwestern prairie in “Peanuts” than Schulz’ Santa Rosa home in California. There’s a 15-page biographical sketch by David Michaelis, who’s writing the first full-scale biography of Schulz. Most revelatory is the 30-page 1987 interview with Schulz, where he talks about his influences, his loves, losses, failures, mistakes, and triumphs…he comes across as the only man who could have created “Peanuts.” There’s some of each of the characters in him, and as an elder statesman of sorts of the cartoonist community, he doesn’t have any qualms about slamming his peers. He calls Garry Trudeau “unprofessional,” talks about Walt Kelly’s decline, and says Superman “wasn’t any good anymore after they let him fly.” So…he’s definitely got his opinions. Which is good, and makes for an entertaining and insightful read.

All of this is presented on high quality paper, and presented beautifully in a format designed by Chris Ware…things like a detail on the spine of Shermy running and Snoopy on his doghouse, small illustrations peppered throughout the book, and rare sketches fill out the “extras” at the end of the book. If this is an indication of what we’ll be seeing over the next twelve years, I’m signed up for good. Charlie Brown may be a blockhead, but you’d be a bigger blockhead to pass this up.


** MORE PEANUTS REVIEWS **

PEANUTS DVDS
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving http://www.epinions.com/content_119840018052
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown http://www.epinions.com/content_117220871812
It’s The Pied Piper, Charlie Brown http://www.epinions.com/content_73890565764
Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown http://www.epinions.com/content_144791146116
What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? http://www.epinions.com/content_73805303428
Why, Charlie Brown, Why? http://www.epinions.com/content_73870708356

PEANUTS BOOKS
The Complete Peanuts Vol. I http://www.epinions.com/content_144799862404
It’s Back To School, Charlie Brown http://www.epinions.com/content_130550042244
Peanuts: The Art of Charles Schulz http://www.epinions.com/content_117694434948
A Peanuts Christmas http://www.epinions.com/content_117921713796
Peanuts Every Sunday http://www.epinions.com/content_82398121604

PEANUTS ACTION FIGURES
Charlie Brown http://www.epinions.com/content_109784698500
Linus Van Pelt http://www.epinions.com/content_110064733828
Lucy Van Pelt http://www.epinions.com/content_110433242756
Schroeder http://www.epinions.com/content_110467059332
Snoopy and Woodstock http://www.epinions.com/content_110593281668
Sally Brown http://www.epinions.com/content_110546161284
Frieda http://www.epinions.com/content_117939146372
Pig-Pen http://www.epinions.com/content_117924662916




Recommended: Yes