{"id":31364,"date":"2025-01-19T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31364"},"modified":"2025-01-17T18:22:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T18:22:43","slug":"peanuts-dell-archive-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/01\/19\/peanuts-dell-archive-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Peanuts Dell Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Charles M. Schulz<\/strong>, Jim Sasseville<\/strong>, Dale Hale<\/strong>, Tony Pocrnick<\/strong> & various (KaBOOM!)
\nISBN: 978-1-68415-255-1 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-64144-117-9<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Peanuts<\/strong> is unequivocally the most important comics strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles Monroe \u201cSparky\u201d (forever dubbed thus by an uncle who saw young Charlie reading Billy DeBeck\u2019s strip Barney Google<\/strong>: that hero\u2019s horse was called \u201cSpark Plug\u201d) Schulz crafted a moodily hilarious, hysterically introspective, shockingly philosophical epic for half a century, producing 17,897 strips from October 2nd<\/sup> 1950 to February 13th<\/sup> 2000. He died, from the complications of cancer, the day before his last strip was published. Twenty five years later, his strip is still seen daily all over the world.<\/p>\n

At its height, Peanuts<\/strong> ran in 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries, translated into 21 languages. Many of those venues are still running perpetual reprints, and have ever since his departure. Attendant book collections, a merchandising mountain and television spin-offs made the publicity-shy artist a billionaire.<\/p>\n

In case you came in late – and from Mars – our focus (we just can\u2019t call him \u201cstar\u201d or \u201chero\u201d) is everyman loser Charlie Brown<\/em> who, with increasingly high-maintenance, fanciful mutt Snoopy<\/em>, is at odds with a bombastic and mercurial supporting cast hanging out doing kid things with disturbingly mature psychological overtones\u2026<\/p>\n

The gags and tales centre on play, pranks, sports, playing musical instruments, teasing each other, making baffled observations about the incomprehensible world and occasionally acting a bit too much like grown-ups. The ferocious unpredictability and wilfulness of seasonal weather often impacts on these peewee performers, too. You won\u2019t find many adults in the mix – which includes Mean Girl (let\u2019s call her \u201cforthright\u201d) Violet<\/em>, prodigy Schroeder<\/em>, \u201cworld\u2019s greatest fussbudget\u201d Lucy<\/em>, her strange baby brother Linus<\/em> and dirt-magnet \u201cPig-Pen\u201d <\/em>all adding signature twists to the mirth – because this is essentially a kids\u2019 world.<\/p>\n

Charlie Brown has settled into existential angst and is resigned to his role as eternal loser: singled out by fate and the relentless diabolical wilfulness of Lucy who sharpens her spiteful verve on everyone around her. Her preferred target is always the round-headed kid though: mocking his attempts to fly a kite, kicking away his football and perpetually reminding him face-to-face how rubbish he is…<\/p>\n

A Sunday page debuted on January 6th<\/sup> 1952; a standard half-page slot offering more measured fare than the daily. Both thwarted ambition and explosive frustration became part of the strip\u2019s signature denouements and these weekend wonders gave Sparky room to be at his most visually imaginative, whimsical and weird. By that time, rapid-fire raucous slapstick gags were riding side-by-side with surreal, edgy, psychologically barbed introspection, crushing judgements and deep ruminations in a world where kids – and certain animals – were the only actors. The relationships were increasingly deep, complex and absorbing…<\/p>\n

None of that is really the point. Peanuts<\/strong> – a title Schulz loathed, but one the syndicate forced upon him – changed the way comics strips were received and perceived, by showing cartoon comedy could have edges and nuance as well as pratfalls and punchlines. It also became a multimedia merchandising bonanza for Schulz and the United Features Syndicate, generating toys, games, books, TV shows, apparel and even comic books. These days there\u2019s even an educational institution, The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, from which a goodly portion of the archival contributions in this wonderful compilation originate…
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\nJust how and why the comic book version differs from the strip is explored with incisive and analytical vigour in Derrick Bang\u2019s (of CMS M&RC) Introduction \u2018Peanuts in Comic Books\u2019<\/em> revealing how, in the early 1950s, reprints in St. John and, later, Dell Comics titles such as Tip Top Comics<\/strong> and United Comics<\/strong> gradually gave way to original back-up material in Fritzi Ritz<\/strong>, Nancy<\/strong> and other anthology titles. Very little of it was by Schulz – although he did contribute many covers – but rather were ghosted by hand-picked associates like Jim Sasseville, who ably aped Sparky Schulz and kept the little cast in character and on message for strips in Fritzi Ritz<\/strong>, Nancy<\/strong>, Tip Top <\/strong>or Nancy and Sluggo<\/strong>. Sasseville wrote and drew all of the Western Publishing\u2019s Peanuts<\/strong> try-out issue (Four Color<\/strong> #878, February 1958). However, Schulz contributed heavily to the second FC<\/strong> Peanuts<\/strong> (#969, February 1959) with Dale Hale and Tony Pocrnick handling subsequent back-up tales plus third Four Color<\/strong> tester #1015 (August\/October 1959).<\/p>\n

The fourth release became Peanuts<\/strong> #4: a title that ran for 13 issues, before ending in July 1962. By then, Dell staff artists and writers were generating the stories and the overall quality was nothing to brag about – although Schulz still drew covers, at least. In terms of calibre and standards, the 75 comic tales here – beginning with the very first by Schulz from Nancy<\/strong> #146 (September 1957) to the anonymous last – are quite enjoyable and some are truly exceptional: such as Sasseville\u2019s \u2018The Mani-Cure\u2019 <\/em>(Tip Top <\/strong>#211, November 1957\/ January 1958) or Dale Hale\u2019s untitled treatise on keeping secrets from Tip Top <\/strong>#217 (May\/July 1959).
\n\"\"
\nAdmittedly, hard core fans might have trouble with later yarns as the kids face an amok robot or dare the terrors of an old haunted house, but overall this collection remains a splendid peek at a little known cranny of the franchise and there is the joy of all those lost gems from Sparky to carry the day. After all, where else are you going to see the kids in stories you haven\u2019t read yet… you Blockhead!?
\nPeanuts Dell Archive<\/strong> all contents unless otherwise specified \u00a9 2005 Peanuts Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles M. Schulz, Jim Sasseville, Dale Hale, Tony Pocrnick & various (KaBOOM!) ISBN: 978-1-68415-255-1 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-64144-117-9 This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Peanuts is unequivocally the most important comics strip in the history of graphic narrative. It is also the most deeply personal. Cartoonist Charles Monroe \u201cSparky\u201d (forever dubbed … <\/p>\n

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