The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13: 1975-1976

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The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13: 1975-1976 (Complete Peanuts #13)

by Charles M. Schulz, Robert Smigel (Introduction)

4.45 of 5 stars 4.45 · rating details · 179 ratings · 21 reviews

That’s right! With this volume, The Complete Peanuts reaches the halfway point of Charles M. Schulz’s astounding half-century run on the greatest comic strip of all time.

These years are especially fecund in terms of new canine characters, as Snoopy is joined by his wandering brother Spike
(from Needles), his beloved sister Belle (from Kansas City), and... did you know he ha

...more

Hardcover, 344 pages

Published April 20th 2010 by Fantagraphics (first published 2010)

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Apr 28, 2010 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

This volume marks the half way point in this magnificent project by Fantagraphics Books and, after 25 years of working his strip, Schulz is still, if not at the very top of his game, near enough to the top. It’s a very enjoyable anthology with fresh spins on old chestnuts (Charlie Brown’s poor baseball team, Sally and Peppermint Patty’s school woes, Lucy unrequited love for Schroeder, etc.), with new characters and twists (Snoopy and Linus compete for the affections of young lady nicknamed Truff...more This volume marks the half way point in this magnificent project by Fantagraphics Books and, after 25 years of working his strip, Schulz is still, if not at the very top of his game, near enough to the top. It’s a very enjoyable anthology with fresh spins on old chestnuts (Charlie Brown’s poor baseball team, Sally and Peppermint Patty’s school woes, Lucy unrequited love for Schroeder, etc.), with new characters and twists (Snoopy and Linus compete for the affections of young lady nicknamed Truffles; the local public school talks—though only Sally can hear—and has a nervous breakdown, collapsing in a heap of rubble; Sally goes to obedience school on Snoopy’s recommendation when public school fails her; Marcie has a boy who has a crush on her, though she thinks his endearments are all sarcasm).

Some samples: Sally responds to a school assignment, writing, “What Do We Learn from History? We don’t learn anything from History.” She pauses and continues to write, “I don’t even learn anything from Math.” Rerun rides on the back of his mother’s bike, flying into traffic, he narrates: “Down the driveway. Into the street. Over Hill! Over Dale! Poor Dale.” Linus returns Snoopy’s manuscript. “Your novel starts too slowly. You need a more powerful beginning,” he advises Snoopy. After pondering the advice, Snoopy types, “Call me Ishmael.” (This is the only strip from this collection that I clearly remembered from reading it decades ago.) Linus asks Charlie Brown, “What would you say your philosophy is?” Charlie Brown replies, “The secret of happiness is having three things to look forward to and nothing to regret.” He looks proudly at Linus, who is disappointed, “There’s a difference between philosophy and a bumper sticker.” And perhaps my favorite strip in the book: Charlie Brown to Snoopy: “I hear you’re writing a book on theology. I hope you have a good title.” Snoopy: “I have the perfect title. ‘Has It Ever Occurred to You That You Might Be Wrong.’”(less)

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Aug 17, 2012 Dominick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comic-strips, humour

Hmmm. There are lots of nice strips here. Schulz's sense of the absurd and whimsical, as well as his ingenious design sense--the guy really knows how to use the comic strip format, realism be damned--is in evidence here, to be sure, but there just aren't that many laugh out loud strips. They're still generally amusing and clever but rarely really uproarious. Plus, I've never been a fan of Snoopy's extended family, who begin to be introduced here, or of Shcuilz's fondness for inanimate objects li...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars

Growing up in the 70's, it seemed 'Peanuts' was everywhere! I remember the holidays specials, my dad took me to see a movie on the big screen, and of course I read the comic strips.
This set puts two years together. In this this case, it was 1975 and 1976.
It's great fun to see topics from that time frame pop up in the strip-(Snoopy does a puppet show called TEETH that is of couse a take off on JAWS) Elton John glasses pop up too, as does the 1976 King Kong remake..
The humor is great. People sa...more

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May 01, 2010 Fizzgig76 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Snoopy's brother Spike comes to visit and Peppermint Patty goes to obedience school. Peanuts by this point is kind of losing its steam. While it still is one of the better comic strips, the routines that once made it unique are starting to make it feel really repetitive. The story becomes less focused on the characters as a whole and more Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, and Charlie Brown focused while many of the other interesting characters seem to be lost. Snoopy's family is introduced in this colle...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

Made it through another great Peanuts collection, but I feel like I'm farther from the end of this project than ever before - mainly because I found out that Fantagraphics is nowhere near finishing the process of getting all of them published. Stupid me, I thought that what was out now was the complete run - the last one out (so far) covers the period 85 through 86, which sounded like a pretty good run to me, considering he started in 1950. I now learn that he actually kept cranking the strip ou...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Quinn Rollins rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels-comics

With this 13th Volume of The Complete Peanuts, Charles Schulz's masterpiece reaches its midway point. The strip ran for 50 years, and this hardcover book collects the comic strips from 1975 to 1976.
I finally got around to picking this up last week even though it's been out since April, and I thought I wasn't as interested in this volume as previous ones. Is it that curly-headed so-and-so Frieda on the cover? Is it worrying that 1975 is when the strip starts its inevitable decline? Whatever the...more With this 13th Volume of The Complete Peanuts, Charles Schulz's masterpiece reaches its midway point. The strip ran for 50 years, and this hardcover book collects the comic strips from 1975 to 1976.
I finally got around to picking this up last week even though it's been out since April, and I thought I wasn't as interested in this volume as previous ones. Is it that curly-headed so-and-so Frieda on the cover? Is it worrying that 1975 is when the strip starts its inevitable decline? Whatever the reason, once I finally cracked it open, I couldn't put it down.

The 700+ strips collected here continue to focus on Charlie Brown and his friends, but as with every collection, certain characters percolate to the top. Where Linus and Lucy dominated the 1960's strips, Snoopy, his bird friend Woodstock, and Peppermint Patty and Marcie are all at center stage for much of this volume.

The chronological order the strips are printed demonstrate how the Sunday strips were usually disconnected from the daily storylines. The entire book is reprinted in black and white on high quality paper, and the Sunday strips are in black and white instead of full color. This format lets you enjoy the richness of Schulz's artwork, which seems simple, but has a gorgeous style all his own that changes over time, and as of 1975, was still in flux.

Several story arcs went longer than a week, and stick out after reading the book. These include interactions with Snoopy's newfound siblings Spike and Belle; a bizarre love triangle between Snoopy, a girl named Truffles, and Linus; Peppermint Patty and Marcie at summer camp; and Peppermint Patty dropping out of her school to attend a private school.

Even though Peppermint Patty and Marcie have never been my favorite characters, they do have some great moments there. A running gag in the Sunday strips is Patty's infatuation with Charlie Brown, leaning against a tree, talking about love...and Chuck is totally oblivious to her flirtations. "Don't hassle me with your sighs, Chuck" is one of my favorite punchline from this or any Peanuts book, but Schulz doesn't let the well go dry. At summer camp, there's a boy in love with Marcie and keeps calling her "Lambcake"...all of the unwanted relationships are a part of Peanuts, and this new twist is very funny. The "private school" Peppermint Patty ends up at is an obedience school that was recommended by Snoopy--she still doesn't realize he's a dog, and doesn't find out the true nature of the school until after receiving her diploma.

Snoopy and Woodstock continue their imaginative rampages through various scenarios. We only see the World War I Flying Ace once, but we do get extended tennis, lawyer, author, and other arcs with Snoopy. Snoopy leads the Beagle Scouts (Woodstock and other birds) on several expeditions, and he even tries going to Wimbledon...but can't find it.

Charlie Brown, his sister Sally, Linus, Lucy and Schroeder are all here, and continue their struggles with school, baseball, and Beethoven. Pig-Pen only makes one appearance, and 1950's mainstays Patty and Violet are relegated to gags where Charlie Brown goes door-to-door as a salesman, continuing their rejection of Good Ol' Charlie Brown, but no longer really hanging out with the other kids. This organic transition is something I enjoy about the longview of Peanuts, and it's definitely on display here.

If you're a fan of Snoopy, Chuck and the gang, there's a lot to love here. I found myself laughing out loud at things I had forgotten, and strips I'd never seen. As with all of the Peanuts strips, these are an interesting look at the psychology of childhood, the cruelties of youth, and the cluelessness of adults. The introduction by Robert Smigel is uncharacteristically sweet but characteristically forgettable, and the exhaustive index helps you track down the strips you want to revisit.

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Aug 08, 2011 Janne Varvára rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics-graphic-novels

It's hard to be reviewing fifty years of Peanuts strips without saying almost the same thing every time. However, there is a difference in these volumes, the development of the stories and characters and their changes do become evident to astute fans.
That's perhaps the reason I don't rate this quite as high up there as some of my very favorites.

I absolutely adore the development of the characters. My very favorite book series or TV shows have always had archetypes; characters who have assumed a...more It's hard to be reviewing fifty years of Peanuts strips without saying almost the same thing every time. However, there is a difference in these volumes, the development of the stories and characters and their changes do become evident to astute fans.
That's perhaps the reason I don't rate this quite as high up there as some of my very favorites.

I absolutely adore the development of the characters. My very favorite book series or TV shows have always had archetypes; characters who have assumed a certain role, to make the reader/watcher feel like he/she personally got to know them. In those instances, half the fun has been anticipating their reactions, because I've known them so well. I've always looked up to people who can make those kinds of characters; those who seem real, like imaginary friends.
That's ever so true for the Peanuts gang. And what's more; yes, they're archetypes, but they all exist in the real world and resemble people we know.

I always cast myself as a reluctant Charlie Brown: I'm pessimistic and insecure of nature, but I fight it every day and have made it my life's purpose to become less Charlie Brown and more Lucy van Pelt (I do kick ass when I feel I must). The Lucy van Pelts of this world are my idols; one of them my sister Heidi, who is hardcore and practical and won't let anyone keep her down.
I also see a lot of myself in Sally Brown, whose relationship with school is much like my own was (which is why I left quite young and never looked back).
I know several Schroeders, and they inspire both admiration and irritation in me. They're incredibly focused and talented, but hard to reach out to sometimes; so caught up in their own worlds.
I once stated that the love of my life would share many of the characteristics of Linus, and by god, he does. He's remarkably smart, and not just in the associate professor sense; he's incredibly astute and sensitive to his surroundings; I hadn't met someone who listened and observed until I met him, not at all. Even challenged with my cryptic remarks and occational inability to express myself, he's able to yank on the thread and seemingly effortlessly understand my meaning. For a scientist and computer geek he's quite the philosopher, determined to believe in the best in people. He also, much like Linus (two words: Great Pumpkin), gets carried away by a good story; as an actor on the stage, but also just when reading a book or watching a film he gets into the tale and heart-on-sleeve, gets sucked in. He's the most amazing and complex person I have ever known.

What attracts to this book is just that, that you feel you know the characters like old friends; their little quirks and eccentricities are beloved features, and that's the highlight of this book.
What I like less is the extended storylines. With Peanuts, I've come to prefer the quotable tag lines and grounded wisdom, rather than the longer stories and adventures.

This is still a really good volume though, with subtle humour and the simple yet magnificent drawings.

And that concludes another review based on my life! ...but that's what reading is, isn't it? Relating.(less)

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Mar 05, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. At the moment I'm playing a little catch-up with the Complete Peanuts series. It looks like I started going off the rails in late 2009 (as revealed by my Goodreads history), a little earlier than I thought. As the books in this series are released, two per year for about 24 years, I've been reading them in order. The good news is it doesn't seem as daunting that way; the bad news is I now have a fuzzy memory of the earlier volumes.

In this one, Peanuts definitely feels like the strip that everyon...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think it's about time to jump ship on this series. As effortlessly great as Schulz is this is the first point he's starting to show some cracks. Spike never clicked as a character to me ... too many sequences with the talking school bldg and one of the many layers of meanness of Peanuts is sheared off by this point. Still not the Snoopy obsessed collapse of the later 70s and 80s. Obviously the rating as in the inflated Schulz scale and would rate higher if not for the preceding excellence of t...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Jennifer Campaniolo rated it 4 of 5 stars

1975 was the year Schulz introduced Spike, Snoopy's brother. I actually never liked this character (nor the appearance of Snoopy's other siblings, like Bella) because it wasn't a funny series of strips and it took away from Snoopy himself--a great character that can't be rivaled for laughs. That said, the strip 25 years on is still funny, unique, and a joy to read.

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May 24, 2010 Mike Jensen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Schulz at his best. Lots of literary references, the blurring of fantasy and naturalistic story elements, the further development of certain characters, especially Marcie, and a stronger integration of Woodstock into Snoopy's world. There are even cartoons in which Charlie Brown knows what Snoopy is thinking. Great stuff.

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Oct 07, 2011 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have read a few reviews that have commented that Schultz has begun to lose steam as of this volume. However I disagree. I enjoyed the little story arcs he includes
In this one, in particular the one featuring Peppermint Patty going to dog school. I laughed out loud!!

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Mar 07, 2013 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

enjoyable read, only some of spike. don't know who the guy is that wrote the intro.

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Feb 01, 2012 Tammy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

Part of the Complete Peanuts Collection with all the Dailies and Sunday comic strips from 1975 to Dec. 1976. I remember reading some of these in little paperback book collections I bought in elementary and junior high school. It was a nice trip down memory lane plus several new stories for me to read about Charlie, Snoopy and the rest of the gang.

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May 16, 2012 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars

The comic strips start to get even better, if possible. I like the late 70's-early 80's period.

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Mar 12, 2013 Reader-Ducky Hermione Baggins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: comic

I like Peanuts. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and all of those other short little kids are just hilarious. Love them all.

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Apr 06, 2012 Tati Dengo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-2012

It's Peanuts. It's awesome. What else can I say?

Highlights:
The storyline with Peppermint Patty attending obedience school.
Snoopy meets some of his siblings.
Snoopy, you need to stop dashing Woodstock's hopes and dreams.

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Oct 05, 2012 Lee Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Since I read these books only when I'm caught up on my magazines, it can take a while. Still, I'm shocked that this one took more than a year; now I'm way behind.

Peppermint Patty goes to obedience school.

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Jun 20, 2010 Denicemarcell added it

Snoopy watched UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS! he wants to stay with Mrs. Bridges & Mr. Hudson or preferably Lady Georgina when he goes to Wimbledon.

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Sep 11, 2012 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, graphic-novel-comics

Just a lot of fun. Peppermint Patty rents Snoopy's dog house as a plane.

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May 07, 2013 Brandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Love Peanuts!

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About Charles M. Schulz

Charles 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...more Charles 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.”
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The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 13: 1975-1976 (Complete Peanuts #13)

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