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Chadwick's review

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography
by David Michaelis

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195218.Schulz_and_Peanuts_A_Biography?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WnkG9oMQL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195218.Schulz_and_Peanuts_A_Biography?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/54620.David_Michaelis">David Michaelis</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18025349?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars This may really be the first critical biography ever written about a comics artist. The format is revolutionary, actually using the strips to highlight the events of Schulz's life and how he expressed what he felt and thought in the day to day unfolding of Peanuts. If Michaelis is right, and his extensive, exhaustive research seems to support him in this, Schulz may have been one of the most autobiographically transparent artists of the 20th century. Some of his strips are downright creepy after reading this. 
 
 This book is flawed by the fact that Michaelis seems to lose interest in his subject when he attains relative happiness, skipping through the last 20 years of his life in a fraction of the space given to the first 60 or thereabouts. He also does a disservice to the quality of his strips in his later years, in my opinion. They are less cruel, true, and a little more cute or gimmicky at times. But they also have the formal clarity of an artist at the very peak of his abilities, an almost calligraphic purity that I feel makes up for the lack of pain and reflection, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. But otherwise, this is a damned fine biography. 
 
 I understand that some of Schulz's family were unhappy with Michaelis's portrayal of their Sparky, and I can certainly see that. What we see of him is a bitter, vengeful, terrified man who had real difficulties showing and receiving affection. We don't really get to see the parts of him that made up to his family for all of that, we just have to take their word for it. Honestly though, I can understand it if Michaelis raced to the end on this one. I mean, this doorstop is researched down to the molecular level. All in all, a grand achievement, and a book that really enriches my appreciation of the subject's body of work.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/157567?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Chadwick's review
rating:
bookshelves: biography, comics
recommended for: people who love biography, people who love Peanuts

This may really be the first critical biography ever written about a comics artist. The format is revolutionary, actually using the strips to highlight the events of Schulz's life and how he expressed what he felt and thought in the day to day unfolding of Peanuts. If Michaelis is right, and his extensive, exhaustive research seems to support him in this, Schulz may have been one of the most autobiographically transparent artists of the 20th century. Some of his strips are downright creepy after reading this.

This book is flawed by the fact that Michaelis seems to lose interest in his subject when he attains relative happiness, skipping through the last 20 years of his life in a fraction of the space given to the first 60 or thereabouts. He also does a disservice to the quality of his strips in his later years, in my opinion. They are less cruel, true, and a little more cute or gimmicky at times. But they also have the formal clarity of an artist at the very peak of h...more

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message 1: by Jessica

03/19/2008 12:45PM

I'm so glad you reviewed this, and so well; I've been waiting for someone to do this. I gave Schulz to my Peanuts-happy uncle for Christmas, and had a nice time flipping through it prior to the wrapping. This is totally one of those books that I'd read if I knew I'd live to be a hundred, or if the Internet didn't exist and I had more time for such things.... but realistically, though I'm interested, I'm not actually interested enough to make the time commitment, so I really appreciate this thoughtful and informative review. Great points about the late Peanuts style/content issues.

Thanks!