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The Complete Peanuts #15
The Complete Peanuts, 1979-1980
It’s 1980, Charlie Brown… and Peppermint Patty is wearing corn-rows! Plus, a strange romance...
Charles Schulz enters his fourth decade as the greatest cartoonist of his generation, and Peanuts remains as fresh and lively as it ever was.
(How do we know it’s 1980? Well, for one thing Peppermint Patty gets herself those Bo-Derek-in-10 cornrows ― Peanuts’ timelessness occasionally shows a crack!)
That said, The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 includes a number of classic storylines, including the month-long sequence in which an ill Charlie Brown is hospitalized (including a particularly spooky moment when he wonders if he’s died and nobody’s told him yet), and an especially eventful trek with Snoopy, Woodstock, and the scout troop (now including a little girl bird, Harriet). And Snoopy is still trying on identities left and right, including the “world-famous surveyor,” the “world-famous census taker,” and Blackjack Snoopy, the riverboat gambler.
In other extended stories, Snoopy launches an ill-fated airline (with Lucy as the agent, Linus as the luggage handler, and Marcie as what it was still OK then to call the stewardess)… Peppermint Patty responds to being leaked upon by a ceiling by hiring a lawyer (unfortunately, she again picks Snoopy)… plus one of the great, forgotten romances of Peanuts that will startle even long-time Peanuts connoisseurs: Peppermint Patty and…“Pig-Pen”?! 731 black-and-white comic strips
Charles Schulz enters his fourth decade as the greatest cartoonist of his generation, and Peanuts remains as fresh and lively as it ever was.
(How do we know it’s 1980? Well, for one thing Peppermint Patty gets herself those Bo-Derek-in-10 cornrows ― Peanuts’ timelessness occasionally shows a crack!)
That said, The Complete Peanuts 1979-1980 includes a number of classic storylines, including the month-long sequence in which an ill Charlie Brown is hospitalized (including a particularly spooky moment when he wonders if he’s died and nobody’s told him yet), and an especially eventful trek with Snoopy, Woodstock, and the scout troop (now including a little girl bird, Harriet). And Snoopy is still trying on identities left and right, including the “world-famous surveyor,” the “world-famous census taker,” and Blackjack Snoopy, the riverboat gambler.
In other extended stories, Snoopy launches an ill-fated airline (with Lucy as the agent, Linus as the luggage handler, and Marcie as what it was still OK then to call the stewardess)… Peppermint Patty responds to being leaked upon by a ceiling by hiring a lawyer (unfortunately, she again picks Snoopy)… plus one of the great, forgotten romances of Peanuts that will startle even long-time Peanuts connoisseurs: Peppermint Patty and…“Pig-Pen”?! 731 black-and-white comic strips
323 pages, Hardcover
First published April 11, 2011
41 people are currently reading
529 people want to read
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,013 books1,622 followersCharles 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.”
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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 1, 2019
Complete Peanuts -sarjan viidestoista osa vie Tenavat 1980-luvulle. Sarjakuvassa on nähtävissä jo hieman taantumisen merkkejä, tosin esimerkiksi Amadeuksen epäonninen lentomatka musiikkileirille herättää edelleen samanlaista hilpeyttä kuin lapsuudessa.
March 16, 2013
Yet another Peanuts volume down, and this one came with an unusual twist - unrequited love has been a constant theme in Peanuts going back to the very early strips - Charlie Brown loves the pretty red-headed girl, Sally loves Linus, Linus at various times loved Miss Othmar and Truffles, and Lucy loves Schroeder, and none of them have a chance of getting any love back. Anyway, with so much unrequited love it was probably inevitable that Schulz would finally have somebody stumble on something like a mutual feeling - but Peppermint Patty with Pigpen?
Maybe it was the mutual attraction of the double p's. Or maybe Schulz just figured that if he's going to introduce a relationship that seems to work out, at least one of the pair would be a character that rarely makes an appearance. He's not going to want too much of a good thing popping up in the strip, it sort of breaks the general tone. Anyway, after a week or so of Pigpen and Patty getting along, Pigpen is apparently sent back to comic strip limbo - let's hope he gets to emerge again within a couple of years or so.
Along with Pigpen's brief reappearance (but then all his reappearances are brief), Peppermint Patty with her friend Marcie and Sally Brown are major players still, and Snoopy and Woodstock get tons of air time.
Maybe it was the mutual attraction of the double p's. Or maybe Schulz just figured that if he's going to introduce a relationship that seems to work out, at least one of the pair would be a character that rarely makes an appearance. He's not going to want too much of a good thing popping up in the strip, it sort of breaks the general tone. Anyway, after a week or so of Pigpen and Patty getting along, Pigpen is apparently sent back to comic strip limbo - let's hope he gets to emerge again within a couple of years or so.
Along with Pigpen's brief reappearance (but then all his reappearances are brief), Peppermint Patty with her friend Marcie and Sally Brown are major players still, and Snoopy and Woodstock get tons of air time.
July 21, 2015
This is the second compilation I've read in this series. Any time you can spend a lot of time with the Peanuts gang and the genius of Charles Schulz, it's a pleasure. This two year collection includes the usual suspects: the Great Pumpkin, the Easter Beagle, the WWI flying ace, the give and take of Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football, Charlie Brown, kites and the kite eating tree, Marcie and Peppermint Patty in a school daze.
New in this is Charlie Brown being hospitalized leading his fellow characters to voice their true feelings for the "round headed kid". My favorite character is Snoopy and this book doesn't disappoint offering Snoopy in various incarnations especially a delightful turn as a Beagle Scout leader with scouts Woodstock, Bill, Conrad, Olivier and later Harriette who makes a luscious angel food cake with a seven minute frosting.
A great bathroom book and no matter where you read it, smiles await.
New in this is Charlie Brown being hospitalized leading his fellow characters to voice their true feelings for the "round headed kid". My favorite character is Snoopy and this book doesn't disappoint offering Snoopy in various incarnations especially a delightful turn as a Beagle Scout leader with scouts Woodstock, Bill, Conrad, Olivier and later Harriette who makes a luscious angel food cake with a seven minute frosting.
A great bathroom book and no matter where you read it, smiles await.
October 24, 2017
Highlights: the strips on Title IX, which equalized funding for men and women's sports in college athletics; the introduction of Harriet into Snoopy's scout group of birds—who then gets put into jail for getting into a fight with blue jays at the bird bath; the struggles of Sally and Peppermint Patty in school.
Best quote: Peppermint Patty on the futility of trying to learn math, "Math is like learning a foreign language, Marcie...No matter what you say, it's going to be wrong anyway!"
Best quote: Peppermint Patty on the futility of trying to learn math, "Math is like learning a foreign language, Marcie...No matter what you say, it's going to be wrong anyway!"
March 13, 2019
So instead of telling you how great Peanuts is (because you already know!) I always post my favorite strip from the volume of Complete Peanuts I happen to be reading at the time. Sometimes, these strips stand on their own and sometimes they need a setup. This one is one of the latter.
In June of 1980 Charles Schulz sent most of the cast of Peanuts to summer camp, and unlike previous summer camp escapades, it appears that the parents of all of the Peanuts crew lost their fucking minds and sent their kids to a Bible camp run by a pre-millenial dispensationalist who keeps telling Charlie Brown and company that we are in the end times, Left Behind style. My aunt and uncle are evangelicals and I remember going to one of their Bible camps when I was very young and didn't possess the critical framework to question the Rapture video they force fed us and, mission accomplished, that video scared the living fuck out of me.
So while the gang is being force-fed this nonsense by these evangelical nut, enter Linus, who if you remember is the cast member who in A Charlie Brown Christmas recites chapter and verse from the Bible to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. Obviously, the pre-millenial dispensationalists must have rankled Schulz, as Linus decides to engage:
Of course everyone else clears out because they know that the question Linus poses will not end well for anybody. The pre-millenial dispensationalist's dogma about the Rapture can't be questioned by the unbelievers, who rightly call this out for, in David Cross's words, "[the] Dungeons & Dragons bullshit" that it is. Linus' thought experiment here is a complete waste of time, except for the fact that he is declaring in no uncertain terms what a steaming pile of horse-shit this declaration of end times actually is. It works on so many different levels.
Also, Al Roker wrote an introduction in which he talks about interviewing Schulz shortly before his death. Unfortunately there isn't a linkage of a love of Peanuts to the fact that he once sharted at the White House, so that was a slight disappointment.
In June of 1980 Charles Schulz sent most of the cast of Peanuts to summer camp, and unlike previous summer camp escapades, it appears that the parents of all of the Peanuts crew lost their fucking minds and sent their kids to a Bible camp run by a pre-millenial dispensationalist who keeps telling Charlie Brown and company that we are in the end times, Left Behind style. My aunt and uncle are evangelicals and I remember going to one of their Bible camps when I was very young and didn't possess the critical framework to question the Rapture video they force fed us and, mission accomplished, that video scared the living fuck out of me.
So while the gang is being force-fed this nonsense by these evangelical nut, enter Linus, who if you remember is the cast member who in A Charlie Brown Christmas recites chapter and verse from the Bible to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. Obviously, the pre-millenial dispensationalists must have rankled Schulz, as Linus decides to engage:
Of course everyone else clears out because they know that the question Linus poses will not end well for anybody. The pre-millenial dispensationalist's dogma about the Rapture can't be questioned by the unbelievers, who rightly call this out for, in David Cross's words, "[the] Dungeons & Dragons bullshit" that it is. Linus' thought experiment here is a complete waste of time, except for the fact that he is declaring in no uncertain terms what a steaming pile of horse-shit this declaration of end times actually is. It works on so many different levels.
Also, Al Roker wrote an introduction in which he talks about interviewing Schulz shortly before his death. Unfortunately there isn't a linkage of a love of Peanuts to the fact that he once sharted at the White House, so that was a slight disappointment.
August 9, 2021
Charlie Brown (the round headed kid as Snoopy describes him) is hospitalised with a mystery illness, but does recover. Snoopy, preparing for Wimbledon, does wonderful impressions of John McEnroe, Tracy Austin and John Newcombe. Harriet the bird joins Snoopy's hiking troops (and she can make a wonderful Angel Food cake with seven minute frosting). Oh and Snoopy re-enacts bird calls for Woodstock. This and more all in here.
February 17, 2019
As a child I had the Peanuts book titled You're Barking Up The Wrong Tree, Snoopy! It was one of my favorites, and I read and reread it many times. Several of the strips are from the 1979-1980 era of Peanuts and are reprinted in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them again.
August 26, 2021
Linus: "I guess it's wrong always to be worrying about tomorrow... Maybe we should think only about today..."
Charlie Brown: "No, that's giving up... I'm still hoping that yesterday will get better."
Charlie Brown: "No, that's giving up... I'm still hoping that yesterday will get better."
September 23, 2022
Each of these volumes is an absolute joy and a testament to Schulz's genius.
July 19, 2011
Passed his prime? Perhaps. But in 1979 Schulz has one of the best extended sequences in the strip’s history. Charlie Brown leaves the baseball grounds feeling dizzy. He ends up in the emergency room and thereafter in an extended stay in a hospital. The responses of the characters in the strip are just perfect: Linus, Peppermint Patty and Marcia, Sally, Snoopy, and Lucy. (Guess which one doesn’t miss him?) Once she learns where her brother is, Sally is too busy packing to move into his room to give details about his condition to concerned friends. Lucy can’t have a tender moment of concern; she just finds herself wanting to hit someone. It’s all so perfectly human; the best and worst of us all. Lucy even makes and keeps a promise to not move the football when next she holds it for Charlie Brown if he’ll get better. So, if like me, you followed the strips for years when it was being produced but never knew Charlie Brown did get a chance to kick the football, here it is and I won’t spoil the outcome.
In school Peppermint Patty is perpetually D minus but she does answer an ancient theological problem. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? “Eight, if they’re skinny and four if they’re fat.” Charlie Brown wears a medical bracelet that reads, “Insecure.” In 1980, the Peanuts gang is packed off to a fundamentalist religious camp where they are told the End of Days in near and yet the camp leaders are hustling to raise millions for a new camp. Regarding the End of Days, Linus asks, “Has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong?” And Sally reads history with informed empathy: “I never realized so many people have lived on the earth. I feel sorry for them. What fun was it without having me around?” So, yeah, there's too much Woodstock, but reading this collection, and the 14 volumes that have come before it, one can only agree with Sally Brown.
In school Peppermint Patty is perpetually D minus but she does answer an ancient theological problem. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? “Eight, if they’re skinny and four if they’re fat.” Charlie Brown wears a medical bracelet that reads, “Insecure.” In 1980, the Peanuts gang is packed off to a fundamentalist religious camp where they are told the End of Days in near and yet the camp leaders are hustling to raise millions for a new camp. Regarding the End of Days, Linus asks, “Has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong?” And Sally reads history with informed empathy: “I never realized so many people have lived on the earth. I feel sorry for them. What fun was it without having me around?” So, yeah, there's too much Woodstock, but reading this collection, and the 14 volumes that have come before it, one can only agree with Sally Brown.
April 29, 2012
Almost caught up with the series!
At this point in the strip's trajectory, Schulz seems to be more influenced by the outside world and pop culture than in the previous decades. One of the things I've enjoyed about Peanuts is that it has never seemed dated to me, but I'm thinking that it's possible most collections just pull the really super-dated strips. For example, in this volume Peppermint Patty gets Bo Derek-style cornrows for a few days. Snoopy keeps playing tennis and jogging (although noticeably less than in the previous volume), and some specific players are named, one of whom is not nearly recognizable 30 years later as she must have been at the time. There are a couple of disco references, one strip with a roller-skating Snoopy, and in a strange turn of events Snoopy's Beagle Scouts (Woodstock and his bird friends) get into a late-night brawl after having a few too many root beers.
Even though I am still enjoying reading the books, it's starting to feel as if Schulz was grasping for material which is why the pop culture references start being used so much more heavily. While I'm still enjoying seeing the strip's journey through the decades, I'm not sure I'm enjoying all the individual strips *quite* as much as in the beginning. Some strips are starting to feel formulaic. Although it could be because I've now read three DECADES of this same strip. And have two decades left to go!
At this point in the strip's trajectory, Schulz seems to be more influenced by the outside world and pop culture than in the previous decades. One of the things I've enjoyed about Peanuts is that it has never seemed dated to me, but I'm thinking that it's possible most collections just pull the really super-dated strips. For example, in this volume Peppermint Patty gets Bo Derek-style cornrows for a few days. Snoopy keeps playing tennis and jogging (although noticeably less than in the previous volume), and some specific players are named, one of whom is not nearly recognizable 30 years later as she must have been at the time. There are a couple of disco references, one strip with a roller-skating Snoopy, and in a strange turn of events Snoopy's Beagle Scouts (Woodstock and his bird friends) get into a late-night brawl after having a few too many root beers.
Even though I am still enjoying reading the books, it's starting to feel as if Schulz was grasping for material which is why the pop culture references start being used so much more heavily. While I'm still enjoying seeing the strip's journey through the decades, I'm not sure I'm enjoying all the individual strips *quite* as much as in the beginning. Some strips are starting to feel formulaic. Although it could be because I've now read three DECADES of this same strip. And have two decades left to go!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2014
This volume starts with an intro by Al Roker. Kind of bland really altho there is a mention of the original strip that came before Peanuts, actually a one panel cartoon, called L'll Folks.
In the strip Peppermint Patty takes on the idea of equality for women's sports and tries to get Marcie to buy in,she's having none of it. PP also finds out that femininity doesnt improve her grades,but it does lead to a bunch of different hair styles for PP thru out this run. Feminine,by the way, means she wears a bow in her hair and some odd looking dress. PP is a star these two years and one of her adventures have her asking Charlie Brown to find her a date for Valentines Day. Pigpen shows up, they have a great time, he kisses her and she falls in love. Snoopy is a search and rescue dog as PP, and Marcie lose Chuck/Charlie Brown in the snow. Snoopy of course forgets what he's looking for, and CB finds them.There is a lot of Snoopy and the scout troop, and Snoopy tries on Riverboat Gambler as a persona.
More fun for fans of the series. Again if you're not as crazy as I am about this any one volume is a fun read you dont have to read them in order, or all of them.
In the strip Peppermint Patty takes on the idea of equality for women's sports and tries to get Marcie to buy in,she's having none of it. PP also finds out that femininity doesnt improve her grades,but it does lead to a bunch of different hair styles for PP thru out this run. Feminine,by the way, means she wears a bow in her hair and some odd looking dress. PP is a star these two years and one of her adventures have her asking Charlie Brown to find her a date for Valentines Day. Pigpen shows up, they have a great time, he kisses her and she falls in love. Snoopy is a search and rescue dog as PP, and Marcie lose Chuck/Charlie Brown in the snow. Snoopy of course forgets what he's looking for, and CB finds them.There is a lot of Snoopy and the scout troop, and Snoopy tries on Riverboat Gambler as a persona.
More fun for fans of the series. Again if you're not as crazy as I am about this any one volume is a fun read you dont have to read them in order, or all of them.
July 22, 2012
True rating: 4.5 stars.
Another excellent volume in this amazing series. This one's highlights include Al Roker's warm introduction and the spectacular 30 strip arc in which Charlie Brown is hospitalized. The arc ends with the famous moment when Lucy does NOT pull the football away from Charlie Brown. There is also the brief romance between Pig-Pen and Patricia, as he calls her, and Eudora's entry as a semi-regular. Finally, after silently raising her psychiatric rates to a dime in the previous volume, Lucy ups them here to first a quarter and then, for one strip, to 35 cents. (Charlie Brown pays with a gift certificate!) My favorite character continues to be Sally Brown (with Linus always a close second). Gotta love someone who does a book report on "Peter Rabbit and His Coat of Many Colors."
Another excellent volume in this amazing series. This one's highlights include Al Roker's warm introduction and the spectacular 30 strip arc in which Charlie Brown is hospitalized. The arc ends with the famous moment when Lucy does NOT pull the football away from Charlie Brown. There is also the brief romance between Pig-Pen and Patricia, as he calls her, and Eudora's entry as a semi-regular. Finally, after silently raising her psychiatric rates to a dime in the previous volume, Lucy ups them here to first a quarter and then, for one strip, to 35 cents. (Charlie Brown pays with a gift certificate!) My favorite character continues to be Sally Brown (with Linus always a close second). Gotta love someone who does a book report on "Peter Rabbit and His Coat of Many Colors."
June 14, 2016
Thus began the fourth decade of Peanuts. Just think about that for a minute - 4 decades of the same set of characters and they are just as mucked up, insecure and hilariously human as they were at the beginning.
In this volume Charlie Brown ends up in hospital and people show concern in one way or another - except Sally who in true sister style just starts making plans to take over his room.
Poor Peppermint Patty continues to struggle through school, doing her best but just never quite hitting the mark and Snoopy and his scout troop have more trekking adventures.
I love the rhythm of these books and I often find myself looking for the dates on the script so I can work out exactly what time of year we are in. We are entering the time of my pre teen and teen years with the next couple of volumes so I'm really looking forward to them.
In this volume Charlie Brown ends up in hospital and people show concern in one way or another - except Sally who in true sister style just starts making plans to take over his room.
Poor Peppermint Patty continues to struggle through school, doing her best but just never quite hitting the mark and Snoopy and his scout troop have more trekking adventures.
I love the rhythm of these books and I often find myself looking for the dates on the script so I can work out exactly what time of year we are in. We are entering the time of my pre teen and teen years with the next couple of volumes so I'm really looking forward to them.
May 31, 2011
Charlie Brown gets sick and Snoopy's campers get lost in a snowstorm. Peanuts by this time has really lost steam. The only memorable parts of this book are points in which Schulz creates continuing story arcs (and they are few & far between). The repetition is comforting in that every spring you'll have baseball, fall you'll have school problems, and holidays break it up, but that doesn't always make for entertaining reading. It always feels strange when he misses a holiday (like Halloween in 1979).
October 24, 2011
I looooooove Charlie Brown! Fave comics ever! This one featured the lost romance between Peppermint Patty and Pig-Pen (I might've already mentioned that... but still it's a great part of the book!).
Also I loved it when Snoopy went to visit his brother Spike in Needles. Poor Spike is the janitor in a wolves' cave in the middle of the desert. He lives in a shack. Snoopy says, "I'm glad our mother never had to see this." Snoopy asks him to come back to civilization but Spike says he can't because he's on the local bowling team :)
Also I loved it when Snoopy went to visit his brother Spike in Needles. Poor Spike is the janitor in a wolves' cave in the middle of the desert. He lives in a shack. Snoopy says, "I'm glad our mother never had to see this." Snoopy asks him to come back to civilization but Spike says he can't because he's on the local bowling team :)
January 23, 2024
I have a special place in my heart for the Complete Peanuts volume that contains my birth year. It was a special joy to flip to my birthday and read the strip (not the greatest, although the one right before it made me laugh out loud).
There's a lot to appreciate with the years 1979 and 1980. There are thankfully very few timely references, which always fall flat some fifty years later when the subject is no longer well known. A couple of characters actually find love for once, although it is quickly sidelined. There's a good twist on Charlie Brown's attempt at kicking the football out of Lucy's hand. Some of the longest story lines appear. Interestingly, two of those center around Charlie Brown being "lost" and his friends worrying about him. It helps recenter Charlie Brown in the Peanuts universe.
Each collection there are a handful of standout strips. This conversation between Linus and Charlie Brown made me finally grab a highlighter and start marking up my favorite strips in these Complete Peanuts collections.
I don't recall the character Eudora, although she looked familiar. She doesn't seem to have much personality, though. Her relatively unique appearance does set her apart. Otherwise, she feels a little out of place. Bring back more Franklin! He appears in a scant five strips over these two years.
There's really only one big negative to me: there's entirely too much Woodstock. I rarely find Woodstock interesting or funny. Having a small troop of them to make up Snoopy's Beagle Scouts isn't any better.
At this point I'm rounding the corner to owning and reading every Complete Peanuts volume. And it's still not old after so many decades of strips.
There's a lot to appreciate with the years 1979 and 1980. There are thankfully very few timely references, which always fall flat some fifty years later when the subject is no longer well known. A couple of characters actually find love for once, although it is quickly sidelined. There's a good twist on Charlie Brown's attempt at kicking the football out of Lucy's hand. Some of the longest story lines appear. Interestingly, two of those center around Charlie Brown being "lost" and his friends worrying about him. It helps recenter Charlie Brown in the Peanuts universe.
Each collection there are a handful of standout strips. This conversation between Linus and Charlie Brown made me finally grab a highlighter and start marking up my favorite strips in these Complete Peanuts collections.
Linus: "I guess it's wrong always to be worrying about tomorrow... Maybe we should think only about today..."There's also a great "Who's on first" routine between Sally and Linus (8/12/1979). And a fantastic "dad joke" about Snoopy barking up a tree (3/4/1979).
Charlie Brown: "No, that's giving up... I'm still hoping that yesterday will get better." (3/24/1979)
I don't recall the character Eudora, although she looked familiar. She doesn't seem to have much personality, though. Her relatively unique appearance does set her apart. Otherwise, she feels a little out of place. Bring back more Franklin! He appears in a scant five strips over these two years.
There's really only one big negative to me: there's entirely too much Woodstock. I rarely find Woodstock interesting or funny. Having a small troop of them to make up Snoopy's Beagle Scouts isn't any better.
At this point I'm rounding the corner to owning and reading every Complete Peanuts volume. And it's still not old after so many decades of strips.
March 2, 2022
Very special compilation as Schulz was writing some of his best strips during this time. The late 70's into the early 80's, a polarizing time in America where creativity was thriving. This creativity can be clearly seen in Schulz's anxieties that made their way onto his daily strips, introspection at its finest. Very nice introduction by Al Roker as well that stresses the personal importance the strip had on his life.
November 7, 2019
An excellent vintage. As well as his usual pithy one-offs, Schulz presents several week-long serials and even one month-long epic. Peppermint Patty comes particularly to the fore, validating the claim that she could have sustained a comic strip in her own right.
January 13, 2020
Peppermint Patty had many shining moments in this volume, not least when she attended dog obedience school thinking it was a swanky private school. Snoopy appeared as a world famous census taker. And poor Woodstock is tortured, wanting to know what kind of bird he is.
December 31, 2023
Still enjoyable and some wonderful longer stories such as a romance between a very unlikely couple, a piece about a fundamental summer camp, and Charlie's Brown's hospital stay.
But there is a slight downturn in quality here. Is Schulz past his peak?
But there is a slight downturn in quality here. Is Schulz past his peak?
September 7, 2025
These are such lovely editions. This time we meet Harriet (Woodstock’s Girl Scout friend), peppermint patty struggles with bad grades, Sally tries to steal her brother’s room several times and Snoopy finds his owner in a blizzard and tries to help Woodstock find out what variety of bird he is.
July 4, 2017
Continuation of existing characters. More of Eudora, and Peppermint Patty dresses up like a girl!
May 9, 2019
Another fantastic volumes of funnies from the Peanuts gang.
Some personal favorites:
9/10/79
1/7/80
3/4/80
4/15/80
5/21/80
5/29/80
9/5/80
Some personal favorites:
9/10/79
1/7/80
3/4/80
4/15/80
5/21/80
5/29/80
9/5/80
May 24, 2019
Reading these comics will never get old.
August 23, 2019
very funny, I LOVE PEANUTS!
October 10, 2019
Some of my favorite strips are in this book. 😁
October 6, 2020
Some truly funny strips, some weird, surreal strips, a few mediocre strips.
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