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Two by Fours
Warner Press Portal Books #D8305-75 1973 orange softcover/pb 62pp.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
About the author
Charles M. Schulz
3,016 books1,656 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 10, 2023
We had a copy of this when I was small and growing, younger than these characters. Be good to reread, see what this was...
January 7, 2011
The stars are all for Schulz cartoons. Not his best work, but they have charm. Hall’s text is insidious, telling parents of children aged 2-4 what the church-going experience is like to kids and encouraging them by implication to make sure their children are indoctrinated early so they would be church-goers for life. Church is a happy place, he writes, fun to explore, not ideal for children, maybe, but they will find their place in it with regular attendance. Those of us who grew up in churches and later rejected them may find this a bit disturbing if commonplace.
Schulz gives Hall little support. The panel cartoons seldom illuminate the text, but are simple and mostly unrelated gag cartoons in a church setting. There are echoes of PEANUTS here and there, especially on page 22. The boy drawn is clearly Charlie Brown, but he wears Linus’s clothes and has Franklin’s hair. There is a girl on page 34 that looks like the later character, Peppermint Patty. You will find other echoes. Some of the gags are pretty good, some of those will seem even better if you were raised in a church-going family, and some will seem a bit creepy if you were and have evolved into agnosticism. No one really needs to read this book, but it is certainly of interest to those of us who study Schulz’s work.
Schulz gives Hall little support. The panel cartoons seldom illuminate the text, but are simple and mostly unrelated gag cartoons in a church setting. There are echoes of PEANUTS here and there, especially on page 22. The boy drawn is clearly Charlie Brown, but he wears Linus’s clothes and has Franklin’s hair. There is a girl on page 34 that looks like the later character, Peppermint Patty. You will find other echoes. Some of the gags are pretty good, some of those will seem even better if you were raised in a church-going family, and some will seem a bit creepy if you were and have evolved into agnosticism. No one really needs to read this book, but it is certainly of interest to those of us who study Schulz’s work.
November 9, 2008
Charles Schulz and Kenneth Hall share their wisdom on 2,3, and 4 year olds as pertains to parenting, religion, and attending church.
I did laugh at the cartoon on page 29:
'Where are all the hypocrites? I've always heard that church is filled with hypocrites.'
Some of the advice, like the paragraphs on social situations for 2 year olds, is ageless, but other parts sounded patronizing and old-fashioned.
Example: 'Reassurance for the child is finding Mother in the kitchen when he comes toddling out of the bedroom in the morning.' p8.
I did laugh at the cartoon on page 29:
'Where are all the hypocrites? I've always heard that church is filled with hypocrites.'
Some of the advice, like the paragraphs on social situations for 2 year olds, is ageless, but other parts sounded patronizing and old-fashioned.
Example: 'Reassurance for the child is finding Mother in the kitchen when he comes toddling out of the bedroom in the morning.' p8.
March 25, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews