Your Choice, Snoopy

Peanuts Coronet #38

by Charles M. Schulz

Featuring strips from 1967, this book comprises the first half of You're Something Else, Charlie Brown, volume 1.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Cartoon, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Strips, Childrens, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1973

About the author

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.”

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 37 of the Coronet series, this is taken from “You’re You, Charlie Brown vol 2” and was published in 1973 (I have the 1978 edition), featuring strips from 1967 and 1968. I thoroughly enjoyed this, with its good mixture of story arcs and one-off strips. Peppermint Patty only features in the opening strips but the rest of the gang get to do their stuff and Snoopy does a lot as the World War 1 Flying Ace. As always, there’s plenty to enjoy and my highlights include Marcie trampolining, Lucy branding Charlie Brown’s baseball bat, “I’m upside down”, Schroeder and “dear heart”, wrist wrestling in Petaluma, Miss Othmar’s glasses, Snoopy as a vulture and, also, going off to the ice skating at the Olympics in Grenoble. This was a great deal of fun to read - and, as a fan who came to the series in the late 70s - wonderfully nostalgic, with some laugh out loud panels and the little stabs of melancholy that make these books so brilliantly readable. This collection worked perfectly for me and I would very much recommend it as an excellent read.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and entertaining

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has various Peanuts characters but features clusters of: Peppermint Patty as summer camp counselor, Charlie Brown's baseball team (I won't spoil their win/loss record), Snoopy & politics, Snoopy training for an arm-wrestling championship and Olympic ice skating, and Snoopy as WWI ace.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute. I really don't remember Snoopy being so sassy, but he is quite sassy. I remember disliking Lucy. Still do. She is not a nice girl.

[maryam :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Classic Peanuts comic, philosophical at times but that’s a part of Schulz’s humour. A wonderful way to kickstart the year with three of these heartwarming collections.

[Gary Vassallo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fun!

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all!

[Vincent Darkhelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all. There really is no one like Snoopy. The greatest cartoon dog in the world.

[Bo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun with the Peanuts gang. (not just Snoopy)

[Edward Sojuwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've chosen Your Choice Snoopy, you have chosen wisely, since nothing but the legendary comic strips of the late Charles Schultz can give hours of relaxing entertainment on a hot summer day. Charlie Brown and his usual gang of kidiots are back in classic strips from 73 to 74. Charlie is going back to summer camp, this time with Snoopy along, in full WW1 Ace Pilot regalia and ready to finally kick the ass of the Bloody Red Baron. The camp promises fun and companionship, but Charlie ain't Feelin' either-or. And it gets worse when Charlie attempts to win a canoe race, frantically rowing the oars, only to be reminded by a campmate that he's only gotten as far as four feet from the dock. RATS!!!CANOE BELIEVE THAT!!! Peppermint Patty introduces a new character, one which will bring diversity to the Peanuts Canon where it's needed most-- Jose Peterson, half Caucasian, half Latino, all ball playing power which could give Charlie's baseball team the edge once and for all...but sadly, the newbie is only in the strips for a few days before Schulz's publishers said No Way to Jose. Ay, Carumba! Plus much more in the ever expanding Peanuttyverse, where possibilities are still endless as we make them.
Four stars
Choose Honey Roasted Peanuts today!!!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 38 of the Coronet series, this is taken from “You’re Something Else, Charlie Brown vol 1” and was published in 1973 (I have the 1976 edition), featuring strips from 1967. Hugely enjoyable, this features most of the core gang (and, I believe, introduces Woodstock, though he wouldn’t get a name until 1970), with a lot of the strips on the baseball field, at summer camp (where Peppermint Patty appears briefly) and around the neighbourhood. As always, there’s such a lot to enjoy and my highlights include nobody cares about losing a game, Woodstock’s a lousy flyer, a card for Snoopy’s mom, Linus as the bird head patter, “Cat food???”, the Cheshire Beagle (“it’s a conditioned reflex”), writing in pen, angry (with Lucy) birds, Snoopy’s not fetching the stick and Lucy sharing her orangeade. This was a great read, made better by my sitting with Dude as I did so (he’s visiting from uni and, back in the day, he & I used to read the Snoopy books together) and, as always, wonderfully nostalgic. The strips themselves were clever, funny, often laugh out loud and occasionally melancholic and as brilliantly readable as usual. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a 1978 reprint of this edition. This one has the “Cheshire Beagle” strips, with Snoopy demonstrating his ability to disappear, leaving only his grin. These fantastical strips are a step beyond Snoopy’s surreal daydreams of being the world famous this, that, or the other. A rare pleasure to read again and again.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I have read a lot of the Peanuts cartoon books
and most of them I would just rate as average
or maybe just above average.

This one is the best or certainly one of the
best that I have read. Some of the cartoons
are exceptional and most of them are at least
above average.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute and I am sure my niece will love this. It wasn't my favorite of the peanuts collection. There are a lot of Woodstock comics in this one. He doesn't do anything for me, but if he thrills you, you might enjoy this one more.

[Dwayne Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Peanuts

[Irene Lázaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable. Creo que lo sencillo que es es lo que lo hace genial.

[FranklinTV · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gentle humor of Peanuts. Sadly missing these days.

[Johanna Juntunen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quickly read, Peanuts are good!!

[Vincent Darkhelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose Snoopy and I'm glad that I did.