Rating: 
Summary: Coffee Table Book for Peanuts Fans
Review: ...featuring luscious graphics and design layouts, "The Art of Charles Schultz" is definately aimed at those who are already big fans of his work. This is not a standard collection of comic strips. Instead, there is commentary about the development of the strip and Schultz's devlopment as an artist. The first 50 or so pages contain samplings of his pre-Peanuts work, which is fascinating for how it shows the development of his ideas. Next the book provides a real service by providing a generous helping of the early Peanuts strips (circa 1950-54), many of which have never appeared in book form. The characters look radically different and their personalities were just starting to settle in. Charlie Brown was a bit of a dandy instead of always being a loser, Lucy was sort of an airhead and Snoopy didn't "talk" yet.The book has a genrous helping of photographs of Schultz, his staff and of various Peanuts memorabilia. The Sunday strips are rendered in glorious full color and there also rough drafts of strips that give an idea of how the creative process works. The book's only drawback is that it is oddly laid out, with some strips cut in half at page breaks and other pages featuring minaturized strips, apparently to save page space. Nevertheless, this book is of high enough quality that it will look good on any Peanut fan's coffee table.
Rating: 
Summary: The Peanuts Books We've All Been Waiting For
Review: A beautiful and graceful consideration of Peanuts, designed in a thoroughly contemporary graphic style that stops at looking cool and does not pass on to incoherence. The best.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully produced retrospective
Review: A terrific look at the art of Charles M. Schulz from his own personal sketchbooks and original comic artwork. Many, many early Lil' Folks and Peanuts strips (including a rare 1954 strip with adults that Schulz never permitted to be reprinted), alongside some interesting commentary from Schulz himself and others. Also includes some memorabilia (1950s dolls, books, comic books). Beautifully produced and a delight to pore over again and again.
Rating:
Summary: IS IT GOOD?!
Review: A wonderful book that really spotlights the first decade of Peanuts. Lots & lots of strips that have never been reprinted in books, including the first Sunday strip, Lucy first strip, and many more. A must read and get for any Peanuts fan.
Rating:
Summary: There's a Vulture Outside!
Review: And he's hungry for peanuts! Yes, this is the book that shows us how good Schulz was. Go for it. Besides the Golden Celebration, there's no other book as good as this for enjoying the adventures of the Peanuts gang.
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Gem
Review: As an avid Peanuts fan my own opinion can be contrued as biased so allow me to share instead my observations of how others reacted to this book as it layed on my coffes table during the holidays. At least five adults (with no paticular interest in Peanuts or Charles Schultz)pick up this book from the coffe table. For each person who picked the book, each one of them started thumbing through the pages casually at first but then slowed and began reading and looking at the strips and the photographs of peanuts collectibles in greater detail. Each one of them was lost for a time in the world of Charles Schultz, their eyes locked on each strip and each photograph. This reaction, in my opinion, is the best compliment a book can receive.
Rating:
Summary: Sheer genius
Review: Charles Schulz. In one word...genius. It may be safe to say that I learned much about life from Peanuts. At the very least, I was able to see the humor in it. It's definitely safe to say that Charles Schulz is my all-time hero for one reason: an ordinary man through a simple medium was able to affect so many people by making them aware of what it means to live and what it means to be human. This is the obvious reason why Schulz's work transcends what we perceive to be unbreakable boundaries -- race, class, and language. Reaching 355 million readers worldwide is a breathtaking, if not, unbelievable accomplishment. This book (the expanded edition in paperback) is well worth the buy. I bought the original hardcover copy, but the expanded edition includes a few more gems from the Schulz family vaults and the asking price is, of course, more incentive to lay your money down. While this is not a collection of comic strips proper, that is, strictly page after page of strips for the collector, it provides a most fascinating glimpse to the early days of the strip and the development of characters with whom we identify and whom we adore. Granted, there was a lot to put in this book. so many of the early strips are reduced in size and "horded" onto a single page, but it's worth the sacrifice to "squint" and take a peek at them. Many of these have not been reproduced and have not been seen in years. The book is a unique glimpse into the work of a man who simply wanted to be remembered for creating great cartoons and pleasing people. It's nice to know that whenever life "get rough", we can retreat to Peanuts and laugh at ourselves. If you love Peanuts or want to pass on Schulz's legacy to others who are interested, buy this book, even though it's not a comprehensive collection or laid out the way a normal collection of strips would be. Consider this book a enjoyable "warm-up" for a major event -- the release of the ENTIRE Peanuts collection, complete and in chronological order starting April, 2004, from Fantagraphics Books. Pay them a visit on the web or search Amazon for The Complete Peanuts for more information. This is Peanuts lover's dream come true.
Rating:
Summary: Sheer genius
Review: Charles Schulz. In one word...genius. It may be safe to say that I learned much about life from Peanuts. At the very least, I was able to see the humor in it. It's definitely safe to say that Charles Schulz is my all-time hero for one reason: an ordinary man through a simple medium was able to affect so many people by making them aware of what it means to live and what it means to be human. This is the obvious reason why Schulz's work transcends what we perceive to be unbreakable boundaries -- race, class, and language. Reaching 355 million readers worldwide is a breathtaking, if not, unbelievable accomplishment. This book (the expanded edition in paperback) is well worth the buy. I bought the original hardcover copy, but the expanded edition includes a few more gems from the Schulz family vaults and the asking price is, of course, more incentive to lay your money down. While this is not a collection of comic strips proper, that is, strictly page after page of strips for the collector, it provides a most fascinating glimpse to the early days of the strip and the development of characters with whom we identify and whom we adore. Granted, there was a lot to put in this book. so many of the early strips are reduced in size and "horded" onto a single page, but it's worth the sacrifice to "squint" and take a peek at them. Many of these have not been reproduced and have not been seen in years. The book is a unique glimpse into the work of a man who simply wanted to be remembered for creating great cartoons and pleasing people. It's nice to know that whenever life "get rough", we can retreat to Peanuts and laugh at ourselves. If you love Peanuts or want to pass on Schulz's legacy to others who are interested, buy this book, even though it's not a comprehensive collection or laid out the way a normal collection of strips would be. Consider this book a enjoyable "warm-up" for a major event -- the release of the ENTIRE Peanuts collection, complete and in chronological order starting April, 2004, from Fantagraphics Books. Pay them a visit on the web or search Amazon for The Complete Peanuts for more information. This is Peanuts lover's dream come true.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Stylish Comic Art
Review: Designed by Chip Kidd, this book is absolutely stunning. For serious comic art lovers as well as Schulz' legion of fans, this is a treasure. Peanuts comics are everywhere, but this is the first Peanuts collection that really stopped me in my tracks when I saw it. Includes many examples of published comics as well as haunting drawings from Schulz' scrapbook, and interesting early Peanuts side projects, like the "three dimensional" Peanuts strips recreated with little dolls for the Viewmaster toy in the 1960s. Even the size of the book is wonderful--perfect for cozy reading. The best designed book of Peanuts art, and one of the most beautiful books of comic art I've seen.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive color printing but dissapointing presentation.
Review: First of all, I'm reviewing this book, not the Peanuts comic strip. I love the strip; that's why I bought the book. And, the pictures of early historical "pre-Peanuts" and "proto-Peanuts" stuff are great. My low rating is based on how all the impressive color printing was put to use. Why do I need enlargements of color newspaper strips so huge I can see all the color dots? What's the point? It would be different if they were blow-ups of the original inked art. Then there is the multitude of early Peanuts strips that are printed so small that they are hard to read for an extended period of time. I wish the newspaper printing enlargements weren't there, and that the space had been used to print the old daily strips just a little larger. I looked at the historical stuff in the book for about half-an-hour, but have never looked at this book since.
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