Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Legend and A Must Own!
Review: The incredible work that went into this amazing collection will take you back 50 years to the incomparable work of the beginning of Charles Schultz' creation of The Peanuts, a classic of cartoons that have become a loving and living legend in the hearts and minds of millions.
The original comic strips have been preserved, and we are so fortunate to be able to enjoy this innocent and wonderful part of our culture in this and forthcoming volumes depicting each cartoon illustrated by Charles Schultz. This is definitely a collection that you will treasure, depicted in chronological order, and hard bound, it is a wonderful collection that can be enjoyed for generations. Highly Recommended for its value and for preserving the great characters that have touched so many lives. 10 Stars!
Rating:
Summary: Ahhh, the good ol' days
Review: These early Peanuts strips, crude as they are, remain my favorites. The characters are not yet fully formed, so they are allowed to express a wider range of emotions than they would in later years. Even Charlie Brown can be a bit nasty! For the record, however, I should note that the initial Sunday strips likely were in color, though they are printed in black-and-white here. Color Sunday comics pages predate Peanuts by a good number of years -- Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, for example, was known for its dramatic, colorful Sunday strips.
Rating:
Summary: You're a Good Man, Charles M. Schulz
Review: This book a beautiful -- I mean physically, this a quality book. Heavy pages, teriffic binding, and the print is amazing. These comics are 52 years old, and they look pristine! It is amazing to watch the evolution of this comic. I am so excited for the rest of the books to come out.
Rating:
Summary: "Here comes Good Ol' Charlie Brown, yes, sir!"
Review: This collection features the original Peanuts comics in its first 2 and 1/2 years. Not even the 1st Peanuts book includes all of the cartoons (I have the book and I don't remember it including the 1st cartoon where Shermy introduces Charlie Brown, sarcastically calling him "Good ol' Charlie Brown"). The 1st 5 characters included Charlie Brown (who started out naive and friendly), Patty (not Peppermint, she was just a cute girl with bobbed hair and a plaid dress and matching hairbow), Shermy (Charlie Brown's original buddy), Violet (known for her pigtails and mudpies) and Snoopy (who walked on all fours whose gags were more cute, not yet ingenious). The next year (1951) would mark the debut of Schroeder, who started out as a baby and later became a pint-sized musical genius with a passion for Beethoven (you can see the cartoon where Charlie Brown plants the seeds inside the future musical maestro's head). Violet and Patty would start out as friends to both Charlie Brown and Shermy. Also, Charlie Brown 1st models his trademarked shirt with the jagged stripe this year. 1952 marks the beginning of the Sunday strip (I believe it's the one they're all playing tag; the trademarked block letters had yet to be introduced). And of course, we see the debut of the Van Pelt family. First introduced is Lucy, a cute little girl (seriously) with saucerlike eyes (she'd later sport a fussbudget attitude)and later, her baby brother, Linus (at 1st, he'd fall down a lot in the strip and had yet to be known for his blanket and his philosophy on life). Classic cartoons include the debut (of course), Charlie Brown getting offended by a rumour of a crush on Patty, Violet reprimanding Snoopy for sitting in the birdbath, the gang playing tag, Lucy mistaking Charlie Brown's record collection for licorice candy and the 1st instance of Charlie Brown getting the football yanked away (1st from Violet, but Lucy would later take on the role eversince). If you're a collector of Peanuts, you'll want this collection!
Rating:
Summary: A rare look at the historical roots of Peanuts
Review: This is a classic and elegant book, and a rare opportunity to see where it all began. It is hard to imagine that this simple comic strip and these characters became such a mainstay in American life for over 50 years now.
The book is nearly 350 pages long, and in addition to all the first two years worth of comic strips, has lengthy extras including an interview with creator Charles Shultz, and a forward by Garrison Keillor. All of the extras are well worth reading, as they describe a man who himself seemed to be a humble sort who sees the world often in a half-empty sort of way but in the end has the kind of endless optimism of someone who never quits - just like Charlie Brown.
The comic strips themselves are in fabulous condition for being over 50 years old thanks to having the originals well preserved. The book is a ten in terms of quality. The strip itself starts with a different cast of characters. Lucy and Linus do not appear right away and are mere babies when they first appear. In one strip Lucy is in a high-chair throwing her food on the floor. Charlie gets his famous striped shirt after a few weeks, so it is odd seeing him without it. Schroeder can play the piano from the start.
If you are at all a fan of Peanuts, I highly recommend this book as a beautiful retrospective of where it all began. While the quality of the book and the content is worth ten stars, an inside look at the beginning of the world that has impacted and reflected life for millions; is priceless.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait
Review: This is a fine presentation of a classic and seminal work.
Although the strip is still finding its feet at this stage, and for a few years to come, it's fascinating to watch the development of the characters. I used to collect every Peanuts paperback that came out, but at least 90% of these strips were unfamiliar, so it's unlikely that you've seen most of this before.
I have to disagree with other reviewers over presentation... although, as he says in the long and fascinating interview in the back of the book, Schulz would have liked more room to play with in his strip, he designed it to be reproduced at the size he was restricted to, and the reproduction size here is no more than marginally smaller, if not the same - and the print quality infinitely better. Having said that it would be nice to see a few select strips enlarged to give us a clearer look at Schulz's penmanship. (The beautiful but scrapbooklike 'Peanuts: the Art of Charles M Schulz' gives us just a few nice glimpses.)
The only other negatives I can find are really nitpicking: Yes, the cover design is curious - it's very smart but seems to owe more to Chris Ware than to Schulz and as such might look a little dated before the series is complete - and a few typos have slipped through in the text - but overall, a nice job - by far the best Peanuts compliation ever; I'll certainly be collecting the whole series - though it would be nice if they'd speed up the release schedule just a little!
Rating:
Summary: A Revelation
Review: THIS is the stuff! This was the big bang of modern comics, and the beauty of it is its mix of zen-like simplicity and psychological/ cultural complexity. These are still, even in their raw form, the best versions of Charlie Brown and Snoopy, simultaneously the closest in representation to their imagined yet conceivable real-life counterparts, and the strongest in graphic design. While I love the patented squiggle of later Peanuts (not to mention the invention of Woodstock), there is something so knowing-yet-innocent, something so exceptionally endearing about this era that was inevitably lost as the late 1960s took hold, not to mention the rampant commercialization of the 70s onward. The book itself could not have been more respectfully designed!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful addition to my collection
Review: This was a great start to this wonderful series and I can't say enough good about it.
I'm very anxious to get the entire set!
A must have for Peanuts collectors!
Rating:
Summary: LONG OVERDUE PROJECT
Review: Those who know Charlie Brown and the Peanuts from TV or from recent years comic strips may be a little surprised by the look and feel of the old strips. The cartooning is less polished, the characters less developed, but that's what makes this so much fun. Fantagraphics is beginning a chronological reprinting of all of Charles Schultz' peanut strips. Each volume in the series will run approximately 320 pages in a 8" x 6 1/2" hardcover format, presenting two years of strips along with supplementary material. The series will present the entire run in chronological order, dailies and Sundays. Since the strip began in late 1950, the first volume will include all the strips from 1950, 1951, and 1952, but subsequent volumes will each comprise exactly two years. Dailies will run three to a page, while Sunday strips will each take up a full page and be printed in black-and-white, an aesthetic choice agreed upon by the editors, the designer, and Mrs. Schulz. Most of these strips from the first couple of years have never been published before so it's quite interesting to see the genesis of the characters. Some of the original cast (Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus) - originall are infants and and evolve into the kids we know today as the months go by. Even Snoopy debuts as a tiny puppy! Still, despite the rough feel of these early strips, you can see the wry humor of Schultz fully on display. I heartily recommend this for ANY Peanuts fan.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful & Incredible! Finally - the COMPLETE COLLECTION!!!
Review: To the Estate of Charles M. Schultz, and the Publisher, Fantagraphic Books, there are two words that I can honestly say that says it all: THANK YOU!!!
I have loved this comic strip my entire life. Each of the characters have very distinct personalities, I have learned SO MUCH from each one of them that it is incredible!
Linus is the pivotal character for me, especially since he is the one who quoted from the Bible on a frequent basis, so I give a lot of credit to Linus for what I have learned about the Bible.
These are books that I am going to collect and treasure for the rest of my life...
Again, to the Estate of Charles M. Schultz & Fantagraphic Books: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
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