The Complete Peanuts, 1975-1976 - Hardcover

Charles M. Schulz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1606993453 ISBN 13: 9781606993453

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books, 2010

Synopsis

Snoopy is joined by his wandering brother Spike (from Needles), his beloved sister Belle (from Kansas City), and ...did you know he had a nephew? In other beagle news, Snoopy breaks his foot and spends six weeks in a cast, deals with his friend Woodstock's case of the vapors, and gets involved in a heated love triangle with Linus. The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 features several other long stories, including a rare “double track” sequence with two parallel narratives: Peppermint Patty and Snoopy travel to participate in the Powderpuff Derby, while Charlie Brown finally gets to meet his idol Joe Shlabotnik. And Peppermint Patty switches to a private school, but commits the mistake of allowing Snoopy to pick it for her; only after graduation does she realize something's not quite right! Plus: A burglary at Peppermint Patty's house is exacerbated by waterbed problems... Marcie acquires an unwanted suitor... Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty become desk partners... The talking school building collapses ... lots of tennis jokes ... and gags starring Schroeder, Lucy, Franklin, Rerun, Sally, and that vicious cat next door.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles M. Schulz was born November 25, 1922, in Minneapolis. His destiny was foreshadowed when an uncle gave him, at the age of two days, the nickname Sparky (after the racehorse Spark Plug in the newspaper strip Barney Google).

In his senior year in high school, his mother noticed an ad in a local newspaper for a correspondence school, Federal Schools (later called Art Instruction Schools). Schulz passed the talent test, completed the course, and began trying, unsuccessfully, to sell gag cartoons to magazines. (His first published drawing was of his dog, Spike, and appeared in a 1937 Ripley's Believe It or Not! installment.) Between 1948 and 1950, he succeeded in selling 17 cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post―as well as, to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press, a weekly comic feature called Li'l Folks. It was run in the women's section and paid $10 a week. After writing and drawing the feature for two years, Schulz asked for a better location in the paper or for daily exposure, as well as a raise. When he was turned down on all three counts, he quit.

He started submitting strips to the newspaper syndicates. In the spring of 1950, he received a letter from the United Feature Syndicate, announcing their interest in his submission, Li'l Folks. Schulz boarded a train in June for New York City; more interested in doing a strip than a panel, he also brought along the first installments of what would become Peanuts―and that was what sold. (The title, which Schulz loathed to his dying day, was imposed by the syndicate.) The first Peanuts daily appeared October 2, 1950; the first Sunday, January 6, 1952.

Diagnosed with cancer, Schulz retired from Peanuts at the end of 1999. He died on February 13, 2000, the day before Valentine's Day―and the day before his last strip was published―having completed 17,897 daily and Sunday strips, each and every one fully written, drawn, and lettered entirely by his own hand―an unmatched achievement in comics.

Robert Smigel is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. He lives in NY.

From Booklist:

The complete Peanuts project reaches the halfway point with these 1975–76 strips attesting the timelessness of Schulz’s humor, despite the occasional topical note, as when Sally brings her pet rock to show and tell, and Lucy gives Schroeder Elton John glasses for Beethoven’s birthday. Comedy writer Robert Smigel observes in the introduction that these episodes are more absurd than what Schulz produced just a few years earlier. Even at its most extreme, such as when Peppermint Patty enrolls in a dog-obedience school after being given a brochure by Snoopy, the comedy remains warmly rooted in the characters’ endearing foibles. --Gordon Flagg

About this edition

• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1606993453
• ISBN 13: 9781606993453
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 325