A Valentine for Charlie Brown (Peanuts Seasonal Collection) - Hardcover

Schulz, Charles M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1606998048 ISBN 13: 9781606998045

Publisher: Fantagraphics, 2015

Synopsis

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang have made an indelible mark on so many treasured American holidays and traditions, from Charlie Brown’s infamous Christmas tree to Linus’s obsession with the Great Pumpkin. And who can forget the most romantic—and occasionally loneliest—of all holidays? From Charlie Brown opening an empty mailbox every February 14th, to Sally Brown and her “sweet baboo” Linus, A Valentine for Charlie Brown is the perfect gift to remind that special someone in your life just what love is all about, for better and for worse!

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.

Review

“...[M]isery loves company. And if the thought of Valentine’s Day makes you miserable, there’s no better company than Schulz’s Valentine’s Day-themed strips. As for the kids in the reading audience, they should be more than happy with the comedy of the strips ― like Charlie Brown getting his big, round head stuck in the mailbox ― even if they aren’t as well-versed in loneliness, heartbreak and rejection as grown-ups are. But don’t worry, kids; you’ll be learning all about those before you know it!”
- J. Caleb Mozzocco, School Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Fantagraphics
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1606998048
• ISBN 13: 9781606998045
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 72