The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962 (Charles M. Schulz)

By the early 1960's, Charles Schulz truly reached his peak as a cartoonist, both in terms of verbal and visual creativity. All of the characters have fully matured into what we remember them for: Charlie Brown is as depressed as ever, having fallen in love with the mysterious red-haired girl and losing one baseball game after another; Schroeder hates himself for forgetting Beethoven's birthday; Linus, who for a brief time here appears in glasses, drags his blanket around everywhere, while his sister Lucy keeps busy as the neighborhood psychiatrist and appears crabbier every day (although Violet's sarcasm makes her a vital competitor, which is probably a major reason why she appears less and less; Schulz may have figured that it simply became too much for poor Charlie Brown!). Snoopy has not yet started to walk on two legs on a permanent basis, but his colorful imagination, his charm and his commentary on both the human and animal condition is so evident now that he's almost turned into... Read more

I used to read all these strips when they were in paperback form. I remember being around 12 or 13 and pouring over them again and again, with the added luxury of checking out the action every day in the daily paper. It's very gratifying, now that my six-year old daughter is reading, to share these volumes with her and watch her lose herself among the pages, and then ask to be quizzed on the many special characteristics of the kids in Charlie Brown's neighborhood. The printing quality is extremely high, the panels are crystal clear and the detail is really sumptuous. My favorite so far is the Sunday strip where Charlie Brown is attempting to fly a kite in heavy wind and his cap keeps getting blown off, which he doggedly replaces atop his head every time. In the end Linus posits this classic: "I have a suggestion. Why don't you wear the kite and fly your hat?" I long for the day when we will have the collected volumes, and the prices on Amazon reallyl cannot be beat. But I must say, ... Read more

If you already bought the previous releases of this collection, you know exactly what you'll find inside: intelligence, emotion and depth of the human relations. Here you will get some of the Peanuts smartest movements, just like when Snoopy is locked under an ice piece and starts a reflection of his own life or when Linus sees himself without the safety of his blanket. Even if you prefer the "modern version" of the strips (with Spike, Woodstock, the Red Baron, school scenes and stuff which would appear later, more precisely in the 70's), in this issue, you may find some of the roots and the reasons for the diamond that Charles M. Schulz carved on his life. Thank you Charles, you really changed my life with these "guys" and "The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962" is another jewel from the master.

I bought all the items in the series and found them simply irresistible. The strips are the integral version by the great master himself, Charles M. Schulz, and the edition is very, very good, with a robust hardcover and classy paper. A special note for Italian speaking people: these are the "integral" strips, not the censored ones published for many years in Italy, where the religious quotations and remarks were systematically erased.

This volume of The Complete Peanuts cover the years 1961 and 1962 in their entireties. The most noteworthy event of this book is the introduction of Frieda, the girl with the "naturally curly hair". Soon after her debut, the running gag where Frieda tries to get Snoopy to chase rabbits is used for the first time. Also introduced at this time was Frieda's cat Faron, who only made a few appearances before disappearing. Many of the jokes from this volume were later used in Peanuts television specials, most notably the Christmas and Halloween specials. Peanuts was one of the greatest comic strips of all time, and 1961 and 1962 are certainly among it's best years. Highly recommended.