The One and Only: The Complete Peanuts Collection - 1950-2000
 

So, today my 12 year quest has begun. I purchased the Complete Peanuts Collection first two volume box-set. I have just begun with the first volume and flipped through the pages of each reading select comics here and there. These collections are simply amazing and the fact that they are coming out with ALL of the strips in the entire 50 year run is a marvel. As a huge fan of the Peanuts, having collected various Snoopy books here and there, this collection is a dream come true. The extras in each book are a very nice addition, as well.

So, assuming this forum will still be around in 12 years, I figured I'd start this thread for all 25 volumes of the collection to discuss, laugh and point out our favorite stips.

So, I suppose the first question should be: Anybody else collecting these? :p

Yeah, I bought Complete Peanuts 1950-1954 Boxed Set on 11/17 from Amazon for $26.97 with STL.

i picked up the first book but due to lack of funds will be holding off on the rest until i get a job.

I have the first two sets. They're cool.

I started buying when they were first released so missed out on the benefit of the discounted boxed set of the first two volumes. The books are great and I hope they do well enough to justify continued publication through the end. I recall reading Peanuts compilation books in my childhood. I loved it then and still do today.

I bought the first edition and missed out on the boxed set as well. But I plan on sticking through the series as long as they put them out, even though it's the 50's strips that I'm really excited about.

My favorite strip so far is in volume 1 on the bottom of page 17. I'm thinking of having that one blown up to hang on my wall. Maybe it will inspire my wife (you'd understand if you saw the size of my comicbook collection).

I've been getting them too, this is the kind of dream project I used to think about back in my geek youth when I realize to my shock that the cheap Peanuts paperbacks I liked were NOT reprinting every single strip! (The horror!) I'm just really impressed at the high quality Fantagraphics has brought to the table with this and have gotten a kick out of all the weird early strips that I'd never seen before. (Charlotte Braun? Who knew?) Have to admit, I'm really psyched for another volume or two down the road as the strip enters its late 50s -1960s heyday, when it really was the best comic strip on the planet.

Don't know if I'm going to get EVERY volume (even if the completist in me whines to do so); 12 years is a long time and at $30 a pop, that's a lot of change, and I have to admit by the mid-80s the strip started to get pretty stagnant. But I'm definitely collecting at least to the 1970s. Awesome project through and through.

I thought it was amazing how Fantagraphics and Seth managed to find such clean strips but, most of all, a Sunday strip in Vol. 2 they found was not usuable (at least the top portion). They faithfully recreated it so fans can have what they call the Grail of Peanuts strips for collectors. At the back of the volume they list this and write that if they find it over the course of the publications of further volumes they will include it in one of the new volumes so fans do not have to repurchase the Vol. 2. Very classy.

Speak of which, here are the covers for Vol. 2 and Vol. 3:


http://images.amazon.com/images/P/15...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/15...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Info on Vol. 3:
The third volume in our acclaimed series takes us into the mid-1950s as Linus learns to talk, Snoopy begins to explore his eccentricities (including his hilarious first series of impressions), Lucy's unrequited crush on Schroeder takes final shape, and Charlie Brown becomes...well, even more Charlie Brown-ish! Over half of the strips in this volume have never been printed since their original appearance in newspapers a half-century ago! Even the most dedicated Peanuts collector/fan is sure to find many new treasures. The Complete Peanuts will run 25 volumes, collecting two years chronologically at a rate of two a year for twelve years. Each volume is designed by the award-winning cartoonist Seth (It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken) and features impeccable production values; every single strip from Charles M. Schulz's 50-year American classic is reproduced better than ever before. This volume includes an introduction by Matt Groening (The Simpsons) as well as the popular Complete Peanuts index, a hit with librarians and collectors alike, and an epilogue by series editor Gary Groth.

MY favorite strip from Vol. 2:

http://snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/mee...trips/f4c2.gif

Floors me each time I see it! :lol:

I wonder if there's a way for those of us who bought the individual first and second volume to get the collector box on its own.

It certainly isn't anything to crow about. I had originally been holding out those extra months thinking the box-set would have extra matrial in it or artwork but, alas, it is only the box. I mean, it is nice to have an extra casing to house the books in and I am sure they will be doing the same for each year but, really, not worth going out of your way for, IMO.

It doesn't really matter to me that I didn't get a box. I plan to have a whole row of these suckers on the shelf. Having the first two volumes in a box would just look silly.

Fantagraphics is great. In Little Nemo In Slumberland, they also printed, in later volumes, improved versions of the weaker pages.

I plan to do the same thing, but if these things come out in two-book box sets at the end of every year, that would look cool on the shelf, too. I have a feeling this isn't a one-time thing.

You can get the slipcase from the publisher if you really want it. Click here and search on "PEANUTS SLIPCASE".

Just don't see a need for slipcases myself, I'll just line the books up on the shelf.

The only reason I am purchasing the 2-book box sets is because it is a touch cheaper to do so, although not by THAT much, and I can wait for it at the end of each year. The box, though, can be turned around to display the spines of all the books if that is your main reason for not snagging one.

Thanks auntiewinnie!

I picked up 1950-1952 last July. Thanks to some luck and good timing, it turned into a special treat for me.

I was out roaming the main floor at San Diego Comic-Con. I was passing the Fantagraphics booth and sitting amidst a stack of the first book was Jeannie Schultz. Holy moley, I didn't know she was supposed to be in the main room! She was speaking with someone so I grabbed a book and patiently waited my turn.

Because no one else was behind me, I was able have a nice conversation with her. What a genuinely warm person she is. Her eyes lit up when she spoke about "Sparky". I asked her about the early years but she reminded me that they married in 1974 (or was it '73) so she couldn't really comment. Ooops! :blush:

After a few more minutes of chit-chat I saw others were gathering so I thanked her for her time. She signed my book and bid me goodbye. What a nice lady... -smile-

So, to answer the OP.... yes, I'm collecting them. :up:

Great post. I certainly envy you as it sounds like a great experience.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Being a child of the 70's I never got to really enjoy the Peanuts strips from the 50's & 60's. I did however enjoy the strip during my youth. I just may start picking this up.
Is there a tentative release schedule for these? I am now definitly going to get the Vol. 1 & 2 set.
b.

It appears as though the sets are released in April and October with the box set of both also released in October. Unsure if that will hold up over the course of the next 11 years but it seems about right to me.

The Complete Peanuts 1955-1956 has been released and, thus far, has become my favorite volume of the three currently released. It just seems like everything is easing itself into common Peanuts strips with Charlie Brown less the prankster and more the wishy-washy round headed kid we've come to know. Luch is more fussy and Linus begins to speak. And much more for all you Pig-pen fans. Another great collection!

No news on who is providing the intro to the next volume or if it will be available in a box set. It is expected to be released in November and has Snoopy on the cover.

So, according to the Fantagraphics comics board (and now at AMAZON) there will be a box set for this release with another box designed by Seth to house this years two collections. However, the board also made note that this will probably be the last box set. They are cutting it out due to production costs for the series.

* * *

Also, while hunting about Ebay found an interesting auction for an old Schulz idea. He was toying with a new strip based around adults. Notice how it is drawn in one of his pre-made PEANUTS panals. Interesting, odd look at what might have happened if Charlie Brown grew up:

http://www.auctionflex.com/auctionim..._1IV109JZ4.jpg
http://www.auctionflex.com/auctionim..._1IV109KV9.jpg
http://www.auctionflex.com/auctionim..._1IV109LRT.jpg
http://www.auctionflex.com/auctionim..._1IV109MOD.jpg

Kind of reminds me of this strip:
http://snoopy.com/comics/peanuts/mee...trips/f4c2.gif

It'll be hard, but I think I'll wait for box set #2. I'll put it on my Christmas wish list.

Still waiting for my Volume 3. :(

It has been announced that author Jonathan Franzen has penned the introduction to the Complete Peanuts 1957-58.

* * *
Jonathan Franzen was born in Western Springs, Illinois, in 1959, and grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. After graduating from Swarthmore College in 1981, he studied at the Freie Universit„t in Berlin as a Fulbright scholar and later worked in a seismology lab at Harvard University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. In addition to winning a Whiting Writers' Award in 1988 and the American Academy's Berlin Prize in 2000, he has been named one of "Twenty Writers for the 21st Century" by The New Yorker and one of the "Best Young American Novelists" by Granta.

Mr. Franzen is the author of The Twenty-Seventh City (FSG, 1988) and Strong Motion (FSG, 1992) and is a frequent contributor to Harper's and The New Yorker (where portions of The Corrections have appeared). He lives in New York City.

* * *

Here is Fantagraphics blurb about the October Vol.:
As the 1950s close down, Peanuts definitively enters its golden age. Linus, who had just learned to speak in the previous volume, becomes downright eloquent and even begins to fend off Lucy's bullying; even so, his security neurosis becomes more pronounced, including a harrowing two-week "Lost Weekend" sequence of blanketlessness. Charlie Brown cascades further down the hill to loserdom, with spectacularly lost kites, humiliating baseball losses (including one where he becomes "the Goat" and is driven from the field in a chorus of BAAAAHs); at least his newly acquired "pencil pal" affords him some comfort. Pig-Pen, Shermy, Violet, and Patty are also around, as is an increasingly Beethoven-fixated Schroeder. But the rising star is undoubtedly Snoopy. He's at the center of the most graphically dynamic and action-packed episodes (the ones in which he attempts to grab Linus's blanket at a dead run). He even tentatively tries to sleep on the crest of his doghouse roof once or twice, with mixed results. And his imitations continue apace, including penguins, anteaters, sea monsters, vultures and (much to her chagrin) Lucy. No wonder the beagle is the cover star not only of this volume, but of the collector's slipcase.

And, finally, here is the box art (or at least one side of it) for what has been claimed to be the FINAL release of this series in 2 vol. Box set form:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/15...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Whoopie Goldberg has written the introduction to The Complete Peanuts 1959-60 due out next year.

In that volume expect: The debute of Sally, Lucy's shrink booth, the blanket hating grandmother and the happiness is a warm puppy strip. Oh yeah, and something about the first strip about some great pumpkin like thing...

...

:p

I have some first editions of the original 'Peanuts' collection books from the late fifties and early sixties that my dad had as a kid and gave to me. :)

I don't have mine anymore. I had about a dozen of them. I don't even remember when I got rid of them. It's fun to read comic strips that I haven't read since the 1970s.

Also of note:
The golf Sunday strip that was missing the top part in Vol. 2 has been found in whole. It was placed at the back of Vol. 4 and will be added to all new printings of Vol. 2.

I have a couple questions. I plan to purchase all the peanuts until the end of it's prime. Is 1980 a good cut off point? I hear that the strip started getting shaky in the 80's.

And will the sundays in the future editions be in color?

I don't feel qualified to answer the first question, as I grew up reading Peanuts more in the Fawcett Crest Books than in the newspaper (and therefore without dates attached), and I plan to get them all. ;)

As to the second, from the Fantagraphics website:

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.

I find this interesting. I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand I truly enjoy reading the sundays in color, however considering the way the book is sort of structured i guess i can see how it fits with strips from the golden age. Obviously if this was only an editor's choice and NOT by Mrs. Schulz i would be pissed. I wonder if this is what Charles would of wanted if he was alive. I assume it is.

Still i do enjoy the Sundays in color. Wouldn't that be the original format anyway? In color?

I enjoyed the strip immensely from about 1965-1980.... so you are probably in the right ballpark.

A good place to pick up the books cheap is www.zooba.com. All their books are $9.95 each with free shipping - there is a 3 book minimum commitment. They have the first 4 volumes.

How's the quality compared to the regular editions? Most book club books aren't as good in quality, or is this one of those rare occasions where they are the same.

These are the same editions. I bought the first 2 from Amazon and the last 2 from Zooba and they're the same.

Wow. No shit? That is a killer price. I'm thinking about signing up now and getting all four. I have been in a "Peanuts" mood lately.

How are the other books there? Same as retail or book club editions?

I've only bought one other book (a Dean Koontz) and it was a book club edition.

You might also want to check out www.qpb.com (Quality Paperback Book Club). They have a deal where you get 6 books for $1 each (PLUS shipping) then you have to buy two more. They also have all 4 Peanuts listed and they are also hardcover editions. Depending on how many total books you're interested in it may be a better deal.