Synopses & Reviews
The twelfth volume of features a number of tennis strips and several extended sequences involving Peppermint Patty's friend Marcie (including a riotous, rarely seen sequence in which Marcie's costume-making and hairstyling skills utterly spoil a skating competition for PP), so it seems only right that this volume's introduction should be served up by Schulz's longtime friend, tennis champion Billie Jean King. This volume also picks up on a few loose threads from the previous year, as the mysterious "Poochie" shows up in the flesh; Linus and Lucy's new kid brother "Rerun" makes his first appearance, is almost immediately drafted onto the baseball team (where, thanks to his tiny strike zone, he wins a game), and embarks on his first terrifying journey on the back of his mom's bike; and, in one of Peanuts' oddest recurring storylines, the schoolhouse Sally used to talk to starts talking, or at least thinking, back at her! also includes one of the all-time classic Peanuts sequences, in which Charlie Brown's baseball-oriented hallucinations finally manifest themselves in a baseball-shaped rash on his head. Forced to conceal the embarrassing discoloration with a bag worn over his head, Charlie Brown goes to camp as "Mister Sack" and discovers that, shorn of his identity, he's suddenly well liked and successful.
Review
" was an amazing comic. Charles Schulz was an amazing artist. Fantagraphics' series are great and [1973-1974] is the best one yet. The humor is unparalleled and the stories are great. ... Charles Schulz was a sad and funny guy and this book features him at his saddest and funniest. If you bought some of the earlier volumes in this series and then forgot about it, then it's time to catch up." Nick Gazin
Review
"Fantagraphics Books continues its series devoted to chronologically packaging the strip and has not missed a step along the way. ... I'm pleased to inform that the latest edition, the twelfth in the series, is as lovingly curated as the first." Vice
Review
"Reading [ and ] in one fell swoop, I've kind of come to the conclusion that this period is really the apex of Schulz's career. ...he was never as consistently hilarious or as poignant as he was in the early to mid-70s. If you're only buying two volumes of this series, it should be these two." Dw. Dunphy Popdose
Review
"Schulz had gone from a fairly grounded sense of consensus reality to Snoopy's flights of fancy to outright weirdness... That seems to be the essence of Sparky Schulz to me: even with the pressure of the daily grind and his position as the linchpin of what had become a vast empire, Schulz wrote to amuse himself... At his best in this volume, Schulz gave the readers some of the best stories of his career." Chris Mautner Robot 6
Review
"Most comic strips today, especially those that are humor strips, often avoid topical subjects. Schulz embraced the topics of the era. They may date the strip, but it never leaves them outdated. ... Schulz was also not afraid to carry on-going storylines for several days or in some cases, even a couple of weeks. ... [] also features all the favorite subjects like Linus' annual wait for the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown's trip to Summer camp, and Sally's letters to Santa Claus. This is why Peanuts is the greatest strip ever!" Rob Clough High-Low
Review
"Even though Woodstock casts a large shadow on the cover of Fantagraphics' , it's Peppermint Patty who should get star billing. Not to take anything away from Snoopy's yellow-feathered avian sidekick--who does make several appearances through the hardcover tome--it's just that Patty eventually gets the brunt of character development attention, while Woodstock exists as the perfect foil for Snoopy. ... Also of note is Schulz's repeated use of standard gags (Lucy pulling the football from Charlie) along with a few new ones, including the consoling 'Poor, sweet baby.' Because of his tendency to keep running gags contained within a year's span, it makes a trade collection work better than with most comic strips." Tim Janson Newsarama
Review
"[S]hows Schulz's staggering talent in the prime of his career." Christopher Irving Graphic NYC
Review
It"s impossible to think of another popular art form that reaches across generations the way the daily comic strip does'at the pinnacle of that long tradition, there was Charles Schulz.Really strong stuff here, including the "Charlie Brown wears a sack on his head to summer camp" sequence, surely the "Poison River" of Peanuts. -- Patrick Markfort,
Review
Charles M. Schulz is my favorite cartoonist, so I was excited to see that the twelfth volume in the series has an introduction by the legendary Billie Jean King... This is a important series of books which I give an 'A Plus" and I think it would be the ultimate part of a Peanutsfan"s collection! -- "Media Mewsings"
Review
The best way to celebrate Schulz and his work is the ongoing series being published by Fantagraphics. The latest volume--The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974--is a lovingly produced volume that includes every strip from those two years in a handsome hardcover book designed by Seth. Like earlier editions, it's a thrill to read the strip chronologically and in one fell swoop. -- Michael Giltz
Review
These hardcover editions are produced with such love and reverence that it's fun to just pick them up and page through them, at least for a bibliophile like myself. Not to be missed. -- Greg Hatcher
Review
Where most American gag strips were about the silly things that happen every day, Peanutswas about how to keep on living when you don't get what you want. It was still vital and true at this point, even if more and more of the stories focused on Snoopy quaffing root beers with Bill Mauldin, or writing bad novels, or playing tennis. -- Andrew Wheeler
Review
What more can I say about these wonderful collections? I"ve enjoyed each one immensely so far; they make me laugh and grin and even smirk a little from time to time... Top notch book. You can"t have a much better time than reading these collections. Highly recommended. -- Todd Klein, comic book letterer, designer, and writer
Synopsis
This volume also picks up on a few loose threads from the previous year, as the mysterious Poochie shows up in the flesh; Linus and Lucy s new kid brother Rerun makes his first appearance, is almost immediately drafted onto the baseball team (where, thanks to his tiny strike zone, he wins a game), and embarks on his first terrifying journey on the back of his mom s bike; and, in one of Peanuts oddest recurring storylines, the schoolhouse Sally used to talk to starts talking, or at least thinking, back at her The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974 also includes one of the all-time classic Peanuts sequences, in which Charlie Brown s baseball-oriented hallucinations finally manifest themselves in a baseball-shaped rash on his head. Forced to conceal the embarrassing discoloration with a bag worn over his head, Charlie Brown goes to camp as Mister Sack and discovers that, shorn of his identity, he s suddenly well liked and successful. "
Synopsis
The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974, the 12
th volume, picks up on a few loose threads from the previous year: meanwhile, Rerun embarks on his first terrifying journey on the back of his mom's bike and the schoolhouse Sally used to talk to starts talking, or at least thinking, back at her This collection also includes one of the all-time classic Peanuts sequences, in which Charlie Brown's baseball-oriented hallucinations finally manifest themselves in a baseball-shaped rash on his head. Forced to conceal the embarrassing discoloration with a bag worn over his head, Charlie Brown goes to camp as "Mister Sack" and discovers that, shorn of his identity, he's suddenly well-liked and successful. Since the volume features a number of tennis strips as well as extended sequences involving Peppermint Patty's friend Marcie (including a riotous, rarely seen sequence in which Marcie's costume-making and hairstyling skills utterly spoil a skating competition for PP), it seems only right that this volume's introduction should be served up by Schulz's longtime friend, tennis champion Billie Jean King.
Synopsis
Tennis, anyone? Billie Jean King serves up an introduction... and we celebrate Woodstock!
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.