Product Description: The newest collection of the classic strip.
As we rush toward the end of Peanuts' second full decade, Snoopy finds himself almost completely engrossed in his persona as the World War I Flying Ace—to the point where he goes to camp with Charlie Brown and maintains his persona throughout the entire two-week period (much to Peppermint Patty's bafflement).
Still, Snoopy looms large, so this volume (a particularly Snoopy-heavy one) sees him arm-wrestling Lucy as the "Masked Marvel" and then taking off for Petaluma for the national arm-wrestling championship; impersonating a vulture and a "Cheshire Beagle"; enjoying golf and hockey; attempting a jaunt to France for an ice-skating championship; running for office on the "Paw" ticket; being traded to Peppermint Patty's baseball team, then un-traded and installed as team manager by a guilt-ridden Charlie Brown; as well as dealing with the return of his original owner, Lila. If you're surprised by that last one, imagine how Charlie Brown feels...
Lila makes only a brief appearance (as does Josè Peterson, a short-lived—and short—star member of Charlie Brown's baseball team), but this volume sees the appearance of what would be Schulz's most controversial major character: Franklin. (Yes, in 1968 the introduction of a Black character caused a stir.)
Peppermint Patty, working toward her ascendancy as one of the major Peanuts players in the 1970s and 1980s, also has several major turns, including a storyline in which she's the tent monitor for three little girls (who call her "Sir"—a joke Schulz would pick up later with Peppermint Patty's friend Marcie).
Stories involving other characters include a sequence in which Linus's flippant comment to his Gramma that he'll kick his blanket habit when she kicks her smoking habit backfires; Lucy bullies Linus, pesters Schroeder, and organizes a "crab-in"; plus Charlie Brown copes with Valentine's Day depression, the Little Red-Haired Girl, the increasingly malevolent kite-eating tree, and baseball losses. In other words: Vintage Peanuts!
NOTE: Good grief! Through a printer's error one strip (May 3, 1967) from this period is missing and one (May 1, 1967) is duplicated in this edition. All copies of this book contain this mistake; there are no "good" ones available, sorry. The missing strip will be printed in the next volume (1969-1970) and is available here: http://tinyurl.com/6bwf7r
You wouldn't know good goop if you tasted it!! Fantagraphics Books has plans to reprint the complete run of Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip. This volume reprints the strips from 1967 and 1968. The most significant event during these years was the introduction of Franklin, who was the first African-American character in the strip. Peanuts is one of the greatest comic strips of all time, so go ahead and buy the book.
it just keeps getting better and better I have no idea why they would put Violet on the cover because at this point she didn't appear much. These are some good years. Sally appears more but is not a main character yet. Violet and Patty and Frieda are now in the recurring role. Pigpen appears 3 more times in 1967 and does not appear again until 1978. A new character is shown for the first time, Franklin. He was never really a main character though.
"You've Got Yourself a Used Dog, Charlie Brown." While it's Violet who's given the front cover for this book (more about the strip this image came from later...), it's Snoopy and Peppermint Patty who come into their own in this book.
Snoopy's stint as the WWI Flying Ace is not nearly as strong as before, but it begins to to interact with the other characters (other than Charlie Brown, who HAS to interact with Snoopy on a regular basis) and affect their actions, as does some other of Snoopy's alternate characters. Snoopy is also given a back story involving a former owner who was unable to keep him (a plot which was expanded into its own movie).
Peppermint Patty, having developed from a blank slate looking for something to believe in to a character strong enough to solo in late 1966, is now further expanding into what would become her role as Charlie Brown's female, power-filled alter-ego. With Jose Peterson (.850 in North Dakota?), Roy and Franklin (a Summer of '68 introduction) in tow and a possible peak at Marcie, Peppermint Patty is now the leader of her own gang - a Female Charlie Brown, only a competent leader of a group chosen for their strengths and winning ways (as compared to Charlie Brown, whose team is pretty much a collections of locals who don't really like him too much and are chosen more-or-less because of habit and closeness). Peppermint Patty's weaknesses would round out her character in the future, but here it's her strengths that are propelling her.
Given the growth in Snoopy and Peppermint Patty, the other characters work more in support. Charlie Brown already has become more a handmaiden to Peppermint Patty's attempts to improve her team (at first CB's team, then her own) and Snoopy's escapades more and more involve and affect the people around them. The Red-Haired girl again affects CB in bad ways, this time even going so far as to force CB to live in the dark of his bedroom for a whole week. And Freida still appears, still doggedly trying to turn Snoopy into the hunting dog she's always dreamed of owning.
And finally, the image on the front cover of this book comes from the "missing strip" in the book: Violet solo, shooting forth a cutdown only for us to learn of its weakness (May 3, 1967). Maybe the compiler thought it a bit odd that Violet, once able (with or without the original Patty) to rip into CB with a force powerful enough to destroy living men (never mind struggling boys with no self-esteem) weakened to a mere "nyaah." Anyway, it was replaced with the strip from two days before in the book. You can find a copy online and consider the irony of an image used in the front of a book that it's been banished from (unintentionally, but banished nevertheless).
Buy this book. Buy the books before this one as well, if you haven't done that yet.
PEANUTS -- Keep Getting Better The Complete Peanuts l967-68 takes me back to the founding of my Peanuts related company, Aviva Enterprises, with Elliot Steinberg in l968. Every Peanuts 'fan' -- should own this entire collection. It is a wonderful gift to leave for future generation in your own families.
Peanuts rule! I love Peanuts, but there is no doubt it deteriorated in the last 10-15 years it was made, one was bound to run out of original ideas sooner or later. However, this book is from what was the heydays of the series, and is great reading.
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