World Famous Comics: The Comics Journal #290 (No. 290)
The Comics Journal #290 (No. 290)
By: Gary Groth Publisher: Fantagraphics Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Fantagraphics Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 224 Publication Date: May 31, 2008
The historic magazine about comics, available to the book trade for the first time! Hard truth, subjective take or slanted hatchet job? Monte Schulz, eldest son of Charles M. Schulz, and a roundtable of Peanuts experts and critics probe and debate David Michaelis's controversial biography, Schulz & Peanuts. Monte Schulz's 30,000+ word essay serves as the definitive word on Michaelis' book from the Schulz family, and is available exclusively in The Comics Journal #290, which marks the first issue of the venerable magazine (est. 1976) to be available through the book trade. The issue also spotlights the magazine's new format, moving from a monthly magazine format to a squarebound, eight times per year journal format. Also in this issue: Matt Madden, co-series-editor of the Best American Comics anthology series, will dish about his upcoming comics textbook (written and drawn with Jessica Abel, his frequent collaborator) and his efforts to translate the OuBaPo movement into English with 99 Exercises in Style. Plus: A color gallery of "The Wall of Flesh" and other '50s horror stories from Golden Age cartoonist Bob Powell (the Good Girl artist known for his work on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Blackhawk and the original Mars Attacks trading cards) rounds out the magazine.The Comics Journal is the award-winning print magazine and website exploring the widest range of cartooning—newspaper strips, alternative and mainstream graphic novels, international works, editorial cartoons, webcomics, and much more—in the world. Treating the medium as an art form, TCJ is the magazine of record for one of the fastest-growing categories in the book industry, as well as an area of increasing academic interest. TCJ is the perfect magazine for the widening spectrum of discerning and sophisticated readers who take home such books as Persepolis, Fun Home and The Complete Peanuts. Ever since its debut in 1976, The Comics Journal has promoted a wider range of comics than any magazine in the field, and bookstores that carry The Comics Journal routinely find out that the lively, in-depth magazine guides customers to new discoveries.
I read this after reading the biography and writing my review for Amazon as I didn't want my opinions to be unduly influenced by this take on SCHULZ AND PEANUTS. Starting with Monte Schulz's impassioned defense of Charles Schulz as a father, "The Schulz and Peanuts Roundtable" looks at a variety of opinions on the book. Monte Schulz's is obviously the most emotionally driven as he perceives a sense of betrayal by Michaelis, who was given total access to the Schulz family and came up with a central theme that they did not agree with. I found Schulz's rebuttal more than a little rambling with some valid points to be sure, but desperately in need of some editing. Later pieces by other Comics Journal contributors are not quite as negative, but I found myself agreeing with R. C. Harvey when he wrote: "Cartoonist" defined Charles Schulz more than anything else. Sadly, we don't find the cartoonist much in this book. The cartoonist is there, true enough, but the rhetorical weight of the narrative bends it in another direction, towards the man struggling with his unhappiness. As an examination of Michaelis' work I found this an interesting read, but other than the Bob Powell article, I found little else that held my interest so whether or not this is worth your money will be based on your need to examine SCHULZ AND PEANUTS from another angle.
If you read the Schulz bio, you must also read this While you won't really get a complete view of Schulz from this and the Michaelis biography, you will at least realize that the Michaelis bio is very incomplete.
I didn't think the Schulz roundtable really added much, though, beyond Monte Schulz's (sizeable) contribution.
And the Bob Powell reprints were OK, but nothing to get too excited about.
Anyone who reads the Michaelis Schulz bio must read this too This issue is a must for all Schulz fans and "Peanuts" fans, not to mention fans and non-fans alike of the David Michaelis biography, "Schulz and Peanuts." It contains some very thoughtful and well-written essays which clarify the objections that the Schulz family, especially his son Monte, had with the final results of what they were led to believe would be a detailed, respectful and informative biography of Mr. Schulz. That book turned out to be a very skewed, gloomy, doomy, judgmental volume with many deliberate omissions about key areas of the great cartoonist's life. The essays included in this issue of Comics Journal set the record straight, and I hope that all readers of the other book will have the opportunity to read these.
Anything Goes Trivia
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