Brings smiles when needed This was recommended to me by a writer friend. It didn't disappoint me. Now have it on corner of my desk for those trying times when smile or laugh is needed.
A Real Life Snoopy Story From the age of early TV broadcasts of peanuts, I had an inner joy of Snoopy, and my dream came true playing Snoopy in "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown", But when Charles Schultz pasted away on my birthday, I had a sad memory to follow me always, BUT the good news is ANYTHING to do with the publishing of Peanuts is worth the price. This book holds it's own in the writing of Schultz, the beagle can do no wrong in my eyes..
Title is NOT Misleading! My wife teaches grad students how to write & research publishable articles and BOOKS. To liven her handouts we have been collecting the "Dark & Stormy Night" cartoons from the daily Classic Charlie Brown in our local paper, The News & Observor. Then I found this title on Amazon and ordered it for its Cover since the daily strips are in B&W; despite another reviewer's comment that it only had a couple of Snoopy writes a book strips. That Reviewer was WRONG! This book has two 3-layer Sunday strips plus 10 single layer daily strips; in other words a bargain to assemble a fair use collage for the 20+ I had already "fair used" from the current N&O for a "Snoopy et al write books" compendium. In other words, Duggan's Law of Scholarly Research applies to the previous reviewer. Definitely a Five-Star Item for the 1994-95 Charles M. Schultz affectionado.
Fooled by the Title! Ok, for some reason, possibly by the title, cover, and back description, I got the idea this book was going to be all about Snoopy's attempts at the great American novel. Though there are a couple such strips, it is the entire 1995 year. But that ultimately didn't matter.
Full of the usual humor only Schulz could think of, there's the strips that make you laugh lighty, some that make you howl (Conrad, get his beak pierced?), but always make you smile. Good compilation, as usual, and worth the purchase if you're a fan of the strip.
Can't wait for the first book in the new series to come out though!
Finally, the 1995 Year of Peanuts is Chronicled! Since the Peanuts series ended in 2000, Ballantine Books have been issuing compilations of the last years of Peanuts in reverse order (1999-2000 first, then 1998, 1997 and 1996). But for about two years I have waited for a book with the 1995 strips, which would complete their series (earlier years were compiled by other publishers). But in this book, all of the strips from 1995 are published. The strips aren't the best in Peanuts history (I think Schulz did his best work in the 1970's), but they still are interesting to review. This was a period when Schulz did away with his typical four panel weekday strip and mixed things up (with many of his strips being just one large panel).
Since the new Fantagraphics series, which will publish all of the Peanuts strips in order over a 12+ year period won't get to the 1995 season for about 10 years, this book is a must for the Peanuts collector.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
