The Big Book of Peanuts: All the Daily Strips from the 1990s Hardcover – October 22, 2024

Love love love very excited and enjoying this book

The “CHARLES M. SCHULZ’s The Big Book of Peanuts: All the Daily Strips from the 1990s” arrived promptly and is a marvelous addition to any home library.This remarkable and entertaining book has several beautiful features and appeals to young and old alike.PROS:* Outstanding collection of original “Peanuts” comic strips from 1990 to 2000. Four other previous volumes are in print with strips from the 1950s to 1990s.* This is the perfect “coffee table” book suitable for all ages. It is humorous and lighthearted and appeals to the innate goodness found in all people.* Pages are sturdy, heavy weight stock to survive a multitude of readers (with clean hands, please!)* The hefty Graphic Novel Anthology appears with large size, clear, black-and-white comic strips all originally drawn and lettered in Schulz’s own hand.* All Schulz’s characters are included in this anthology: Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown, Lucy van Pelt, Linus van Pelt, Sally Brown, Peppermint Patty, Franklin, Schroeder and Pig Pen.* Informative Introductory Essay at the front of the book describes its decade of transformation in character development and story lines from 1990 to 2000.* The book ends with Schulz's final touching and heartfelt “Peanuts” comic strip message to his 355 million faithful readers, translated into 21 languages, published in 2600 newspapers across 75 countries!* Makes a wonderful gift for every book lover!CONS:* This volume contains 544 pages and weighs 2.3lbs. Although it has strong front/back covers and binding, care must be taken to support the book as the pages are turned in order to prevent damage.SUMMARY:This is a terrific addition to any home library as it appeals to both children and adults of all ages. It’s an enduring Graphic Novel for all times - past, present and future.Enjoy!Highly Recommended.Interesting info:* Schulz sold his comic strip to a newspaper syndicate in October, 1950 under the name he chose, “L’il Folks.”* Due to copyright infringement laws preventing use of “L’il Folks,“ the syndicate imposed the new name “Peanuts,” which Schulz detested to his dying day, 2/13/20.* The syndicate noted that Schulz’s comic strip ran concurrently in the early 1950’s with the “Howdy Doody” show on TV. The kids on that show made up the “Peanut Gallery.” The comic strip name “Peanuts” was a direct offshoot of the “Peanut Gallery.”* Every single one of Schulz’s 17,897 “Peanuts” comic strips was fully designed, written, drawn and lettered by Schulz himself. To this day, this is an unmatched achievement in comic strip history.* Schulz’s last “Peanuts” comic strip was published the day after his death from a heart attack. (1922 - 2000). His family discontinued the strip after his death according to his wishes.

Very fun collection in a big book. Great for coffee table!

The obvious comparison here is to Fantagraphics' long-running "Complete Peanuts" series, which is, as far as I know, the only other attempt to reprint the entire run of Schulz’s classic strip.FORMATAndrew McMeel’s “The Big Book of Peanuts…1990s” is a large volume that, like earlier volumes in the series, reprints ten years of daily strips, 5 or 6 to a page. It’s a hefty, vertical-format, 544pp, 9”x12” hardcover.Each of the dozens of Fantagraphics volumes reprints one year of both daily and Sunday strips. Its relatively compact horizontal format reprints each week of dailies on two adjacent pages and each Sunday strip on a single page.Neither book is in color, which may or may not deter from your enjoyment of Fantagraphics’ Sunday reprints. In the world of comic art, some enthusiasts prefer the clearer reproduction of uncolored line art, while others enjoy seeing strips scanned from an actual newspaper or manually recolored.The only bonus feature in the McMeel book is a slightly revised reprint of a short essay that appeared in an earlier McMeel Peanuts volume. Each book in the Fantagraphics series has a short foreword about that year’s strips, written by an industry professional.DESIGNMcMeel’s book is big and heavy, with relatively commonplace, workmanlike design. Nothing especially good or bad about it. It does the job.Fantagraphics’ series, on the other hand, boasts a creative, well-thought-out design, with distinctive cover graphics, and unique fonts. (Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth’s “We Told You So” memoir details the story behind the series.) I found its smaller, horizontal format to be easier to hold and read.Both books reprint the strips at a size close to what you’d see in a newspaper. Fantagraphics’ reprints are ever-so-slightly larger, but the difference is so small that most readers won’t notice.PRODUCTION VALUESThe McMeel book has decent production values. It’s not cheaply made, but neither is it intended to be a high-end coffee-table book.Fantagraphics uses higher-quality, heavier paper stock (although neither book suffers from bleedthrough), boasts a sturdier binding, and, unlike the McMeel volume, has a hardcover made from exceptionally thick boards that will never warp. They’ll stand up to repeated readings, and even mishandling, better than would the McMeel.COSTMcMeel wins this one, offering ten years of daily reprints for $45. Fantagraphics charges $30 for one year of dailies and Sundays, although it’s easy to justify the higher cost by its costlier production values. Both series are routinely discounted on Amazon.Note that Fantagraphics is now offering multi-volume paperback versions of some of the Peanuts volumes at a lower price. 4 or 5 years of strips are available in paperback form as giftable box sets that each sell for $30-$50.BOTTOM LINESo which is a better choice? That depends on you. I obviously prefer Fantagraphics’ series, which each reprint a year of Sparky’s classic strips in a comfortable, easy to read format. It’s a class act.The McMeel book, on the other hand, gives you a full decade of daily strips for less than the price of two Fantagraphics volumes.If you want to read both Sunday and daily strips in chronological order, or are looking for a nice gift with outstanding production values, then Fantagraphics is your choice. If you’re just looking for a heaping helping of Peanuts in one large book, the McMeel book will give you many, many hours of entertainment at a lower price.To be clear, I would have given the McMeel book five stars if the Fantagraphics series did not exist. I think it’s important to keep Schultz’s work alive and in general, McMeel does a good job at a modest price.

I have been a Peanuts fan since my childhood in the 1960s and am thrilled to have this book. Yes, the classic Peanuts comic strips are probably those from the 50s, 60s and 70s, but there are a few pages of interesting notes at the beginning of this book detailing the evolution of Peanuts into the 90s.This is definitely a large, coffee table book. It has a sturdy hardback cover and heavy binding, reminiscent the giant textbooks from my college days! The pages are a nice weight paper and the comic strips are size that you would remember reading in the newspaper, not too small. The book ends very poignantly with Charles M. Schulz's last message in a cartoon strip to readers on 1/3/2000, just over a month before he passed away. A wonderful book for any Peanuts fan!

From the size of this book to the crisp feeling of physical paper this book hits all the marks of an enjoyable experience.What’s really cool is how many comic strips you actually get and seeing the progression of character buildup as the years progress throughout each segment.One caveat if there is any is the texture of the cover that feels on the cheaper end that will take on small dents over time. That’s the most minimal gripe and can be mitigated with proper care.Overall if you’re looking to rad through the discography of the Peanuts comic strips then this is the book for you!Hope the insight helps, cheers! :^)