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krpalmerWith The Complete Peanuts rounding out the 1980s and standing on the threshold of the strip's final decade, I was right back to wondering if this would be the point where I would read through two years of comics I must have seen back when they were coming out, maybe taking them that much more for granted, and find that now I couldn't say anything new. By this point too I'm certain I would have become quite interested in Calvin and Hobbes, although I can remember at some point thinking its Sunday pages (my family's newspaper didn't carry the daily strips) were getting awfully sentimental.
The introduction by Lemony Snicket, though, took what I can suppose to be that author's familiar tone and dwelt on various dark interpretations of the strips in the volume. While I may be just a bit leery of attempts to say that Peanuts was exclusively about suffering (much less going on from there to make the whole thing a disguised autobiography of Charles M. Schulz's own suffering, with the possible codicil that any diminution of that suffering equalled a loss of edge), this did at least counter fearful thoughts of accusations about the strip winding up inoffensive filler, something done out of a singular reluctance to stop. As I started reading the comics themselves in the volume, even with a desk calendar of daily strips from 1963 and the 1966 comics being rerun on the official site, I found myself enjoying it.
Early on, another one of Snoopy's brothers is introduced as Olaf gets entered in an "ugly dog" contest. I did start thinking I might have let my thoughts about the comic solidify by that point to where Olaf didn't manage to fit into them, and that might have been missing something. However, when thinking on how it was at least a while before Olaf returned in a major way, I did also have the idea Spike didn't seem to feature as much as he had just a few years before. Instead, there are plenty of comics about Charlie Brown wanting to "make my dog happy"; Snoopy just bears it with, as others do dwell on, a good many thoughts about cookies. (He does also manage to produce a good many sight gags with the notes of Schroeder's music.)
One tiny little note with the "ugly dog" storyline also caught my attention, where a whole group of kids are gathered and one of the girls has pigtails. My first thought was of when Violet was first introduced with her hair in pigtails instead of the ponytail she later adopted, thinking a bit of the earliest days of the comic strip had been brought back for a moment; the index had the same thought.
There was one peculiar storyline I was convinced on seeing it anew I should have let it stick in my memory before, where a girl shows up intent on seeing "Charlie Brown," only to attach that name to Snoopy and ply him with marshmallow sundaes. After that, though, Charlie Brown does achieve what seems a fragment of happiness when he meets a different girl at summer camp. She introduces herself as Peggy Jean, and while he does manage to talk to her he mangles his name up as "Brownie Charles." Things go well between them despite this, although by the end of the volume he does seem to be getting back to his usual lack of success in such matters.
The introduction by Lemony Snicket, though, took what I can suppose to be that author's familiar tone and dwelt on various dark interpretations of the strips in the volume. While I may be just a bit leery of attempts to say that Peanuts was exclusively about suffering (much less going on from there to make the whole thing a disguised autobiography of Charles M. Schulz's own suffering, with the possible codicil that any diminution of that suffering equalled a loss of edge), this did at least counter fearful thoughts of accusations about the strip winding up inoffensive filler, something done out of a singular reluctance to stop. As I started reading the comics themselves in the volume, even with a desk calendar of daily strips from 1963 and the 1966 comics being rerun on the official site, I found myself enjoying it.
Early on, another one of Snoopy's brothers is introduced as Olaf gets entered in an "ugly dog" contest. I did start thinking I might have let my thoughts about the comic solidify by that point to where Olaf didn't manage to fit into them, and that might have been missing something. However, when thinking on how it was at least a while before Olaf returned in a major way, I did also have the idea Spike didn't seem to feature as much as he had just a few years before. Instead, there are plenty of comics about Charlie Brown wanting to "make my dog happy"; Snoopy just bears it with, as others do dwell on, a good many thoughts about cookies. (He does also manage to produce a good many sight gags with the notes of Schroeder's music.)
One tiny little note with the "ugly dog" storyline also caught my attention, where a whole group of kids are gathered and one of the girls has pigtails. My first thought was of when Violet was first introduced with her hair in pigtails instead of the ponytail she later adopted, thinking a bit of the earliest days of the comic strip had been brought back for a moment; the index had the same thought.
There was one peculiar storyline I was convinced on seeing it anew I should have let it stick in my memory before, where a girl shows up intent on seeing "Charlie Brown," only to attach that name to Snoopy and ply him with marshmallow sundaes. After that, though, Charlie Brown does achieve what seems a fragment of happiness when he meets a different girl at summer camp. She introduces herself as Peggy Jean, and while he does manage to talk to her he mangles his name up as "Brownie Charles." Things go well between them despite this, although by the end of the volume he does seem to be getting back to his usual lack of success in such matters.