From the Bookshelf: The Complete Peanuts 1985-1986

Even before I'd received the latest volume of "The Complete Peanuts" by mail order, I was certain I could remember one small storyline in it from back when the comic strips in it were running in the newspaper. Starting into it, though, I wondered first of all if Fantagraphics was running low on people to introduce the volumes: Patton Oswalt's introduction was brief and seemed to dwell on the "Snoopy the attorney" comics with the chiding suggestion that this reflected Charles M. Schulz talking to lawyers about merchandising. I suppose the suggestions of others that not just "everything in the strip was autobiographical" but "what really mattered was the evidence of Schulz's own suffering" don't quite agree with me. Once beyond that, though, there were still some surprises in store for me...
( 'I see it! I see it! I see Halley's Street Light!' )