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krpalmerI've finished reading through the latest volume of "The Complete Peanuts" that I bought a few weeks ago. In a way, I can see it as a little encouraging that I've been posting to this journal for long enough to now have commented on two volumes of the series. As before, we're still in the comic strip's famous early-1960s period, although Charlie Brown is still at his most miserable too, and now both some of the Sunday and daily strips are ones I remember from books my family has had for quite a long time. There are still plenty of surprising "unseen" strips, though. One has Sally getting up from the television, finding her big brother, and asking, "Do you think there really is a person named Walt Disney?" It only seems more relevant nowadays.
Frieda's cat Faron has vanished, but Frieda herself seems to have found a niche, as an outfielder giving Lucy a run for her money in terms of a total lack of interest in exerting any effort playing and as a busybody telling Snoopy to get out there and chase rabbits. Snoopy instead gets along quite well with the rabbits, which are drawn in a somehow odd yet appealing way. He's also dealing with quite a few birds, who are starting to acquire odd personalities but all of which still look a bit larger than Woodstock turned out to be. (Given that Woodstock is yellow, one daily strip where Snoopy is buzzed by a bird he calls a "blue jay" is somehow unusual.) Snoopy's doghouse, too, is becoming more than a box he (now) sleeps on top of, in a personally well-remembered sequence where it's cleaned, with cases of empty pop bottles and the carpet being carried up the turn in the staircase. (There's also a somehow intriguing strip before those new developments where Charlie Brown is lamenting how Snoopy just can't stay warm at night in the winter. Linus suggests that Snoopy sleep inside the doghouse instead of on top, and is treated to some disbelieving looks from Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy.)
The new character 555 95472, or just "5" for short, is introduced in this volume, along with his twin sisters 3 and 4, who look a little like Peppermint Patty. (I once noticed an interview with Charles M. Schulz's widow where it was commented how the girl characters in the strip kept wearing elaborate dresses well after they had gone out of style, but 3 and 4 wear simpler dresses.) Once Schulz has run out of jokes about how numbers are taking over people's lives, 5 does manage to hang around as a straight-man character.
There are beginning to be strips where characters will openly quote the Bible. At the same time, they don't come across as pushy or doctrinaire: when Linus is panicking about having to sing "Jingle Bells" at the PTA Christmas program and Charlie Brown reminds him of Psalm 98, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord," Linus screams back, "This is the PTA!!" (Interestingly, for those who might look askance at "modern" secularised cards, Lucy sends out some cards in September 1963 that refer to "a Happy Holiday Season," intent on getting "them out early" this year.) Later, when Linus brings a "yoke" to school intending to quote a whole string of Biblical references about it, Charlie Brown shouts back, "What about the 'yoke of inferiority' you've given me?!" Schulz may, in fact, be starting to poke a little fun at his own growing reputation. At one point, Linus hugs Snoopy and then asks, "What's so happy about a warm puppy?"
All in all, this was a pleasant volume, but I'm also looking forward to the next one to come. Charlie Brown will meet a kid named Roy at summer camp, and it turns out Roy knows a tomboy named Peppermint Patty... and we all get to meet the World War I Flying Ace.
Frieda's cat Faron has vanished, but Frieda herself seems to have found a niche, as an outfielder giving Lucy a run for her money in terms of a total lack of interest in exerting any effort playing and as a busybody telling Snoopy to get out there and chase rabbits. Snoopy instead gets along quite well with the rabbits, which are drawn in a somehow odd yet appealing way. He's also dealing with quite a few birds, who are starting to acquire odd personalities but all of which still look a bit larger than Woodstock turned out to be. (Given that Woodstock is yellow, one daily strip where Snoopy is buzzed by a bird he calls a "blue jay" is somehow unusual.) Snoopy's doghouse, too, is becoming more than a box he (now) sleeps on top of, in a personally well-remembered sequence where it's cleaned, with cases of empty pop bottles and the carpet being carried up the turn in the staircase. (There's also a somehow intriguing strip before those new developments where Charlie Brown is lamenting how Snoopy just can't stay warm at night in the winter. Linus suggests that Snoopy sleep inside the doghouse instead of on top, and is treated to some disbelieving looks from Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy.)
The new character 555 95472, or just "5" for short, is introduced in this volume, along with his twin sisters 3 and 4, who look a little like Peppermint Patty. (I once noticed an interview with Charles M. Schulz's widow where it was commented how the girl characters in the strip kept wearing elaborate dresses well after they had gone out of style, but 3 and 4 wear simpler dresses.) Once Schulz has run out of jokes about how numbers are taking over people's lives, 5 does manage to hang around as a straight-man character.
There are beginning to be strips where characters will openly quote the Bible. At the same time, they don't come across as pushy or doctrinaire: when Linus is panicking about having to sing "Jingle Bells" at the PTA Christmas program and Charlie Brown reminds him of Psalm 98, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord," Linus screams back, "This is the PTA!!" (Interestingly, for those who might look askance at "modern" secularised cards, Lucy sends out some cards in September 1963 that refer to "a Happy Holiday Season," intent on getting "them out early" this year.) Later, when Linus brings a "yoke" to school intending to quote a whole string of Biblical references about it, Charlie Brown shouts back, "What about the 'yoke of inferiority' you've given me?!" Schulz may, in fact, be starting to poke a little fun at his own growing reputation. At one point, Linus hugs Snoopy and then asks, "What's so happy about a warm puppy?"
All in all, this was a pleasant volume, but I'm also looking forward to the next one to come. Charlie Brown will meet a kid named Roy at summer camp, and it turns out Roy knows a tomboy named Peppermint Patty... and we all get to meet the World War I Flying Ace.