Reviews

The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 7: 1963-1964 by Bill Meléndez, Charles M. Schulz

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breakfastgrey's review against another edition

4.0

Having now caught up to where I began reading in the early 60s, there’s a definite hop in style and content from the 50s. Early characters have all but totally disappeared (I liked Shermy, Violet, and Patty) and some new ones have appeared on the scene (the extremely forgettable 3, 4, and 5). A number of gags are also recognizable from the television specials. By and large, though, this is Schulz at the top of his game.

breakfastgrey's review against another edition

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4.0

Another great volume of Peanuts. The art subtly shifts over the course of this volume, as do the character personalities, to better match the larger body of work. Some of the later running gags are also first brought into play. By the end of this book, things more resemble the Peanuts everyone's familiar with rather than the early days.

maarta's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

dantastic's review against another edition

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4.0

After reading two books about Peanuts fairly recently, I decided it was time to read another collection of actual Peanuts comics. This one, from 1963-1964, was damn good.

Like a lot of people my age, Peanuts was always in the newspaper when I was younger and the strip seemed pretty unremarkable since we grew up with Peanuts holiday specials on TV and those Met Life commercials.

This is not like the strip in its waning years. The strip was still missing some of the iconic characters like Peppermint Pattie, Marcie, and Woodstock but was in fine form. Charlie Brown gets little leaguers elbow. Linus has his hopes regarding the Great Pumpkin crushed twice. Lucy practiced psychiatric care without a license and continuously sexually harassed Schroeder. Snoopy's doghouse is revealed to be a TARDIS, containing a billiard room and murals.

This is a really fun Peanuts collection from before the time they started shitting out merchandise. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

viclofaro's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

mschlat's review against another edition

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4.0

A quick note: the Goodreads entry for this volume says it collects "all" of the rare Peanuts material in non-strip form. As the introduction to the book states, it doesn't; there's simply too much stuff. But there's some nice comic book stories, reprints of Peanuts books (that often reused plots of strips but with new art), and cartoons published outside of the regular strip.

Nothing here is necessary for the casual Peanuts reader, but I appreciated three things in particular. First, there's a collection of all the stories written by Snoopy that nicely highlights the most goofy side of Schulz's sense of humor. Second, the collection of golf and tennis cartoons published outside the strip (but with Peanuts characters) is wonderful. Third, there's an essay by [a:Seth|5120|Seth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199494766p2/5120.jpg] (who designed the look of the books in this series) with a cartoon by [a:Joe Matt|350842|Joe Matt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199497241p2/350842.jpg] that is almost worth the price of admission by itself.