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A review by xterminal
The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 2: 1953-1954 by Walter Cronkite, Charles M. Schulz
4.0
Charles Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, vol. 2: 1953-1954 (Fantagraphics, 2004)
1953 is still early days for Peanuts, and the strip still lacks some of what we now think of as that “classic” Peanuts vibe (Linus can't talk yet, Woodstock hasn't been introduced, the core gang is evolving but not quite there yet), but it gets closer to the mark. Pigpen is introduced mid-1954-ish and immediately becomes a main character. There's a great stretch in spring '53 about Lucy's attempt to become the world's first six-year-old golf pro. Snoopy stops being an expressionist in a couple of strips and starts getting vocals. (So does Linus, but like Snoopy, everything Linus says is in his head.) There are a couple of jokes that tread the line between “running gag” and “repetitive” still, but reading early Peanuts is like reading early Tintin (something we in America didn't have a chance to do until recently, and that too was thanks to Fantagraphics); it's great to see where the comic you've known and loved your whole life was before you were born. ****
1953 is still early days for Peanuts, and the strip still lacks some of what we now think of as that “classic” Peanuts vibe (Linus can't talk yet, Woodstock hasn't been introduced, the core gang is evolving but not quite there yet), but it gets closer to the mark. Pigpen is introduced mid-1954-ish and immediately becomes a main character. There's a great stretch in spring '53 about Lucy's attempt to become the world's first six-year-old golf pro. Snoopy stops being an expressionist in a couple of strips and starts getting vocals. (So does Linus, but like Snoopy, everything Linus says is in his head.) There are a couple of jokes that tread the line between “running gag” and “repetitive” still, but reading early Peanuts is like reading early Tintin (something we in America didn't have a chance to do until recently, and that too was thanks to Fantagraphics); it's great to see where the comic you've known and loved your whole life was before you were born. ****