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It's Only a Game: The Complete Color Collection Paperback – August 15, 2013

by Charles M. Schulz (Author), Jim Sasseville (Author), Derrick Bang (Editor)

4.3 16 ratings

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In the late 1950s, amidst the surging popularity of Peanuts and during a strongly creative period, Charles M. Schulz created his only other syndicated newspaper comic. It's Only a Game focused on the fun and foibles of people and their pastimes. Schulz targets those who play bridge and those who bowl, little leaguers and horse track regulars, those who rush across the gridiron and those who hunch over the chessboard. This full-color collection offers up the series in its full Sunday format. Commentary and insight are provided by artist and cartoonist Jim Sasseville, who worked with Schulz on the feature. To facilitate the best display of the art, this book is in a special format: the pages flip up like a calendar, rather than to the left like a regular book. For those readers used to the Sunday newspaper funnies, this makes for a familiar and comfortable reading experience. Prepared and published by About Comics.

Reading age

4 - 8 years
Print length

64 pages
Language

English
Dimensions

8.5 x 0.16 x 11 inches
Publication date

August 15, 2013
ISBN-10

1490927549
ISBN-13

978-1490927541
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (August 15, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 64 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1490927549
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1490927541
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 4 - 8 years
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.16 x 11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,746,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,419 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 16 ratings

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Derrick Bang

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Derrick Bang, author of 2000's popular and critically praised "50 Years of Happiness: A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz," in early 2004 released his second book about Schulz, this one focusing on the cartoonist's early work after returning home from his WWII service: "Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings."

It was followed, in 2005, by Derrick's editorial involvement with a third book highlighting yet another previously untapped glimpse into Schulz's past: "It's Only a Game," which assembled all the short-lived panel cartoons that the Peanuts creator produced in the late 1950s with collaborator and "ghost" Jim Sasseville. In 2009, Derrick and co-editor Don Fraser assembled "Security Blankets: How Peanuts Touched Our Lives," a collection of anecdotes by people whose lives had been transformed by Schulz's work.

Derrick grew up in the greater Los Angeles basin and then fled, in 1973, to attend UC Davis; he loved the area and decided to remain as a full-time resident after graduating in June 1977. To fill those hours when he wasn't busily writing for any newspaper or magazine foolish enough to publish him, he founded The Game Preserve, a retail Davis game-and-puzzle store, in September 1978. Derrick kept his shop open for just over 18 years, and finally closed the business in January 1997, when he became entertainment editor of The Davis Enterprise, a full-time position he held until October 2010.

Derrick has written film, television, Internet and general entertainment commentary for local newspapers since 1974, and still supplies regular columns and features to The Enterprise. More recent projects have included extensive liner notes for CD re-issues of classic albums by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, famed for the hit single "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," and remembered these days as the composer who put some jazz swing into Charlie Brown's step, for a series of animated Peanuts television specials. Derrick also recently completed a book-length career study of Guaraldi, "Vince Guaraldi at the Piano," published in March 2012.

Derrick lives in Davis, California, with his wife, Gayna, and two preternaturally precocious pets.

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4.3 out of 5

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JERRY PREMO

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2015

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ok

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RENNEA ESPOSITO BURGESS

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2015

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EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!

One person found this helpful

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pnutzs

Great book for adults and older kis about all sports.

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2006

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This books encompasses all sports. It is notyour normal Charles Shlutlz book. It makes light of all sports in a adult way and is funny and very enjoyable.

2 people found this helpful

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K. Palmer

Good To See Another of Sparky's Works

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2004

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In late 1957, as he was beginning to see the success that his strip "Peanuts" was generating, Charles Schulz began another strip called "It's Only A Game", which was a strip geared for adults with primarily adult characters. The strip ran for a little over a year in just a handful of newspapers (around 30, if I recall correctly). Unlike his "Peanuts" work where he did not enlist the help of others, he did employ a friend of his from Minnesota named Jim Sasseville to collaborate on this new strip. Sasseville provides comments throughout this fairly small book about his experiences with Schulz and I think that you are left with the impression that Schulz quickly lost interest in the concept of "It's Only A Game" as he appeared to turn over most of the drawing and inking duties to Sasseville, with Schulz's major contribution being the strip ideas (with crude sketches). Sasseville even seems to imply that he came up with some of the strip ideas as well (but always got Schulz' approval before submission).

The strips are a little more detailed than those from Peanuts. The topics focus a lot on sports like bowling with the biggest focus on the card game Bridge (in fact, the word "Bridge" is placed in the corner of each of these particular strips to let the reader know what the heck the characters were talking about). I have never played Bridge, so the lingo goes over my head.

I'm glad that the Schulz estate is allowing the release of these non-Peanuts related projects because it lets us see another side of Charles Schulz' creativity. But "It's Only A Game" is not a remarkable collection as was the "Lil' Folks" collection that was released about a year ago, but it's fun to see nonetheless.

12 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

It's Only A Game

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2010

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The book was great -- We'd been looking for that collection for 40 years!. Shipping -- Very Questionable. We ordered 7 copies, we received 5 packages, over the period of a week, with shipping charged on each. Why they couldn't have all come at one time is beyond me. And, each was billed separately on the credit card. Who says computers are more efficient?

One person found this helpful

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Andrew S. Rogers

A different corner of Sparky's mind

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2005

Between November, 1957 and January, 1959, "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz drew -- first by himself and later with collaborator Jim Sasseville -- a one-panel, sports-themed comic strip. For Schulz fans who, whetted by the Fantagraphics "Complete Peanuts" series, are inspired to find and read most everything Schulz ever drew, this little book makes an interesting addition to get hold of.

However, its interest -- to me as I suppose for most readers -- has far more to do with the creator than with the creation. These one-panel strips just aren't as interesting as "Peanuts." There are no recurring characters, no storyline, and no particular topic apart from the sports themes themselves. Of course, just as in "Peanuts," there's an underlying sense of people beset by the human condition, and a few sighs, wails, and cries of despair that will be familiar to any "Peanuts" fan.

What made this collection most interesting to me was to imagine it as a peek into what the "Peanuts" characters would have been like had they ever grown up. And in fact, in the commentary that is interspersed with the art, Sasseville writes that "it's not accidental that some of the adults look like grown-up Peanuts kids. It was harder to emulate Sparky's adults than the kids." And so it's easy to see a middle-aged Charlie Brown seated at a table, looking at a deck of cards and saying (as a young Charlie Brown might have said on his pitcher's mound) "How can a good player like me lose all the time?" (p. 15) or, before his collection of little-bitty trophies, "Oh, I've won my share of tournaments all right, but I'm afraid none of them was very important" (p. 22). The chess-playing grandpa on page 45, however, has to be Linus. There's no other explanation.

This collection has its laughs, but it doesn't have the magic of "Peanuts." It is interesting to see the familiar lettering and drawing style applied to unfamiliar art, and even more interesting to see this corner of Sparky's mind. But I can understand why Schulz tired of "It's Only a Game" -- and more to the point, I can be thankful for the energy and creativity that were invested back into "Peanuts."

3 people found this helpful

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Blake Petit

Oddity from Sparky -- a must-read for Peanuts fan

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2006

A lot of folks don't know it, but "Peanuts" was not the only comic strip ever done by the great Charles M. Schulz. In the early 50s, he launched "It's Only a Game," a one-panel cartoon about the world of sports, games and hobbies. He was soon joined by cartoonist Jim Sasseville, who did a lot of the "Peanuts" comic books published by Dell. (Schulz did every "Peanuts" comic strip himself, but employed ghost cartoonists for the comic book). Sasseville sketched out Schulz's ideas and occasionally came up with his own strip. About Comics recently reprinted the entire run of this strip (it was only a little more than a year) in one volume. Is it any good? Well, it's not "Peanuts," but what is? A lot of the humor is kind of dated, such as the frequent Bridge strips that drop the name of a card game guru that contemporary audiences may never have even heard of. It's cute, and some of it is really good - the baseball, golf and fishing gags, for instance. I don't think it's a coincidence that an awful lot of the characters look like Charlie Brown and the gang all grown up, and the few cartoons in this collection that feature children could easily have been printed as Peanuts comics without people noticing the difference. It's not a must-have for the casual reader, but for the Schulz fan or for someone interested in the history of cartooning, it's a really clever and enjoyable volume.

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2023

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I have been looking for this book all over, but it is usually in poor condition. This one is like new. I love it.

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