Complete Peanuts 4 exists

While it’s not shipping from bookstores yet, I can tell you that The Complete Peanuts Volume 4 does exist – I have a copy sitting right here. Unfortunately, I’m still under the weather and can’t go through it and do a cogent review just yet (although I will note that Jonathan Franzen writes a good intro, even if I don’t agree with his conclusions about how the work reflects Schulz’s personality), but if you’ve been waiting until it was nigh to order it, go order it now (or order the boxed set of volumes 3 and 4 together.)

And yes, this new volume does have the full Sunday strip which was only partially reprinted in Volume 2, run here after the index.


The affordable paperback edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition is now shipping. This book is a good look at the making of the classic TV special, which turns 40 years old this year!


Thanks to a loved one who took pity on an ill Peanuts collector, I now have copies of all three of the Kohl’s “Collector’s Edition” books mentioned in the previous post. And the pages of all of them are signicantly larger than the standard editions of these books; it’ s most blatant with the Flying Ace book, which was the smallest to begin with, but even the other two books are about an inch bigger in width and height. As such, if you wanted copies of these storybooks, this is a good edition to get, and $5 for a dust-jacketed hardcover (with profits going to charity) makes it a nice deal.

Upcoming releases
The Return of What’s Necessary

Coming in April is a reissue of Only What’s Necessary, Chip Kidd’s second book on the art of Peanuts, reissued for the 75th anniversary of the strip. (My review of the original 2015 edition is here.) For those keeping track, this is the third cover for this book. Here are the …

Upcoming releases
Covers to coming things

It’s that time when all the computer systems update and suddenly we’re seeing covers t0o some of the books that are rolling down the road toward us. The big one in this batch is probably Snoopy: The Story of My Life, which is the Cartoon Art Museum’s Andrew Farago ghosting …

New releases
Review: Snoopy (Classic Cartoon Character Bios)

The Abdo Kids : Classic Cartoon Character Bios books are blatant stuff-to-fill-school-libraries material. Sturdy hardcovers, lots of pictures, 24 pages, little text – about 250 words. The Snoopy volume uses Snoopy images from just about anywhere: strips (appropriately licensed), animation, photos, The Peanuts Movie publicity materials. And the simple facts it …