As I sit here, the clock is clicking down the last few hours of 2006. So what does 2007 have to offer the Charles Schulz book fan? Well, there’s the usual themed Peanuts collections, probably some more gift books, and so forth. Amidst all these common boks, there are four books coming up that I think are in the gotta-have-it realm for the serious fan.

• The Complete Peanuts Volume 7: 1963-1964. According to Derrick Bang’s count of unpublished Peanuts strips in the Peanuts Collector Club’s 1999 book 50 Years of Happiness, this has 160 dailies and 3 Sundays that had not been collected into earlier books (although some may have shown up in other books over the last few years.)
• The Complete Peanuts Volume 8: 1965-1966, which offers us 120 unreprinted (as of Bang’s list) dailies and 11 Sundays.
• Schulz: A Biography should be the richest, fullest, deepest biography of the man.
• Schulz’s Youth – and here, I have to admit I’m biased. I’m publishing this one, shelling out the bucks and doing the layout. This is a collection of Schulz’s cartoons for Warner Press in the ’50s and ’60s, mostly single-panel pieces about teenagers. Hundreds of cartoons, some never in a book before, and most of the ones which were in books are in ones that have been out of print for decades. Some fun stuff. I hope I can be forgiven for considering this a worthwhile addition to folks collections.

But no matter what Schulz books you get this year (or even if you get none, perish the thought!) may it be filled with joy, peace, comfort, and chocolate chip cookies.

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