So, you want to get someone a Peanuts book present, but am not sure what? Here are my suggestions.
- The “I really want to impress you with a large, expensive, impressive gift” gift: Peanuts: Artist’s Edition, an amazing, seriously oversized book reproducing Peanuts from the original art
The “You think you like Peanuts, but wait until you see it in its ultimate presentation” gift: Peanuts Every Sunday 1956-1960, hundreds of Peanuts Sunday strips in an oversized hardcover, beautifully reproduced from possibly the best visual era for the Sunday strips.- The “Hey, kid, you’ve never heard of Peanuts?” gift: Charlie Brown and Friends, a full-color strip collection at a low price.
- The “You like Peanuts but you’ve only read a bit?” gift: I’ve got no click-through for this, but if you’re a Costco member, check their book table for The Big Book of Peanuts. There are two volumes of it, about $20 each; the one that collects all the daily (i.e., not Sunday) strips from the 1970s is better than the one from the 1980s.
- The “You’re not going to read it, you’re just going to look at it” gift: Peanuts: a Scanmation Book, a cool book with a handful of images, each of which animates as you turn the page
- The “For the person who thinks they have everything” gift: It’s Only a Game: The Complete Color Collection presents Schulz’s other syndicated newspaper cartoon. As the publisher of this volume, I can tell you that, while the earlier black-and-white collection of this strip sold in the thousands, this color edition has sold only in the dozens. I mean it, it hasn’t even sold a hundred copies yet. Odds are very slim that anyone you’re thinking of buying one for actually has it.
