Past Peanuts anniversaries have sometimes had several books waving the sign that this is an anniversary book, but this year, at least one book is proclaiming that it is the one and only Peanuts 75th Anniversary book. The Essential Peanuts: The Greatest Comic Strip of All Time will be a slipcased hardcover b0ok — really, two books, one a Peanuts history written by… guess who! No, sorry, not the AAUGH Blogger this time (I suspect they feel I’ve written enough of these things)… no, this one is written by my pal Mark Evanier. Mark is a long-established writer and historian of comics and animation. And he brings something a little special to this because he was long-time friends with Lee Mendelson, the producer of the Peanuts specials, because Lee also produced the Garfield animated series, with Evanier wrote. So expect a lot of little insights that you’ve not seen elsewhere. And the publisher is Abrams ComicArts, who do good visual work. Introduction by Patrick McDonnell, of Mutts fame.

Also, expect stuff. This is one of those books that comes with inserts:

• 8 ready-to-frame prints
• 5 vinyl stickers
• 8 postcards
• Iron-on patch

and more… plus a full-color comic book. I presume that all these things will be in that thng that looks like a second book in the slipcase, but if you look closely is actually a box that says Bonus Material Inside.

There’s also a Kindle version on the way, but I’m not sure if a Kindle iron-on patch has quite the same effect.

Ships in October!

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