| Title | : | The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 6: 1961-1962 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1560976721 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781560976721 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 325 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2006 |
Snoopy, meanwhile, becomes a compulsive water sprinkler head stander, unhappily befriends a snowman or two, and endures a family crisis involving a little family of birds. (Woodstock—the bird, and the music festival, for that matter—is still a few years away.) And in one of the strangest continuities in the history of Peanuts, the (off-panel) Van Pelt parents acquire a tangerine-colored pool table and become obsessed with it! Plus baseball blowouts (including a rare team victory), Beethoven birthdays, plenty of dubious psychiatric help for a nickel, and an introduction by Diana Krall.
The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 6: 1961-1962 Reviews
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By 1961 Peanuts had been a mainstay of the funny pages for more than a decade, and was either at its absolute peak or only a few years shy of it. As in previous years, the strip was marked by the comforts of the familiar as well as new characters, jokes, and ideas to consider. Page one of this book (January 1) is an amusing Sunday strip where Lucy makes a snowball that the other kids can see is too big to throw. Ah, but she has a different delivery method in mind for this snowball. It's perfectly efficient, leading to Charlie Brown's hilarious punchline in the final frame. January 22 (page ten) is another superb Sunday, with Charlie Brown and Schroeder underestimating Linus's ability to retaliate when they start a snowball fight. That blanket he carries isn't just for show, and Charlie Brown again caps off the strip with a great comment. January 26 (page twelve) sees Linus announce he wants to someday be one of the world's finest doctors. It seems a worthy goal...but could there be something even better than treating patients? How about becoming famous by just writing his expert medical opinion, in a newspaper column? I love this commentary on how fame can misdirect us from achieving actual good. Many a professional public servant has wandered down this path, exchanging a meritorious future for one of empty glamor. January 27, Lucy rebuts Charlie Brown's claim that "beauty is only skin deep." She punctuates her argument with a smart, funny final line.
February 1 (page fourteen), Lucy lectures Linus in nonsensical fashion about the natural world. He takes it in without a word as Lucy states that "Well-informed laymen make up the foundation of a healthy society!" That may be true, but often those who consider themselves "well-informed" are as mixed-up as Lucy, and only end up degrading society. On February 12 (page nineteen) Violet gives "Pig-Pen" a stern talking-to, insisting that girls like boys "who are clean and neat and who keep their shoelaces tied." She's satisfied with her diatribe...until a particular boy comes along who fills all the standards she just mentioned. Violet's reaction to crossing paths with Charlie Brown right then is nigh upon perfect. Valentine's Day is near on February 13 (page twenty). When Violet accidentally drops one of the Valentines she's going to distribute tomorrow, Charlie Brown is encouraged to see the initials "C.B." on the card. Alas, he jumps to the wrong conclusion. Will Charlie Brown ever have a nice Valentine's Day? March 6 (page twenty-nine), there's a new girl in town: Frieda, she of the "naturally curly hair." At first Frieda has a habit of talking about all sorts of things, seemingly at random, but that trait is soon replaced by a vain preoccupation with her hair. We see much more of Frieda in the pages ahead.
Moving along to June 4 (page sixty-seven), a Sunday, Linus consults Lucy at her "Psychiatric Help" booth. The exchange is mirrored almost word for word in 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas television special, though Lucy's "patient" there is Charlie Brown, not Linus. Lucy runs through a list of phobias her brother may suffer from, but none quite seem to be the problem. June 5 (page sixty-eight), Frieda—who recently obtained a cat named Faron, mostly to show Snoopy he isn't the only cute animal around—palms her cat off on Charlie Brown to hold while she goes to the store. The gag lasts the entire week, with Charlie Brown tricking Linus into taking Faron from him. Linus isn't happy with the responsibility, and yells after Frieda to come back and get Faron. The cat's facial reaction to Linus's unflattering description of him (June 7) is one of the best sight gags in this book. The week has a thoughtful end (June 10, page sixty-nine), with Frieda indignant at Linus's complaining. She accuses him of not liking cats, or even disliking girls, though Linus's only real objection is having responsibility pushed on him that he didn't ask for. It's easy to unfairly malign a person's motives if they don't behave the way you like, but that only creates resentment.
July 15 (page eighty-four), Snoopy approaches Charlie Brown with his food dish. Charlie Brown has already filled it, but he forgot an important little something. A gourmand like this beagle must have his food prepared just right. Another familiar scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas pops up September 18. Lucy is disappointed at not receiving what she most wanted for her birthday, but not many kids get the sort of gift she had in mind: "Real estate!" The annual "Great Pumpkin" storyline resurfaces in late October. On the 25 (page one hundred twenty-eight), Violet reacts negatively to Linus talking about the Great Pumpkin, prompting him to reflect, "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people...religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin!" This classic quip from the 1966 It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown television special always brings a smile. Another line from the special occurs October 30 (page one hundred thirty-one) as Linus delivers a soliloquy praising the sincerity of his own little pumpkin patch, a place sure to draw the attention of the Great Pumpkin when he appears on Halloween to deliver presents. Holiday-themed Peanuts is so much fun.
November 15 (page one hundred thirty-seven) is a return to pure humor and philosophy. Linus remarks to Lucy that "I think I'm ahead of my time". She rails against that comment, saying it's an excuse people use for their own failures, but Linus has something different in mind than Lucy thinks. This is one of the funniest strips of this book. By mid-November the Peanuts gang is looking ahead to Christmas. November 17 and 18 (page one hundred thirty-eight) are both favorite jokes from the Christmas television special, though the lines there are said by Sally rather than Linus. Another moment recreated in the television special shows up December 17 (page one hundred fifty-one), with Linus protesting Lucy's insistence that he memorize lines for the Christmas program. The (literal) punchline is one of the best-known in Peanuts history. After the glitter and excitement of yuletide, most all of us feel some degree of "Post-Christmas Let-Down." Lucy's behavior (December 26 and 27, page one hundred fifty-five) acknowledges this in humorous fashion. On January 13, 1962 (page one hundred sixty-two), Snoopy acknowledges his impulse to get away from it all, to see new people and places far from home, but one thing causes him to stick around in the neighborhood. The comforts of home are hard to resist even if our hearts yearn for a fresh start. Lucy confronts Snoopy on February 1 (page one hundred seventy-one) for scowling at her, but she isn't willing to let it drop even after he wipes the look off his face. "You're scowling at me inside!" she yells. Snoopy's thought bubble in the last panel is interesting. "Rats! If you can't even scowl inside what is there left?" For those who have an authoritarian bent toward overseeing what others think, say, and do, their desire to control knows no limit. If we're not able to think and believe as we want, how can we claim to be free?
It's not during the Christmas season, but February 19 (page one hundred seventy-nine) is another moment from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Lucy takes umbrage at Charlie Brown's perceived hesitation to agree with her statement that she's beautiful, and she rants about it for the rest of the strip. There's nobody quite like Lucy Van Pelt! February 26 (page one hundred eighty-two), Charlie Brown claims as he often does that "Nobody likes me!" Lucy answers with regret that she can't like him; it would mean lowering her standards, being dishonest with herself. The closing line, spoken by Charlie Brown as he stands alone, is an unexpected tug at the heart. Charles Schulz's penchant for hilarity is on display March 24 (page one hundred ninety-two) when Linus returns from a secret scouting trip for the neighborhood baseball team. He describes the opposing team in uniquely scornful terms; defeating this ragtag squad of no-talents should be a cakewalk. However, he may have gotten his scouting assignment just a bit crossed up. There are fewer laugh-out-loud scenes in this Peanuts collection than the previous volume, but March 24 was pretty good.
At some point in these pages Linus is prescribed eyeglasses, and they play an important role Sunday, March 25 (page one hundred ninety-three). By turns, Lucy and Snoopy get distracted watching their own reflections in Linus's glasses, seeming more pleased by what they see there than by Linus himself. Isn't that how it often is with people? It's not always our personality traits that interest them in us, but parts of themselves they see reflected back. It's sad, but frequently true when dealing with humans, flawed as we are. August 20 (page two hundred fifty-seven), Charlie Brown mentions to his sister Sally that she'll be starting kindergarten in a few days. She's baffled at the very idea and everything that comes with it, to an extent that ups the comedic ante with each passing panel. On August 24 (page two hundred fifty-eight) Charlie Brown tells Sally she has no choice but to attend school. She relents, but there's one point she won't back down on no matter what. The punchline definitely made me smile. August 25, Snoopy watches bugs scurrying in the dirt, and thinks of how much less these creatures have to fret over than humans. It seems preferable to be like them, Snoopy concludes. "That's the secret...reduce your worries to a minimum!" Our favorite beagle makes a salient point.
One of the more illuminating Sundays of this collection is August 26 (page two hundred fifty-nine). Not thinking twice about it, Linus kneels beside a wild bird, who lets the gentle boy pat it on the head. Lucy is incensed; doesn't Linus know this isn't done in normal society? Patting a dog on the head is fine, but who treats a wild bird that way? Linus has a big heart, and doesn't always act as the world expects, but that's why we love him. I hope Linus continues to follow his instincts, inspiring all of us whose feelings deviate from the norm. Sally is so concerned over starting school that by August's end Charlie Brown takes her to Lucy for "Psychiatric Care". The doctor's diagnosis (September 1, page two hundred sixty-one)? Charlie Brown is to blame for Sally's fears, not Sally. Blaming the "previous generation" is a staple of the mental health profession, Lucy tells him. "It doesn't solve anything, but it makes us all feel better!" Truly, human nature trends that way. We would rather blame others than ourselves, even though it does nothing to fix our problems. Real improvement means taking responsibility and working to overcome your flaws, but that isn't as easy as passing the buck to others. September 2 (page two hundred sixty-two) is a classic Linus and Lucy Sunday. He responds to her grouchiness with elegant sarcasm, a more effective rejoinder than anger could ever be. When Linus is on his game, he's a terrific kid. Once Sally gets in the groove of kindergarten, it's not so bad, though September 25 (page two hundred seventy-two) she admits she tries not to overparticipate in class. The health-related excuse she says she gave the teacher yesterday made me burst out laughing.
It's back to the Great Pumpkin storyline in mid-October. Writing to the Great Pumpkin to ask for presents (October 13, page two hundred seventy-nine), Linus provides a well-known moment for the Peanuts Halloween television special. Several more signature scenes from the special unfold on October 29, 30, 31, and November 1, 2, and 3 (pages two hundred eighty-seven and two hundred eighty-eight). Skeptical as she is, Sally stays with Linus in the pumpkin patch all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin. That whole week is a classic of the Peanuts canon. December 5 (page three hundred two), Charlie Brown has noticed that Snoopy gets sold sleeping outside atop his doghouse. Charlie Brown constructs an igloo to keep him warm, but...somehow it doesn't seem to help. The punchline is terrific. On December 20 (page three hundred nine), Lucy gets into the act of writing to Santa Claus. Her line encouraging him to not bother with presents and "just bring me money" would become an unforgettable joke in the Christmas television special, though it's said by Sally instead of Lucy. December 27 (page three hundred twelve), during the post-Christmas roundup, we get a comical exchange between Charlie Brown and Lucy that, again, is a well-known moment from the Christmas special. 1962 ends with Charlie Brown brainstorming ways to keep Snoopy warm outside at night, and Snoopy looking ahead to a new year that promises more fun, relaxation, and drama in the neighborhood. We can all look forward to that.
Charles Schulz is underrated as a children's author. Maybe it's because Peanuts resonates with readers of any age, but that's true for all great youth literature. Peanuts is a wondrous blend of comedy and emotion, philosophy and frivolity that transcends era and settles into the hearts of kids for life. I love Charlie Brown, Linus, Sally, Lucy, "Pig-Pen", and the rest; reading their adventures as they unfolded in the funny pages each day for almost half a century is deeply satisfying. I rate volume six of this Fantagraphics series two and a half stars and would consider the full three; there's little I enjoy more than immersing myself in the world of Peanuts. I can hardly wait to pick up the story in 1963. -
It gets better with every collection. This one has some great moments. Snoopy is coming up with new things to imitate. Of course, Lucy is still pulling the football away before Charlie Brown can kick it.
Fredia appears for the first time with her naturally curly hair. She is always trying to get Snoppy to chase rabbits.
My favorite strip was in January of 1962. Lucy gives the ultimate ultimatum. She declares she wants the world fixed by the time she is eighteen. Only Lucy could say that.
I can't wait to read another collection of the Peanuts. -
With this volume we're still in the midst of the classic period, even if the book is a little less overwhelming than the previous two volumes. The comic strip immediately starts on a high note, when Lucy buries Linus's blanket. On January 28, 1961, Lucy's psychiatry booth returns, this time to stay, and on March 6, Frieda joins the gang. On November 2 Charlie Brown does an ill-fated attempt to write with a pen, and on November 19 we learn about his secret crush on the little girl with the red hair. 1962 sees Linus getting glasses, Linus spying on his own baseball team, Lucy flying Linus's blanket as a kite and losing it, Charlie Brown's complete baseball team quitting him, and Sally's anxiety when she has to go to kindergarten. And, of course, there's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown's kite flying disasters, and Beethoven's birthdays. Charlie Brown is less prominent than in earlier volumes, and Snoopy still is halfway the neighborhood dog and the bipedal stand alone character he would become, but both the characters of Linus and Sally are more developed in this volume, and even Schroeder gets some fine moments.
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Linus: "You need a new outlook, Charlie Brown... Try to look at your life as if it were a book, and each day is if it were a page in that book..."
Charlie Brown: "I've tried that... There were too many misprints!" -
The progress of Peanuts.
Lucy opens the volume stealing Linus's blanket to break him of it, and subjects it to some other abuse over the two years. Snoopy is a stalwart sea captain, and associates with some birds, unindividuated. Baseball goes badly -- more than once, everyone quits. Frieda appears, with her naturally curly hair and insistence that Snoopy should hunt rabbits -- and she gets a cat. Linus gets glasses and preaches the Great Pumpkin. Sally panics about kindergarten. The little red-haired girl gets a single mention. -
More of Snoopy not just being your average beagle, but also seeing the Peanuts molding into their current look and some funny moments like Schroeder celebrating Beethoven’s birthday and Sally and Linus awaiting the Great Pumpkin, but finds only disappointment. A (100%/Outstanding)
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This one is baseball heavy. Also Sally starts Kindergarten.
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To see the world through the eyes of children is a gift, and Charles Schulz has allowed us this wonderful insight through Peanuts.
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this collection is enormous.
by 1961, charles schulz definitely had hit his stride with his characters and while some gags repeat unhumorously (the naturally curly hair girl) mostly, i feel his characters blend the perfect amount of cynicism with hope, earnest with sarcastic, cruel with kind. i love getting lost in their world. -
Excellent book to have read on Christmas break. The highlights are Charlie Brown’s baseball team falling apart in the ‘61 season, Linus (and Snoopy) get glasses, Linus becomes a baseball spy, the team trying to decide how to cheer on their pitcher, and the Doctors’ Round Table TV show.
You also get some names thrown in that give you a peek at what’s happening in the outside world - Rachel Carson (Silent Spring), Willie McCovey (1962 World Series), Scott Carpenter (Friendship 7), the “little girl playing on the South Lawn of the White House” (Caroline Kennedy), and the Sabin Oral Polio Vaccine. -
The last five volumes of this have been marked by milestones, "the first time Lucy pulls away the football," "the first time Snoopy sleeps on top of his dog house" that sort of thing - but there's nothing that jumps out of that here. It's a steady stream of gently melancholic, surprisingly profound whimsy. I recognised a lot more strips from the collections we had as a kid than I did from other volumes, I think the only thing that really suprised was how overwhelmingly downbeat it was.
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More classic early 60s Peanuts where we see Sally Brown, somewhat reluctantly, starting kindergarten. Snoopy becoming more human only speaking in barks but his thoughts are also shown. Charlie Brown seeing his dream of becoming a professional baseball player looking, as ever, impossible. And Lucy getting a special crabby award from Linus. All this and much more observations from the pen of Charles M Schultz
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Okay, so I took a big break in the middle of reading this book, but that's okay. Because... THE PEANUTS MOVIE was released and I saw it twice! In theaters! Don't judge me! It was perfect! I wrote a whole review about it, and hopefully I'll post a link to that soon.
ANYWAYS. The '60s saw the cast of Peanuts grow quite a bit, in many ways. The already-large cast of Charlie & Sally Brown, Snoopy, Lucy & Linus van Pelt, Schroeder, Patty, Violet, Shermy, and "Pig-Pen," was joined by the "naturally-curly-hair" girl Frieda and her possibly paralyzed (?) cat Faron. But, more importantly, some of the Peanuts gang go through quite the growing pains.
Charlie Brown goes through the same existentialist depression and sees such tragedies as his ever-failing kite and his entire baseball team quitting on him, AND he catches his first view of the cute out-of-sight "little red haired girl"; Snoopy makes friends with a few birds, listening to their troubles and helping to raise his "grandkid" birds born on his doghouse; Sally begins her transition onto the mainstage of Peanuts as she reluctantly begins kindergarten; and Linus, especially, sees a lot of change--he must wear glasses, loses then gains then loses again his favorite teacher Ms. Othmar, alienates Sally with his obsession with the Great Pumpkin, and sets the entire country on a nation-wide search for his missing blanket. Poor Linus... just wait for puberty, kid.
This was a wonderful collection, and a great place to start if you are looking for the quintessential Peanuts gang. It also happens to be the comics written just before Charles M. Schulz began his journey toward that national treasure, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the first of many, many, MANY TV specials for the Peanuts gang. -
Schultz is in his prime and the strips are wonderful much more often that not. Even the missteps are engaging, the arrival of Frieda of the naturally curly hair, for example, and the first serious escapades between Snoopy and birds around his doghouse. Sally Brown, a very self-possessed cynic, is nobody’s fool, the opposite of her poor elder brother and is a star of this volume, as is the eye-ware wearing Linus, Violet, Lucy, of course, and Schroeder. Near the end of 1962, an event of the day intrudes, though it occurred in October, not in December. Linus and Charlie Brown are leaning on their elbows on that short wall they use for reflection. Three panels of them just leaning on the wall and the fourth laments that the drive Willie McCovey hit to end Game 7 of the World Series between the Giants and the Yankees wasn’t a little higher. And a year before Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, Sally sets Linus straight on some things. Linus says, “I thought little girls were innocent and trusting…” Sally scoffs, “Welcome to 1962!”
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This where the comic strip begins to look very much like the TV specials we all came to know and love. Lucy's psychiatric booth became a regular thing, Linus and the blanket became a regular story line, Snoopy was discovered by the Red Baron and things never were the same after that.
Probably most of the material from the baseball special and the Halloween and Christmas shows appeared during these years and the next volume. Marcie and Peppermint Patty became regulars and Snoopy became friends with various birds which would later lead to Woodstock,who didnt have a name until the early seventies.
As a big fan of the series I am having a lot of fun re-reading everything. I'm probably even renewing my fandom as I go thru these antics and adventures again. -
It's tough to rank these Complete Peanuts collections at this point. After reading 14 volumes, you start to see the repeats and similarities across the years. But usually there's something novel in each two-year collection. This one just didn't seem to have that. Linus temporarily had glasses but that was the only noticeable addition. But a good comic strip isn't always about presenting new material.
Peanuts was 10 years old at the time these strips came out. The core cast is established but later characters (e.g. Peppermint Patty) are still a long way in the future. So the strips here are iterations on familiar Peanuts tropes. It's a volume of comfort food.
One of the best part of Peanuts is how its philosophical views are subtly woven into the punchlines. Alas, there are no such references this time. Even the tried and true "happiness is..." only gets used once as far as I remember. Again, not to say Peanuts always has to bring the heavy concepts, but that is part of what elevated the strip above its peers. -
Welcome to the Peanuts, Miss Frieda and Faron!
Let's hope that's a warm enough welcome. Y'know, people with naturally curly hair get quite sensitive.
Frieda is the newest character added to these hilarious comic strips! She takes pride in her conversation skills and her, oh so glorious, naturally curly hair. When she first appears, she seems a bit scatterbrained. But, now, she's simply only talking about her hair. She thinks Snoopy is lazy and should chase rabbits, whilst Snoopy is sympathetic towards the poor, fuzzy hoppers. She then gets a cat, Faron, to prove that dogs are terrible. Faron pretty much has no backbone.
So, yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahh. Things got pretty much weirder. -
Destacaría en este libro, las entradas de Frieda y su pelo rizado natural, y su gato Faron, que provoca alguna expectación con Snoopy. El personaje de Sally, crece y empieza a desarrollar personalidad, destacamos la vigilia de la Gran Calabaza con Linus. Hablando de Linus, tiene un protagonismo especial, con bastantes gags sobre su manta (hasta se convierte en cometa viajera), regresa Miss Othmar, y tiene gafas. Snoopy afianza su amistad con los pájaros y establece su "cuartel general" en el techo de la caseta. Todo aderezado con una gran cantidad de derrotas en el baseball ¡y una victoria! Obra maestra, para disfrutar leyendo y no cansarse nunca
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Some of the glory days of Schulz's work: educational, at times political, whimsical, and a classic collection of characters. Best read over time (I tend to read a couple of weeks' worth before bed most nights) rather than lapped up, unless of course you are a complete addict. Already the series has come a long way from its roots, but still retains a hefty chunk of the philosophy and simplicity of the early days. I don't believe there had been any television or film specials by this point, so the whiff of commercialisation still only lingered at the margins. Not for much longer.
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By the early 60s, Schulz has more or less perfected his Peanuts strip: droll adult wit filtered through the eyes and actions of children (plus the irrepressible Snoopy) and interspersed with tour-de-force visual humour. This is a particularly good volume for Linus.
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Another super strong, enjoyable volume of Peanuts. None of the long term plots cracked me up as much as things like Linus and the librarians from the previous volume, but the individual strips were all up to the usual high quality.
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I am continuing to enjoy these books. I look forward to eventually having read all of the Peanuts books. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, the rest of the gang. So much more than just laughs. Thoughtfulness and even a bit of philosophy peek in now and again.
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Still more characters to come, but Schultz's masterpiece is now going great guns.
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There's nothing more to say about this brilliant strip, other than it's hitting its peak in this volume. Awesome.
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I'm loving these beautiful collected editions of the Snoopy comics. It's amazing how timeless they are. And wise.
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Linus in glasses! We meet Freida and her boneless cat. Sally starts kindergarten.
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I mean. it's Snoopy and the gang, who would give this less than 5 stars?
