Tug's Pick of the Week
The
Complete Peanuts
Volume One:
1950-1952
Hey there, folks. In order to help our work-laden webmaster out, this "Pick of the Week" is going to be a short one. Don�t worry, though � this has no reflection on the quality of the pick or even the number of good comics coming out.
I always liked the Sunday funnies. They were actually one of the reasons why I became such a voracious reader as a child and led, at least in some partial way, to me picking up my first comic book proper. I liked most of them (except Andy Capp � it�s really hard for a child to understand the humor of a guy not getting along with his wife), but there were only a few that I really loved.
I can remember going to the lower-school library and discovering that some of my favorite funnies had been going on long enough for nice book-sized collections of them to be published. There was one of these series whose collections I checked out constantly � occasionally just renewing them for a solid month at a time. I didn�t quite understand what Mrs. Owens the librarian meant when she jokingly threatened to �cut me off,� but I knew that keeping a boy away from his Peanuts is just plain wrong.
The Complete Peanuts, Volume One: 1950-1952 marks the first of a series of Peanuts collections from Fantagraphics that will span 24 volumes and 12 years � and collect every single Peanuts strip ever produced. I don�t think I have to go on about how Peanuts is one of the greatest comic strips of all time and how its wit, charm, and innocence combine with Charles Schulz�s art to create timeless elements of comedy that can be enjoyed by anyone who ever had a childhood.
(Well, maybe I do have to go on about it.)
While I could write a thesis about this strip and what it has meant to me and to the world, I will instead just say that by collecting these works, Fantagraphics is doing a great service to us all. The books themselves are well-designed and are going to look absolutely amazing all together on a shelf somewhere in 12 years when they are all out. I know it�s a long time to be collecting something � but just think, by the time it�s over, the series will collect half a century of goodness.
If you come in and we are sold out of the book, please just let us know. We can order you one in a flash. You certainly don�t want to miss out on this great collection � and we don�t want you to, either!
Also, don�t forget to watch out this week (and the rest of the
month) for the "X-Men Reload" event. All the X-books are a-changin�
this month, and this week you can pick up Uncanny X-Men # 444 and
Exiles # 46.
Uncanny features the return of the Chris Claremont and Alan Davis creative super-duo, and one of my guilty comic pleasures � the X-Men playing sports!
And in Exiles, the team drops in on the actual Marvel Universe and runs into everyone�s favorite freak, Beak!