The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 (Peanuts) [Hardcover]

In these first couple of years, he hasn't quite hit his mature style - that flat, side-on, deadpan, almost existential chilliness that characterises the best work. The characters are still being played around with; it takes him a few months to get Lucy's eyes right, and Charlie Brown has a wiseguy quality that seems quite peculiar, if you haven't read these early ones before. But the evidence is there. "Peanuts" (Schulz hated the title, which was imposed by United Features - he thought it undignified) was always the saddest and darkest of comic strips. Charlie Brown's loneliness, Linus' scholarly naivete, Lucy's aggression, Snoopy's indifference are only ever temporarily soothed. These early strips tend to be excessively wordy, and Schulz is a little too fond of showing off what a good draughtsman he is, but from the very first strip ("Good ol' Charlie Brown...How I hate him!") he knows where he's going.

There's an intelligent foreword by Garrison Keillor, and a good afterword by David Michaelis, who is working on a biography. There's also a long and fascinating late 80s interview with Schulz, in which he comes across as modest, self-doubting, a natural worrier and a thoroughly conflicted human being - sound familiar? - but also remarkably opinionated and certain when it comes to his job: he respects Robert Crumb, but not Garry Trudeau, who he regards as "unprofessional". Those who've been put off by books like "The Gospel according to Peanuts" will be surprised to learn that he accepted the term "secular humanist" to describe himself, and if his evident distaste for Trudeau's work can be ascribed to his disapproval of political satire, I'll never forget a wonderfully mordant strip he wrote at the height of the Vietnam war. Marooned at summer camp, Linus gives a campfire speech in which he quotes some stirring Biblical passages on our loved ones overseas - and then throws all his credibility away by inquiring "Incidentally, has anyone here ever heard of the Great Pumpkin?"

It's not just Peanuts fans or comic fans who should buy this book. Schulz was one of the most widely-read and influential artist/writers of the last century. Anyone with an interest in what millions of people read every day should keep up with this edition, which is beautifully produced and admirably discreet in the presentation. Just like the work of its creator, then. Top marks to Fantagraphics and to everyone else involved. I think the author would have been embarrassed but pleased by the whole thing.

A primitive Charlie Brown and Snoopy, barely recognisable as the characters we have come to know and love today, share the first pages with a fantastically large-headed Shermy and Patty. This book charts the development of Schulz's strip, as his drawing settles into its well-known style and we are introduced to now-familiar characters; Violet, Schroeder, Lucy (and the origin of the "fuss-budget"), and a baby Linus (before his famous "security blanket"). These strips, covering the first two years of Peanuts history, show Snoopy's dog house before it assumes its side-on view, Charlie Brown as catcher of the baseball team before Schroeder replaces him, and Shermy as pitcher before Charlie Brown himself steps into his most famous role. Schulz's unique humour and comic timing are evident from the very first strip with Shermy's tirade; "Well! here comes ol' Charlie Brown!...Good ol' Charlie Brown...Yes, sir!...Good ol' Charlie Brown...How I hate him!" A brilliant insight into the world of early Peanuts and great for anyone who ever wondered how Schroeder acquired his toy piano and Beethoven fixation, what Lucy's first words were, or anyone who wanted to see Charlie Brown actually keeping a kite in the air (albeit low-flying, as he is "afraid of airplanes").

The book also includes an introduction by Garrison Keillor, a short biography of Charles Schulz, and an informative but somewhat lengthy interview with Schulz.

Great for Peanuts fanatics, but for those looking for an introduction to, overview and history of the whole of the Peanuts fifty-year run, I would recommend the 50th anniversary book, "Peanuts- A Golden Celebration".