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 Simply cannot be praised enough. The Complete Peanuts 1967 to 1968 continues Fantagraphics Books' marvelous definitive compilation of Charles Shulz's iconic newspaper strip, including both daily and Sunday strips (all strips are reproduced in black and white). Featuring an introduction by John Waters - which draws the reader's attention to Shulz's uniquely expressive art style when drawing facial expressions such as a "total-warfare frown", and his starkly accurate portrayal of the crushing humiliation of defeat. In the 1967 to 1968 comics, Peppermint Patty tries to trade Charlie Brown five baseball players for Snoopy the shortstop; Charlie Brown makes a new friend in Franklin (who is initially scared off from the local neighborhood when Linus tells him about the "Great Pumpkin"); and Snoopy (a.k.a. the "Masked Marvel") and Lucy get into a championship arm-wrestling match! Like all previous volumes in the series, The Complete Peanuts 1967 to 1968 is highly recommended for comic lovers of all ages and backgrounds, and simply cannot be praised enough. Schulz sails through a turbulent era As America careened into the ghastly late 1960s with its pop culture literally fracturing in pieces, "Peanuts" stood virtually alone as the one creation with quite literally something for everyone. As revealed in this latest collection (and many earlier ones - virtually all of the strips in this volume have been reprinted at some time or other), the psychological discourses and keen personality conflicts that had boosted the strip to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s were still very much a part of the mix, but they now existed cheek-by-jowl with Snoopy's burgeoning fantasy life, the initial introduction of ethnic diversity into the "Peanuts" "universe," and Schulz' first tentative stab at fashioning an entire continuity around Peppermint Patty, his one true breakout character of the decade. While some fans may have chided Schulz for not taking sides in the cultural conflicts rocking the nation, hindsight reveals that he had the right idea all along. The "Peanuts" strips of this era are still eminently fresh and readable in a way that a dog-eared copy of "Crawdaddy" or "Ramparts" is emphatically not. Fantagraphics' back-cover blurb claims that Snoopy's identity as the "World War I Flying Ace" had "almost entirely taken over" his personality during this time. To the contrary: this era saw ol' Snoop go in so many different directions, both frivolous and un-, that it's a true challenge to list them all. On the serious side, we get the saga of Lila, Snoopy's previous owner, whose letters torment Snoopy (and, by extension, the baffled Charlie Brown) in a couple of powerful continuities. In the sequence that inspired the plot for the movie "Snoopy Come Home" (1972), Snoopy rushes to Lila's aid after his ex-owner goes to the hospital. Granted, Snoopy doesn't temporarily decide to return to Lila for good here, as he did in the movie, but it's easy to see why Schulz latched onto this relatively short sequence as ideal screenplay fodder. Snoopy also seeks psychological help from Lucy after hearing strange noises in the night (and needless to say, Lucy doesn't take kindly to being paid in dog food). After concentrating on "Red Baron"-battling shtick early in the volume, the beagle later kicks into high gear with visits to The Masters, the wrist-wrestling championship in Petaluma, and (at least until an ocean unexpectedly gets in the way) the Olympic skating finals in Grenoble, France. He also finds time to run for political office (don't ask me which one), wield an "iron paw" as the demanding new manager of Charlie Brown's baseball team, track Lucy as a secret agent, and pose as a "Cheshire Beagle." Snoopy hadn't gotten to the point of taking over the strip just yet, but one can sense Schulz beginning to lean ever so slightly in that direction. The introduction of the black character Franklin in early 1968 is often cited as Schulz' acknowledgment of the changing racial climate of America and his need to get with the multicultural program. Schulz did get some flak from bigots who complained about Charlie Brown inviting Franklin home after the pair met at the beach. In retrospect, the flap hardly seems worth the trouble, as Franklin never developed a truly distinctive personality (nor even a "hook," as did the equally bland Schroeder with his Beethoven-mania). Earlier, Schulz essayed a lighter touch in diversifying the cast when Peppermint Patty, making one of her then-regularly-scheduled Summer pilgrimages to the main cast's neighborhood, brought along the pint-sized Mexican/Swedish slugger Jose Peterson. One can almost hear Schulz chuckling to himself, "Let's see how they try to categorize THIS guy!" Alas, Jose never officially appeared again, nor did he speak so much as a word of dialogue. Peppermint Patty herself is still a fairly minor character at this point, with Schulz still working out some details - PP isn't even calling Charlie Brown "Chuck" consistently yet - but the June 1968 continuity in which she goes to summer camp represents a watershed of sorts. Rather than meeting Charlie Brown, Linus, or any other familiar figure at camp, she shoulders the burden of leading lady all by herself, taking charge of a trio of younger girls, one of whom (Clara) is the proto-Marcie. (For the record, Clara isn't the first one to call PP "Sir"; that honor goes to the freckled, pigtailed Sophie, who complains of homesickness - that is, until she meets Snoopy, who's at the boys' camp across the lake.) From this point on, Schulz permitted PP more and more "screen time" until she became a full-fledged regular. (Just before the camp sequence, PP got star billing in a Father's Day Sunday strip, indicating that she was very much on Schulz' mind at the time.) John Waters' introduction to the volume is serviceable, but come on, Fantagraphics, isn't it about time to balance the political scales just a bit? Where are the famous right-wing fans of "Peanuts" to give us THEIR views on the strip? Given that Schulz was performing a delicate balancing act at this time, pleasing a mass audience at a time when that was proving harder and harder to do, getting views from all sides would only seem fitting. Peanuts At Its Peak In this volume of the collected Peanuts strips Charles M. Schulz's world has reached its peak and, just possibly, started to descend. We still enjoy Charlie Brown's neuroses, Lucy's arrogance, Linus' philosophies, and the other inimitable idiosyncracies of the main characters. We laugh at Snoopy's Red Baron, vulture, and other fantasies, but here and there we start to notice a few things that are missing. Shermy, Patty, Violet, and Pigpen rarely show up anymore and when they do, its just as a walk on part to say a few words here and there. Snoopy's imagination is as fascinating as ever, but its beginning to dominate more and more of the strips, to the detriment of some of the other characters. Its a sad foretaste of the later 1970s, when Snoopy and Woodstock (who makes his first appearances, unnamed, in this volume) basically took over the strip! I don't mean to denigrate this volume, which is full of classic Peanuts humor featuring the characters at their best, like Charlie Brown's encounters with kite-eating trees, Linus' love for the Great Pumpkin, and Lucy's psychiatry booth therapy sessions. I enjoyed the many topical references to life in the 1960s, some of which may puzzle younger readers. How many people know who Twiggy is nowadays? This volume and the two or three preceding it, will probably be regarded as the Peanuts at its best.  MISPRINT: Duplicate/omitted strip Of course all the praise that the other reviewers are giving the strips themselves is entirely deserved. HOWEVER, in at least some copies of this book, there is an error on page 53: the May 1st strip appears twice and the May 3rd strip is left out. This is a small error, of course, but one that should be noted before purchase! I have spoken to the publisher's customer service department (so far I've been the only one to point out the error) and will update when I hear back from them regarding how widespread this error is and what steps will be made to rectify it. | |||||||||||||