Charles Schulz. Good Ol’ Snoopy (1958), Let’s Face it, Charlie Brown (1960), This Is Your Life, Charlie Brown (1962), You’re Not For Real, Snoopy (1965), Snoopy and the Red Baron (1966), He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown (1968), You’re in Love, Charlie Brown (1969)
Had another look at the Charlie Brown paperbacks we accumulated when our children we little. I’m still a Peanuts fan. Schulz’s talent was to see the connection between children’s frustrations and adult ones. And he was a master of graphic expression. A wiggly line for a mouth, a drooping doggy head, a dot and curved line for raised or scrunched eyebrows - it’s
amazing how much emotion is conveyed by so little ink. Schulz also knows how to pace a joke. Many of the strips have the build-up and punch line of a stand-up comic’s joke, but are impossible without the graphic. Such as Snoopy lying on his back on the roof of his doghouse while the rain pours down. There’s only one thing wrong with this...The rain keeps running down my nose and eyes.
Some of the strips have taken on a different resonance these days: Lucy to Linus: See that building there?... If you ever want to borrow a book, all you have to do is go in there and tell them which one you want, and They’ll let you take it home. Linus: Free? Lucy: Absolutely free! Linus: Sort of makes you wonder what they’re up to.
I thoroughly enjoyed rereading these books. I’ve decided to keep them. ****
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