The Bumper Book of Peanuts – Review
By Roger Crow
In October 1950, the first Peanuts newspaper strip was printed, and for creator Charles M Schulz, it changed his life. The story of depressed schoolkid Charlie Brown, his cocky dog Snoopy, and the assorted characters who orbit around them touched a chord with millions, and little wonder. The strips were mostly bite-sized slices of escapism that were beautifully written and illustrated, and as the years went by, publishers jumped at the chance of publishing volumes of those collected works.
Circa 1977, as paperback collections of Peanuts strips filled shelves in the UK, one nine-year-old kid blew their pocket money on one of them. And a life-long love affair was born. The animated specials were must-see TV, and one of my favourite ever Christmas presents was a Snoopy watch in 1978. In 2026, time has not eroded that passion for Schulz’s greatest work. The Bumper Book of Peanuts is just that; a hardback, 300-plus page volume of comic strip brilliance divided into assorted chapters. But there’s no academic intro placing the volume, or the strips, in context.
“Lavish”
It’s all killer, no filler, and for one fan who shows little sign of losing interest in Charlie Brown, Woodstock and the rest of those lovable American icons, it’s a previous volume which should make any fan do a little Snoopy dance as they savour its pristine brilliance.
“The world of Peanuts is a microcosm, a little human comedy for the innocent reader and for the sophisticated,” remarked Umberto Eco, Italian medievalist and philosopher. “I became obsessed . . . It’s hilarious. We all went to school with a Lucy, or a Linus,” enthused actor Jude Law. And Bill Clinton is also a fan: “Charles Schulz was an American treasure – an artist, philosopher, and keen observer of human life.”
Though this lavish collection has been around a while (not counting the fact all the strips are a lot older than the 2015 publication date), it’s incredibly good value for money, and an essential addition to any comic strip collector’s bookshelf.
‘The Bumper Book of Peanuts’ is published by Canongate
