The Complete Peanuts Vol. 15: 1979-1980

Collecting all of the daily newspaper comic strips from the first of January 1979 to New Year's Eve 1980, The Complete Peanuts Vol. 15 1979-1980 is a wonderful gift for anyone who's a fan of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of Charles M. Schulz's iconic characters. This run, put together by Fantagraphics Books, gives us the regular recurring bits of the kids playing baseball and losing, Snoopy's World War One aviation adventures, and Charlie tricked by Lucy whenever kicking the football. Alongside the usuals, there are also a few long running storylines that last from either a few days to even a few weeks. These include Charlie being in the hospital with an illness and his friends, even Lucy, worry about him, Snoopy and Woodstcock's scout troops getting lost in the mountains as heavy snow descends on them, and Peppermint Patty dealing with a leaky ceiling in school. The fact that by that point the strips have been running continually since 1950 and that Schulz was the sole writer and artist for them, it's astounding how well it still was. By its 29th and 30th year, the writing was witty, funny, full of tender moments and showed a love for the characters that it's surprising Schulz took another twenty years to retire. Although the artwork for each strip was simple and monochrome, Schulz's style is very distinctive and manages to convey enough to connect with the characters. There's also how distinctly different each character looks to keep you from getting many of them mixed up with one another. The legacy and love of Peanuts is also conveyed by the introduction at the beginning of the collection by Al Roker. As Roker was one of the last people Schulz interviewed before he died in 2000, it only makes sense he'd be one of the many people these collections start with. As The Complete Peanuts Vol. 15: 1979-1980 collects two years worth of comic strips from near the start of the second half of the entire run, it's incredible just how astounding two years can be. Over all: 100%

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1. The Complete Peanuts Vol. 15: 1979-1980

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