Schulz penned 17,897 daily comic strips. Fantagraphics is doing the world a great service by collecting and publishing the entire run in a series of books. Here are a few of the things that I loved about this volume:

* Schroeder's on the cover. The piano player's getting some front-cover respect!
* Diana Krall wrote a beautiful little introduction.
* I love the long-term development of various themes like the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown's baseball woes, and Snoopy's hospitality towards his fine feathered friends.
* There's an excellent Sunday gag on Linus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Seriously, look it up!

Like the volumes that preceded it, these two years of the Schulz cannon were engaging and enjoyable. Now on to 1963. ( )

Schulz is becoming more and more confident in his writing and artwork by this time; the artwork especially has an assured, effortless look to it. Snoopy has become a particularly intriguing character here, filled with whimsy, playfulness, and a definite awareness of his self in the universe. Charlie Brown has been called Everyman, but I think the title belongs to Snoopy. This volume introduces Frieda (and her cat, Faron), a definitely minor character marked by her self-absorption with her naturally curly hair, and her tendency to rudely critique the faults of others. Linus gets glasses here, although they would only be used sporadically, eventually to be forgotten (perhaps he got contacts). Lucy is starting to develop more of a personality as she comes out of babyhood. There is a curious skewed aging process in this strip, with some characters aging more quickly than others, until there is a near-parity in their maturations. It's a pleasure to see a fine strip again; many of these panels I have not seen since they first appeared in the newspapers. ( )