What's Wrong With Being Crabby?

(Peanut Parade Book 4)
by
Charles M. Schulz

Holt Rinehart Winston, 1976, 186 pp.
ISBN: 0-03-017486-4

Genre: Comics
Subgenre: Comic Strip / Humor
Reviewed: 9/26/2002

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Comic Strip

Synopsis

What's Wrong With Being Crabby? is a collection of Peanuts comic strips. This book includes cartoons from Sunday's Fun Day, Charlie Brown from the years 1962 - 1965 and As You Like It, Charlie Brown from the years 1963 - 1964. All of the comic strips appear in black and white. The first third of the book are Sunday comics. The character 5 is introduced at near the end of the book.

This collection contains the following storylines: Balk, Back to School, The Eclipse, Meet 5, If the  Great Pumpkin..., Linus Sings Jingle Bells, Charlie Brown's Faults, The Flood, Little Leaguer's Elbow, Science Fair - The Security Blanket, and Crabby.

On October 2, 1950, Peanuts debuted in seven newspapers and ran until January 3, 2000 when Charles M. Schulz bid a fond farewell to all his readers in the final daily Peanuts newspaper strip. On February 12, 2000, Charles Schulz died on a Saturday evening, of complications from colon cancer in Santa Rosa, CA. He was 77 years old. On February 13, 2000, the final Sunday Peanuts newspaper strip appeared. "Charles M. Schulz (b. 1922) is the most widely syndicated cartoonist in history, with his work appearing in over 2,300 newspapers. He has published more than 1,400 books, won Peabody and Emmy awards for his animated specials, and is responsible for the most-produced musical in the American theatre, entitled "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown". And all this diversity and recognition and continuous success began over 50 years ago." (Illustration House)

Review

I am always amazed at how fast I read Peanut's comic strips. I really do enjoy the older strips though, compared the strips in the '80's and the '90's. I found that I didn't enjoy the first third of the book as much as the rest of it because I find that the Sunday comic strips don't have the same kinds of zing as the dailies. Peanuts is a classic comic strip, though.

As we grow older, our tastes change. I remember when I stopped reading Peanuts and started loving Calvin & Hobbes and Bloom County. But as I go back now and read these old strips, I see a lot of Peanuts in Calvin & Hobbes. Maybe that's why I like Calvin so much, I guess. He was the modern day version of a Peanuts member that is a little more mischievous than the Peanuts gang.

Peanuts, to me, it where it really all began, and the 1960's was when Charles M. Schulz was at the top of his game. This collection is great and I wouldn't pass it by for anything.