What Makes You Think You're Happy?

(Peanut Parade Book 5)
by
Charles M. Schulz

Holt Rinehart Winston, 1976, 186 pp.
ISBN: 0-03-018116-X

Genre: Comics
Subgenre: Comic Strip / Humor
Reviewed: 1/25/2004

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Comic Strip

Peanuts comic strip

 

Synopsis

What Makes You Think You're Happy? is a collection of Peanuts comic strips. This book includes cartoons from Snoopy from the years 1955 - 1958 and You're Out of Your Mind, Charlie Brown! from the years 1956 - 1959. All of the comic strips appear in black and white. The first two thirds of the book are Daily comics and the final third of the book is Sunday comics.

This collection contains the following storylines: Snoopy the Alligator, Imitations, Weed Claustrophobia, Fuzzy-Face, Dime-A-Dozen, Happy, and Snoopy the Penguin.

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

From the time I started reading Peanuts in the early 1970's, I fell in love with the characters. Charles Schulz created a diverse group of characters that are loved all over the world and have been imitated by numerous cartoonists. I especially enjoyed the strip in the first ten years of its creation, as the characters were still developing and they looked a little different from the polished version that came later, especially Snoopy.

What Makes You Think You're Happy? has some of my favorite strips that have stuck with me for 30 years. Any early Peanuts book is a good book, at least in my mind. You will never go wrong picking one up for a good laugh.

This site was created and is maintained by Conan Tigard
2004