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Rating: "Peanuts" by Charles Monroe Schulz (U.S.A.), with a presentation by Umberto Eco (Ita). Volume published by BUR (Rizzoli) in 2001 as part of the "I Classici del Fumetto" series
"He doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't curse. He was born in 1922 in Minnesota. He lives modestly and is a 'lay preacher' in a sect called the Church of God; he's married and has, I believe, four children. He plays golf and bridge and listens to classical music. He works alone. He has no neuroses of any kind. This man with such a tragically normal life is named Charles M. Schulz. He is a Poet." (Umberto Eco. From the preface to "Here Comes Charlie Brown" published by Milano Libri in 1963 and reprinted in the volume under review here)
A Small Formality:
Unable to review (due to the respectable editorial policy of the Site) individual editions of serial comic releases, and not wanting (and not being able) to dwell without speaking of one of the most (perhaps the most) important authors of comic strips and humorous panels ever, I chose to discuss a volume that was released through normal publishing channels. An additional detail that makes it a real "book" is that, far from being just a "Best Of" (it contains a collection of daily strips and Sunday panels published by UFS from 1950 to February 13, 2000, the day after the author's death), it presents a beautiful and complete biography of the author, an exhaustive bibliography, an extensive collection of information, in-depth analyses, curiosities, and tributes from important cultural figures. It is to be considered a "unique" editorial product and a tribute to a man who managed to bring the underrated Art of Comics into the limelight of Literature as a whole. Needless to say, "technically" these few lines already provide a review of the volume, so now I will talk about the "Peanuts" and Schulz in a broader sense (and as concisely as possible).
"I am just a cartoonist. One who has to draw the same thing every day trying not to repeat himself" (C.M. Schulz)
Charles Monroe Schulz was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 26, 1922. Son of two German immigrants (his father was a barber, as will be Charlie Brown’s: the first of many autobiographical notes he will put into his creations), he showed a propensity for drawing from a young age, so much so that his parents had him take a correspondence course from the "Federal School of Art". After graduating in 1943, he was drafted by the U.S. Army to fight in Europe during World War II. His artistic talents were greatly appreciated by his comrades, to the point that many asked him to "embellish" with his drawings the letters intended for their families (a curious analogy with Walt Disney, who during World War I decorated military ambulances with small illustrations). Returning to the States in '47, he created "Li'l Folks", strips that were true previews of what his future creation would be. In 1950, noticing his work, UFS contracted him: his daily strips and Sunday panels were published, initially in 7 American newspapers and gradually in various publications worldwide (translated into 26 languages and published in 75 countries) uninterruptedly for nearly 50 years. The name "Peanuts" ("little peanuts" in English but also in American slang of the time "little people", "small characters"...) was given by UFS and Schulz never appreciated it: "Peanuts is the worst title ever thought for a strip. It means nothing, it's meaningless!..."
"As in the great satires of Swift and Orwell, in Peanuts only an animal is truly allowed to be 'human': Snoopy." (Curzio Maltese)
The importance of "Peanuts", beyond its enormous popular success, lies in the seminal (a lousy adjective, I know...) influence it had on all subsequent humorous creations (even non-comic ones). Indeed, it is impossible not to find, even in global successes like Groening's "Simpsons" or satirical avant-gardes like Parker and Stone's "South Park", narrative and stylistic techniques "invented" and carried forward by Schulz: the most important of all, that of the "Small Event”, a small news item, a curiosity of daily life, etc. that occupied only the space of a few strips and then gave way to other developments in subsequent "adventures", was a real revolution. But even the most ordinary, like the choral aspect of the "Peanuts" universe (and prerogatives such as never showing adults), the minimal and simple drawing style, a capacity for synthesis that until then was unknown, became true seedlings that influenced the entire way of making humorous comics (and beyond) afterward. Not to mention true "commonplaces" of our daily life (like Linus's blanket, the phrase "it was a dark and stormy night" or the Great Pumpkin) born from Schulz's pencil.
A pencil that for almost fifty years drew children who showed us the anxieties and neuroses, defects and peculiarities, miseries and baseness of us, men and women, adults grown up in the rich and capitalistic West in an apparently "meek" and "fairytale" way but, in reality, ruthless and (hyper)realistic.
C.G. (Girlanachronism)
"The strength of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts is that they always repeat, with stubbornness, but with a sense of rhythm, some fundamental element. Like some Jazz insistently repeats a certain musical phrase" (Umberto Eco. From the preface to "Here Comes Charlie Brown" published by Milano Libri in 1963 and reprinted in the volume under review here)
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