the complete peanuts (or fantagraphics: S/D)

Generally, I'm a bit ambivalent to what Fantagraphics puts out. I really like Chris Ware, Crumb, Clowes, and Tony Millionare, but a lot of the other things I've read by other authors/artists haven't impressed me. Does anyone else thing Fantagraphics is kind-of sedate?

alternatively, search out the Peanuts Classics volume, and also Peanuts Treasury (both british publishers, i think) on amazon - thick hardback books packed with prime peanuts dailies and sundays. and the Golden Celebration is pretty fab, as is the earlier 'you don't look 35, charlie brown'...

alternatively, search out the Peanuts Classics volume, and also Peanuts Treasury (both british publishers, i think) on amazon - thick hardback books packed with prime peanuts dailies and sundays. and the Golden Celebration is pretty fab, as is the earlier 'you don't look 35, charlie brown'...

the art of peanuts is brilliant, also, but a more impressionistic collection, reprinting actual newsprint strips along with ephemera and merchandising.

If you already have some Peanuts and want to try out the Fantagraphics books, get the first one. The very early Peanuts strips are strikingly different from what it would become and makes for interesting reading. Then get all the rest.

From Fantagraphics spamco. in Seattle:

"UNSEEN PEANUTS" Revealed This Friday!

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, in association with the Charles M.
Schulz Museum and Research Center, is pleased to present "Unseen
Peanuts." This collection of full size, rarely seen Peanuts strips
opens with a daylong preview on Friday, November 23 from 11:30 until
8:00 PM, highlighted by an "Unseen Peanuts" slide presentation by
Fantagraphics Books co-publisher Kim Thompson at 6:00 PM. The public
of all ages is invited to this free event.

Perhaps no American artist is more closely associated with the
holidays than Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. Kim Thompson, co-
editor of the Complete Peanuts series, points out that even though
Peanuts is the most-reprinted comic strip in history, several
thousand strips had never been collected until The Complete Peanuts
project began in 2004. The show includes a companion 32-page "Unseen
Peanuts" comic book catalogue featuring over 150 more of these "lost"
strips. This fully annotated publication is available for free with
any purchase exclusively at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery.

Get an early start on your holiday shopping at Fantagraphics
Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport way S.)
in the heart of Seattle's lively Georgetown business district.
Throughout the month of November all comic strip reprints, including
The Complete Peanuts, are offered at 20 % off, and pick up our free
"Comic Strip Masterpieces" tabloid.

"Unseen Peanuts" remains on view through December 31. Fantagraphics
Bookstore & Gallery is open daily 11:30 - 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00
PM. 206.658.0110.

If I get one complete Peanuts volume, which one should it be?!
― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, May 16, 2006 1:11 PM (8 years ago)

i'd say wait a few years... the 1950s stuff they're reprinting now is a little stiff, a little dry - its only rteally becoming the strip it was in the latest volume, so - personally - i'd wait till the 1960s stuff gets reprinted, and choose one of those.
― i am not a nugget (stevie), Tuesday, May 16, 2006 3:46 PM (8 years ago)

so it looks like all of the 60s/70s fantagraphics volumes are released, can i go wrong with any of them or is there an essential pick??

I bought We Told You So, the oral history of Fantagraphics. You could stun livestock with this thing... I'm looking forward to plowing through over the next few months. Seems meticulously put together, but definitely a couple of quibbles -- Eros Comix is left out of the bibliography completely, and the artist who drew the front cover illo isn't credited anywhere in the book that I can tell.

Cover illustration has to be by Clowes?

I guess? I wasn't 100% sure. Wait, there's a little "DC" in the bottom right. But if he's credited anywhere, I can't find it.

Dale Crain: One of the most clever things ever was Kim one night taping several sheets of paper together to form an endless loop and faxing it to Comics Buyers's Guide to burn up all their fax paper — and hopefully their fax machine, too.

The cover has been waiting since the book was originally going to come out; maybe Clowes' credit got lost in the intervening decade. I'm pretty sure it's been heavily cropped.

also I can't tell who the beardo in the back with Spurge, Harvey & Fiore is meant to be

Is it interesting enough for someone with only a passing knowledge of Fantagraphics? Speaking as someone who enjoyed the Sean Howe book before they'd read much Marvel.

Yeah, I think it is. It provides a series of snapshots of the whole industry, even if they're shot through a Fantagraphics lens. The Howe book is a good comparison point, but this behemoth has so much more archival art and correspondence and such. It really takes me back to my earliest fan days (I subscribed to TBG in '77, started buying TCJ not long after the Harlan Ellison interview in #53).

This is good but I found there were plenty of parts where the topic is this or that Fantagraphics staffer who didn't necessarily play a part in the big picture and doesn't seem that interesting unless you were there I guess? Feels like there is stuff like that that could have been cut and made it a tighter read.

'best-of' humble bundle just went live, inc los bros, bagge, many others: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/best-of-fantagraphics-comics

If only I didn't have such an irrational aversion to paying money for digital comics. Much rather add to the growing fire hazard in my home.

Re: this thread topic in particular, I finally have all but the final box set. It's a lot of goddamn books, man.

Idly picked up one of the mid-60s volumes from the library, had the initial Snoopy-as-Red-Baron strips so good

vs

I meant

I will be eternally thankful that I got my hands on my uncle's discarded paperbacks of '50s and '60s strips at the point when the daily strip was in its decline. I might've never been inclined to really check it out if I didn't know at a young age how good it had once been.

yeah, similarly I had a handful of paperback collections from older relatives that were reprints of 60s strips (Snoopy leaves town for a tennis tournament?! Charlie meets Joe Shlabotnik etc)

Re: this thread topic in particular, I finally have all but the final box set. It's a lot of goddamn books, man.

I stopped at 1971–74. Am I missing anything particularly worthwhile in the later years?

I think I stopped about the same place as you so this question is related to my interests.

My last box set was 67-70 but I haven't read it. I'm waiting for a reprint of the 63-66 box. Also, I'm waiting for a reprint of Walt & Skeezix Book 3. Kind of frustrating because 4,5,6 are available.

Single out-of-print volumes from comics reprint series are the banes of my existence (LOOKING AT YOU, KRAZY KAT).

I grew up with paperbacks of the 70s stuff so I have to rep for 73-74, which includes Charlie Brown's baseball rash/tenure as "Mister Sack.". Circa 1978 is the Crybaby Boobie tennis stuff but I'm not sure if any of that is actually good, or just fondly remembered.

Is there a peak era to check out, if you just want a book or two?

I would say start from the start. It starts out amazingly strong, and Schulz's draftsmanship in the '50s was impeccable.

if you only want a book or two the peak era is late-50s thru the 60s.

Yeah, Fantagraphics do a nice slipcase edition of volumes 5 and 6 (1959 - 1962) in paperback or hardback - probably the box to get if you're only getting one.

It's probably only necessary to own all twenty-six volumes of this if you have a degenerative brain disease (sometimes referred to as 'completism') like me.

I do find the late Peanuts strips a bit dispiriting - Schulz's line visibly deteriorating, going down to three panels, excessive focus on Snoopy and Woodstock, too many fucking strips abt sports - but there are still great sequences well into the 1970s at least. Peppermint Patty doesn't even appear until 1966 for example, well past the generally agreed peak period.

I love Patty but can't actually remember any classic strips I love her in, since the 'greatest hits' type collections I moved on to from the 70s paperbacks leaned heavily on pre-Patty stuff. I think a ton of my affection is based on her animated presentation, especially the way she delivers "Prepare the secret ballot!" in Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown.

I would say start from the start. It starts out amazingly strong, and Schulz's draftsmanship in the '50s was impeccable.

I second this -- there's so much great stuff starting right from the beginning (and going all the way thru the '60s). Also, part of the experience is how the strip evolves.

the first strip alone is worth it

I mean

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fthebluegrassspecial.com%2Farchive%2F2010%2Foctober10%2Fimagesoct10%2Fpeanuts-first-strip.jpg&f=1

Yeah, I like the really early nihilist stuff which is about the first two or three volumes.

One of my all-time faves:

http://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lf8iuiARU61qd6rqbo1_1280.jpg

that is 100% gold

@peanuts50yrsago is in 1967 right now.

pic.twitter.com/MkEPfirj3w

— Peanuts On This Day (@Peanuts50YrsAgo) August 3, 2017

Lucy gets it, man

(xpost)

pic.twitter.com/h2n9ueavh8

— Peanuts On This Day (@Peanuts50YrsAgo) July 23, 2017

huh, that's a good strip but weird - lying awake riddled with criss-crossing doubts and worries feels more Charlie Brown than Snoopy to me.

I picked up the fifth volume as directed - I love the annoyed image of Lucy on the right. It's so perfect.

https://i.cubeupload.com/I5mTaN.jpg

Wish I'd been in Seattle for Fantagraphics' yard sale and the Kim Thompson estate sale this past weekend.

yknow one classic peanuts running gag that i love and that nobody ever mentions is linus's completely over-the-top fear of "queen snakes":

https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/peanuts/images/2/2c/Pe660613.gif/revision/latest?cb=20131206013105

well that came out ridiculously small, but i guess all you need is the "AUGH!!" at the end anyway

God some of these are so fucking brutal it's unbelievable

In a collected edition, you can just turn the page and read a lighter strip about ice skating or something

But imagine reading some desolate Lucy bomb drop on Charlie Brown - then that's your lot, for the rest of the day

NB still funny, though!

I think this is my favourite lighthearted/cute Peanuts strip

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/186/968/1024/Peanuts1958.10.16.jpg

I keep worrying that these will all sell out by the time I have the money/shelfspace to collect them. I have about seven or eight volumes at the moment. Was rereading one the other night and this one was killing me.

http://www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/files/2008/11/27/244094zoom.gif

They've been pretty good about reprinting them, albeit verrrrrrrry slow. But I've found Fantagraphics to be very responsive if you write them directly asking about e.g. their plans to reprint a thing. There's also the softcover editions which are new enough that I expect they're all still in print.

fucking hell

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6d/5d/d5/6d5dd584e9214741e53fdce4d1e9b5c2.jpg

Schulz has no need for your "Snoopy minus Snoopy"

The Complete Zap Comix on sale for $310 (today only): http://www.fantagraphics.com/the-complete-zap-comix/

Today’s deal (good for another few hours?) is Jaime Hernandez: The Fantagraphics Studio Edition for 33% off.

My son and I were reading the first Complete Peanuts volume, and came to a Charlie Brown & Violet “Let’s play house” strip. My son said “wait a minute,” and pulled a Calvin & Hobbes book off the shelf that he had recently borrowed from a friend. He flipped through and found a Calvin & Susie “Let’s play house...” strip with a very similar joke (the kids emulate messy adulthood too closely). Watterson was probably paying direct tribute to Schulz. Anyway, I thought it was cool that my son happened to pick up on it (he tried it again later with two “bathtime” strips that weren’t such a close match).

When we read these early strips together, I sometimes do this dumb thing where I point out instances of Schulz “padding out” a one- or two-panel gag into four panels — marking time with duplicative dialogue, Charlie Brown muttering to himself, etc. (The lesson is reinforced by a Lil’ Folks book we have, that has actual, side-by-side examples of Schulz expanding a one-panel LF gag into a Peanuts strip later on.)

I don’t know why I find it necessary to train my kid to read strips like some kind of critic-in-training — though I was proud tonight when I asked him to pick out the single panel in a Sunday strip that contained the entire joke, and he did it easily.

(For the record, I also point out how other/most strips use the entire four panels to develop the joke.)

(Also for the record — this was the Sunday strip in question.)

Man, the drawing on that is so gorgeous.

He just showed me a strip where Snoopy is worried about getting in trouble, and imagines himself in an electric chair. "I don't get what Snoopy is thinking." I said, don't worry about it.

I dig Fanta's new look: https://blog.fantagraphics.com/fantagraphics-a-new-improved-look/

Has anyone been reading L&R Vol. 4 (the individual issues)? I'm waiting for the collections to be published.

Also, I'll put this here (FG has published a few Nancy collections) –

I think Bushmiller can be great, but I don't quite get the cartoonist/critic obsession with Nancy. The 1959 strip deconstructed in that famous essay is... fine? It's not one I would have ranked among the top strips (and even the analysis, while impressive, doesn't quite convince me).

I've read the essays and stuff, but feel like picking apart what makes the strip great is sort a case of dissecting the frog, you know?

Like, Bushmiller's gags can be great and the strip was pleasingly "minimalist" and "reduced to its essence," or whatever. Beyond that, it's all just sort of elaboration of the obvious.

Nothing wrong with learning frog (or any other) anatomy.

<3 this panel

https://i.imgur.com/QxHqymh_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

My son asked me to explain this strip; I read it and exclaimed, “Jesus Christ!”

Which date?

Oh, sorry, thought I had linked directly. Jan. 5, 1958

Lol the more things change

He also asked about this strip (think I got the link right this time)—which was a segue into discussing some stuff we’ve talked about a little in the past, but which I’m never really “ready” to tackle.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/peanuts/images/8/83/19540503.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130630140841

Sorry, don’t think that’s working. May 3, 1954

https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/May_1954_comic_strips

9/9/58 cracks me up.

So does 8/28/58.

Schulz could be razor-sharp sometimes.

we stan a queen

https://i.imgur.com/BqGgl4J_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Omg the newspaper one was an actual lol

Thanks for that wiki link btw! Never seen them all out like that

Brutal

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/peanuts/images/7/7a/19580625.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130813004328

Jesus christ

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/peanuts/images/c/ce/19580829.gif/revision/latest?cb=20130814004004

Yeah - the direct links don't work, for whatever reason (what's the date?)

weird, those ones work for me (and are indeed brutal).

I just see grey "placeholder" graphics. Gimme the dates!

if you erase everything after .gif in the links they work

groovy - thx

I came across the "spaghetti" one that I posted upthread (3 years ago) - it's just perfect.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/peanuts/images/7/7a/19580625.gif

Argh!

https://i.imgur.com/Bej1UAR.gif

https://i.imgur.com/BSPORcb.gif

The last one is v goth

November 19, 1961 has to be the pinnacle of something: https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/November_1961_comic_strips

The apparent home of the Great Pumpkin as per Charlie Brown!
https://essexnewsdaily.com/headlne-news/22270

xp I love that one, I remember reading it as a kid

fun fact: when my mom was a teenager in the 50's, her high school boyfriend wrote to Charles Schultz and told him how much she liked the strip. In return, Schultz sent him maybe three framed original strips. My mom kept them for many decades (librarians lol) and eventually donated them back to the Schultz museum. so I gre up totally steeped in the Peanuts ethos, I remember seeing the actual framed strips she had as a kid.

"grew up"

Woah - that's so awesome. And kudos to your mum for sending them to the Schulz museum.

Lord above that Sunday strip. Starting to understand the Chris Ware influence now

It's the "Mom..." lines that just take it to "that place."

Spring 1959 is a high point; Schulz was really in the pocket: https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/March_1959_comic_strips

My son asked what being "stoned" means... turned out he was looking at August 28, 1960.

that's pretty amazing

He also claimed a similar gag was used sometime in the '50s (the kids being freaked out when "Rain, rain, go away" actually works)... my kid, the number one Peanuts narc.

Was looking for another volume of Bushmiller’s Nancy strips—turns out Fantagraphics only published three volumes of dailies (and never any Sundays). We have the first and second volumes. Of the three, only the second is still in print; the other two are OOP and $$$. I guess interest was pretty low.

"The Best of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy" by Brian Walker is a fantastic collection if you can find it.

Thanks! I did see that in my online browsing... will try to find a copy at a reasonable price, appreciate the tip.

https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1973/10/23

that's a great one

https://biblioklept.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/unloved.jpg

One of my favourite depressing Peanuts has a similar “gag”

^^ me and my therapist talked about this strip in our session last week!

that's a great one. the way charlie brown gradually reacts to the rain is wonderfully paced.

and schulz drew rain just beautifully, maybe better than any other cartoonist.

The other night, we happened to land on a series of strips from October 1964, timed for the run-up to that year's election. Linus is running for class president (with Charlie Brown as his VP) -- and he's crushing it in the polls, until...

A few of the strips dealing with Lucy as his pollster are particularly funny.

"The Best of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy" by Brian Walker is a fantastic collection if you can find it.

I was bidding on a copy on eBay (“Also included is a copy of Nancy and Sluggo. Best of is in new new condition”)... someone swooped in at the last minute and outbid me :(

Good Lord @ Oct 12 - 14 in that election set

The more things change, huh?

Joe Cool is lame, and the strip had largely become half-baked gags and “hip” cultural references at this point — but this Sunday from September 1971 snaps into focus in the final few panels, and really captures something.

v Feiffer / Village Voice vibes

i get a really low res image at that link.

is this better?

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/peanuts/images/f/f5/19710912.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/600?cb=20140217024403

link to page. it's the 12th

https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/September_1971_comic_strips

Was looking for another volume of Bushmiller’s Nancy strips—turns out Fantagraphics only published three volumes of dailies (and never any Sundays). We have the first and second volumes. Of the three, only the second is still in print; the other two are OOP and $$$. I guess interest was pretty low.

Circling back to this—my son is constantly rereading the two volumes we have, so I was poking around online for that old Brian Walker book or whatever else I can find. Turns out all three Fantagraphics books are now OOP, and going for $$$$. (Too bad ours aren’t in mint condition, or I’d sell ’em for his college fund.)

I don’t know anything about the economics of this stuff, but why doesn’t Fantagr. reprint when demand is (clearly) there? Have they lost the rights or something?

Well, filtering down to “Completed items” in eBay reveals that some of these listing prices on eBay/Amazon are grossly inflated/optimistic. The actual sale prices of the Fantagraphics volumes seem to average around $75 each. Still OOP, though!

Fanta are just kinda not super competent I think?

If the consumer demand is actually an order of magnitude greater than what they printed on those three volumes, hence it being worthwhile doing a second run on each AND committing to doing dozens more, wouldn’t that make either the retailers incompetent (for not getting them to customers), or the customers incompetent (for making their purchases online from third parties instead of Fanta)?

lol, knew sic would be bounding in to defend Fanta's reprint practices.

I won't challenge their competence because I love them but it's frustrating nonetheless. I'm glad I was able to get their complete Peanuts and Popeye collections but that was more a result of luck and timing than anything else (as my half-finished Krazy Kat collection looks at me sadly and urges me to drop mad bank on that OOP volume that brought my collecting to a dead halt). Never bothered with the Nancys at all although I'd love to have 'em.

not sure how supply exceeding demand for nine years (N I N E) (9) is any evidence of a drastic underprinting that requires defense, but happy to look at your spreadsheets to the contrary

PS:

https://i.imgur.com/LZ2ZZbx.gif

I gave up on trying to nab the Nancys before N I N E years had elapsed. It was probably H A L F that span of time.

I'd have to double check my spreadsheet to be sure, but I think the Don Rosa duck collections were the most recent thing I preemptively gave up on collecting after seeing volumes fall OOP super fast.

Also, tbf, Fanta is hardly alone on this front.

I was going to say, is that a long time for stuff like this to be in print? I have honestly no idea. (FWIW, the third volume was published seven years ago.) Those Complete Peanuts books seem to stay available, but Peanuts is Peanuts.

Guess I’m also comparing it to children’s books in general, which seem to stay in print forever (as there are new kids to read them every year). Of course, Nancy is no Corduroy.

I don’t know what’s going on here, but I just assumed money is being left on the table:

https://i.imgur.com/1gaNbyd_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

(F#%* yr .43 cents!! lol)

Books that shouldn't be out of print

the market for fancy reprints of decades-old funny books just isn't very large. publishers the size of fantagraphics can't afford to keep books in print in perpetuity for a relatively tiny audience.

wtf, I meant to post James Redd's $900 books thread but it won't let me

Out Of Print Book Price Sticker Shock

weird, the title changed. thanks.

i had the same problem... something about the dollar sign maybe which stopped me from posting so I took it out.

I don’t know what’s going on here, but I just assumed money is being left on the table:

that money is entirely imaginary! you yourself noted that nobody is paying those algorithmically-generated prices, to a seller that may not even have a copy of the book. what are the rest of Silver Ocean's listings like?.

even if someone was, and without knowing any of the actual numbers involved, from your and OL's account it looks like what happened is:

- the minimum profitable print run on a Nancy dailies book is (let's say) 3,000

- Fanta print 3,200 copies of Nancy Dailies 1, it sells strongly
- they print 3,600 copies of Nancy Dailies 2, it sells fine, maybe reorders at this point wipe out any leftovers from #1
- they wait two years because most of the overprint on #2 is still sitting in the warehouse
- they cautiously print 3,300 of Nancy Dailies 3 and sell them over a couple of years, but there's no retailer demand or customer feedback indicating that another 3,000 people want #1
- hundreds of copies of #2 continue to take up space in the warehouse, available at half cover price (twice a year) to online customers and 60% off to retailers
- five years after that the last of #2 get picked up, indicating the precise degree of thirst for Bushmiller that the market possesses.

Even if there's one rando out there willing to pay $970.43 for a copy, a publisher is still going to lose money by licensing, sourcing, restoring, editing, laying out, printing, shipping and storing the other two thousand and ninety nine copies.

Well, I said the completed eBay listings were obviously a better indication of the book’s actual market value… I just pasted that Amazon listing to show what gave rise to my initial “???” reaction (and there’s another new copy posted for $499 on eBay right now).

And yes, I don’t know how many copies they have to sell before they start profiting… Interesting to have that analysis, thanks

Another factor in the waning interest may be that the strips in that 1st/red volume (fortunately one of the ones we have) are great, while the ones in volume two (yellow book) are less great… I imagine the later ones in vol. three may further reflect that downward trend. Fanta should’ve gone backwards!

There are 11 copies of Vol. 3 on Amazon at the moment, ranging in price from $99 (“Like New”) to $300 (“Very Good”). No completed listings on eBay for that one; the active listings are $149.95 (“New”), $399 (“NM-“), and $399.99 (“Very nice condition, from my own personal collection. Purchased new and read once.”)

They did/do the Carl Barks books out of order (with volume numbers in small print inside) so that they could start with strong material, and not have the biggest sales on his earliest / weakest material. Naturally, a bunch of 60-year-old nerds got mad about this when the series started.

One suspects a big factor in a potential demand drop-off after Nancy volume 1 is simply that 344 pages of Bushmiller is more than plenty for many buyers.

the nancy books were done that way to. they had planned on a later volume collecting the strips that came before nancy is happy, partly because some of them were missing.

Nancy Is Marginal :(

Kitchen Sink had already fairly solidly tested the audience for Nancy collections in the '80s, thanks to the publisher's personal huge fandom. Fanta might have made it to a few more volumes if they'd launched during Jaimesmania, but even the book-expansion of How To Read Nancy came out while Gilchrist was still in the saddle.

It’s in an interesting position b/c it’s still an active strip, but I guess kids aren’t closing the Sunday funnies and demanding books of 80-year-old Nancy strips.

I had never heard of these: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/05/31/charles-schulz-hagemeyer/

FTR, I wasn't suggesting that Fanta or other like publishers were like doing something to us or whatevs. I appreciate that they're willing to put out such nice collections of this material. I wish there was a solution to the OOP problem for those who don't get in on the ground floor. Like, if I hadn't started buying the Peanuts slipcover collections when they first started coming out twenty years ago, a couple of them would be priced out of my reach now. But at least they seem to be reprinting everything as softcovers now in that particular instance.

it gets into really fundamentally thorny/sticky questions of archiving/publication/preservation in the form of consumer goods imo. not everything we'd like to see immortalized will bear the supply/demand equation of a comprehensive publication regime at any particular moment. very few things, today. and maybe some works are actually better served not by complete publications, but by, say having complete collections in library/archive contexts, and only very carefully curated "best of" volumes put together for publication and enabling people to discover them and understand why they matter(ed), and fall in love with them. of course, deciding what "deserves" that treatment is a problem that never goes away. but the absolute mountain of pop culture in the rearview only gets bigger with each passing year, and we can't count on it being solely the job of Fanta-esque publishers to handle it. and even if they did, eventually those volumes will become scarce and rare and the work would have to be done again in fifty or a hundred or five hundred years, if Nancy and Peanuts still matter to people then.

My son is committed to getting the entire run of Peanuts books (we’re currently up to ’78), despite the decline in humor in later years.

eventually those volumes will become scarce and rare and the work would have to be done again in fifty or a hundred or five hundred years, if Nancy and Peanuts still matter to people then

And the stuff will be public domain at some point, which will change the equation in certain ways (both good and bad).

I’m glad I encountered Krazy Kat as a kid in the form of the few best-of volumes, and not some voluminous complete library (which likely would’ve turned me off).

Berke Breathed made a joke at some point about not needing to reprint the Bloom County collections, because half the country has moldy copies of those books in their bathroom.

books going out of print has been a challenge to readers for approx 519 years now, one impecunious publisher of niche material, run out of a leaky house next to an interstate, is unlikely to innovate a solution

(getting fifteen deep into a single series of softcover-replacing-hardcover comics reprints might be a North American first though tbf? for that matter, Cochran's EC Library is the only NA complete hardcover series I can think of longer than Fanta's Peanuts.)

They managed to innovate a solution to the (non-)problem of me not normally getting uncomfortably aroused by the back half of a retail catalog in my teenage years.

circa 2003, I picked up three or four random volumes of the NBM/Bill Blackbeard reprints of Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy at two or three bucks a pop. they were immensely fun to read through once, and gave me a good sense of that comic that's still vivid today. but to collect beyond that seemed insane --- there were 18 volumes of those things! i never saw a single other one at any store anywhere! and why bother tracking down just one or two? it was like, completism or nothing. so for my needs, a single fancy treasury that gathered only the greatest epic storylines, with a section in the back introducing the formative early gag-strip years, would have been perfect. and yet, massive kudos to them for accomplishing that project, true comics-historical heroism.

They managed to innovate a solution to the (non-)problem of me not normally getting uncomfortably aroused by the back half of a retail catalog in my teenage years.

the cover hadn't gotten you started?

https://i.imgur.com/xsPimTE.jpg