Happiness is a monthly comic book series, Charlie Brown! Peanuts came to KABOOM! last spring in their first graphic novel Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown. Now Snoopy and the gang are back in monthly comic books with an all new #1 issue! The series kicks off with new original stories seen here for the first time along with some of your favorite classic Peanuts Sundays strips. Featuring a cover by Charles Schulz himself! Don't miss Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of Charles Schulz's timeless characters every month at KABOOM!
Date Available: 01/04/2012
BONUS REVIEW by JOHN SCHAEFER
When Kaboom! announced their new Peanuts book, I was overjoyed and saddened. With the passing of the legendary Charles M. Schultz, I was sure that Peanuts was over with as well. Oh sure, there was the reprinted "Classic Peanuts" on the comics page of the newspaper (which by the way have gotten so freaking small, I don't know why they bother any more.) and we'll always have the Peanuts holiday specials on tv, but the downhome, innocent look at life that Charles Schultz brought to us in three or four panel incriments was done.
Kaboom! might have able to secure the rights to reprint some of the old Gold Key Peanuts comics from the 1960's and might be able to cut out and resize some of the old strips but it wouldn't be the same. Or worse, they might let a variety of artist and writers try their hands at creating new Peanuts strips which in my mind was horrifying.
What Kaboom! has brought us is a combination of both. We are given classic Linus and Lucy, "Am I buttering too loud for you?" and new looks at characters we know and love. Lucy Van Pelt in Music Goes Round is especially endearing. It is obvious that writer/artist and artist Matt Whitlock either know their Peanuts or were given extensive instructions and guidelines. The art is done well although there are a few slip ups here and there. And the stories fit the subject matter well but you can almost feel that they are being told by a younger writer.
The true test of the book is that it brought a smile on my face as I read it. I chuckled as Snoopy ran into PigPen and began choking. I snickered at Lucy's Fussbudget-ness. And I thought of the parents that could introduce their children to the world of Peanuts in a new medium and that made me happy. But at the end of the day, I knew that it wasn't Charles Schultz.
