Review by C.J. Bunce
Nothing compares to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang, but a new, densely packed biography provides a laudable look at their creator. Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz is a smart, well-researched look at the influential 20th century writer-artist from the vantage of the medium he mastered. It’s now available here at Amazon in a 440-page hardcover from Top Shelf Productions, and is sure to appear on comic awards lists next year.
Messing around in the world of such a beloved American icon is nothing to take lightly, but Italian artist and co-writer Luca Debus and Italian co-writer Francesco Matteuzzi could not have gotten the thoughtful tone to better match that of the Peanuts characters themselves.
We’ve reviewed many comic book biographies at borg, but count this one in the top strata of the genre. The authors mix the approaches of all kinds of newspaper strips as far as storytelling goes. But as they connect the dots via what could have been an actual, standalone newspaper strip, they return to a page design that mimics Schulz’s own color Sunday funnies contribution for nearly 50 years.
The work has an unmistakable likeness to Calvin & Hobbes, especially with Charles as a boy. Or is that just how much Schulz’s influence can be seen in Bill Watterson’s successful decades of comic strips?
One section sees Schulz recounting the quick preparation of ideas and story for A Charlie Brown Christmas–the internationally famous, Emmy Award-winning, annual holiday tradition. The genius of this book is all his recollections are told in a rhyme that mimics “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
This book’s Charles Schulz has a sweet, Mr. Rogers quality, a profoundly gentle being full of a lifetime of wisdom. As Schulz walks through all the phases of life any person goes through, he also unveils how his comic strip conquered newspaper and book publishing, television, and the stage.
The most amazing achievement may be chronicling Schulz’s life without any visual references to the peanuts characters themselves. Readers already know them, and don’t need to see them to follow along with this version of Schulz as host and narrator. Debus and Matteuzzi did some extraordinary work here with their humor and insight into the human condition, all wrapped around the research they conducted on Schulz’s life through his own words and other sources. It’s such a big volume–reflecting years of craft by its creators.
Count it as a not-to-be missed book for fans of comic strips and the history of comics, humor, and art. Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz is now available here at Amazon.
