Comics offer up history to ‘Peanuts’
Graphic novel collects WWII-era comic strips, more.
The end of the year is always an opportunity for publishers to offer quality books that cost a little more than your average graphic novel. This year’s crop is pretty robust.
Top of my list is “Cartoons for Victory,” by Warren Bernard ($34.99, Fantagraphics Books). What could have been an ordinary collection of World War II-era political cartoons is instead a fascinating history lesson that breaks through boundaries between media. “Cartoons for Victory” includes political cartoons, sure, but also comic books, advertising, posters, comic strips, magazine covers, civilian defense manuals — just about anything where ink hit paper from 1941 to 1945.
The result is an overview of news, politics and daily life in wartime America that is more informative than the history books that expressly explore that material. From the foreword, by former senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, to the last few pages, devoted to the wartime propaganda and training manuals of the legendary Will Eisner, Bernard provides explanation and insight to the home lives of the Americans who made the U.S. the “arsenal of democracy.”
Ever wondered how rationing worked? Where Rosie the Riveter came from? How war bonds and stamps helped the war effort, how much they cost and what the reward was when redeemed?
Why schools ran paper drives?
What the WACs, WAVEs, WAFs and WASPs did?
How the black market worked?
What a zoot suit was, and who wore them? How blacks contributed, despite Jim Crow? Whether or not blackouts were taken seriously? Who planted victory gardens, and why?
These questions and more are answered in lively prose.
Another history book of sorts is “King of the Comics: 100 Years of King Features” ($49.99, IDW Publishing), celebrating the centennial of one of the first and most famous national comics syndicates. King Features was established by William Randolph Hearst, and its history is also the history of the American comic strip, from R. F. Outcault’s seminal “The Yellow Kid” to the comics of today, like “Curtis” and “Zits.”
“King” reprints bits of comic strips chronologically, separated into eight chapters led with historical essays by eight different writers. Some of the strips are among the most famous, such as “Blondie,” “Beetle Bailey,” “The Katzenjammer Kids,” “Krazy Kat,” “Mary Worth,” “Mutt and Jeff,” “The Phantom,” “Popeye” (nee “Thimble Theater”), “Prince Valiant” and “Steve Canyon.” But there are plenty of lesser-known strips as well, like “And Her Name Was Maud” (about a donkey), “Dauntless Durham of the U.S.A.” and “Merely Margy.” Some are fascinating for what they say about their times, and some are fascinating because it’s hard to imagine a time or place where they’d be considered funny.
Meanwhile, with “The Peanuts Movie” still in theaters, the work of Charles M. Schulz is getting a lot more attention than usual — and it always gets a lot of attention.
“The Art and Making of The Peanuts Movie” ($34.95, Titan Books), by Jerry Schmidtz, is a big, glossy, beautiful coffeetable book about, well, the art and making of “The Peanuts Movie.”
As opposed to many previous “Peanuts” cartoons, the new animated movie features Schulz’s crew in three dimensions. It’s helpful that the lead character is somewhat geometric — he is “that round-headed kid,” after all — but turning 2D Peanuts into 3D Peanuts is a lot harder than it looks. Schmitz devotes a chapter to each major character — the analysis, the planning, the sculpting. Then there are chapters on the environments, such as Charlie Brown’s neighborhood and Snoopy’s rich fantasy life.
Needless to say, the creators of the movie not only had to come up with animation-viable characters and sets, but also had to compete with the memories of generations of “Peanuts” fans. Any variation from what “Sparky” Schulz invented, either in tone or style, would be met with howls of outrage - or worse, bad word of mouth for the movie.
I’m not much of fan of how-the-sausages-aremade books, because I’d really rather not know. All I care about is the end product, and I don’t want any distractions from that. But as “sausage” books go, this one is informative — and very pretty.
More inventive than pretty is a coffee-table book designed by the award-winning Chip Kidd to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the comic strip. “Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts” ($40.00, Abrams ComicArts) focuses on Schulz and his creative process during the life of “Peanuts,” 1950 to 2000.
The book includes a lot of original strips, plus doodles, sketches, unpublished work and more from the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California. Since 17,897 strips were published, there’s a lot of ancillary material to be had.
Included, for example, are a couple of strips where Schulz depicted adults. (Well, their legs, anyway.) According to the book, Schulz considered the approach a failed experiment, and the strips were never published. Also included are examples of Schulz’ other comic strips, some published, some not.
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