The Complete Peanuts 1959-1962 Box Set
The fifth volume in Fantagraphics Books'Complete Peanutsseries welcomes a new character: Sally, Charlie Brown's baby sister.  It's interesting to see how the perpetually beleaguered CB--criticized for having a "face" face or a "failure face--now takes on the responsibility of worrying about the world his sister will grow up in.  His role as manager of the baseball team continues to bring him woe, losing 600-0, losing all 20 games of the season, making a daring attempt to steal home, and having to miss a game to push his sister's stroller.  Linus, at first wondering if Sally will someday go out with him, gets his answer in spades: "Isn't he the cutest thing?"  But he'd much rather lavish his attention on the new teacher, Miss Othmar ("I'm very fond of the ground on which she walks"), even if his eggshell project doesn't work out as planned.  Snoopy, though threatened by a hanging icicle and a possible freeway through his home, still finds joy in being a gopher, the Big Man on Campus, or the Mad Punter.  "Peanuts" was well into its classic years in the 1959-60 period, with such signature moments as "Happiness is a warm puppy" and a lot of material that would become familiar staples of the Christmas and Halloween television specials.--David HoriuchiBy 1961-62, "Peanuts" was truly the comic strip that we allstillknow and love, with situations and sayings that would cement its place as one of the most memorable literary creations of all time.  Linus is firmly center stage, and if not for baseball would probably eclipse Charlie Brown in status.  His efforts to defend his blanket are legendary (Lucy buries it and turns it into a kite), he gets glasses, and his favorite teacher, Miss Othmar (now known as Mrs. Hagemeyer) returns, which leads to some consternation when he (1) learns that she's accepting money to teach and (2) tells her he'll give up his blanket if she gives up biting her fingernails.  There's a new character, Frieda with the naturally curly hair, and her floppy cat strikes terror throughout the neighborhood.   Oh, about that baseball team.  Everyone quits when Schroeder gives up baseball for Beethoven (leading CB to take out a personal ad to manage another team), they decide their pep talk is making them hypocrites, and Linus is assigned to scout the opposing team.  As much as "Peanuts" is a reflection of its era ("Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball just three feet higher?"), it also had a self-awareness as a comic strip (Linus: "The most recent criticism is that there is too little action and far too much talking in the modern-day comic strip. What do you think about this?" CB: "Ridiculous!") that proved just how far Charles M. Schulz was ahead of his time.  With fellow pianist Schroeder on the cover, Diana Krall wrote this volume's introduction.--David Horiuchi