As a long time Charles Schulz fan, I found the concept behind this book intriguing. Take a look at Schultz's life and work via the comic strip style. I've read quite a few words on Schultz and expected to enjoy a few laughs.
Parts of it were rather interesting and I don't recall knowing his interest in golf, but for the most part I came away feeling rather sad. Whether Schultz really did suffer from almost crippling anxiety at times or it was just the author's choice to tie the real Charles Schultz to his perpetually inept, anxious Charlie Brown or just my own interpretation, I am on the fence. In any case, that sense of "poor Charlie Brown....er, poor Charles Schultz" never quite left me. As tributes go, I guess I was just expecting more "Yes!" for his triumphs, which were really many, without them being dampened by negative thoughts from both Schultz and those about him, let's say. That said, we’re told upfront that it's a tribute, not a biography, with dialogue mostly imagined and situations simplified.
Bottom line, while I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, either. There is a lot to take in here of Schultz's life and it's a good introduction to the origin of much of the foundation of the Peanuts strip characters/events. People are complicated, creative types perhaps more-so than many, so it was an interesting if slightly downer of a learning experience. But, hey, the little red-headed girl called him. I also like how they used two other favorite cartoonists of mine, both now largely retired, to basically chat about life as a cartoonist and retirement with Schultz.
A solid 3.5 for me, rounded to a 4 star for the obvious care and research that went into the book and the list of sources, even documentaries, provided at the end.Thanks #NetGalley and #IDWPublishing - #TopShelfProductions for this time travel back to a time when the comic strip was my sole reading choice in the newspaper. Who'd have ever thought we'd still be reading Peanuts all these years later. Happiness is definitely a warm puppy, so was glad to see the tribute to the dogs in Schultz's life.
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