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August 3, 2016 11:29 am PDT

Only What's Necessary A whole lot of Peanuts and Schulz stuffed into one volume by Chip Kidd

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See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Only What's Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts
by Chip Kidd (author) and Geoff Spear (photographer)
Harry N. Abrams
2015, 304 pages, 12 x 9 x 1 inches
$27 Buy a copy on Amazon

Heres a quick list of everything to be found in Chip Kidd's Only Whats Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts:

Intro by Jeff Kinney
Foreword by Jean Schulz
Behind the Door by Karen Johnson (Director of the Schulz Museum in California)
Preface by Chip Kidd
Brief biography of Sparky Schulz, including pictures of his first published drawing in Ripleys Believe it or Not
Photos & drawings of and from Schulzs WWII Sketchbook
Early cartoons Schulz drew for the Saturday Evening Post
Schulzs first printed comic strips (1947)
Lil Folks strips
Peanuts strips
Process of drawing Peanuts
Rare, unfinished strips
Subscriber promotions for newspaper editors
Ads for Peanuts coloring books, viewmaster collections, color by numbers kits, candy bars, etc.
Pictures of the Peanuts board game
Vinyl dolls
Covers from the first collections
Advertisements featuring Peanuts characters
Braille editions
Correspondence with Harriet Glickman resulting in the creation of Franklin
Unpublished watercolors & other art
Intros and backstories for other characters (Spike, Woodstock)
"The Last Strip" by Paige Braddock (Creative Director at the Schulz Studio in California)

There is, in other words, a whole lot of stuff packed into this one single volume of ephemera. And its a heck of a package. Heavy, glossy pages bring out the differences in color between hand-drawn strips and their pasted-on title cards as well as the fine printing notes scribbled in the margins. Likewise, the color printing serves to show that these are photographs of the original strips and artwork rather than digital reproductions or post-processed scans.

The attention to detail and care that has gone into curating this book is obvious, considerable, and welcome. Special effort is made to not only display the various pieces of ephemera but to provide context for them. Its easy to get lost in little stories and minutia detailing phenomena from a time gone by; Ive been through the book several times now, each time going down one rabbit hole or another, becoming fascinated by some aspect or another of the Peanuts story that began (and sometimes ended) well before I was born.

Said aspects are fascinating (the production process), interesting (the board games and braille books), weird (the vinyl dolls), and, of course, just a little heartbreaking (the final strip), and served well by the top notch production values and curation. But Im biased.

The title comes from Schulz himself, who referred to his cartooning style as keeping only whats necessary. The designers of the book have equated this to simple, which is beautiful and eye-catching. But necessary can also mean everything: every line needed to show the characters' feelings and reactions, every word needed to express the artists vision, every single thing needed to show why we still need Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy now, and for many years to come.

Joel Neff


Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/bLJnI6Su4Q0/only-whats-necessary-a-w.html

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