WithThe Peanuts Movie set for release on Nov. 6, it’s a good time to look back atthe artist behind Charlie Brown and friends. The introduction to Only What’sNecessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts (published by Abrams) makesthe case that Peanuts changed cartooning because of Schulz’s keen eye fordesign. Clean lines and white space were part of the picture, as was theinsistence that every word and gesture counted. Peanuts was almost Japanese forsuggesting reality through the omitting all but the most telling details.
AuthorChip Kidd worked in the archives of the Charles M. Shulz Museum to cull cartoonstrips for this profusely illustrated coffee table book. Some of the imageshave been seldom seen since publication. Only What’s Necessary reveals theprehistory for the familiar cast of Peanuts. Snoopy, in particular, was long ingestation. The book also shows that Schulz was a working artist who found hismétier on deadline; a Minnesota native, his deadpan humor is in a key similarto Garrison Keillor.
Inthe 1960s, Schulz’s cool tone was maintained by several Peanuts televisionspecials. Will Ice Age director Steve Martino get it right on the big screen?Check back in a month.
