Fans of Charlie Brown, the endearing, enduring cartoon character drawn and indeed raised by Charles Schulz - along with Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Patty, Schroeder, Violet, Shermy, Pigpen and others - will be delighted to discover that Canongate has published three volumes of the early cartoon strips which appeared in newspapers long before all the merchandising and paraphernalia kicked in.
The vignette above, with Linus getting himself into a tizz, first appeared in 1955, half a decade into the strip's run. His security blanket is missing here, but he generally has it in hand, and it gives him courage to suffer his sister Lucy's abuse. In 1955-56, Snoopy begins his career as a mimic, imitating everything from a pelican to a fighter pilot, Lucy's crush on Schroeder becomes unshakeable and Charlie Brown suffers his first strike-out, his first kite lost in a tree, and the first football kicked out from under him by Lucy. This edition has a foreward by Matt Groening of Simpsonsfame; novelist Jonathan Franzen provides the introduction to another volume . . . such is the calibre of the Charlie Brown fan. Volumes cost £15 each.