What Cartooning Really Is: The Major Interviews with Charles M. Schulz

by Gary Groth, Leonard Maltin, Laurie Colwin

Overview

A collection of insightful interviews with the creator of the most popular comic strip of all time.

Everybody knows the iconic characters of Peanuts, but few are privy to the character of the man who created this beloved cast and the world they inhabit—Charles M. Schulz. To illuminate the life story and rich inner life of the renowned cartoonist, Fantagraphics presents four of the most comprehen­sive interviews ever conducted with Schulz, by film critic Leonard Maltin, novelist Laurie Colwin, Comics Journal editor and critic Gary Groth, and comic strip historian Rick Marschall. These conversations delve into the moral, aesthetic, and intellec­tual foundations of Schulz’s worldview and art. They reveal him to be a man who embodies elements of all of his characters—from the goofiness of Snoopy to the melancholy of Charlie Brown to the brashness of Lucy and more—but who also contains depths of personality far beyond the borders of his strip. Copiously illustrated with Peanuts strips and other comics and illustrations, What Cartooning Really Is humanizes Charles M. Schulz, the man who drew Snoopy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683963820
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	10/20/2020
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	666,770
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gary Groth is the co-founder of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books. He lives in Seattle.

Leonard Maltin is best known as a film critic, who, for many years, released an eponymous movie review guide.

Laurie Colwin (June 14, 1944 – October 24, 1992) was a novelist, an essayist, and a food and society writer.

Table of Contents

Introduction Gary Groth vii

At 3 O'Clock in the Morning Gary Groth 1

This Minor Art Form Has Certain Truths Rick Marschall Gary Groth 81

A Little Joy and Enlightenment Now and Then Leonard Maltin 117

The Wellspring of Inspiration Laurie Colwin 147

Editorial Reviews

"Endlessly fascinating to anyone interested in the mind of the man who was arguably the greatest cartoonist of all time."

Forces of Geek

2020-07-07
A quartet of penetrating interviews that draw the famously reserved creator of “Peanuts” out of his shell.

Fantagraphics founder Groth has long promoted Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) as the premier artist in an underappreciated genre, most famously through bespoke collections of every “Peanuts” strip from its 1950 debut to its end one day after Schulz's death. Groth’s lengthy interview, first published in 1997, demonstrates the depth of that interest, addressing the cartoonist’s childhood (uneventful, but he never forgot a slight), war service, technique (a hard-fought simplicity), success, religion, politics (he was a Reagan conservative), and more. For the most part, Schulz is studiously humble about his accomplishments—“the only thing I’m proud of is that I think I’ve done the best with what ability I have. I haven’t wasted my ability”—and he is a defender of the comic strip as a place of genuine creativity. That point is supported by the book’s thoughtful design, which includes strips that echo the points Schulz makes, usually from “Peanuts” but also from inspirations like “Nancy” and “Krazy Kat” and inheritors like “Mutts.” Additional interviews with Rick Marschall and Leonard Maltin fill out details of his stylistic development and thoughts about animation, but the true find here is a previously unpublished 1982 interview with the novelist Laurie Colwin, who presses Schulz to go deep into the nature of his character and the source of his creativity. Schulz is charmingly game for the interrogation, likening his process to that of an athlete and discussing his shyness and egotism. Though mostly even-keeled, he also says, “I seem to be living what you might call the feeling of impending doom.” Colwin’s interview offers the clearest sense of how Schulz could create a strip at once free-wheeling and melancholy.

Made for serious “Peanuts” fans but insightful for anyone interested in the creative process.

Kirkus Reviews