This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our releases this week, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.
The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 (Vol. 14)
by Charles M. Schulz
introduction by Alec Baldwin
344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-375-0
The Complete Peanuts 1975-1978 Box Set
by Charles M. Schulz
designed by Seth
two 344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $49.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-376-7
"Continuing Fantagraphics’… presentation of Charles Schulz’s original iteration of eventually finite childhood, in spite of it all. Alec Baldwin greets you at the front. There’s also a two-volume ’75-’78 box set due." – Joe McCulloch, Comics Comics
"I always forget what a smart strip Peanuts was. I just opened this volume to a random page to remind myself of what the vibe of this period of Peanuts was like, and there was a joke about Christo. What comic strips were making Christo jokes in 1978?" – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"I thought the latest volume was really strong, full of odd Peppermint Patty stories and a lot more bold and confident than I remember the strip at the time. Plus the Alec Baldwin intro was pretty good, too." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
"Covering the years 1977-78, and featuring an introduction by Alec Baldwin (of all things), this latest book features some great sequences, like the one where Charlie Brown bites the kite-eating tree and ends up going on the lam to hide from the EPA. Those who feel Schulz’s best work was in the late 50s and 60s really need to re-evaluate these strips." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
Note to NYC shoppers: Jim Hanley's Universe is offering 25% off all Complete Peanuts volumes for one week 8/25-8/31/10 — click here for details!
Norman Pettingill: Backwoods Humorist
by Norman Pettingill; Introduction by Robert Crumb
144-page full-color 12" x 9" hardcover (with wood cover) • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-319-4
"The strangest and perhaps greatest book I saw at last month's Comic-Con International. It's like it was art designed by a tree full of elves that don't quite get human publications." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
"An apparently first-ever print retrospective of postcard illustrator Pettingill, a Wisconsin native whose self-printed drawings documented both calm natural settings and teeming, wrinkled, riotously parodic rural living. With an introduction by Robert Crumb (who published some of the artist’s work in Weirdo), an appreciation by Johnny Ryan, and a biographical essay by Gary Groth (online here)." – Joe McCulloch, Comics Comics