When I was growing up, I collected Peanuts comic paperbacks. And now that I think about it, I can’t remember a single kid who didn’t collect them. I had a couple dozen of these books, and I memorized every single frame.

It seemed these books were everywhere: bookstores, drug and grocery stores, and the monthly Scholastic catalog always had the latest collections. Even at a young age, I thought it was pretty cool that Charles Schulz was able to recycle his work for the daily newspaper into paperback collections, coloring books, etc. It led me to create my own comic characters and dreams of fame and merchandising.

In 2004, Fantagraphics books began a (wonderfully) ambitious project to publish every daily and Sunday Peanuts strip in an anthology series, called The Complete Peanuts. The series covers the entire history of the comic from its inception in 1950 to the author’s retirement and passing in 2000. Each volume features two years’ worth of strips, many of which have not been seen since their original newspaper publication. The latest edition, released yesterday, covers 1979-1980.

A couple months ago I found the series in my local library, so I started checking out volumes in chronological order. I discovered that I remembered many of the strips from my earlier collections, and I also realized something else: these comics– especially the early ones– are really funny.

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the gang were just part of the landscape by the time I gave up my collection of books as a teenager, and the then-current Peanuts strips in the paper didn’t seem all that funny. The distance of time and, likely, the experience of being a parent seem to have given me a new appreciation for Schulz’ work. I also noticed how (a) Snoopy acts like a dog; (b) all the kids are actually much younger than they appear to be later on; and (c) Charlie Brown hasn’t yet developed the neuroses that turned him into kind of a “Sad Sack.” (In fact, in the earlier strips it seems Charlie Brown is a bit more mature than the other kids.)

Around the time I started reading the series, I also discovered an excellent blog called “Roasted Peanuts” by John Harris. Mr Harris posts a Peanuts strip every day and offers a brief analysis of the characters, the artwork, and the humor that makes me appreciate the strips even more. If you’re not up for going through The Complete Peanuts, you should absolutely subscribe to this blog. Right now, he’s covering early 1954 which, in my opinion, is one of the great periods in the comic’s history.

This is another great way to see and appreciate something we started to take for granted.