Due to some unforseen technical snafus that were exacerbated by the Holiday break, the Broken Frontier site is a bit broken. But in keeping with my normal writing schedule last week, I produced a Staff Pick preview of Peanuts #29. The comic was released on Dec. 23, and if you haven't picked it up, do yourself a favor and head over to your local comics shop before they sell out.
Anyway, here is the (as of yet) unpublished piece:
Staff Pick: Peanuts #29
When issue #28 hit the shelves back on May 20, I didn’t
realize just how long I’d have to wait for issue #29. Thankfully, Boom! Studios
is back in the swing of things with the Peanuts gang, and issue #29 hits the
shelves of your local comics shop on December 23. Seeing Charlie Brown back on
the baseball diamond with Peppermint Patty’s team will be worth the long
production break.
Why am I so excited about this issue?
Sure, I’m a Peanuts fan. I grew up reading the funny pages
and watching the holiday specials just like I’m sure you did. But my loyalty to
the comic isn’t related to my fond childhood memories. And it’s a high-quality
comic. The art (contributed by the late Charles M. Schulz and others) has been
consistently excellent and the stories as engaging as the originals. But that’s
not why I’m thrilled about this issue.
I’m so excited about this series continuing because I
constantly, consistently, and enthusiastically recommend the series to kids and
the comic-reading parents I meet who have children.
Michael Chabon’s brilliant keynote
speech for the 2004 Eisner Awards spoke a harsh truth and issued a genuine
challenge:
“A lot of publishers will tell you that there’s too much
competition for the kid dollar these days, and that comics will inevitably lose
out to video games, sfx-laden films, the Internet, etc. I’m sorry, I know
there’s some truth to the claim, but I just don’t buy it.… Children did not
abandon comics; comics, in their drive to attain respect and artistic
accomplishment, abandoned children.… The equation, as it’s usually formulated
is a simple one: create more child readers now, and we get more adult readers later.
But maybe the equation isn’t so simple after all. Maybe what we need, in this
second golden age, as Neil Gaiman described it in his keynote speech last year,
is not more comics for kids, but more great comics for kids.…”
I think there are some great comics for kids on the shelves
today. Pick up an issue of Popeye
Classics, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, or Peanuts,
and you’ll find familiar characters backed up by solid, entertaining
storytelling.
Now you just need to get these comics into the hands of
kids. Make that your New Year’s Resolution and get to work!
Charles M. Schulz,
Jason Cooper (W), Vicki Scott, Alexis E. Fajardo (A), Nina Taylor Kester (C),
Boom! Studios, $3.99
