Preview Peanuts #29

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Anyway, here is the (as of yet) unpublished piece: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