Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Price: $40.00
Creator(s): Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear
Format: 304 pgs., B&W/Full-Color, Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1639-3
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 5 Stars out of 5
Having been given unprecedented access to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center’s archives, designer Chip Kidd and photographer Geoff Spear have done nothing less than create the definitive visual history of one of the most popular comic strips of the 20th Century. Only What's Necessary: Charles M Schulz and the Art of Peanuts features unpublished original art, rarely seen early strips by Schulz as well as examples of the strip's earliest forays into publishing, and merchandising.
Anyone who has seen a book by Chip Kidd knows they can reasonably expect to find meticulous research, skillful page composition, and Kidd's distinctive sense of design. And all of that is evident in Only When Necessary from just its cover, but it’s more than just a visual history. It also shows the development of the strip’s signature themes and the ways its characters evolved over the decades. Each page provides ample examples of the rightness of Schultz’s philosophy: that the key to cartooning was to remove the extraneous details.
This is a book that's well worth reading by anyone who is a fan of Peanuts or just comic strips in general, but for someone who grew with the strip this book is a dream come true.
-- Steve Bennett: Writer and retail services consultant.
