The Complete Peanuts

The Complete Peanuts is a series of books containing the entire run of Charles M. Schulz's long-running newspaper comic strip Peanuts. A new book in the series is released every six months, each containing two years of strips (except for the first volume which includes 1950–1952, just under three months longer, though there were no Sunday strips in 1950-51). Slipcased sets of two volumes are also available. A total of 25 volumes will be printed by 2016.

Schulz began to discuss an anthology of his work with Fantagraphics Books in 1997. The idea of a complete compendium of all Peanuts strips, considered the holy grail by fans, was long resisted by Schulz; he did not want some early strips reprinted as he felt they were not as good as the ones he drew later in his career. Indeed, some 2,000 of the 17,897 Peanuts strips had never been compiled into any previous U.S. collection.

The first book in the series was published in April 2004 and quickly topped the New York Times Best Seller List.

Volumes
Besides Schulz's work, each book contains an introduction by an influential individual (often with a connection to Schulz), an index of themes and characters, additional art by designer Seth (all of which is directly based on a specific Peanuts panel), and a biography of Schulz written by series editor Gary Groth. In addition, the first volume contains an interview with Schulz conducted by Groth and an extended biography. Sunday panels, which originally appeared in color, are presented in black and white in the series (a decision approved by Schulz's widow, Jean Schulz). There is however, a new series called Peanuts Every Sunday that is scheduled to begin in November 2013, that will feature the Sunday strips in full color. These books, just like the Complete Peanuts series, are scheduled to be released one every six months, in ten volumes covering half a decade each.

All the characters on the covers (and their styles) match the time period each volume represents. The characters which appear on the cover more than once are Charlie Brown (five times), Snoopy (three), Lucy (twice), Linus (twice), and Peppermint Patty (twice).

Boxed sets
All of the volumes are also being released in boxed sets of two, housed in a specially designed slipcase.

Free Comic Book Day
Fantagraphics' contribution to the 2007 Free Comic Book Day was a companion comic book to The Complete Peanuts called Unseen Peanuts, which featured various rarely printed strips (the reasons being speculated on in the captions). The comic book is also given away free with the purchase of any of The Complete Peanuts books on Fantagraphics' order catalogs, though they state "only one per person; PLEASE".

International editions
All international editions retain the artwork, layout, and format of the original American version (though some of the German volumes feature the original introductions, such as those by Matt Groening and Whoopi Goldberg, while others feature new ones by Germans such as Robert Gernhardt):
 * Canongate Books started publication of a UK edition of the series in October 2007, with twelve volumes published as of November 2012, with Volume 5 featuring a different introduction from the US edition, by Russell T Davies.
 * Carlsen Comics began publication of a German edition of The Complete Peanuts in October 2006, under the title Peanuts Werkausgabe, with the fifteenth and sixteenth to be released in February and September 2013.
 * The Portuguese release of Peanuts - Obra Completa by Edições Afrontamento published the first two volumes in 2006, with the sixth released in 2011. There is no schedule for the publication of the next volumes.
 * Dargaud started publishing The Complete Peanuts in France, under the title Snoopy - Intégrales, in November 2005. To date, thirteen volumes have been published.
 * In Spain, Planeta DeAgostini is the publisher of Snoopy y Carlitos, with nine volumes published to date.
 * In Brazil, L&PM Editores started publication in November 2009, under the title Peanuts Completo. Five volumes have been released so far.