Batter Up, Charlie Brown!, a Peanuts graphic is new, nostalgic awesomeness

The graphic novel genre is huge. It’s a massive cross section of books that can span any interest and are for any age. As proof of this, Batter Up, Charlie Brown!, it’s in the Peanuts Graphic Novels series on Simon Spotlight, and joins Snoopy Soars to Space and Adventures with Linus and Friends.  There’s a timeless, classic aura that permeates every panel on every page of Batter Up, Charlie Brown! It’s comprised of six new, original stores that are punctuated with classic Sunday comics that Charles Schultz created.

The longest story in the book is It’s Tokyo, Charlie Brown, where their little league baseball team is invited to play in an exhibition game in Japan. It’s not that his baseball team has changed. Charlie Brown still gets turned upside down when the batter hits a line drive and their season ends with the opposing team knocking a home run. That’s why Charlie is in disbelief when he gets a letter letting him know that his team was chosen as part of an ambassador’s program to go overseas and play.

Peppermint Patty signs on a ringer for the team, despite not being a member. Linus packs his blanket, and the rest of the Peanuts crew pack their essentials. When they land they make their way to all of the touristy things in Tokyo. Marcie enjoys regaling the crew with facts about pagodas. Lucy makes snide remarks at how the Tokyo Dome resembles Charlie Brown’s head. Schroeder has the opportunity to play a world class piano, but instead opts for the smaller one that he brought with him. Snoopy and Woodstock get on to all manner of comic relief like getting stuck in a bowl of ramen or attempting to sumo wrestle other dogs.

When the baseball game gets underway it’s all presented from the perspective of Charlie Brown’s team. He gets heckled in English, by his own sister, Snoopy gets a hit when he dresses up like a samurai and then it starts to rain. It rains so hard that they have trouble seeing the ball. When the game ends, even though they don’t win, the team finds a way to make sincere joy out of the results.

Peanuts has a way of doing that, doesn’t it? It could be a Christmas tree that’s skinny and wonky or psychiatric help stand that glibly offers advice, the cartoon presents life lessons that anyone can relate to.

All of the stories in Batter Up, Charlie Brown! are baseball centric and the six new stories seamlessly blend in with the full page reprinted ones. They’ve got the same feeling of deftly balancing a classic story with a modern feel and applying the fun to any age that picks up the graphic novel. Its glossy pages and rich colors, combined with the stories of varying length leave no doubt that this is a graphic novel, even though Peanuts is not immediately associated with that medium.  

Younger Peanuts fans probably won’t even notice the difference between the new stories and the ones that previously ran in the newspaper. Peanuts fans of a certain vintage will be able to tell that the ones that they grew up with have slightly smaller rectangles where the action takes place. They also might remember reading it in the Sunday paper or have a copy of that particular strip in one of the Peanuts collections that they have in their forever library.

Batter Up, Charlie Brown! Is by Charles M. Schulz and illustrated by Robert Pope and other is a Peanuts graphic novel and available on Simon Spotlight, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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