Waiting For the Great Pumpkin

Waiting For The Great Pumpkin by Charles M. Schulz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this on a whim during Fantagraphics' Halloween sale. I'm a big fan of the Charlie Brown Halloween special and I plan on reading this to my son once he's old enough not to gnaw on it.

There are four stories in this, plucked from the Peanuts strip during the late 1950s/early 1960s. I assume that's the case since Sally references the current year being 1962 in the final story but there's nothing else in the book indicating when the stories originally appeared.

Anyway, there are four tales of anticipation and disappointment about Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Charlie Brown is kind of a dick to Linus in the first story but eventually joins Linus in his misery.

Snippets of each of these tales eventually found their way into the Charlie Brown Halloween special. The art is Schulz in his prime. You either like it or you don't. I'm a fan but I don't consider Schulz a hall of fame artist by any means.

Waiting For the Great Pumpkin is a fun collection of heartwarming yet soul crushing tales I'm looking forward to sharing with my son in years to come. Four out of five pumpkins.

View all my reviews