It's Only a Game Book

There are probably a million books by Charles Schulz, published throughout his long and productive career, and posthumously. And I am desperately, as far as my communist cash flow will stretch, trying to get them all. At least a reasonable (or is that unreasonable) number.
I am buying The Complete Peanuts faster than they're being published, but coming across Schulz' Youth randomly in a comic book store, I couldn't leave that either. So I also had to get his other, stand-alone strip, a collaboration with Jim Sasseville; It's Only A Game. It details the big role games and sports play in our lives; it's a big deal, and sometimes takes over completely.

As someone who has never played a sport (I was into animals and the arts even when growing up; horses and jazz dance, and now I'm an actress in an amateur theatre troupe, the most I got into sports was soccer with the neighbour boy Magnus, and the odd sport we were forced to participate in at school, but I have to say, I am rather a fanatic ski jumping fan, it's the only sport I follow) and have never had much of a winner instinct, these are entertaining comics; I look at them with a shrewd eye, and go; "how silly it can be!" And it is, sometimes. Competition plays a huge part in our lives, and makes us do the strangest things; sometimes, observing jocks around me, I can't help but think that it makes us primitive somehow, it takes all the culture right out of us; it makes us yell and scream and makes fat guys pull their shirts off (for no apparent reason). Mostly, sports cause joy (team spirit, energy and the feeling of being part of something); but sometimes it causes fights too (at the meeting of opposing teams, when it invades family life and puts friends against one another), and it's both these factors we look into in this charming, little collection of one-panel comics.

But is it as good as my beloved Peanuts? No.
I think I pretty much said the same thing when I reviewed Youth; with Peanuts, you get to know the characters over time, and the beauty of that is that you come to see them as your (imaginary) friends; this is not the case with It's Only A Game. Partly because the comic was short-lived, partly because it features random people.
I love the fact that I can relate to Charlie Brown, he shares many of my troubles and worries and insecurities. I also happen to have my own Little Red Haired Girl, who in my case is a big, grown man, but the "god-he's-way-too-good-for-me"-feeling is the same. Charlie Brown knows the blues. That having been said, I have enough of Lucille van Pelt in me to mostly be able to yell the Charlie Brown into submission and take charge, saying "get over it! (Five cents, please!)" to end the self-pity.

Relating like that doesn't happen with this comic, but is it filled with Charles Schulz' usual great ideas, sure pen stroke and subtle humour? Yes. Some of the headline art from this comic (that the newspapers that printed it usually threw away (what the hell?!)) has been reprinted here, and many are of the it-goes-without-saying variety. Sparky knew very well that a picture can do more than a thousand words, and that sometimes, you don't need words; these little illustration gems make you smile all on their own.

It also includes short anecdotes by Jim Sasseville, who worked with Schulz on this comic; it gives us Sparky aficionados valuable insight into how he worked and what kind of an artist he was.

So, to conclude: This is a must for hardcore Schulz fans, but Peanuts is still the king.