Good Grief! President Barack Obama Provides Foreword To ‘The Complete Peanuts Vol. 25′

In May, Fantagraphics is set to publish the twenty-fifth and penultimate collection of Charles Schulz’ masterpiece The Complete Peanuts, which will include Schulz’s final Peanuts strip from February 2000. In order to celebrate this momentous publication, Fantagraphics reached out to the the forty-fourth President of the United States, Barack Obama, about the possibility of writing a foreword, and to their surprise, he said yes.

According to a piece published today by The Guardian, President Obama says that he never outgrew Peanuts, and refers to the strip, which ran for fifty years, as “Groundbreaking” and “An American treasure.”

For decades, Peanuts was our own daily security blanket. That’s what makes Peanuts an American treasure.

Barack Obama has been one of the most culturally aware presidents of recent memory through his two terms in office, and regularly releases end-of-year lists of his and First Lady Michelle Obama’s favourite media. In 2016, he cited Kendrick Lamar’s How Much A Dollar Cost as his favourite song, and Ridley Scott’s The Martian as his favorite film.

The twenty-fifth volume of The Complete Peanuts covers the final year of the strip, which ended on February 13th 2000, one day after Charles Schulz’s death. The collection also features Schulz’ Li’l Folks, the weekly one panel comic that served as the precursor to Peanuts. The twenty-sixth and final volume will follow in October, reprinting Peanuts art by Charles Schulz that wasn’t from the cartoon strip.

The Complete Peanuts Volume 25 is released in the U.S. on 10th May from Fantagraphics.