Only What's Necessary

Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) is the legendary cartoonist and creator of the iconic comic strip Peanuts. Schulz was twice honored with the Reuben Award by the National Cartoonists Society. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) are two of the most successful animated television specials of all time, winning multiple Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards. The Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is among the most popular Christmas albums of all time. His archives are located at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.Chip Kidd is an award-winning graphic designer and writer, and an editor-at-large for Pantheon Books. A three-time Eisner Award winner, his books on comics include Batman Collected (1996), Batman Animated (1998), Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits with Art Spiegelman (2001), Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz (Random House, 2001), Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross (2005), The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days (Abrams, 2005), Bat-Manga! (2008), and Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal (Abrams ComicArts, 2010). His novels, The Cheese Monkeys (2001) and The Learners (2008), were national bestsellers, as was True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World with Lisa Birnbach (2010). Other books include Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design (2013), and the monograph Book One, Work: 1986-2006. Kidd has also written about graphic design and popular culture for McSweeney's, Newsweek, the New York Times, the New York Observer, Entertainment Weekly, Details and Print.Additional Contributors:Paige Braddock is Creative Director at Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates.Karen Johnson is the Director of the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.Jeff Kinney is the #1 New York Times bestselling author and four-time Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award winner for Favorite Book. Jeff has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time magazine's 50 Best Websites.Jeannie Schulz is the widow of Charles Sparky Schulz and President of the Board of Directors at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California.Geoff Spear is an award-winning photographer whose work with Chip Kidd includes Batman Collected, Batman Animated, Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits, Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz, Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross, The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days, Bat-Manga! and Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal. Spear's work has appeared regularly in Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, Newsweek and the New York Times, and on numerous book covers. His images have also appeared in ad campaigns for AT&T, American Express, Citibank and IBM