Hard truth, subjective take or slanted hatchet job? Monte Schulz, eldest son of Charles M. Schulz, and a roundtable of Peanuts experts and critics probe and debate David Michaelis's controversial biography, Schulz & Peanuts. Monte Schulz's 30,000+ word essay serves as the definitive word on Michaelis' book from the Schulz family, and is available exclusively in The Comics Journal #290, which marks the first issue of the venerable magazine (est. 1976) to be available through the book trade. The issue also spotlights the magazine's new format, moving from a monthly magazine format to a squarebound, eight times per year journal format.

Also in this issue: Matt Madden, co-series-editor of the Best American Comics anthology series, will dish about his upcoming comics textbook (written and drawn with Jessica Abel, his frequent collaborator) and his efforts to translate the OuBaPo movement into English with 99 Exercises in Style. Plus: A color gallery of "The Wall of Flesh" and other '50s horror stories from Golden Age cartoonist Bob Powell (the Good Girl artist known for his work on Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Blackhawk and the original Mars Attacks trading cards) rounds out the magazine.

The Comics Journal is the award-winning print magazine and website exploring the widest range of cartooning--newspaper strips, alternative and mainstream graphic novels, international works, editorial cartoons, webcomics, and much more--in the world. Treating the medium as an art form, TCJ is the magazine of record for one of the fastest-growing categories in the book industry, as well as an area of increasing academic interest. TCJ is the perfect magazine for the widening spectrum of discerning and sophisticated readers who take home such books as Persepolis, Fun Home and The Complete Peanuts. Ever since its debut in 1976, The Comics Journal has promoted a wider range of comics than any magazine in the field, and bookstores that carry The Comics Journal routinely find out that the lively, in-depth magazine guides customers to new discoveries.