by If you read the strip, you would know me. Everything I am goes into the strip—all of my fears, my anxieties and my joys. ~Charles M. Schulz
The man who gave us, Peanuts, the most famous comic strip ever created, played out his feelings of rejection, insecurity and isolation through his lovable cartoon character, Charlie Brown. In spite of those lifelong feelings, which could have debilitated Schulz, he chose to persevere because of his passion for drawing. His life and times came alive in Charlie Brown, and he proved that humor can be the best medicine.
The Early Years
When Charles Schulz was just two days old, an uncle nicknamed him “Sparky” after the horse Sparkplug from Barney Google, a popular comic strip at the time. Schulz kept the name throughout his adulthood marking a life forever intertwined with cartooning.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 26, 1922, Charles was the only child of Carl and Dena Schulz. His father was a barber (just like Charlie Brown’s father) who earned a respectable position within the community. Charles had fond memories of him and his father making a ritual out of reading four comic sections every Sunday morning. He and his father would worry about what could happen next to the characters.
Charles’ mother, a kind woman, but also known to be distant and elusive at times, was a strong influence in his life. His relationship with her was one where he felt that he may be abandoned by her. This came true when, at just 48, she died from colon cancer, which hit Charles hard. At 22 and three days after his mother’s death, he was drafted into the army and left for Kentucky as a private to fight in World War II. Until the army, he had spent only two nights in his life apart from his mother so he was a stranger to the world and had always been sheltered from hard times by his parents. But serving in the army would change everything. Wondering how he would survive the war, Charles drew often to solve his problems and at the same time solidified a desire he had had since he was six years old, to draw a newspaper comic strip.
A Gift for Drawing
Charles’ earliest recollection of drawing and being complimented for it was in kindergarten. He had been given large sheets of white paper and black crayons and was asked to draw anything he wanted by the teacher. He drew a man shoveling snow. When the teacher came by and looked at his paper she said: “Someday, Charles, you’re going to be an artist.”
Never Ever Ever Give-up!
Charles Schulz had a history of experiencing rejection, which began with failing every subject in the 8th grade, although he was an intelligent boy. He also flunked physics, Latin, algebra, and English in high school. He didn’t do well in sports either. He was shy and never considered himself a friendly person or one to have any friends. He never even asked a girl out for fear of rejection. He faced even more disappointment, when, in high school, he began submitting his artwork to major magazines; he received many rejection slips with no encouragement. In his senior year, his Mom had shown him an advertisement for a free talent test from Art Instruction, Inc., a correspondence school, which said, “Do you like to draw?” Intrigued by the school’s emphasis on cartoon instruction, Charles chose to enroll. The course was approximately $170 total, and it was during the Great Depression, so Charles worried because his father struggled to make the payments, but he was able to successfully complete the course at his father’s insistence.
After World War II, Charles began seriously pursuing the sale of his work. He visited the offices of Timeless Topix, publishers of a series of Catholic comic magazines. There, he was given his first job filling in the balloons for comic strips drawn by others. He also took a job soon after with Art Instruction, Inc. correcting basic lessons. In his spare time, Charles worked on his cartoons, never letting a week go by without having something in the mail and because of that sold 15 cartoons to the Saturday Post. This was an exciting time.
One day Frank Wing, a fellow instructor at the School, who inspired Charles because of his perfectionism at drawing things as they appeared, made a comment on one of Charles’ drawings. Charles had drawn a cartoon of a small boy and girl to the likes of Schroeder and Peppermint Patty, and Frank told him that he should draw more of those “little kids because they were pretty good.” So Charles decided to focus on drawing a batch of the kids and successfully sold them as a weekly feature called Li’l Folks to St. Paul Pioneer Press.
In 1950, when Charles was 27 years old, he put together samples of his best work from Li’l Folks and sent them to United Feature Syndicate in New York City. Six weeks later, and convinced that his cartoons had been lost in the mail, Charles wrote a letter to see where the cartoons were. He received a nice letter back from the editorial director and was asked to come to New York because they were interested in his work. He signed a contract with United Media and Peanuts was born.
The Peanuts Gang
Because Charles had young children at the time, the strip revolved around little children. Originally the strip was called Li’l Folks but was named Peanuts much to Charles’ displeasure. He thought the name was “undignified, inappropriate and confusing.” But United Feature Syndicate thought it would catch the reader’s attention.
As the strip progressed, so did the characters with the slowest change occurring with Snoopy who eventually walked on two feet and became one of the main characters.
Charles had a belief that the more distinct the personalities of the characters were, the better the strip, because readers will think of it as real. And, consequently, the Peanuts Gang came to life. The characters he created were not only drawn from his family and friends but also from his own personality.
Charlie Brown
Charles Schulz always thought he had an ordinary face to the point that if he was out somewhere people wouldn’t recognize him. This is what prompted Charlie Brown’s round, ordinary face. Charlie Brown represented “everyman,” according to Charles and was named after a co-worker and close friend at the correspondence school, Charlie Brown, who had a great enthusiasm for life.
Charlie Brown lived his life to triumph over adversity. He gave his all and never gave-up when it came to flying a kite successfully, kicking the football that Lucy held, or pitching a winning baseball game. But, he never was successful at accomplishing any of these things; however, one thing was true: He never ever ever gave-up! By all accounts, Charlie Brown could be thought of as a loser (he even got really down about it himself), but because of the fact that he always tried, made him anything but a loser. He was an endearing and admirable character.
Charlie Brown’s biggest crush was on the little red-haired girl, although the love was unrequited. Charles experienced this in his own life when, as a young man in Saint Paul, he had a crush on a red-haired girl named Donna Johnson. She chose someone else as Charles was about to propose to her, which broke his heart.
Charlie Brown was also called a “blockhead” by his friends, consistently headed towards Lucy’s psychiatric tent for some serious advice, which he rarely received, and he was always his own worst critic.
In spite of all this, Charlie Brown was kind, considerate, friendly, and introspective; he was always trying to uncover the true meaning of life. And his biggest virtue of all, much like Charles Schulz himself, was that he persevered and did not let feelings of loss, rejection, isolation, and defeat stop him from pursuing his goals.
Snoopy
When Charles turned 13, the family was given a black and white dog that turned out to be the model for Snoopy. The dog, named Spike, was a mixed breed, outrageously independent and ate almost everything in sight. Charles’ first published drawing was of his dog Spike in Ripley’s Believe or Not! The caption said: “A Hunting Dog that Eats Pins, Tacks and Razor Blades is owned by C.F. Schulz.” The name of Spike lives on as Snoopy’s loner brother who, in the comic strip, lives in the California desert.
Charles built Snoopy’s character around the fact that he observed that many neighborhood dogs seemed smarter than the children who were their masters. Charles executed this theme through the wise and tolerable ways of Snoopy.
Snoopy also had an incredible imagination and because of that had a number of heroic alter egos: Joe Cool, World War I Flying Ace, Literary Ace, Flashbeagle, Vulture, and Foreign Legionnaire.
The Rest of the Gang
Lucy, Linus, Woodstock, Sally, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Pigpen, Franklin, and Rerun all had quirks and brought their unique perspectives on life to the strip.
Known to be a “fussbudget,” Lucy was created in the likes of Charles’ eldest daughter, Meredith. She always pulled the football away from Charlie Brown in an attempt to “build his character,” as she commonly said. Lucy was self-centered, a little crabby and was in love with Schroeder. She was famous for her psychiatric stand advice for 5 cents, which was a joke that Charles had started as a takeoff on a lemonade stand.
The rest of the gang’s uniqueness was perfected: Linus, Lucy’s younger brother, was known for his philosophical revelations and always dragged around a blanket, which inspired the American saying, “security blank.” Sally, Charlie Brown’s younger sister, had a crush on Linus never winning his heart. Piano playing Schroeder was obsessed with Beethoven, and was obviously disinterested in Lucy’s great affection for him. Pigpen walked around in a cloud of dust and dirt, unaffected by his appearance. Peppermint Patty, who always called Charlie Brown “Chuck”, was a tomboy and did not know for a long time that “the funny-looking kid who plays shortstop” was really Snoopy. Marcie, the smartest of the Peanuts Gang but the most naïve, was known for her faithful friendship to Peppermint Patty and for calling her “Sir” out of “admiration and misguided manners.” Thoughtful Franklin, the only African American in the strip, was Charlie Brown’s friend and had the least amount of “anxieties and obsessions.” And how can we forget Woodstock, the little bird who had a lot of charisma. Woodstock was Snoopy’s closet friend, the butt of many of Snoopy’s practical jokes and communicated only though exclamation points. And finally, Rerun, Lucy and Linus’ baby brother, who longed for a dog of his own and often tried to borrow Snoopy.
You’re a Good Man Charlie Schulz
Charles Schulz drew 17,897 strips without any help. Even when he became the highest paid cartoonist in the world, and at the height of fame, he was very modest and thought of himself as just another “ordinary fellow.” He was the most widely syndicated cartoonist in history and his work appeared in over 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. He had published dozens of books and won Peabody and Emmy awards for his animated TV specials, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” He is responsible for the most-produced musical in the American theatre; entitled “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” He rarely took a day off and remained on schedule after quadruple-bypass heart surgery in 1981. In 1997, he reluctantly took five weeks off for his 75th birthday.
Forever Bonded
Charles had a stroke in November of 1999 at age 77 and soon after discovered that he had the later stages of colon cancer. The chemotherapy treatments and the fact that he could not read or see clearly, forced him to retire on December 14, 1999, from a nearly 50 year career. He did not want to pass the strip onto any other artist.
On February 12, 2000, Charles died in his sleep in Santa Rosa, CA on the eve of his very last comic strip. The irony of the timing of his death leads one to believe that he and his art were inseparable. He was survived by his first wife, Joyce and second wife, Jeannie, three daughters, two sons, a stepdaughter, stepson, and 18 grandchildren.
In his final farewell comic strip, he said: “I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy…how can I ever forget them…” Charles Schulz made us think with his comic strip but, most of all, made us laugh. He succeeded beyond his wildest imagination and persevered through rejection, insecurity and disappointment. For this, the world is forever changed by his enormous will and talent.
For more information on Charles Schulz’s biography, visit www.schulzbiography.com. For more information on the Peanuts Gang, visit www.snoopy.com. If you are interested in visiting the Charles Schulz Museum located in Santa Rosa, CA, go to www.schulzmuseum.org
Founder’s favorite excerpt from the book: Peanuts: A Golden Celebration by Charles Schulz:
“Children do not converse. They say things. They ask, they tell, and they talk, but they know nothing of one of the great joys in life, conversation. Then, along about twelve, give or take a year on either side, two young people sitting on their bicycles near a front porch on a summer evening begin to talk about others that they know, and conversation is discovered. Some confuse conversation with talking, of course, and go on for the rest of their lives, never stopping, boring others with meaningless chatter and complaints. But real conversation includes asking questions, and asking the right ones before it’s too late.”
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