Information AboutPeanuts |
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is the principal character of the ''Peanuts'' Comic Strip .]] ''Peanuts'' was a Syndicated daily Comic Strip written and drawn by American Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz , which ran from 2 October 1950 to 13 February 2000 . The strip was one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium. At its peak ''Peanuts'' ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 40 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in many newspapers. CHARLES M. SCHULZ See Also: Charles M. Schulz Born 26 November 1922 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in St Paul, Minnesota , Schulz lived and worked for over 30 years in Santa Rosa, California ( Sonoma County ). Prior to moving to Santa Rosa, Schulz had had a studio in Sebastopol, California , but it was destroyed by fire in 1966. The Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa celebrates his life's work and art of cartooning. In 2000, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors renamed the "Charles M. Schulz Airport - Sonoma County Airport" in his honor. The airport's amusing logo features Snoopy in goggles and scarf, taking to the skies on top of his red doghouse. A bronze statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy stands in Depot Park in downtown Santa Rosa. HISTORY See Also: History of Peanuts ''Peanuts'' had its origin in '' Li'l Folks '', a weekly panel comic that appeared in Schulz's hometown paper, the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press '', from 1947 to 1949. When his work was picked up by United Features Syndicate , they decided to go for the new comic strip he had been working on. ''Peanuts'' premiered on October 2 , 1950 in seven newspapers nationwide. At first there was only a Daily Strip . The first Sunday Strip appeared January 6 1952 , in the Half Page format, which was the only complete format for the entire life of the Sunday strip. ''Peanuts'' probably reached its peak in American pop-culture awareness between 1965 and 1980; this period was the heyday of the daily strip, and there were numerous animated specials and book collections. Schulz continued the strip for 50 years, with no assistants—even in the lettering and coloring process—until he was unable to do so, due to health reasons. He died the night before the final strip was published in newspapers. The final daily original ''Peanuts'' comic strip was published on January 3 , 2000 . The final original Sunday strip was published in newspapers a day after Schulz's death on February 12 . Following its finish, many newspapers began reprinting older strips under the title ''Classic Peanuts''. CAST ''Peanuts'' did not have a lead character from the onset. Its initial cast was small, featuring only ; he can never fly a Kite successfully, but continues trying to fly his kite. Others see this as the character's admirable determined persistence to try his best against all odds. Though his Inferiority Complex was evident from the start, in the earliest strips he also got in his own licks when socially sparring with Patty and Shermy. Some early strips also involved Romantic attractions between Charlie Brown and Patty or Violet , the next major character added to the strip. in Osaka.]] As the years went by, Shermy and Patty appeared less often and were demoted to supporting roles, while new major characters were introduced. Schroeder , Lucy Van Pelt , and her brother Linus debuted as very young children — Schroeder and Linus both in diapers and pre-verbal. Snoopy, who began as a more or less typical dog, soon started to verbalize his thoughts via Thought Bubble s; eventually he adopted other human characteristics such as walking on his hind legs, reading books, using a Typewriter , and participating in Sports . In the 1960s, the strip began to focus more on Snoopy. Many of the strips from this point revolve around Snoopy's active fantasy life, in which he imagined himself to be (most famously) a World War I flying ace or a bestselling suspense Novelist , to the bemusement and consternation of the children who wonder what he is doing but also occasionally participate. Snoopy eventually took on more than 150 distinct personas over the course of the strip, from "Joe Cool" to Mickey Mouse . Schulz continued to introduce new characters into the strip, particularly including a tomboyish, freckle-faced, shorts-and-sandals-wearing girl named Patricia Reichardt, better known as " Peppermint Patty ". "Peppermint" Patty is an assertive, athletic, but rather obtuse girl who shakes up Charlie Brown's world by calling him "Chuck", flirting with him, and giving him compliments he's not so sure he deserves. She also brings in a new group of friends, including the strip's first black character, Franklin , and Peppermint Patty's bookish sidekick Marcie , who calls Peppermint Patty "Sir" and Charlie Brown "Charles". (Most other characters call him "Charlie Brown" at all times, except for Eudora, who also calls him "Charles"; Charlie Brown's sister Sally, who usually calls him "big brother"; and a minor character named Peggy Jean in the early 1990s, who called him "Brownie Charles".) Some have speculated that Peppermint Patty and Marcie are portrayals of Lesbians , but this may well be idle fantasy, especially considering both girls' admitted affection for Charlie Brown. Marcie resembles, and acts like, a younger version of '' Doonesbury '''s Honey Huan. However, from occasional references within the strip, it's clear she was modeled on Billie Jean King . Other notable characters include Charlie Brown's younger sister Sally , who was fixated on Linus; Snoopy's friend Woodstock the bird as well as a few other birds such as Conrad, Oliver, Bill and Harriet, all of whom spoke entirely in vertical lines; Pig-Pen , the perpetually dirty boy who could raise a cloud of dust on a clean sidewalk or in a snowstorm; and Spike , Snoopy's desert-dwelling brother from Needles, California , who was apparently named for Schulz's own childhood dog. After some early anomalies, adult figures never again appeared in the strip. ''Peanuts'' had several other recurring characters who were similarly absent from view. Some, such as the Great Pumpkin or the Red Baron , may or may not have been figments of the cast's imaginations. Others, such as the Little Red-Haired Girl (Charlie Brown's perennial dream girl), Joe Shlabotnik (Charlie Brown's baseball hero), World War II (the vicious cat who lives next door to Snoopy), and Charlie Brown's unnamed Pen Pal , were real. Schulz added some additional fantastic elements, sometimes imbuing inanimate objects with sparks of life. Charlie Brown's nemesis, the Kite-Eating Tree , is one example. Sally Brown's school building, that expressed thoughts and feelings about the students (and the general business of being a brick building), is another. Linus' famous " Security Blanket " also displayed occasional signs of anthropomorphism. At one point, a character named Charlotte Braun entered the cast. She resembled a female Charlie Brown in appearance but was louder and ruder than Lucy, and quickly proved to be unpopular. She did not appear in more than ten strips. in Osaka.]] Ages of the ''Peanuts'' characters The ''Peanuts'' characters generally do not age, or age very slowly, except in the case of infant characters who catch up to the rest of the cast, then stop. Rerun is unique in that he stopped aging in kindergarten. More typically, Linus was born in the first couple of years of the strip's run. He ages from infancy to right around Charlie Brown's age over the course of the first ten years, during which we see him learn to walk and talk with the help of Lucy and Charlie Brown. Linus then stops aging when he is about a year or so younger than Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown himself was four when the strip began, and gradually aged over the next two decades until he settled in as an eight year old (after which he is consistently referred to as eight when any age is given). Over the years the birthdates of a few characters were mentioned. ''These dates are established in the canon:''
''The canon provides conflicting dates for these characters:''
BOOKS with cover design by Seth .]] |
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