Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, a legendary comic strip artist Charles Schulz Museum
Posted: Monday, January 31, 2011
by James Banner
Peanuts – no not the peanuts that you eat, but the cartoon show with Charlie Brown and the gang. Who is Charlie Brown? Yes, I asked myself that same question. Ah no not really, I’m joking. Everyone knows who Charlie Brown is. Yes you do. You probably grew up with the show. I most certainly caught the end tip of the production, but I enjoyed being entertained by the cartoons and comic strips.
Now, okay since the plug has been taken care of, here we go. First of all, let’s begin with Charles Schulz (1922-2000) who is famous for his Peanuts creation. May he rest in peace, but his works continue to thrive. On November 26, 1922, a child was born named Charles Schulz in Minneapolis, Minnesota and as he grew up, he wrote comics that he enjoyed alone. He also had a nickname “Sparky” given to him by his uncle who read comics with him on Sunday mornings.
So he continued his cartoons and was finally given an opportunity, so in 1937 he published his first drawing (dog) in the Ripley’s Believe or Not newspaper. I will not go into detail about his life, but he was very young when this occurred and was a great achievement in the start of his new and long lived career. You can check out the rest in his biography at the link near the end of the article.
Now, since we have a brief history of who he is, let’s move into a few of his works. A brief timeline depicts his life in a nutshell. I will mention some of the highlights listed, below that he achieved during his career.
1920s -
His kindergarten teacher commented that he would be an artist – Amazing!1930s -
Charles loved Popeye cartoons. He was presented with his first black and white dog character named Spike (Snoopy). During his senior year he attended an Art Instruction school to enhance his already invigorating talent.1950s -
Peanuts was born. On October 2, 1950 Peanuts was his first work that was placed in several articles. The Syndicate paid him $90 for the first couple of comic strips.1955 -
Kodak was the first product sponsored from Peanuts1965 -
Peanuts was discovered on the cover of Time Magazine - Yayyy!May 24, 1967 -
California Governor Ronald Reagan greeted the cartoonist at the State Capitol in observance of the legislature-proclaimed “Charles Schulz Day.”1984-
Peanuts qualified for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records after being sold to the 2,000th newspaper.1992
- Snoopy, The Masterpiece exhibit opened at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art Schulz awarded the “Order of Merit” from the Italian Minister of Culture.May 2000 -
Posthumous awarding of the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Cartoonists SocietyAugust 17, 2002 -
Grand Opening of the Schulz Museum!I love my Peanuts!
Reference: http://www.schulzmuseum.org/
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I would love to visit this place someday. So Charles was a prodigy huh? :-) I love Popeye too but have never watched Charlie Brown. Too bad for me. I was busy with Tin Tin and Tom and Jerry. He he!Yes, Charles has his own museum now. He's bad..hehe. I used to watch Tom and Jerry too and still do sometimes!
Hi James.Thanks for the brief look at the life of Charles Schultz. I wonder if he always knew he was destined for fame. Or did he just do it because he loved it and it wouldn't have mattered either way?Over the holiday season, one network was advertising the airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was sad to me that they thought they needed to "rap" it (the promo) up a bit to get younger viewers to watch it. I was grateful to note that they didn't mess with the original production.Hugs, DianneTo be honest with you, I don't think he did until he got the opportunity when his comics showed up on those articles. I do think that he was determined to make something of it, which he did indeed. He is even more famous now than he was back then. His museum shows his works at their best. I want to visit the museum as well just to say I've been there.
Yea, I don't think the younger generation knows that much about Charlie Brown although his comics are still displayed in newspapers. They need not mess with the original.
I used to love Charlie Brown and Peanuts. Definitely American icons. I didn't even know that Charles Schulz had died. I'm glad he's been honored with a museum. Thanks, interesting article.Yes, Charles was dedicated to his work and took it seriously. They must have known this and commemorated his efforts.
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